(Author's Note: I apologize profusely for taking so long to post the latest chapter of this story. Real life has been quite bothersome lately and the energy to write ebbed to a standstill on certain days. However, I can see light at the end of the tunnel and hope to resume posting on a regular schedule. Thank you for continuing to read and I hope you comment as well.)

Chapter One

“I’m still not sure how I did it,” I said to Erica as she continued stocking the shelves of her shop with the strange curiosities she sold, in this case some leather-bound books.

“And I’m not completely convinced you did it at all,” Erica said without even bothering to stop what she was doing to look at me.

Eighteen-year-old Nicholas Hammerstein is at the cusp of finishing high school in his hometown of Los Alamos, NM. He has a seemingly ideal life and is blessed with loving parents, a cute baby sister, and great friends. Nicholas is a gifted student and martial artist who has dreams of leaving for college at the end of his senior year. But, living in a world of Emergent humans, he will soon find his life turned upside down as his life and the fate of a kingdom hang in the balance. His future and theirs will be determined by how he navigates the drastic changes in his body and the magical and superpowered Mergent population he joins.

I was too careless
I goofed, please delete this one
Or maybe leave it

Edited after Laika's comment

This story contains sex scenes

I knew one day I would be seen or caught. I couldn't help it. The urge was just too strong. All crossdressers suffer the same feelings. Guilt and shame. I was a man. Why was I lessening myself wanting to dress and appear as a woman? I had tried to stop before. I had gathered up all my clothes, shoes, wigs, and makeup. I filled three bin bags and threw them in the a skip.

One awful side effect of being unemployed is how much it fucks up a sleep schedule. Falling asleep in the very late hours of the night and waking up in the afternoon felt so horrible and wrong on so many levels. In Nathan’s case, it made him feel like a slob.

Thankfully though, every morning Astian made sure to come to his room to wake him up, usually just by shaking him.

Nathan pretended to still be asleep when he heard Astian come into his room. He just needed a few extra minutes to rest.

XXX

“How are the sales today?” Hayley asked as she returned to her flat to find Sophie sat on the sofa, checking her laptop.

“Still good,” Sophie replied with a smile. “I mean, yes, they’re tapering off, but that’s to be expected after this length of time, so- yeah. Publishers are still VERY happy though.”

“I still can’t believe I know a famous author!” Hayley teased, giggling as her friend rolled her eyes and blushed.

To anyone following along -- I accidentally preposted some of the later chapters as chapter 29 and 30. This has been worked out now, but if you haven't read the *revised* chapters you might want to go back and read them since they're new material. Oh yeah, and forget everything that was posted before in their places. ;)

Raine

Desdemonia in April’s body went to bed a little while later, leaving me and April in her bedroom.

“Are you sure you want to try this?” she said. “There’s no going back, once the process is initiated.”

Natalie thought that she had expended all of her tears. The adrenaline from putting a gun in her mouth and being one twitch away from ending it all had long been filtered out of her system, her sadness and confusion going with it.

But after she heard Sara say she was sorry, she didn’t know what came over her.

She just lost it.

She cried. Hard enough to fill an ocean, probably. And it seemed nothing could stop her.