Here's a sneak peak of book 3 Reflections of Hope.

Here's a sneak peak of book 3 Reflections of Hope.
It's still a first draft so please excuse any typos or other problems.

I have the most messed up family in the world!
You probably think that's just adolescent angst talking, right. That's because, you don't know my family. I'm Hope Hershel. My mom is Todd Hershel. Yes, that Todd Hershel, former ambassador, activist, spiritual leader to all neo people. What could possibly be mixed up in the family of such a famous woman?
Where do I start?
The adults in my family are Mom, Dad, Mother and my three Aunts/Dad's other wives Spitfire, Midnight and Meg. Yes, my parent's are polygamists, we're felis, it's fairly common. Most first gens are, because the tom's had higher casualties. The fact that I have a Mom and a Mother along with the Aunts is different. As is the fact that Mom's a cat and Mother's a human. See both my maternals are bisexual Mom's married to Mother and Dad while Dad is married to Mom and the Aunts. I was four when it finally dawned on me that Mom and Mother were sexually involved and I was a bit weirded out about it for months. I got over the weirdness but I still don't get how two girls can . . . you know.
Then there's the fact that Dad isn't really my father, he's not even related. It's not uncommon for first gen cat's either. They get out of the army and may not be able to hook up with a child's father, even if he's still alive. Both my older siblings and three of my cousins have different fathers. The thing is, everybody knows and it's talked about with them. No one ever talks about who my real father is or even that I have another father. It's obvious Dad, Goliath, isn't really my father. Anybody could smell it. Hell, my older bro, Chance, and sis, Dawn, are closer related to him than I am.
The day I found out the truth, I also found out the other deep dark family secret that I'd never even known existed.
I was six years old when it happened. The day started out ordinary. I was attending school in the kitchen, listening to Aunt Spitfire's history lesson with half an ear, while I read on my computer. Should I have been setting a better example as one of the older kids, probably. That didn't give that brat Donald a right to grab my computer.
“Give that back,” I told him.
“This doesn't look like the American Revolution,” The twerp said looking at the screen and holding it out of my reach.
“Stop playing around and pay attention you two,” Aunt Spitfire snapped.
“I just want my computer back,” I defended.
Donald hopped out of his chair and dashed to the door. “Then come get it,” He stuck his tongue out in challenge.
I wonder sometimes, how he can be so immature when he's only two years younger than me. I chased the little twerp down the hall and pounced on him. We skidded across the floor and bounced off the workshop door. “Give it back, you little freak!” I demanded.
Just then the door opened and I saw two black and gray paws just inside. “What, exactly, is all this about?” Mom asked as she stood over us.
Of course, she probably heard the whole thing. The door might have been closed but the workshop isn't soundproofed. “Don took my computer,” I said, nonetheless.
“She wasn't paying attention to the lesson,” My brother defended. The little tattletale!
Mom lifted me off my brother with one hand, then picked him up with the other. “That isn't your problem young tom,” She scolded, setting us back on our paws and taking my computer from him. “Don, no recreational net access for the rest of the day.”
“What?” He sputtered in protest.
“Would you like to make it two days?” Mom's tone was icy.
“No ma’am,” He said meekly.
“Back to your lesson then,” She ordered. Adding a soft swat below his tail as he turned.
I started to reach to retrieve my computer but mom was looking at it. “Step inside young lady. I think we need to talk.” She guestured for me to precede her into the room.
My tail was drooping as I walked in. I didn't often get to go into the workshop. Partly because some of the tools were delicate, partly because they could hurt you if not used properly. There were also a few of Mothers paintings and Dad's sculptures that probably weren't appropriate for my younger siblings and cousins. I tried very hard not to look at the topless painting of my mom on one wall.
Instead, I found my eyes drawn to a strange painting behind her desk. It depicted what looked like half Mom's face but with a human eye, the other half was a human face with her eye. A ghostly image of Mom, or perhaps my Aunt Shade, who'd died before I was born, was over the human side shoulder and a human man was over the other shoulder.
Mom noticed how I was looking at the painting and had a sad smile on her face. The look passed as she sat down and pointed to the chair by the sculpting table. “Sit down.” I sat and waited for her to say something. She studied my computer for a moment before setting it down. “I thought you were supposed to be studying the American Revolution for the next week or so. So why were you looking up service records for felis in Americas war with the Caliphate?”
