Would you like to see chapters of my books before they come out? Do you want to see cover art sketches and vote on which poses should make it to final production? Would you like to see even sexier versions of my covers? Would you like to get my audiobooks at a deep discount? Of course you would! Join my Patreon here to get all these awesome benefits (or search for my name on Patreon.com). You can also join my Facebook group right here. Then you’ll know when my books come out before anyone else. Chapter 1 I sized up my opponents on the other side of the frozen lake. The sun made the wintry landscape uncomfortably bright, but I could still make out the two silhouettes awaiting my next move. I let out a sigh, and the hot air turned into a cloud in front of my face. The snowdrifts that formed earlier this week didn’t look like they planned on going anywhere anytime soon, but I wasn’t complaining. It made it easier to set the tiny orange and red plastic flags around the lake’s perimeter. “Looks like it’s our turn,” Tracey announced as she slid up to my right side with a hockey stick clutched in her mittened hands and followed my gaze. I looked over at my newest companion and grinned. Even though she was wrapped up in layers of thick winter gear and protective pads, I could still see her swooping curves and soft skin in my mind’s eye, and the freezing temperatures had nothing on her warm and conspiring smile. Tracey wore bulky ice skates similar to the ones on my own feet, but she balanced herself with a kind of poise I would have seen from a princess. The tall brunette could have stacked books on her head and skated away without dropping a single one. I, on the other hand, had already come close to falling more times than I wanted to admit. “I gotta know,” I joked. “How have you not slipped out here yet?” “Deltacorp hosted an annual office party at an ice rink every December,” Tracey explained. “We weren’t allowed to say ‘no,’ so you either learned how or you dealt with Travis Parker teasing you the other eleven months of the year.” “Ah. Mandatory fun.” I twirled the hockey stick in my hand. “We had a couple events like that at Bugslayer.” “Excuse me!” one of our opponents shouted. We both looked up to see Natalie, with her hands on her hips in mock annoyance. The blonde woman tucked her hair into the back hood of her parka, and her azure eyes glittered with amusement even at this distance. I marveled at how far she’d come in just a short time. It seemed like only yesterday I’d first met the survival-hardened Scavenger living in a nuclear wasteland. “Pardon me for breaking up a tender moment,” she shouted. “However, we’ve got a game going.” “Unless, of course, this is your way of admitting defeat,” Karla chimed in as she slid over to Natalie. “Fat chance!” I hollered back, and then I looked at Tracey. “You got the puck?” “Game on,” she proclaimed as she pulled it from her coat pocket with a soft grunt and held it skyward. She dropped it on the lake and expertly maneuvered it with the long, wood toe of the hockey stick, and then she looked at me and flashed a quick “thumbs-up” gesture. “Go long!” I pushed off on my back foot and propelled myself down our makeshift hockey rink. It had been a few weeks since our return from Dimension Fifty-Seven, and not to brag, but the operation couldn’t have gone better. Natalie and I found Tracey, the latest Wayfarer to join our team, and thwarted the nefarious plans of an AI hellbent on taking over the human race. Sure, I would have rather not had to deal with an elite military strike team trailing us the majority of the time, or the killer drones, but hey. I had come to terms with the fact that these dimensions weren’t ever going to be cakewalks after the whole “mutants running amok in Chicago” adventure. I crossed over the makeshift center line marked by two red flags on either side of the frozen lake, and I realized the longer I hung around, the less likely it seemed the Nash estate would ever fail to impress. The one-hundred-and-fifty-acre property contained the entirety of the frozen lake we currently skated over, and while I wasn’t over the moon about the freezing temperatures lately, it did open the doors to training like this. I took a sharp right turn, and I skittered to a wobbly halt just as Tracey launched the small black puck my way. From the corner of my eye, I caught Natalie trying to blindside me in a rush of movement, but I guarded the puck from the Scavenger and slid backward. The blonde tried for the steal anyways, and she dragged the hockey stick against the ice in an attempt to snatch away the puck, but her momentum caused her to shoot past me with a peal of laughter. “Son of a—” “Better luck next time, my love!” I pushed off once more and kept control of the puck with small taps on the left and right side as I moved forward. Natalie and Karla had left their goal wide open, and Tracey closed the distance between where we started and the best place to take a shot. “Hunter!” she cried out. “Pass!” I pulled back my stick and gave the puck a satisfying slap. The small black disc shot forward several feet, and its trajectory was primed to reach Tracey. Until a blue blur passed in front, and suddenly, the puck was on the move in the opposite direction. Karla Nash, our fearless trainer and guide through the innumerable dimensions, had stolen my shot. “Hell, yeah!” I heard a triumphant cheer from Natalie as Karla skated away, but Tracey and I followed in suit and made up the lost few seconds in no time flat. Proficient skaters or not, we had the upper-hand as Wayfarers thanks to the enhanced abilities that came with being united as one. Adding the former Deltacorp employee to our ranks had enhanced our mental and physical capabilities, and Natalie and I both benefited from the additional boost of stamina that came from the new addition. The three of us were like a symbiotic team benefiting from the other and vice versa.