Free Reads
Where heroines strong enough to stand on their own meet
heroes special enough to make them weak in the knees.
heroes special enough to make them weak in the knees.
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Chastity Nicole Duvall was named after her soft-spoken great grandmother. The name couldn’
t have fit less though.
By Chastity's middle teens her body had already developed into scrumptious curves that
overpowered anything chaste in the minds of mere mortal men, and even in some who were
more than mortal.
At first, she didn't notice, then she didn't understand, but finally she learned. She learned that
with sex appeal came power—a different kind of power. She learned how to smile and talk her
way out of trouble, how to wiggle her hips and get what ever she wanted, how to brush up
against a man and turn him to putty within her grasp--all while remaining a virgin and keeping
her heart completely safe.
Along with the gift of beauty, Chastity had been born with the gift of another power. Magical
powers. Mortals often called the weaker of her kind witches, but Chastity was something much
more than a witch, she was a Kaianon. Magical powers were her birthright, passed down to her
from the Greek goddess Hecate.
Her magical gifts first showed themselves when she was sixteen, they began to bloom by the
time she was eighteen, and she started to master them at twenty.
Her life should have been blessed and perfect, but Chastity had a way of getting herself into
trouble, even when she tried her best to be good.
* * *
“I’m late! I’m late!” Chastity Duvall stepped into her sexiest black heels and shimmied into a
slinky black dress at the same time. She almost twisted her ankle on the way to her vanity table.
She plopped down on the cushioned chair and stared at her reflection. No makeup. Her black
hair still damp. A glance at her watch showed her that her date was due in less than five minutes,
and that was if he didn’t show up early.
Almost as if brought on by the thought, the doorbell chimed. Chastity looked back at the
mirror. “It’s not allowed,” her refection said. Magical powers weren’t for personal gain of any
kind, including vanity. But...this was an emergency.
“I can’t let Blake see me like this.” This was their first date. She had worked hard to get this far
with Blake Harrington. It was the first time she had been interested in a man who seemed
uninterested in her, immune to her beauty and charms.
His resistance served to make him only that much more appealing to her.
The doorbell chimed again.
Her decision made, Chastity closed her eyes and ran her fingertips gently over her face and
then through her hair. When she opened her eyes she found perfection. Her makeup was flawless
and her long hair was dry and perfectly straight. A touch to her neck, her wrists and her fingers,
and her favorite jewelry was in place.
The doorbell somehow sounded more insistent.
Chastity sprayed some rose-scented perfume in the air, did a little twirl in the mist, and then
grabbed her pocketbook as she left the bedroom.
She opened the door with a welcoming smile. “Hello there, Blake.”
“Well, hello there yourself, beautiful.” He handed her a single red rose. “Ready?”
She raised the rose and inhaled its sweet scent before she nodded. Tonight was going to be a
very special night. One she would never forget.
Blake took waited while she closed the door and locked it behind her. When she turned, he
stepped forward so she ended up in his arms.
Chastity stared up into his blue eyes, lost in the heat she saw there. When he leaned down and
kissed her softly, nipped her lips, moved lower to graze his teeth over the sensitive flesh of her
neck, she turned into a pool of hormones at his feet.
She could hear her heart pounded in her ears.
He said, “It’s not too late to change your mind. If you aren’t ready, I can wait.”
Her virginity had been the winning tidbit that drew Blake to her. She wasn’t going to take the
offer back now. She didn’t want to. Blake was the man she had waited for. She knew it. She felt it.
This was the man she was going to spend the rest of her life with.
Chastity rose up on tiptoes and kissed him. “Oh, no Mr. Blake Harrington. There’s not a
chance of me changing my mind. You promised me three things, dinner, dancing and waking up
in your arms in the morning.”
“Don’t let it ever be said that I broke a promise to a lady.”
* * *
Chastity hardly tasted her meal; in fact, she didn’t eat enough to get a taste of it. There were
butterflies in her stomach about the size of elephants and that left no room for food.
