Nitas redemption, p.1
Nita's Redemption, page 1
Nita’s Redemption
Ravens of War, Book 6
Elle Boon
By Elle Boon elleboon@yahoo.com
© Copyright 2023 Elle Boon
All cover art and logos © Copyright 2023 by Elle Boon
All rights reserved.
Dedication
I’D LIKE TO SAY THANK you to my Team Bombshells and all the Elle Boon’s Besties for pushing me to write this story. Nita was a character that I knew would get a story. I just didn’t know where her journey would take us. Of course, if it hadn’t been for you readers also wanting to read more, and Zeus, of course, talking non-stop in my head, who knows what could’ve happened. Luckily for us, we don’t have to wonder anymore. I hope you enjoy this story as much as I loved diving back into my Ravens. Remember, sometimes things that are broken are more precious, because the scars that forged them into what they become makes them who they are.
Big huge thank all of you who have loved my Ravens Of War since the very beginning. They were the first books I wrote and published, and lord do I love these characters. They might be a little spicier, since there’s one female with two or three males. Rest assure, all the stories are way more than just about what happens in the bedroom or wherever they end up doing the bowchicawowow. Nita was a character who popped up years ago and I knew I would write her story some day and whooowee, her story is quite the rollercoaster. I sure hope y’all are ready for this intriguing tale and will love all the things as much as I loved writing them.
Of course, you’re going to see a lot of the originals in this story, including Zeus, some of the demon females and more. But this is more of a “Shifter” tale since Nita was a damaged child who was rescued by the demonesses and then returned to Earth much different. So, with that being said, hold onto your bootstraps and be ready for all the crazy that is sure to ensue in Nita’s Redemption.
This story is dedicated to anyone who has ever felt as though they had lost everything. Remember all you have to do after the dust settles is pick yourself up and come out swinging. Life is full of ups and downs,. Even when there are sometimes more downs than ups. However, if I’ve learned anything, it’s that there’s still beauty and goodness. You just have to dig a little deeper to find it. Go and find your happy. You might need to dig a little deeper, but don’t stop. Grab onto the beauty in life, love hard, be wild, and dream big.
XOXO,
Elle Boon
By Elle Boon elleboon@yahoo.com
All cover art and logos © Copyright 2019 by Elle Boon
All rights reserved.
First E-book Publication: 2023
Second E-book Publication: 2023
All cover art and logo copyright © EL Boon
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER:
Elle Boon
Table of Contents
Nita’s Redemption
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty One
Chapter Twenty Two
Chapter Twenty Three
Chapter Twenty Four
Chapter Twenty Five
Chapter Twenty Six
Chapter Twenty Seven
Chapter Twenty Eight
Epilogue
Author’s Note
Thank You
About Elle Boon
Other Books by Elle Boon
Prologue
NITA DIDN’T FLINCH at the angry male’s voice raging behind the closed door. By now, she was not only used to it, she expected his wrath. She was almost ten, yet she felt much older. The first time she’d felt his anger, she’d been less than six months old. The memory was ingrained in her like it was yesterday, yet the bastard’s punishment didn’t have the power to make her react with anything other than a bored yawn.
“Where’s that worthless mutt?”
She got out from under the porch, ensuring she didn’t make a sound. The alpha was a real bastard, but it was she who was the bastard. He was her father, but he wasn’t her mother’s truemate, or whatever you wanted to call those who claimed to love the one they lay with. The alpha lay with, played with, brutalized whomever he chose, whenever he chose, however he chose. He didn’t care if they had a mate, or if they agreed. He took what he wanted. Females such as her mother were unique, in they were compatible with shifters because they had abilities of their own. Nita wasn’t sure what all her mama could do since she’d been beaten down to a shadow of her former self. Through her memories, Nita saw a beautiful female surrounded by an enormous family. Goddess, her mama’s family didn’t appear to be anything like those in the pack.
Nita shoved the memories to a secure little safe in the farthest recesses of her mind, then she built walls all around it. Alpha could get into anyone’s mind. What he dug out, you might want to keep.
“Mutt, get your ass in here and fix me something to eat, or I’ll go wolf and eat the first thing I come across.”
She stared up at the looming male with red eyes. He scared the entire pack with one little snarl. However, for whatever reason, she wasn’t quaking like males three times her size. Maybe she’d done lost her mind like her mama had?
The alpha grabbed her by the back of her hair, his strength lifting her off the ground so that she was near his face. Like a good little bitch, she shifted her gaze down. Although the others did so out of fear, she did so in order to live another day.
“I should just end your life here and now, mutt.” His spittle landed on her face.
Pain was nothing new to her. He’d ensured she was well versed in all forms of his torture. Still, she said nothing, allowing him to shake her like a sack of shit he hated, which he did. Why, she didn’t know, nor did she care. Hell, maybe it would be better if he would snap her neck one time.
