Amber Ashes
Book II of the Lupus Trilogy
Candace wasn’t expecting to find anything spectacular in the ruins of a Roman villa in Pompeii. But as she brushed away the ash from the mysterious fibula with a carved image of a wolf in its stone, she realizes that she may have stumbled onto something more than just a priceless artifact.
While in his indefinite retirement from his former career as a gladiator, Decimus Roscius Lupus makes a comfortable living for himself as a wine merchant in the city of Pompeii. His faithful servant, Titus, is the only one aware of his ancestral curse as a half man, half beast. Not even his beloved slave, Arria, is aware of his condition. One fateful day in August of 79 AD, an earthquake strikes the fair city. Many are unconcerned, knowing the city is often plagued by these forces of nature. But Decimus feels the panic of his inner beast and knows that something much more terrible is to looming on the horizon. With the safety of his household and the love of his life at stake, he has to make the decision to flee with them or stay and face the chaos that is to come
Story Behind the Story
So, even though this is the second book in the series, I actually finished writing this one first. Only then did it occur to me that I could link two other stories I had into this one.
The inspiration for this story came from watching the Pompeii (2014) movie trailer. I thought “Wouldn’t it be interesting if a werewolf was at Pompeii during the eruption? What would he do? How would he react to what’s going on around him?
Concept Art
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- The slave, Arria
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- Howard/Decimus
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- Candace
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- A layout of a Roman villa at Pompeii as a reference to how Decimus’s home looked like.
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- And here is approximately where Decimus’s villa would be located in reference to the other places in Pompeii.