After the dessert that she didn’t even try, they finished one dance before she gave up on that as
well.
She pulled back out Blake’s embrace. “Your place or mine?”
“Neither.”
Chastity felt her heart sink. He couldn’t turn her down now, not after all she had done to—
“I thought a suite would be better.” He reached into his slack’s pocket and pulled out a room
card. “After all, this is a once-in-a-life-time night.” His slow sexy smile made her forget about her
nerves.
* * *
Chastity felt a breeze caress her skin. There was a chill to the air. Blake’s warmth was gone.
“Chastity Nicole Duvall.”
She didn’t want to wake up, so she tried to ignore the chill and the voice calling her name, a
woman’s voice.”
“Chastity!”
Her eyes popped open and she instantly became fully awake, fully aware that she stood in the
middle of a green pasture under the light of a crescent moon, surrounded by women--and she
was fully and completely naked.
“I’m truly disappointed in you, Chastity.”
Chastity spun around to face one of the women in the circle around her. The woman looked to
be about eighty, but she stood tall, her long gray hair blowing in the breeze. She was dressed in
an over-sized dark green robe that hid her body size.
“Why am I here and where is here?”
“You are here to be punished,” another woman answered without commenting on where the
here was.
Chastity slowly looked around her. She counted seven women, all dressed a like. Eighty
looking to be the eldest of the bunch, but even the youngest was at least fifty. “Punished?
Punished for what?”
It was the eldest who spoke again, “For the misuse of your powers, for your lack of concern or
caring for others, for your selfishness, just for a start.”
Chastity felt the cool air on her skin again and remembered she was naked. She summoned
clothes onto her body.
Nothing happened.
She looked down at her nakedness and tried again.
Nothing.
A redheaded woman to her left said, “Your powers have been bound.”
A woman on her right added, “Don’t worry about it. You aren’t going to need clothes for a
long while.”
Chastity studied each face. There wasn’t a person among them that she recognized. But she
knew who and what they were. Suddenly she understood.
She had been tried and found guilty, now all that was left was the sentence. Fear outweighed
any other emotion she had ever felt in her life.
“Don’t I have the right to defend myself, to explain?”
The eldest woman shook her head. Her expression looked more sad than angry. “No. Like the
others, you learned the laws of our world when your first powers appeared. When you accepted
your powers you accepted the laws. You have two choices. You can go over to them, or you can
stay with us and serve whatever punishment we feel is fitting in this case.”
Chastity felt the grass under her feet move, the ground shift. She stumbled and realized she
was the only thing that had moved. No one came forward to steady her. Her mouth was too dry,
her heart was beating too fast.
The redhead spoke again, “We don’t have all night. Make your choice.”
Refusing to faint, Chastity braced her feet apart and focused on the woman in front of her.
“Can I at least hear what my punishment will be first?”
“You know it doesn’t work that way. Make your choice.”
Them was the dark side, the evil side. Thankfully their numbers were small, because they had
no rules to live by.
Chastity feared her punishment. It could be anything. She could have her powers bound for
ever, she could be sent away from all others, she could even have to pay with her life, or suffer
anything in between, it depended on just what she had been found guilty of, how much she had
been found guilty of, and what the seven women before her thought was a justified punishment.
The other side seemed like a good choice, and she almost opened her mouth and gave that
answer, but deep inside, she wasn’t one of them.
Chastity looked around her one more time, making eye contact with each woman, then she
held her head high. She knew the words she had to say. Those had been taught to her along with
the laws.
“For what I have done, punish me so I can learn.”
The eldest woman gave her a proud smile. Then it faded. She moved forward and placed a
wrinkled, age-spotted hand on Chastity’s bare shoulder.
“For what you have done Chastity Nicole Duvall, we punish you so you can learn.”
