Tigers Don't Take Naps
- Reads 191
- Votes 33
- Parts 14
Ongoing1h 4m
Last published Sat, Apr 19, 2025
Fifteen-year-old Sam Calloway has spent his life moving from one foster home to another, learning one thing-the world belongs to the strong. And if you're not strong, you pretend. You act like a tiger-sharp, fast, untouchable. Because tigers don't take naps. Tigers don't show weakness. And tigers don't cry.
But when Sam is placed with the O'Briens, a warm but eccentric couple who run a wildlife rescue in the Blue Ridge Mountains, his carefully built armor begins to crack. Forced to work at the sanctuary as part of his placement, he finds himself face-to-face with a broken, aging Bengal tiger named Khan, a once-mighty beast now too weak to stand. Everyone says Khan is beyond saving, but Sam recognizes something in the animal's hollow eyes-something he's seen in the mirror.
As Sam reluctantly bonds with Lucy O'Brien, the family's spirited, fearless daughter who wants to be a veterinarian, he starts to see another way of living-one that doesn't require him to be a predator to survive. But old habits die hard, and when a violent run-in with an old foster brother threatens to send Sam back into the system, he has to decide: will he keep running, or will he finally fight for something worth saving-Khan, Lucy, and maybe even himself?
With lyrical prose, heart-stopping tension, and an unforgettable cast of characters, Tigers Don't Take Naps is a powerful coming-of-age story about trauma, healing, and learning that sometimes, the bravest thing a tiger can do... is rest.
***NEW CHAPTERS RELEASE EVERY SATURDAY AROUND 12:30PM AZ MST***
All Rights Reserved
#98
socialworker
Join the largest storytelling communityGet personalized story recommendations, save your favourites to your library, and comment and vote to grow your community.
You may also like
Life After You (Life Series; Book 1) {COMPLETED}
{COMPLETED} Amelia was adopted at age 15 by a family in the same town she grew up in, just on the other side. She's trying to move on and forget her horrible past, but people from then keep popping up in her life. She doesn't believe she will ever truly be free of them or happy. Then one day, something starts changing. She starts feeling happy and herself again. Will that feeling last, or will it all be ripped from her all over again? ***Disclaimer: This story deals with very mature themes. Many different forms of abuse and self harming will come up. If this is not for you, please skip past this book. I will try and put trigger warnings before each chapter if it deals with either abuse or self harm. Thanks💙 (5/18/19 Ranked #2 in findingyourself) (6/7/19 Ranked #3 in findingyourself)Complete
Yours Truly, Ramona
Life doesn't abide by the rules of a child. Sixteen-year-old Ramona knows this. She's seen it throughout her entire life, from the way she was treated by her birth parents to the way she was thrown around the foster system with nothing but her little brother, Mason, to hold onto. Every bruised cheek and broken bone has slowly shattered Ramona's trust in the system and any foster parent she's ever met. In the end, it's only Mason she can trust. Her life is dedicated to making his better, and focused solely on sheltering him from the pain of feeling as lonely as she is. That is, until Ramona gets news one day that may just uproot everything she's ever believed about her and Mason's situation. Everything is about change for Mason, all because of a man named Owen Parker. He wants to take the only thing that Ramona has ever truly loved. He wants to adopt her brother, and there is nothing she can do to stop him. Though after years of running and years of pain, Ramona knows just how badly Mason needs a home. It's a breath of fresh air for him, a family filled with love, and everything that Mason has never had. But then, what about Ramona? She's brotherless, parentless, and alone in a city that has never cared about her. She has to find a way to cope, and she has to find a way to forgive the man who took her little boy from her. But she can't cope, she can't forgive, and she can only bend so many times before she breaks. - - Warning: This story deals with mature content that may be difficult for some to read, such as self-harm, suicide, drug use, abuse, depression, anxiety, and sexual harassment. - - Highest Ranks: |#1| - adopted |#1| - fosterkid |#1| - fostercare |#1| - foster |#1| - suicideawareness |#1| - recovery |#1| - comingofage |#1| - mentalillness |#1| - strength |#2| - adoption
Finally Free
