Soulbound Anthology

By Wes Leigh

The SOULBOUND series is a work of fiction (or is it?) published by the wonderful folks at Nifty. This document provides a summary of all the Soulbound stories.

The Nifty archives deserve your support so please make a donation today by visiting https://donate.nifty.org/.

If you would like to chat with the author of the Soulbound stories, my email address is weston.leigh@protonmail.com.

All the Soulbound stories, including this Anthology, are the property of the author and are protected by copyright laws. The author retains all rights. No reproductions are allowed without the author's consent.

What's the best reading order?

To aid you in understanding how all the stories relate, here are the stories in the series in the suggested reading order:

Story
Soulbound	The original story
Soulbound Waif	First prequel
Soulbound Feral	Second prequel
Soulbound Pact	Third prequel
Soulbound Clash	Sequel

If you would prefer to read the stories in chronological order, here is when each story takes place:

Story	Timeframe
Soulbound Waif	Late 19^th century
Soulbound Feral	Three years ago
Soulbound Pact	Two years ago
Soulbound	Present time
Soulbound Clash	One year from now

What are the stories about?

In this section, I give a bit of information on all the stories in the series. The short teasers will give you an idea what each story is about.

Soulbound

The first story in the Soulbound Anthology, Soulbound tells the story of Daniel Anderson and the strange town of Agony, North Dakota. Here's a brief teaser for the story:

Like most kids starting high school, Daniel Anderson is struggling to figure out who he is. Now he finds himself uprooted and starting ninth grade in a new town, a place called Agony, North Dakota. If the name of the town isn't strange enough, it's also filled with weird people who remind him—for reasons he can't explain—of the werewolves and vampires in the books he reads. Maybe it's just his vivid imagination, but there seem to be mysteries here that Daniel feels compelled to solve, all the time hoping his own secret won't be exposed.

But that's the funny thing about secrets. The harder you try to keep them hidden, the quicker they come to light.

Soulbound ‡ waif

The second story in the Soulbound Anthology and a prequel to SOULBOUND. It takes place a century ago and tells the tale of Xavier Smyth:

November 30, 1888

We are boarding the RMS Umbria in Liverpool, headed for New York in the Americas. We should be there before the week is out, and I plan to spend the time as productively as possible, writing down the story of what transpired over the last few months. Consider this my biography, the story of Xavier Smyth, and how I lived to the ripe old age of fifteen before dying.

Confused yet? Allow me to start over. I was born Thomas Xavier Gibbs in the year of our Lord 1873, in Whitechapel, England. I've never cared for my name. Xavier sounds rather pretentious to me. I much preferred being called by my nickname, Zavy. I suppose even my nickname has been stolen from me, just as my life was snatched away when I was bitten by a vampire. This is how it happened ...

Soulbound ‡ feral

The third story in the Soulbound Anthology and also a prequel to SOULBOUND. It tells the story of Connor Finnigan before he came to Agony:

He was five when rogue vampires burst into his home, killing his mother and father, sending him scrambling for his life into the nearby forest. For nine years, he lived as a feral wolf. Fighting to survive. Learning to hunt on his own. Growing stronger and faster with each passing day. Learning to use his werewolf powers until they became as natural to him as breathing.

Then one day, instead of being the hunter, he found himself the prey. Followed, tracked, herded, then captured by a pack of werewolves known as the Silvermanes.

Connor learned he wasn't the only werewolf in North Dakota. The Silvermane Pack was willing to take in a feral wolf, but only if he would allow himself to be tamed. That was something Connor wasn't certain he could ever do.

Soulbound ‡ pact

The fourth story in the Soulbound Anthology and the final prequel to SOULBOUND. It picks up the tale of Xavier Smyth and Connor Finnigan as they attend high school in Agony, North Dakota:

It was hell being the up-and-coming leader of a vampire Covenant. The expectations were next to impossible to meet, the standards were unforgiving, and the pressure was crushing. Xavier hated it. Almost as much as he hated being forced to attend high school in Agony, North Dakota.

Connor was just as miserable as Xavier, for almost all the same reasons. Everyone in the Silvermane Pack expected him to be the future Alpha, replacing his father one day. Until then, it seemed his every move was under scrutiny. He couldn't be a regular teenager, but then again, he was a werewolf, so there was never anything "regular" about his life.

Somehow, it seemed inevitable that the two would find themselves thrown together. And what they discovered then would forever disrupt the ancient feud between vampires and werewolves.

Soulbound ‡ clash

The sequel to SOULBOUND and the final story in the series. It picks up the story of Daniel, Connor, Xavier, and friends as they attend school in Agony, North Dakota.

Things were going so well. The vampires and werewolves of Agony were getting along. The feud was over. There was even talk of officially changing the name of the town to Unity, North Dakota.

So ...

Why was Daniel having horrible premonitions?

Why did he see visions of catastrophe in their future?

And who was the mysterious man with the long silver hair who appeared over and over in Daniel's dreams?

A storm was brewing over Agony, North Dakota. A violent clash of forces that could destroy all Daniel had struggled so hard to create, and if his premonitions were correct, there would be no way to stop it.