Chastity staggered backwards as pain tore into her shoulder and spread through her body. It
felt like a bolt of fire hit her. She heard herself scream as her muscles gave way and she collapsed
to the soft ground. The pain tore through each nerve and seemed to rip itself free through her
fingertips and the ends of her toes. Her body convulsed, she thought she heard the sound of
breaking bones, and then she heard her screams change into something that didn’t sound human.
As the pain slowly left her, she laid still, panting, watching stars explode behind her eyelids.
Long minutes passed before she could even raise her head. The world spun around her when she
did, so she laid back and stared up at the woman in front of her.
“Your punishment will end when you learn that your powers are a gift that should always be
used wisely, and more importantly, when you learn to care more for others than yourself. Then
you will become the person you should be.”
With great effort, Chastity made her muscles obey her so she could at least sit up. Still the old
woman towered over her.
“Until then, walk this earth as you are, without words, without power, without family.”
One of the other women came into view. “Seeing how short a lifespan a cat has, and how
many things can happen to make that lifespan even shorter, let’s hope you learn your lesson
quickly.”
Chastity shook her head, trying to understand the meaning of what the women had said.
What did the lifespan of a cat have to do with her life?
She forced herself up onto her feet, and yet the women were still way up there and she was
way down on the ground. She looked down. Instead of her legs and feet, she saw black fur and
small paws. Cat paws. She started to ask the women what they had done, but the only sounds
that came from her throat was the meows of a cat.
All of the women walked away, all but for one. She came up to Chastity and squatted down
beside her.
“Anna loves Blake with her whole being. His love for her was growing, and then you came
along and made it a point to tear them apart simply because he was the first man you ever had
interest in who didn’t return it. You saw him, you wanted him, found out he wanted someone
else more, and decided to win him like a prize from a dart toss game. Never mind that Anna
would be broken hearted and that she was the one he was meant to be with. No, what Chastity
sees and wants, Chastity gets. I guess now all you’ll want is a bowl of tuna fish and a ball of yawn.
Wonder if you’ll be as good as getting what you want in black fur?”
The woman laughed as she walked away.
Chastity wanted to use words to defend herself and her actions when it came to Blake, but
even if she knew what to say, she had no voice to say it with.
* * *
That first night as a cat was the longest night in Chastity’s life. Her body still hurt and was
sore. It was hard to figure out how to move four legs when you were used to only a two-legged
gait. She spent that night hurting, lost, hungry, thirsty, angry, and most of all--terrified. There
were sounds in the dark, and her ears and eyes and even her nose, worked better than they ever
had before, altering her to everything around her.
She quickly accepted the fact that she was a very small creature in a countryside filled with
much larger ones.
The next morning she found a stream of water. As thirsty as she was by then, it didn’t matter
that the water wasn’t exactly sparkling clean. Later that day a kind farm worker gave her part of
his lunch, which just happened to be tuna fish sandwiches. She had never been able to stand the
taste of tuna fish. Being a cat didn’t change that.
She would have stayed right there, but another man soon arrived and yelled about the worker
feeding her. The new man yelled and threw an empty soda can at her. Chastity didn’t need any
more hints that it was time to move on.
Just before dark she found a dog, who tried to make a meal out of her. She made it up a tree
one second ahead of the huge animal’s snapping teeth.
In that big oak tree, on a rough bark-covered branch, was where she stayed her second night.
While there she spent as much time thinking as sleeping--maybe more time thinking, since she
was afraid that in her sleep she would move and fall.
That time helped her decide that trying to reach some of her family was hopeless. None of
them lived within a hundred miles of her, that was if she was outside the city of Camdel
Louisiana, where she lived. She was pretty sure she was. The countryside looked like the area.
Plus, in the tree she was high enough to spot what she guessed to be the mill lights in Camdel.
That was the place to go. Even though no one she knew would recognize her, the life of a city cat
had to be better than that of a country cat. There were more people, more chances to run into
someone who was just waiting for a nice new cat to pamper and love.
* * *
Things didn’t quite turn out that way though.