I looked down. I was so busted. “I was trying to find something.”
“I'm sure you were. What exactly?” Mom didn't sound angry, but her ears were drooping and her tail was stiff. I wasn't sure what that was in her scent. Fear mixed with concern?
“I was trying to figure out who my real father is,” I whispered.
Mom looked . . . I'm not sure, angry, hurt, sad. “Goliath,” She stopped her voice catching. “Goliath is your father in every way that matters. He's been there for you your whole life, isn't that more important than a genetic contribution.”
“So, I shouldn't be curious?”
Mom sighed. “Little one, sometimes, curiosity leads you to things you'd be better off not knowing.”
“What's that supposed to mean?” What could possibly be so bad?
Mom stood up, circled the desk, then crouched down so she could look me in the eye and took my hands. “Little one, you are a good thing that came out of something horrible. The silver lining to one of the darkest clouds in my life. That's what's important. Not the name of a person who got me pregnant.”
The way she said it gave me a horrible feeling about how I must have been conceived. “Mom, were you,” How the hell do you ask your mother this? “Did he force you?”
She was crying as she nodded. “I'd really appreciate it if you stopped looking. If you find out about him, it won't be anything good.”
It was hard to hear, that I'd come from something like that. “How could you keep me after that?”
Mom pulled me close in a tight hug. “You listen to me. You were innocent of anything that happened. What that monster did to me was awful. You are wonderful. I love you and always will.”
I pulled away feeling confused. “It's a lot to take in.”
“I know it is. I'd rather you went your whole life not knowing this but I didn't want to lie to you either.”
“So are their any other deep dark family secrets I should know about?” I asked half joking.
Mom stood up and looked from me to the painting and back. “Do you know why I don't like what you called your brother?”
Talk about sudden change of subjects. “You never like me calling him names. No matter how much he deserves it.”
“I'm especially displeased to hear you use that one,” She took a few steps away from her desk and seemed to be studding another painting, of her and a human man in an outdoor market. Her next question seemed to come out of the blue. “What do you know about your aunt Shade?”
I took a moment, to think about it. “She was, like, your twin right? Chance was really hers but you, kind of, adopted him after Grandma and Grandpa got him out of the states with Dawn. They actually raised Shade and adopted you later too, didn't they?”
“Did you know that for her whole life she felt like she something was missing?” Mom asked.
“Because you were raised separately?” I guessed.
“Many years before a human boy was born who went through life with much the same feeling. He was born in Denver before the second civil war. He lost his parents when the city was nuked. For years he blamed how he felt on that, even when he was a grown man. Then, one day, shortly before Shade was killed, he was in a horrible accident.” Mom gestured across her chest just below her shoulders. “He was crushed from about here down. He was lucky that paramedics were nearby, at another accident. Because they put his brain on life support. It was ironic, he'd been a cybernetic engineer on a project trying to make mechanical bodies for people like he ended up being. Everyone they'd tried to help that way ended up going crazy, so they were pretty desperate to find a way to help him.”
“What's he got to do with aunt Shade?” I asked. Mom had pretty much lost me.
“When Shade was shot her heart kept beating and her body kept breathing, even though most of her brain had been smashed. Before they developed lab grown artificial organs they used to take them from recently deceased people. The doctors treating the human man used that idea and put the man's brain in Shades body.”
It took me a moment to get what mom had said. “Do you mean there's a human guy out there with your sisters body?”
She gave me a sad smile. “They found out that parts of Shades mind lingered on with her body. Parts of the man's mind had been lost with his body. Those parts came together to make a whole person. Some people called her a freak, which is accurate in some ways. But she was also the product of a miracle. The miracle was, God had known all this would happen, even before the human was born. He split one soul between the two of them and when the two parts came together, their soul was made whole again.” She looked at the painting of the two half faces again then back at me. “That whole is me.
“Shade wasn't my sister. She was my missing half. The felis part of me. That's the other family secret, that you're now old enough to find out about.”
I just sat there for a minute, trying to understand what I'd just heard. Mom was aunt Shade? Mom was a human? Mom was a man? It was just too much to take in. I mumbled something about needing time and ran from the room. Mom called after me but by then I was halfway out of the condo. When the door closed I dropped to all fours and kept running.