He launched her across the living room. She bounced off the wall and slid to the floor. She didn’t let that keep her down. No way would she allow herself to be in a vulnerable position where Seamus enjoyed others to be.
Nita got to her feet, keeping her eyes downcast as she shuffled toward the kitchen. It didn’t matter what she made; he’d find fault in it. Already knowing what was in the fridge and cabinets, her choices were limited. Why he didn’t just go out and kill some... she cut off the thought.
In no time, Nita had enough meat to feed an army, or a selfish male. While she prepared his meal, she opened herself up to feel the surrounding air. What she did went against everything Alpha believed in. He’d taken her mother because he wanted her abilities, but he forbid Nita to tap into anything that wasn’t human or pack. He was the law, but he was preoccupied with bloodlust and getting worse every day.
“Are you done yet, mutt?” The lash to her cheek burned. They always did. The wound would scab over, then disappear in time.
She let the blood spill down her cheek, feeling the bone and tissue trying to heal. Nita used her innate ability to stop the fast healing so that Alpha wouldn’t feel the need to hit her again. With blurring speed, he flipped her over the counter. Nita hadn’t been prepared for the attack. His temper hadn’t even spiked. The oomph she couldn’t quell as she landed on the coffee table was like waving a red flag at a bull. Goddess, maybe he was going to kill her this time.
He blurred again. Or maybe it was her mind playing tricks on her as she blinked and found him looming over her with a grin.
“A mute mutt who can’t do anything for me or the pack except take up space and air. I should’ve killed you with that worthless female who birthed you,” he roared.
Red filled her vision. The female he spoke of was worth a million of him. He was lower than the lowest cretin to have ever crawled amongst them.
“Ah, I see that flash of hatred in those eyes of yours. That right there is the only thing that shows you’re mine. Let’s see how much of me is in you.”
She looked at his hands with the wolven claws sprouting from the tips. He wasn’t like a regular shifter, not like the rest of the pack. The male had made a pact with evil, and with each passing night, as he slunk off away from the others, he came back darker, twisted, more evil than before. It was only a matter of time before there was no semblance of the bastard they called Alpha left, leaving behind a male who wasn’t... one of them. She’d glimpsed the evil he’d been dancing with. Nobody danced with the likes of the devil and kept their soul, not even the Alpha.
When his claws came down, stripping her skin from her bones, she kept silent until she couldn’t any longer. That was when he grinned and licked his claws, tasting her blood dripping from them. Nita didn’t need to see to know she looked worse than a pile of hamburger humans bought at the supermarket. Her father , the alpha, was careful to not lash her face after his first hit in the kitchen. He’d said he hated when he couldn’t see her flinch and cry while he played.
Nita knew she should give him those tears before the last of her flesh was ripped from her, but she guessed she was too much like him. And that was why she hated herself. She wished she was more like the beautiful female who’d birthed her, even though her mama had hated her from the moment of conception.
Like every other time, Nita was tossed out of the trailer before any of her wounds healed. It was seven hundred and twenty-nine seconds, which was twelve minutes and nine seconds. He was getting slower.
The sound of the pack pacing several yards in the distance from the alpha’s trailer registered, but none of them would come close to his territory. If he’d tossed Nita into the center of the common ground, it would signal to the others that they too could beat her. Luckily, she’d landed inside his marked lines.
Her chest ached while the bones knitted together. Each blood vessel and artery he’d severed worked to reform. Every organ that had been lacerated, bruised, and punctured worked to reform better than before.
She could hear the murmurs, the fear ringing throughout the pack that she was an abomination. It didn’t matter that she’d been beaten and nearly killed, many times, by her own father, their alpha. It didn’t matter that she was only a child who was made to sleep outside with nothing and suffered worse than their greatest enemy, or that she was near death. And Goddess help her, but it was getting harder for her to want to live. Instead, her body healed, and she lived, and the same would be repeated far too soon.
One day, she’d get stronger. One day, she’d die on her own terms.
Chapter One
NITA’S CHEST FILLED with joy while she watched the children running around the trailer park. Although a trailer park might not be the word to use, since the God Zeus had come and done his version of renovations. Not that she’s complaining, mind you. A quick look over her shoulder, she felt her lips twitch at the sight of her own upgraded abode.
“I saw that.”
She had heard the older woman approaching. Lorna was sort of the mother to all the shifters, yet she had every reason to hate Nita. Well, not hate her, but who her sperm donor had been. “You saw nothing, Lorna Loo.”
“Hmm, if you say so, Nita Bee. So, tell me, how are you doing now that the holidays are over, and we’re not inundated with a bunch of demi-god Ravens and that crazy God?” Lorna sat down next to Nita on the swing without asking permission.
“I’m fine like I’ve always been, Miss Lorna.” Nita didn’t turn to look at the older female. Although older was just a term since the female didn’t look old in the human sense. Yes, she was in her late seventies or eighties if Nita had to guess, but she didn’t appear to be much older than a human of forty years, give or take. Which was the way of shifters. Nita wasn’t sure what she would be like as she aged, or if she’ll aged at all since she had demon blood in her veins.