Chastity spent four very long months on the streets, half starving, dodging dogs, cars, the
SPCA, and tomcats. She finally found a home. The lady there was kind enough, but the kids she
kept during the day liked to pull ears, tails, hair, and bite. Chastity stayed simply because it was
the best choice of two bad ones.
Just about the time she had really settled in and learned how to get away from the kids, which
took her almost half a year, the kind old lady died. By the next morning, Chastity was once again
just another stray on the city streets. Worse, it was almost Halloween and she was a stray black
cat.
Over the next four years she found five more homes, the longest lasted almost a year, the
shortest only two weeks.
This time she had been on the streets for over nine months, and it was taking its toll on her.
She kept up with the passing of time by looking at the date on the front of newspapers she found
discarded or in stands. She avoided friends from her old life because an encounter with one had
proved too painful.
She knew how to find water, could find enough food to survive, but it was winter again, and
even this far south there could be some icy cold days and nights. It had dropped below freezing
the last three nights in a row, and tonight it was supposed to get into the low twenties.
Chastity didn’t know if she would survive the night. She was covered with fleas, weakened
from their constant draining bites and from a lack of food. She had found shelter for the last
couple of weeks in an attic, but the homeowner had fixed her entry hole this morning, only a
short time after she left. There was nowhere else to go that she knew of. She was ready to accept
her pending doom. She was tired of fighting for her life.
That was when he walked by.
He was a tall man, well built. Dark hair, dark eyes, tan. And--he had power, still growing
powers. She could smell it on him.
Without thinking it through, she walked right in front of his path. The man almost fell, trying
to avoid stepping on her when he saw her only at the last moment.
He didn’t step on her, but she meowed pitifully as if he hadn’t missed her.
He stopped and bent down to check on her, reaching a hand out cautiously at first, to make
sure she would take a swipe or a bite at him.
She took that opening to rub her head under his hand, then to move forward and rub against
his leg. She purred and gazed up at him with her sweetest cat expression.
“Sorry about that, kitty. I tried to miss you.” He scratched her under the chin, then stood up
and hurried away.
Chastity followed.
They were on a street filled with shops on both sides. He crossed the road and only went down
a few doors before he entered one of the shops. She hurried in behind him before the door could
close.
Alex Boudreaux saw his partner Michael Broussard standing behind the counter waiting on a
customer. Alex said, “I know I’m late, but it’s been one of those mornings. I got the new ad in the
paper, along with the new art work. I also picked up our order of business cards.”
Michael handed the female customer her change. “Thanks. Hope you come see us again.”
She gave both of them a smile before she left.
“Was that part of your morning shopping too?” Michael asked after the woman left.
Alex followed his gaze. The black cat he had almost tripped over was standing in the store, only a
few feet behind him. “How did you get in here?”
The cat hurried to him when he squatted down more to her level. “I almost broke my neck
trying not to step on it. Think I still hurt it some.” He ran his hand down her back. “Oh, man. I
can feel every bone in its body.” He picked the poor thing up. It weighed about as much as air.
Michael came from around the countered. “If it’s that thin, I guess it doesn’t have a home.” He
lifted the cat’s tail and was rewarded with a hiss. “Sorry. Just checking to see if you’re a she or a
he.”
“Well?” Alex asked.
“It’s a hissing baby girl.”
“I wouldn’t call her a baby. She looks kind of old.” She gave him a hiss too.
Michael laughed. “I guess all females are touchy about their age.”
t have fit less though.
By Chastity's middle teens her body had already developed into scrumptious curves that
overpowered anything chaste in the minds of mere mortal men, and even in some who were
more than mortal.
At first, she didn't notice, then she didn't understand, but finally she learned. She learned that
with sex appeal came power—a different kind of power. She learned how to smile and talk her
way out of trouble, how to wiggle her hips and get what ever she wanted, how to brush up
against a man and turn him to putty within her grasp--all while remaining a virgin and keeping
her heart completely safe.
