Circle of Protection

T.S. Simons

Description

What would YOU risk for those you love?


For once, Freyja and Cam are blissfully happy. Living with their family and friends in their isolated and sustainable community on Lewis, they finally feel safe and content. Going back to their Gaelic roots, the group calls on the circle of protection and safety the Caim provides as their new normal lives resume.


But when old acquaintances arrive with shocking news, Freyja, Cam, and a few trusted friends must leave their homes behind yet again. On an unexpected and frightening journey, the couple discover the truth about why they were chosen and unearth the diabolical plans the scientific community has designed, especially for Freyja...


In the fourth installment of the Antipodes science fiction romance series, love, loyalty, and friendships are tested and an important lesson is learned: Sometimes traditions shouldn’t be forgotten.

Sujets

• Science-Fiction
• Toute la Science-Fiction
• Post-Apocalyptic
• Apocalyptic
• Science Fiction
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: 4 Horsemen Publications, Inc.
• Date de parution: 15 avril 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781644503799
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 9 Mo

Extrait

Table o f Contents
Acknowl edgements :
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
C hapter 10
C hapter 11
Chapter 12
C hapter 13
C hapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
C hapter 19
C hapter 20
C hapter 21
C hapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
C hapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
C hapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
C hapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
C hapter 44
Chapter 45
C hapter 46
C hapter 47
Book Club Questions
A uthor Bio





Circle of Pr otection
Antipode s Book 4
Copyright © 2022 T.S. Simons. All rights re served.


4 Horsemen Publication s, Inc.
1497 Main St. S uite 169
Dunedin, FL 34698
4horsemenpublicat ions.com
info@4horsemenpublicat ions.com
Typeset by Aut umn Skye
Cover Design by Je n Kotick
All rights to the work within are reserved to the author and publisher. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 International Copyright Act, without prior written permission except in brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Please contact either the Publisher or Author to gain per mission.
This is book is meant as a reference guide. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. All brands, quotes, and cited work respectfully belongs to the original rights holders and bear no affiliation to the authors or pu blisher.
Library of Congress Control Number: 20 21951215
Print ISBN: 978-1-644 50-380-5
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-644 50-953-1
Audio ISBN: 978-1-644 50-378-2
EBook ISBN: 978-1-644 50-379-9
Caim is a Gaelic word meaning sanctuary or circle of pr otection.
To those who form my Caim, thank you for the ongoing encouragement, love, and support, and for believing in me, especially when I didn’t.








Acknowl edgements :
B ob – thank you. For everything. Your support means the world to me. Even if you don’t like cats!
Debra St. James, Chelle Pimblott, Serafina Jax, Stevie D Parker —thank you for the chats, the support, the friendship. You are all goddesses among women. I am so blessed to have you i n my Caim.
To all the wonderful people who have bought or recommended my books, and even waited patiently for the next in the series—thank you. I can’t tell you what it means to me that people enjoy my work. The feedback you provide is invaluable and keeps me going.
Special thanks to Alison FG, Fairlie, Dani, Kelly, Caitlin, Izzy, Steph, Helen, Tracey, and Rae.
Hayley Ramsey Editorial—the blurb queen. Once again, thank you.
If you enjoyed this book, it would mean a great deal to me if you could spare a few minutes to leave a quick review on Goodreads, Amazon, Bookbub, or any other platform.
G oodReads:
www.goodreads.com/author/show/20861749.T _S_Simons
Amazon:
www.amazon.com/T-S-Simons/e/B 08MT6YYDL
Bookbub:
www.bookbub.com/profile/t -s-simons