"I need you to be the put together one because I'm so fucked up. You've saved me." He whispers. "Carter, we saved each other." I mutter looking at him through my eyelashes. I lean into him, our lips not even an inch apart. "Sophia we shouldn't..." He looks hesitant. "Please, I need you." I almost started crying. "Please." I mutter one more time, my eyes begging for him. My body needing him. Sophia Carrington. She just moved from New York to California in search of a new life. When her life took a dark turn she's forced to leave everything behind. She just wants to finish her final year of high school, numb to the world, while learning to cope with the trauma she's endured. Carter Marquez. Newly single after being dumped by his girlfriend of two years. After losing his dad in a car accident he's fallen apart. The list of people he trusts is short, he hates letting people in. He's constantly trying to make up for his mistakes of the past, trying to find a new purpose in life. When the two of them collided, they instantly took a mutual disliking to each other. Misunderstandings and a dash of alcohol set a flame between them. Sophia hates the snarky remarks and stupid nicknames that leave his mouth. Carter thinks Sophia is just another trust fund brat. Soon their rivalry begins to dissolve and they learn that sharing the pain of their past can form connections they never thought to be possible. WARNING: This story contains mature topics such as sexual assault and drug addiction. Read with caution. Copyright © by lulustoriesss 2021Complete
Werewolf's Humanity
A werewolf's life is dangerous enough for an adult with a pack, but Sammy's family was murdered when he was only ten years old. Terrified, he ran away from foster care and spent several years homeless, only for his worst fear to become reality: he was discovered, and taken by a pharmaceutical corporation for horrific, inhumane experiments before he was rescued by other werewolves. But now that he's been rescued and adopted by a pack, he has a chance to start a new life. Now, can a sixteen-year-old lone wolf, ignorant of his kind's strict laws, adapt to life as part of a community, overcome his traumas and anxieties, and form the bonds he so desperately needs with his new family? This is a story about love and loss, wrath and redemption, blood and water. This is a story about survival. Cover art by Vanessa "Sidonie" HughesComplete
The Alpha And His Abused Mate (#Wattys2016)
His heart was cold, which perfectly matched his personality. He was a ruthless man, who only cared about himself and was very arrogant. She was broken but still cared. She was a nice person, who faked her happiness and suffered through life. He was possessive and protective of the people he deeply cared for. But unless you knew his story or were close to him, he was just pure evil and full of hatred. She was deprived of love but was willing to care and love someone if they did the same for her. - Seventeen years old, Ellie Smith, lives with her step-father, Craig. Her life was great until her mother died of cancer six years ago. Ever since Craig has been abusing her. The physical abuse has finally started getting to her head after all this time, and she started releasing her anger and sadness through self-harm. It's the only way she feels in control. River Hales had to grow up too fast. After his parents were killed in a rogue attack, he was awarded the Alpha title at the age of fifteen. Not only was he left with his father's pack, Blue Midnight pack, one of the largest in the United States, but he also has to take care of four younger siblings. Now at the age of eighteen, he is secretly hoping to find his mate, so he can be fully happy, and have someone to share the pack with. What happens when a very moody Alpha meets his mate and learns that her home life is not good what so ever? Will she accept him or reject him? Read the Alpha and his Abused Mate to find out. *STARTING MASSIVE EDITING NOV 2020*Complete
Remember This✔
Molly has never felt safe. For four years she has lived in constant fear that the serial killer that murdered her family is coming for her. She has been moved around the country continuously, dropped off with a new foster family every couple of months that are too out of their depth to deal with her. When she is relocated back to California at seventeen, Molly has nothing left to live for. Believing that suicide is her only option, Molly makes the brave decision to end it all one fateful night . She had the perfect plan; nothing was supposed to go wrong. Just one choice, one jump, and she'd be with her family again. Charlie has never had to consider his own empathy towards strangers. He's arrogant, selfish and becomes unbearably irritated with other people's problems. But when he sees Molly standing on the edge of the bridge and ignores every part of himself that wants to walk away, something awakens inside of him that he never realized was there. Saving her was just the beginning. The two are thrown together in a world-wind friendship of hope, healing and passion as they endure the temptation of love and the danger of a sadistic killer that isn't willing to let Molly go. R E V I E W S: - "I started reading it and I could not stop until I was finished. It was a rollercoaster of emotions and events. I enjoyed everything! It is so well written, would recommend this book to everyone!" - "It's a heartfelt story that touches you deeply, and never gets boring. It's filled with everything you could ever want and more." - "Not sure I have cried this much reading ever... . Definitely the best storyline I have read in a really long time." - "Insanely intense book from beginning to end makes you cry a few times throughout absolutely amazing story." - "This was the most AMAZING story I have ever read. I laughed, I cried. It was so emotional and it was MAGNIFICENT."Complete