Along with the gift of beauty, Chastity had been born with the gift of another power. Magical
powers. Mortals often called the weaker of her kind witches, but Chastity was something much
more than a witch, she was a Kaianon. Magical powers were her birthright, passed down to her
from the Greek goddess Hecate.
Her magical gifts first showed themselves when she was sixteen, they began to bloom by the
time she was eighteen, and she started to master them at twenty.
Her life should have been blessed and perfect, but Chastity had a way of getting herself into
trouble, even when she tried her best to be good.
* * *
“I’m late! I’m late!” Chastity Duvall stepped into her sexiest black heels and shimmied into a
slinky black dress at the same time. She almost twisted her ankle on the way to her vanity table.
She plopped down on the cushioned chair and stared at her reflection. No makeup. Her black
hair still damp. A glance at her watch showed her that her date was due in less than five minutes,
and that was if he didn’t show up early.
Almost as if brought on by the thought, the doorbell chimed. Chastity looked back at the
mirror. “It’s not allowed,” her refection said. Magical powers weren’t for personal gain of any
kind, including vanity. But...this was an emergency.
“I can’t let Blake see me like this.” This was their first date. She had worked hard to get this far
with Blake Harrington. It was the first time she had been interested in a man who seemed
uninterested in her, immune to her beauty and charms.
His resistance served to make him only that much more appealing to her.
The doorbell chimed again.
Her decision made, Chastity closed her eyes and ran her fingertips gently over her face and
then through her hair. When she opened her eyes she found perfection. Her makeup was flawless
and her long hair was dry and perfectly straight. A touch to her neck, her wrists and her fingers,
and her favorite jewelry was in place.
The doorbell somehow sounded more insistent.
Chastity sprayed some rose-scented perfume in the air, did a little twirl in the mist, and then
grabbed her pocketbook as she left the bedroom.
She opened the door with a welcoming smile. “Hello there, Blake.”
“Well, hello there yourself, beautiful.” He handed her a single red rose. “Ready?”
She raised the rose and inhaled its sweet scent before she nodded. Tonight was going to be a
very special night. One she would never forget.
Blake took waited while she closed the door and locked it behind her. When she turned, he
stepped forward so she ended up in his arms.
Chastity stared up into his blue eyes, lost in the heat she saw there. When he leaned down and
kissed her softly, nipped her lips, moved lower to graze his teeth over the sensitive flesh of her
neck, she turned into a pool of hormones at his feet.
She could hear her heart pounded in her ears.
He said, “It’s not too late to change your mind. If you aren’t ready, I can wait.”
Her virginity had been the winning tidbit that drew Blake to her. She wasn’t going to take the
offer back now. She didn’t want to. Blake was the man she had waited for. She knew it. She felt it.
This was the man she was going to spend the rest of her life with.
Chastity rose up on tiptoes and kissed him. “Oh, no Mr. Blake Harrington. There’s not a
chance of me changing my mind. You promised me three things, dinner, dancing and waking up
in your arms in the morning.”
“Don’t let it ever be said that I broke a promise to a lady.”
* * *
Chastity hardly tasted her meal; in fact, she didn’t eat enough to get a taste of it. There were
butterflies in her stomach about the size of elephants and that left no room for food.
After the dessert that she didn’t even try, they finished one dance before she gave up on that as
well.
She pulled back out Blake’s embrace. “Your place or mine?”
“Neither.”
Chastity felt her heart sink. He couldn’t turn her down now, not after all she had done to—
“I thought a suite would be better.” He reached into his slack’s pocket and pulled out a room
card. “After all, this is a once-in-a-life-time night.” His slow sexy smile made her forget about her
nerves.
* * *
Chastity felt a breeze caress her skin. There was a chill to the air. Blake’s warmth was gone.
“Chastity Nicole Duvall.”
She didn’t want to wake up, so she tried to ignore the chill and the voice calling her name, a
woman’s voice.”
“Chastity!”