“Don’t Miss Lorna me, young Nita. Are we still ignoring the fact that you can shift into whatever you want?” Lorna flicked her hair over her shoulder as she leaned forward to peer into Nita’s eyes.
Nita envied Lorna and her light red hair and light eyes. Her own eyes were bright blue, which were so much like her sperm donor’s that she hated them. If she could, she’d gouge them out, but alas, she was pretty sure they’d grow back the same, or she’d be blind for like ever. Neither of which sounded like a plan that worked for her.
“Look, it’s not like I’m any different now than I was before. Yes, the cat, or bird, or whatever, is out of the bag, but for me, I’m the same. Do you look at me differently knowing that I’m fucked up mentally...that I’m probably just like him?” She didn’t have to say what him she was referring to. Just thinking of Seamus Marx had her stomach twisting.
A low growl came from the older female shifter. Nita wasn’t scared of her. In fact, there wasn’t anyone she was truly worried about hurting her, not even Zeus, the God of War. If it was her time to face death, then so be it. Yet, hearing Lorna growl made her lips twitch, slightly.
“Don’t you dare grin, child. I do not, nor have I ever, looked at you differently. You are the greatest protector of all the children. Yes, Jaklyn and her Ravens are as well, but you, you are too. I know you are always watching when the children are out. I know you think you are not worthy, but that is simply not true. Nita, you are not your father’s child. You are not that monster’s anything. You are simply you. Yes, you have abilities that differ from the rest of ours, and I’m sure there are still things you can do that you haven’t shared with us.” Lorna held up her hand, stopping Nita from speaking. “No, do not deny it. The fact you can shift into a dozen ravens, or a house cat, or the damn mailman, if you so choose, is amazing. Whatever else you can do, you will share when you choose. Until then, just know that me and the rest of the pack trust you. We trust you with our lives and those of all the children. If that doesn’t tell you how much we love you, then I don’t know what will.”
Lorna’s words made Nita’s heart swell. Hell, her eyes burned, and she wasn’t a crier, dammit. “Dang it, female. Why you gotta bring out the big guns like that?”
Nita allowed herself to be pulled into a hug for a moment, then she hopped to her feet. She looked down at the ground and noticed she didn’t have any shoes on. Sure, it was getting warmer out, but humans still wore pants and jackets this time of year. She was supposed to be acting normal, for goodness’ sake. “I need to go do human shit, Lorna Loo. You good?”
Lorna nodded as she too got up from the swing. Unlike Nita, Lorna wore a long sweater like cardigan over a tank top and jeans with some sort of slip on shoe that Nita wouldn’t be caught dead wearing.
“I see you staring at my attire, girl. One day, you’ll come to appreciate the comfort of these things. Until then, you continue wearing those tight jeans and running around shoeless. One day, you’ll be bemoaning the fact your tootsies are thicker than your heels.”
Nita blinked once, then twice. Her gaze went to Lorna’s feet, and then at her own, shrugging. “If you say so. You know they make these things that shave all that dead skin off. Kind of like a cheese grater for the feet, don’t you?”
It was Lorna’s turn to blink a couple times. Staring at Nita for a beat until she gave a huff and began the long trek to the other side of the park toward her own Godly renovated double wide. In fact, all the other trailers were quite a distance from Nita’s, which was how she liked it.
When she’d been brought into her half-sister Jaklyn’s pack, she’d been a child with no choice where she would live. They quickly learned she couldn’t sleep close to the others. Luckily, her half-sister Jaklyn recognized Nita’s need for space and gifted her a trailer near her and her two mates which was farther away from the others as well. Although she hadn’t stayed there long either since she was all kinds of messed up in the head. Anyone with eyes, and the ability to sense danger had known she was like a powder keg about to blow.
The demoness named Bakra visited her often, uncaring that Nita hadn’t or rather couldn’t speak of her past. After one tumultuous night where Nita had nearly shredded her own skin off, Bakra had finally tossed her hands in the air and growled in a language that was foreign to Nita. She had clearly been speaking to the other demoness females who had come and gone several times during her short time in the trailerpark. Many instances Nita wouldn’t see them, but she’d hear Bakra talking with them. She hadn’t told the female she could hear their conversations even though they were conducted in her mind since that would probably get her into trouble. Bakra had stared at Nita’s bloody arms and chest once she’d finished her inner convo and smiled a slightly scary twist of her lips. Not that Nita was scared of anyone or anything, but then Bakra whisked her away. Nita knew it was because she’d sensed the torment within her.
Now, she was an adult, and had carved out a place further away from the others, yet still close to the pack. As a shifter, she needed the connection. It was the other parts of her that were different from the wolves that needed to have a place of her own. She more than craved space. She needed it, or she feared what she could do to them without realizing until it was too late.