Thanks to the Whelms Family
(I am about to undergo major edits on the entire story soon. I wrote this when I was 13, and since it is my first story, I owe it the proper creation it deserves. Thank you for your patience, and I hope you will enjoy!) Samantha, Sam, Peers - a 13 year old girl who grew up with an abusive father who hits her every time she talked or laughed. So Sam just stopped saying anything, but when she accidentally bumped into her father he her beat again. Now Sam flinches at every sudden move, waits until everyone is out of the class room to leave for her next class, she walks so she doesn't have to sit next to anybody on the bus, and if you say her name she puts her hands over head in attempt to block out the world. So when she comes to school for the fifth time looking all beat up with a swollen lip and a bruised cheek the principal calls the authorities. Sam's father gets put into jail while she has to stay at the police station until they can figure out what to do with her. Because of how she was treated Sam can't stay at a foster home and because she is so scared of people she can't go through the adoption process. But when a lawyer hears of her situation from a friend who's police officer he wants to help this young girl realize that not every person is like her father and that its ok to have fun and be a kid. So him and his family take Sam in to show her that she doesn't have to hide her voice or lock herself away from the world. And with the help of his wife and four sons they just might get her to open up to them. Sam might think that if she makes any noise or even one mistake she'll get punished but the Whelms family is here to prove her wrong.Complete
Exile: The Book of Ever
Centuries after the Fall, the United States has been wiped away. The crumbling remains of the great American empire are home now only to savage, lawless tribes and packs of ravening Damned-the twisted children of the apocalypse. Most of those few who survived humanity's destruction spend their short lives in a violent struggle for survival. But some light still flickers in the darkness: the Blessed of Bountiful live in seclusion, relying on walls both physical and spiritual to protect them from the Desolation that their world has become. Among them are the Saints, those few men and women born with superhuman abilities that the Blessed see as gifts from God. The violent apostate tribes of the Northeast Kingdom have always been a danger, but up until recently its small size and the vigilance of its people have made Bountiful an unappealing target. As attacks on the community grow harsher and more frequent, however, even the steadfast Blessed are forced to start preparing for the worst. With her home's very existence threatened, seventeen year old Ever Oaks, a Saint with the power to heal, is forced to make a difficult choice, one that may come to define her people's future... Exile was a semi-finalist in Mark Lawrence's Great Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (#SPFBO). Fantasy Faction said it was "extremely cool," and Bookish Lifestyle called it "more than just a story, a journey and an experience." When I'm asked about it, I often describe it as "X-Men meets The Walking Dead." In addition to reading it here for free, you can buy Exile in e-book or paperback on Amazon.com.Complete
{COMPLETED} Amelia was adopted at age 15 by a family in the same town she grew up in, just on the other side. She's trying to move on and forget her horrible past, but people from then keep popping up in her life. She doesn't believe she will ever truly be free of them or happy. Then one day, something starts changing. She starts feeling happy and herself again. Will that feeling last, or will it all be ripped from her all over again? ***Disclaimer: This story deals with very mature themes. Many different forms of abuse and self harming will come up. If this is not for you, please skip past this book. I will try and put trigger warnings before each chapter if it deals with either abuse or self harm. Thanks💙 (5/18/19 Ranked #2 in findingyourself) (6/7/19 Ranked #3 in findingyourself)
More detailsContent Guidelines