Her eyes popped open and she instantly became fully awake, fully aware that she stood in the
middle of a green pasture under the light of a crescent moon, surrounded by women--and she
was fully and completely naked.
“I’m truly disappointed in you, Chastity.”
Chastity spun around to face one of the women in the circle around her. The woman looked to
be about eighty, but she stood tall, her long gray hair blowing in the breeze. She was dressed in
an over-sized dark green robe that hid her body size.
“Why am I here and where is here?”
“You are here to be punished,” another woman answered without commenting on where the
here was.
Chastity slowly looked around her. She counted seven women, all dressed a like. Eighty
looking to be the eldest of the bunch, but even the youngest was at least fifty. “Punished?
Punished for what?”
It was the eldest who spoke again, “For the misuse of your powers, for your lack of concern or
caring for others, for your selfishness, just for a start.”
Chastity felt the cool air on her skin again and remembered she was naked. She summoned
clothes onto her body.
Nothing happened.
She looked down at her nakedness and tried again.
Nothing.
A redheaded woman to her left said, “Your powers have been bound.”
A woman on her right added, “Don’t worry about it. You aren’t going to need clothes for a
long while.”
Chastity studied each face. There wasn’t a person among them that she recognized. But she
knew who and what they were. Suddenly she understood.
She had been tried and found guilty, now all that was left was the sentence. Fear outweighed
any other emotion she had ever felt in her life.
“Don’t I have the right to defend myself, to explain?”
The eldest woman shook her head. Her expression looked more sad than angry. “No. Like the
others, you learned the laws of our world when your first powers appeared. When you accepted
your powers you accepted the laws. You have two choices. You can go over to them, or you can
stay with us and serve whatever punishment we feel is fitting in this case.”
Chastity felt the grass under her feet move, the ground shift. She stumbled and realized she
was the only thing that had moved. No one came forward to steady her. Her mouth was too dry,
her heart was beating too fast.
The redhead spoke again, “We don’t have all night. Make your choice.”
Refusing to faint, Chastity braced her feet apart and focused on the woman in front of her.
“Can I at least hear what my punishment will be first?”
“You know it doesn’t work that way. Make your choice.”
Them was the dark side, the evil side. Thankfully their numbers were small, because they had
no rules to live by.
Chastity feared her punishment. It could be anything. She could have her powers bound for
ever, she could be sent away from all others, she could even have to pay with her life, or suffer
anything in between, it depended on just what she had been found guilty of, how much she had
been found guilty of, and what the seven women before her thought was a justified punishment.
The other side seemed like a good choice, and she almost opened her mouth and gave that
answer, but deep inside, she wasn’t one of them.
Chastity looked around her one more time, making eye contact with each woman, then she
held her head high. She knew the words she had to say. Those had been taught to her along with
the laws.
“For what I have done, punish me so I can learn.”
The eldest woman gave her a proud smile. Then it faded. She moved forward and placed a
wrinkled, age-spotted hand on Chastity’s bare shoulder.
“For what you have done Chastity Nicole Duvall, we punish you so you can learn.”
Chastity staggered backwards as pain tore into her shoulder and spread through her body. It
felt like a bolt of fire hit her. She heard herself scream as her muscles gave way and she collapsed
to the soft ground. The pain tore through each nerve and seemed to rip itself free through her
fingertips and the ends of her toes. Her body convulsed, she thought she heard the sound of
breaking bones, and then she heard her screams change into something that didn’t sound human.
As the pain slowly left her, she laid still, panting, watching stars explode behind her eyelids.
Long minutes passed before she could even raise her head. The world spun around her when she
did, so she laid back and stared up at the woman in front of her.
“Your punishment will end when you learn that your powers are a gift that should always be
used wisely, and more importantly, when you learn to care more for others than yourself. Then
you will become the person you should be.”
With great effort, Chastity made her muscles obey her so she could at least sit up. Still the old
woman towered over her.
