I know I have been away for a while and for that I am sorry. I have been going through a rough time. Yes I know that is no excuse but now my muse has returned!!! I am happy about that so if all of you that have been patient with me in this time of need I give you a teaser of something new I am working on... but hush my publisher hasn't seen it yet... lol!!! Being a saber tooth tiger is fine… when you’re not alone, but when you are, it’s hell. Illyana Garif was just starting her junior year in college when her life was turned upside down. Unbeknowing to her true heritage, she trekked across the United States from South Carolina to Montana. About halfway there, just when she crossed the Kentucky line, she noticed strange things happening to her. She could stay up longer than she could before, and her night vision was remarkably better. She didn’t understand what was happening to her. When she stopped along Route I-20 for a short nap she no longer needed, she phoned her mom. “Hello.” her mother, Irene said. “Mom, how are you?” She knew if she didn’t start the conversation politely, she would never get the answers she so longingly sought for. “I’m good, honey. How’s your trip going?” Now was the perfect opportunity. “Mom, was there anything you forgot to mention?” she paused dramatically for a moment. “About me?” Her mother hesitated for a moment, and in that moment Illyana’s heart dropped. “Are you driving, sweetheart?” -Great way to dodge the question, Mom.- Illyana thought before answering. “No, I’m at a rest stop in Kentucky.” Irene took an audible breath. “Illyana sweetheart. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to tell you this, but since you are headed toward his family, I might as well tell you.” “What, Mom? You’re scaring me.” Illyana interrupted her. “You were given to me as a toddler. The man, whom I believe was your father, told me a heartbreaking story about how your mother gave up her life to protect you. Illyana, I could see this man’s grief, and I too, was grieving a loss of both my husband and child from a car accident. I gladly took you and gave you a home. The last thing he said to me was that when you turned twenty-one, you would feel an uncommon pull toward your past. Toward him or his family. You wouldn’t understand it, but the closer you got to your true family, some things about you change.” “Change? How?” Illyana decided that it was in her best interest to play dumb. This time when Irene spoke, her voice took on that tone that told Illyana that her mother knew she was lying. “Illyana, you know what I’m talking about, don’t you? And besides, he didn’t say what the changes were going to be. You’d have to ask him when you see him. I’m texting you a picture of him.” “How’d you get a pic of him, Mom?” Illyana was truly intrigued by this information, not pissed like she should be. Somehow she knew she wasn’t her mother’s child, but she never questioned Irene. “He gave it to me to give to you when you felt the pull.” Irene hedged. “What are you not telling me?” Illyana asked apprehensively. “Nothing… I’m just hope you’re not pissed at me.” Irene grimaced thinking on how she was lying to the woman who always called her mother. -How can I tell her that she was in danger from a Russian prince who was as delusional as a someone who thought vampires were real?-