Genetics

Preview of Caleb: The Journey, A Tiger-human Series Trilogy Book 1: March

Before Caleb had met April, he had experienced unimaginable horrors. He believed himself to be cursed, but then he met a woman who changed everything he knew. What made this woman so appealing to Caleb to the point he would risk his life to save her instead of her boyfriend? What happened during the three years April had lost after the R2A entered her system for the first time? Why did Caleb give his life for April?

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Prologue

You know how everyone always tells you your memories flash before your eyes when you die? I thought it was all false and lies until the night I died for the woman who had gained my attention yet was with someone else.

The women in my life never lasted. Not even my own mother. My mother had died when I was thirteen. I had seen the whole thing before my eyes. I had watched the crazy man enter our house and grab my mom. I watched him wave around the gun before shooting my mom and then himself.

I had gotten a note from the girl I dated when I was sixteen telling me that she couldn't deal with the pressure from her family to end things. How she had to get rid of my child to appease her family. How she needed to get a degree and become a doctor.

I had been helpless to act when the woman I started dating when I was nineteen died. I was helpless to stop her death. I was even helpless to stop the death of the woman I had dated when I was twenty-two, three days before my twenty-third birthday.

But her? The woman not too far from me with my blood entering her body and her discolored blood entering mine? I was not letting her die. I couldn't bear to lose her even if her boyfriend got to continue his little charade of caring what happened to her.

I couldn't let her die not after she fought to keep us alive more than once; even going so far as to sacrifice herself for us. I would do this over and over again if it meant she got to live another day or even another decade. She deserved so much more in this world. I couldn't be responsible for her death like the others. I had to make sure she lived at all costs. Even the cost of my own life.

Chapter 1

"Caleb! Get down from that billboard sign!" Father shouted through his loudspeaker.

I winced and looked at my partners-in-crime, Turner Wheeler and Hayden Dahl. Turner's hazel eyes widened, and he dropped his paintbrush and Hayden glanced back at me. Turner was fifteen years old and had never once done anything rebellious, until today that was. Hayden and I had been friends since pre-school, and we got into all sorts of trouble.

I turned to look at my father. Sheriff Steven Windrowson, the most respected man in our little town, but yet the man who had let a madman enter our home and kill my mother, Gloria Windrowson. I scowled at him and threw the paint. Without a moments hesitation I slid down the ladder and bolted for the forest.

"Scatter!" Hayden shouted as all three of us ran different directions.

"Get back here!" Father shouted.

I ran through the forest, not even daring to look behind me. I was sure that old man was chasing me down. He hated the fact I was always causing him trouble. I jumped into one of the trenches and scrambled to duck under the under hang.

We weren't far from the welcome sign to the city and Hayden and I had a hideout between it and my house. My darling father knew of it, but not it's location. I wouldn't doubt it if Hayden and Turner were heading that way right now.

I heard a twig snap above and watched as a shadow of someone peering over the trench became visible. I heard father's sigh and rolled my eyes. He made his way down into the trench and turned to look at me.