“Until then, walk this earth as you are, without words, without power, without family.”
One of the other women came into view. “Seeing how short a lifespan a cat has, and how
many things can happen to make that lifespan even shorter, let’s hope you learn your lesson
quickly.”
Chastity shook her head, trying to understand the meaning of what the women had said.
What did the lifespan of a cat have to do with her life?
She forced herself up onto her feet, and yet the women were still way up there and she was
way down on the ground. She looked down. Instead of her legs and feet, she saw black fur and
small paws. Cat paws. She started to ask the women what they had done, but the only sounds
that came from her throat was the meows of a cat.
All of the women walked away, all but for one. She came up to Chastity and squatted down
beside her.
“Anna loves Blake with her whole being. His love for her was growing, and then you came
along and made it a point to tear them apart simply because he was the first man you ever had
interest in who didn’t return it. You saw him, you wanted him, found out he wanted someone
else more, and decided to win him like a prize from a dart toss game. Never mind that Anna
would be broken hearted and that she was the one he was meant to be with. No, what Chastity
sees and wants, Chastity gets. I guess now all you’ll want is a bowl of tuna fish and a ball of yawn.
Wonder if you’ll be as good as getting what you want in black fur?”
The woman laughed as she walked away.
Chastity wanted to use words to defend herself and her actions when it came to Blake, but
even if she knew what to say, she had no voice to say it with.
* * *
That first night as a cat was the longest night in Chastity’s life. Her body still hurt and was
sore. It was hard to figure out how to move four legs when you were used to only a two-legged
gait. She spent that night hurting, lost, hungry, thirsty, angry, and most of all--terrified. There
were sounds in the dark, and her ears and eyes and even her nose, worked better than they ever
had before, altering her to everything around her.
She quickly accepted the fact that she was a very small creature in a countryside filled with
much larger ones.
The next morning she found a stream of water. As thirsty as she was by then, it didn’t matter
that the water wasn’t exactly sparkling clean. Later that day a kind farm worker gave her part of
his lunch, which just happened to be tuna fish sandwiches. She had never been able to stand the
taste of tuna fish. Being a cat didn’t change that.
She would have stayed right there, but another man soon arrived and yelled about the worker
feeding her. The new man yelled and threw an empty soda can at her. Chastity didn’t need any
more hints that it was time to move on.
Just before dark she found a dog, who tried to make a meal out of her. She made it up a tree
one second ahead of the huge animal’s snapping teeth.
In that big oak tree, on a rough bark-covered branch, was where she stayed her second night.
While there she spent as much time thinking as sleeping--maybe more time thinking, since she
was afraid that in her sleep she would move and fall.
That time helped her decide that trying to reach some of her family was hopeless. None of
them lived within a hundred miles of her, that was if she was outside the city of Camdel
Louisiana, where she lived. She was pretty sure she was. The countryside looked like the area.
Plus, in the tree she was high enough to spot what she guessed to be the mill lights in Camdel.
That was the place to go. Even though no one she knew would recognize her, the life of a city cat
had to be better than that of a country cat. There were more people, more chances to run into
someone who was just waiting for a nice new cat to pamper and love.
* * *
Things didn’t quite turn out that way though.
Chastity spent four very long months on the streets, half starving, dodging dogs, cars, the
SPCA, and tomcats. She finally found a home. The lady there was kind enough, but the kids she
kept during the day liked to pull ears, tails, hair, and bite. Chastity stayed simply because it was
the best choice of two bad ones.
Just about the time she had really settled in and learned how to get away from the kids, which
took her almost half a year, the kind old lady died. By the next morning, Chastity was once again
just another stray on the city streets. Worse, it was almost Halloween and she was a stray black
cat.
Over the next four years she found five more homes, the longest lasted almost a year, the
shortest only two weeks.
This time she had been on the streets for over nine months, and it was taking its toll on her.
She kept up with the passing of time by looking at the date on the front of newspapers she found
discarded or in stands. She avoided friends from her old life because an encounter with one had
proved too painful.
