Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 84533 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 423(@200wpm)___ 338(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84533 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 423(@200wpm)___ 338(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
Cyrus
I was intrigued by Crow at first glance. Who wouldn't be? He's a mountain of a man, who was raised in a cult, and now lives secluded in the wilderness. But the draw I feel to him goes beyond mild interest. When his intense gaze falls my way it feels like he can see into my soul, to my deepest yearnings and desires.
I took a bold chance venturing to his mountain uninvited. But I can't help myself. Despite Crow’s dangerous facade, I feel at home when I’m near him. I've never felt wanted or needed… until the mountain man took me in his arms.
Crow
The mountain is my home, the only place that truly suits me. I reveled in my solitude... until Cyrus showed up looking as lonely as I felt. The warmth in his gaze made me welcome someone into my home and my heart for the very first time.
The way he smells. The way he feels. I come apart with his every touch. The past haunts us both. Yet when we’re together the weight of them is more manageable. Cyrus is mine and I don’t ever want to let him go. Still, I fear eventually he’ll want to leave the mountain... and for the first time in my life, I don’t want to be alone.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
BEFORE
Crow
Seventeen years old
“He’s fighting, doesn’t socialize, and scares the other children. Quite frankly, he frightens the adults too,” the woman said to my caseworker. I didn’t like this woman. She was on the mountain when they stole me from my home. She’d watched as they’d restrained me, told me to calm down or they would have to sedate me. I’d made my wrists bleed fighting against the restraints before she had instructed them to put the needle in my arm, making me pass out.
I growled thinking about it, looking up through my hair at another woman, who sat at her desk. She shifted uncomfortably under my stare.
“If they’re scared, how do you think he feels?” my caseworker asked. They were inside a room talking, with me outside of it in a chair, as if I couldn’t hear them. “He wasn’t raised with any other children, didn’t attend school, and spent his first sixteen years living on a mountain, secluded from anyone other than the same seventy-five-ish people. He was raised to believe life outside of The Enlightened was wrong and dangerous, that people would attack him for his beliefs. Then his dad kills his mom and tries to do the same to him, and he’s thrust into a world he doesn’t understand. If anyone is scared, it’s him. He’s a child.”
Chosen—my father—had been right telling us the outside world wouldn’t understand us. People did tell me everything I knew was wrong, and now they were talking about being afraid of me and where to take me, all without my consent.
“He’s seventeen,” the first woman responded. “He should know better.”
My heart sped up, hands fisting tighter and tighter. It smelled weird here, like perfumes and cleaners but somehow dirty too. It made my nose burn, but that was nothing compared to how I always felt trapped here, like I was in a cage and would never be able to break free.
“Please don’t do this. It’s the third home he’s been at. I just need to find someplace to keep him until he’s of age.”
“And then what? Where will he go then?” When there was nothing but silence, the woman continued. “He attacked another boy. He bit his foster dad when he tried to pull Crow off him, and when we asked him why, he wouldn’t tell us.”
“That’s because he doesn’t speak.”
I didn’t understand why she was trying so hard. I was nothing to her, but every time I got kicked out of somewhere, she tried to help. It’s a trap. She’s trying to get close to you so she can use you. She’s trying to get close to you so you trust her, and once you do, she’ll take what she wants, Chosen’s voice said softly in my head. I tried to shake it free. Didn’t want to hear him after what he did to my mom, but his voice was always there. People on the outside never helped because it was the right thing to do. They were hateful and selfish.
“He can speak, but he chooses not to. He can also write, but he won’t do that either. All we need is for him to communicate with us. If it was self-defense, then that’s one thing, but the only person who’s talking says Crow attacked him unprovoked. He tore up the room he was staying in. That’s not the first time this happened. They don’t want him in their home anymore. We have no choice but to honor their wishes. We’re lucky they’re not pressing charges.”
Sharp pain stung my palms, but it didn’t keep me from squeezing my fists tighter. The boy wouldn’t leave me alone, kept bugging me about where I’d come from and calling me names and asking if I was crazy like Chosen had been. He’d spit in my food and peed in my shoes and had tried to cut my hair. But there was no point in telling them that. I didn’t want their help, didn’t want to stay in that house in the busy city where it felt like the walls were closing in on me.
The woman sitting at her desk continued to type on her computer, and every once in a while, her eyes would glance up as if she wasn’t watching me in her periphery the whole time. The click, click, click echoed through my head and made my skin crawl. She was waiting for me to react, waiting to see what the feral boy who didn’t speak would do next.
Didn’t they understand I just didn’t want to be here? That it was too big, everything and everyone so close that it felt like it was suffocating me? I just wanted to go home. I wanted to be on my mountain. That was where I belonged.
The sounds from the office turned to mumbling, like they were speaking softer so I wouldn’t hear them. I didn’t want to hear them either, didn’t want to hear anyone. Just wanted to be alone.