Chapter 1
F eeling my way through the darkness, I moved cautiously to avoid stumbling over a carelessly discarded toy and cracking my shin against the solid timber furniture that crowded our home. At well past midnight, it was blissfully silent, and the children tucked up in bed. Bone deep weariness after assisting a long and challenging labor propelled me to my own. Hopefully Isla would check on the mare and her foal in the morning, leaving me to sleep.
Kicking off my boots and dropping my clothes in a heap on a nearby chair, I couldn’t suppress the audible sigh that escaped my lips as my weary head finally connected with the pillow, careful not to wake Cam, who was sleeping soundly beside me. Never had I been so pleased to be lying down. Closing my eyes, I willed sleep to ov ertake me.
Short, sharp trills punctuated the still night air.
“What is that frigging noise?” I muttered as the screeching continued unabated, like a bird announcing the approach of a predator. I rolled over, burying my head under the pillow, praying it w ould stop.
Cam stirred enough to kiss my protruding neck, then lifted his he ad, alert.
“Th at’s the…”
“Alarm!” we chorused, sitting bolt upright, my pillow tumbling to the floor. That harsh noise could only be one thing—the proximity sensor. We hadn’t heard it since we had set it up years earlier, and I scarcely recalled the sound of it. Flinging back the covers, I staggered the two steps to my still warm clothing on the chair as Cam snatched at yesterday’s clothes carelessly discarded on the floor. Still pulling arms through sleeves, we ran to Illy and Luca’s house, Cam several strides ahead of me. Thumping coming from their home, bare feet on floorboards, echoed through the crisp n ight air.
“Bloody hell, who approaches an island in the middle of the night?” I grumbled as I joined him on the doorstep, and Cam knocked lightly. Functioning with no sleep was not a strength of mine, especially not when tumbling out of bed unceremoniously. Cam kissed me, glancing down at my unbutton ed jeans.
“Hurry and finish getting dressed! If Luca answers the door, he’ll see more of you than any of us are comforta ble with!”
My groggy, half-asleep mind pictured the times Luca had seen me naked, or barely dressed, in the years we had traveled together—coming out of a shower or daring me to go skinny dipping with him in a lake on a domed community—but my brain couldn’t form the words. Fortunately, Illy answered the door, looking disheveled but alert as she tied her heather gray robe, long dark hair falling across her face. She ushered us inside with her usual chirpy tone as I hurriedly finished fastening my jeans, socks and shoes still in hand. She was my best friend, and I adored her, but right now, I hated her. How could she possibly be happy to see us at this hour? Once inside, she steered us toward the study and closed the door so we wouldn’t wake their twin girls. Allison and Summer were six, a few months older than our youngest, Thorsten. Our bonus baby—the child we had when we thought we had finished having children. Louis and Katrin could look after the younger two if they woke and found us gone. Xanthe was our sensitive child and often had nightmares, waking screaming i n terror.
Luca had turned off the alarm and barely acknowledged our entrance, busily hooking up the larger surveillance monitor as we crowded in. Standing behind him as he fiddled with cables and camera feeds, we strained our eyes, watching the dark shadow slithering on the single screen. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I could just make out a sizeable white boat mooring in the harbor at S tornoway.
“That’s not anyone from Newgrange, is it?” Illy asked as she returned and thrust a steaming mug in my hand, and a matching one in Cam’s, but we all recognized the question as rh etorical.
“Fuck,” I muttered, not removing my eyes from th e screen.
Luca was studying the craft carefully, muttering under his breath. “I don’t recog nize it.”
We all stood watching the screen, waiting for someone to appear on deck and tie up. A minute pas sed. Two.
I grunted at Cam, knocking back the contents of the cup in one gulp. “We’ll go. Ils, can you wat ch ours?”
Waking any of our other friends at this time of night would make us most unpopular, not to mention unnecessarily scare people. Cam’s sister Sorcha and her partner, Di, lived with their two children on the opposite side of our home. Isla and Fraser lived between our place and Illy’s, Jamie and Jacinda farther down the valley. Any of them would assist, but all had young children and would almost certainly be asleep.
Illy smiled at me. “Of course. I’ll head down while Luca keeps watch. Are you sure you don’t want one of us to go?”
We had discussed this scenario often when setting up the alarms in both our homes—what we would do if someone approached Lewis, our protected community. Self-sufficient and isolated, we loved the sense of belonging here. Everyone looked out for each other, lending a hand. That sense of interconnectedness extended between all residents.
Seven years ago, our community had severed ties with the outside world to prohibit the intrusive and controlling influence of the team of scientists at Clava, near Inverness. Wanting to dictate our laws, our trade, but most sinister of all, planning to force us to have children with a scientifically selected partner, the scientists in the two controlling communities of Clava near Inverness on mainland Scotland and Auckland Island off the coast of New Zealand had devised and implemented a selective breeding program to reproduce key genome sequences and ensure their survival.
“No,” I sighed, more than a little grumpy by the unexpected early morning call out. “W e’ll go.”
Illy grinned at Cam. She knew me well enough to know I desperately wanted to go to bed, but we had promised. When we had established our security systems and protocols, we had agreed it was less threatening if Cam and I responded to any unplanned visitors. Illy and Luca had been military personnel before coming here whereas Cam and I were civilians. After all, it could be anyone. A similarly isolated community existed in Newg