She knew how to find water, could find enough food to survive, but it was winter again, and
even this far south there could be some icy cold days and nights. It had dropped below freezing
the last three nights in a row, and tonight it was supposed to get into the low twenties.
Chastity didn’t know if she would survive the night. She was covered with fleas, weakened
from their constant draining bites and from a lack of food. She had found shelter for the last
couple of weeks in an attic, but the homeowner had fixed her entry hole this morning, only a
short time after she left. There was nowhere else to go that she knew of. She was ready to accept
her pending doom. She was tired of fighting for her life.
That was when he walked by.
He was a tall man, well built. Dark hair, dark eyes, tan. And--he had power, still growing
powers. She could smell it on him.
Without thinking it through, she walked right in front of his path. The man almost fell, trying
to avoid stepping on her when he saw her only at the last moment.
He didn’t step on her, but she meowed pitifully as if he hadn’t missed her.
He stopped and bent down to check on her, reaching a hand out cautiously at first, to make
sure she would take a swipe or a bite at him.
She took that opening to rub her head under his hand, then to move forward and rub against
his leg. She purred and gazed up at him with her sweetest cat expression.
“Sorry about that, kitty. I tried to miss you.” He scratched her under the chin, then stood up
and hurried away.
Chastity followed.
They were on a street filled with shops on both sides. He crossed the road and only went down
a few doors before he entered one of the shops. She hurried in behind him before the door could
close.
Alex Boudreaux saw his partner Michael Broussard standing behind the counter waiting on a
customer. Alex said, “I know I’m late, but it’s been one of those mornings. I got the new ad in the
paper, along with the new art work. I also picked up our order of business cards.”
Michael handed the female customer her change. “Thanks. Hope you come see us again.”
She gave both of them a smile before she left.
“Was that part of your morning shopping too?” Michael asked after the woman left.
Alex followed his gaze. The black cat he had almost tripped over was standing in the store, only a
few feet behind him. “How did you get in here?”
The cat hurried to him when he squatted down more to her level. “I almost broke my neck
trying not to step on it. Think I still hurt it some.” He ran his hand down her back. “Oh, man. I
can feel every bone in its body.” He picked the poor thing up. It weighed about as much as air.
Michael came from around the countered. “If it’s that thin, I guess it doesn’t have a home.” He
lifted the cat’s tail and was rewarded with a hiss. “Sorry. Just checking to see if you’re a she or a
he.”
“Well?” Alex asked.
“It’s a hissing baby girl.”
“I wouldn’t call her a baby. She looks kind of old.” She gave him a hiss too.
Michael laughed. “I guess all females are touchy about their age.”
Chastity's Lesson
I've never been very good at writing short stories. Seems my
ideas come with too much detail for a few pages. (Smile) Now
and again though, when I'm working on a novel-length
romance, I use a short story with one of the characters from that
novel to help me get a better handle on either the character or
the story. Most of these aren't anything I'd want anyone to read.
They aren't even complete stories with a beginning, middle and
ending. Once in a while though, I do end up with a kind of
complete short story. I thought I would share those here and
maybe you would enjoy reading one of them on some day when
you had some free time and a little interest.
ideas come with too much detail for a few pages. (Smile) Now
and again though, when I'm working on a novel-length
romance, I use a short story with one of the characters from that
novel to help me get a better handle on either the character or
the story. Most of these aren't anything I'd want anyone to read.
They aren't even complete stories with a beginning, middle and
ending. Once in a while though, I do end up with a kind of
complete short story. I thought I would share those here and
maybe you would enjoy reading one of them on some day when
you had some free time and a little interest.
Find out what happens to Chastity and the guy
who finds her in Read My Mind. (Not yet
published.) You can find an excerpt for it on
my Excerpt page.
who finds her in Read My Mind. (Not yet
published.) You can find an excerpt for it on
my Excerpt page.
