Beautiful Creatures Series

Chapter 23: FERAL SECRETS / 1

Aspen Colorado…

Katelyn shuffled along as her fiancé Nigel walked her through the house he had bought them. He had wanted it to be a surprise, and this was the first time she saw it. He had secured the mortgage and furnished it with all new furnishings before even telling her he had bought it. They had been dating since she was eighteen and engaged for the last year. She had been living at home with her parents until now. Nigel insisted they move in together.

He had landed a new job as the head manager of the most prestigious hotel in town. He was now making money hand over fist, and he had promised to finally give her the lifestyle she deserved. Of course, this new responsibility meant his work schedule was heavy, but he promised her she would adjust to it.

Nigel had blindfolded Katelyn when he picked her up. She got in the car, and he had instantly covered her eyes. They had driven some distance, so she was pretty sure they were out of town. Living out of town was fine with her. Aspen was far too touristy for her liking anyway. Plus, she was a wildlife photographer. She sold her pictures to various stock photo websites and collected them when someone leased one of her images. Living out of town would give her ample stomping grounds to explore and photograph.

Nigel held on to her arm as he coaxed her to follow him. They had gone up a few steps, and through a door, she suspected they now stood inside the house. “Ok, you can take the blindfold off,” he told her as he stood behind her.

Katelyn took off her blindfold, and she looked around. Her brow furrowed as she looked around. There was some furniture which was mostly covered in dust covers. There were workbenches and tools, along with various stacks of supplies. To her left was the kitchen table, and to her right… no kitchen.

The cupboards were off the wall, and the granite counter was leaning against a wall. The drywall was missing, there were no appliances, and the kitchen sink was still in a box.

Katelyn went silent as she looked around. “Now I know it doesn’t look like much,” Nigel said, coming around her when he saw the horrified look on her face. “The kitchen was seriously dated, and I had to gut it,” he explained. Katelyn turned and walked into the living room. It was all covered to protect it from the dust from the construction. “The guy is going to gut the bathroom and the laundry room also, and…” He said, jumping in front of her. “I’m going to have him build you a walk-in closet,” she nodded, not as stoked about their new home as he was. “It is only going to take a few months. I promise Kate when this place is finished. It is going to be the house of our dreams.”

“You want me to live here during construction?”

“It is not that bad. The guy will just work around you,” she was not impressed. Nigel took her hand and dragged her to a set of glass sliding doors. He slid the door open and dragged Katelyn out onto the deck. “Look at this view.”

Katelyn looked around. They were surrounded by trees and wilderness. Down in the middle of the yard was a huge water feature which she had to admit was very pretty. She supposed the place had potential. “Only a few months?” She asked.

Nigel grinned. “Five tops,” she scowled. “But, I’ll offer him a bonus if he completes the job sooner,” he promised. Katelyn looked at his hopeful boyish grin and the light in his dark eyes. Nigel was a good- looking, clean-cut business type. He was almost always in a suit, and he spent more time primping in the mirror than she did. Always making sure his dark hair was just right, and his shaving job was perfection. She supposed it was what made him so successful.

Kate rolled her eyes and gave in. “Ok, I suppose I can tough it out for a few months. Did you at least research this contractor before you hired him? Is he reliable? Competent?”

“He came highly recommended.”

“Where did you find him? Website? Phonebook? Sign on a bus?”

“No, I was talking about the job at work, and one of the desk clerks said that he had worked on her house and that he was very good. I contacted him and, of course, checked his references. Everyone had rave revues.”

“How do you know they were actual clients and not friends and family lying their asses off for him?” Nigel went silent as he thought about her argument. Katelyn closed her eyes and sighed. “I swear you have the word sucker on your forehead.”

“Look, he’s been working for the last week, and frankly, so far, he has been doing a fantastic job. Give the guy a chance,” fine. She supposed she could just go with it. At this point, the house was destroyed. Be it this guy or another. She was going to be forced to put up with some contractor to put it right.

“Alright,” she sighed.

Nigel leaned in and kissed her cheek. “Perfect. Now I’m going to shower, and we will have dinner. But it is early to bed for me as I have the early morning shift tomorrow,” he said, walking off.

***

Feral Colorado…

The wind whipped through his fur as Darrell Savage raced through the woods. He leapt over some raised roots and pushed off a large boulder with his hind legs as he rounded the tree, his prey mere feet ahead of him. The deer had given him a workout, but the buck was growing tired, and Darrell was closing in. He nipped at the buck’s heels but missed. Darrell pushed harder and jumped into the air tackling his prey.

His mighty jaws clamped down on the buck’s neck, and the weight of his massive body dragged the deer down. It struggled at first, but Darrell gave it a violent shake breaking the animal’s neck effectively, putting it down. His pulse was pounding as Darrell took a step back and relaxed as the rest of the hunting party joined him. The moonlight filtered through the branches of the canopy above. The wolves circled their kill with a few snapping at one another still worked up from the chase.

A low growl rumbled in Darrell’s throat, putting an end to the squabbling. Darrell was a young would-be alpha wolf among omegas wolves. He did not run the pack yet, but he was next in line. But even now, the pack followed his lead, and as the future alpha, he had first picks of everything. With his blood still burning from the rush of the chase, Darrell howled at the moon, and the others joined in. It was a sound that could be heard for miles, a sound that could chill the blood of those who heard it.

They would have been a frightening sight, four massive dire wolves dragging a dead buck through the woods. They were no ordinary pack. They were members of the Night Stalkers. Lycanthropes. Mystical beings that could change shape at will. From man to beast. Like wolves, they stood four feet tall and nearly six feet from snout to tail. With the exception of the polar bear, they were the largest land predators in the world. They lived in secret, having been hunted to near extinction by mortals hundreds of years ago. There were only a small number of them still walking the earth hiding among the mortal world, living like men.

Though they lived as men, the moon still held its sway. When the moon was full, it was difficult to keep the beast at bay. When the moon was full, they slaked their bloodlust. In the past, they had to hunt to survive, but in the modern world, with food so readily available, they only hunted for sport, though they did eat their kill.

Lycanthropes lived in small numbers. One or two scattered all over the world, but just outside Aspen, Colorado, they congregated in a large pack. There had not been a den of this magnitude in four hundred years. They lived together in an old off-road community they had built decades ago, which the surrounding communities called Feral.

Their numbers were not large enough to qualify as a town. They were more of a Hamlet (a community of less than 100 with only a few buildings besides private homes). To the world outside their community, the community of Feral and its residence were unfriendly to outsiders, and given they had limited services, not too many outsiders would visit. Hell, they were not even on the map. It was a place to be feared and avoided at all costs, but to the men, women, and children within the community, they were a family — a community of Lycanthropes, the first pack in hundreds of years.

Nearly thirty years ago, a few old dogs had founded the Night Stalkers to bring together their people, and over the years, Lycanthropes all over the world immigrated to Feral to find others like themselves. Darrell and his sister Charlotte were some of them. After the death of their father six years ago, Darrell and his sister had moved from Texas to Colorado in search of other Lycanthropes and found the Night Stalkers.

The Night Stalkers had grown fifty strong and had moved out of the nearby cities to escape the mortal world. They bought some unwanted land and turned it into a home for all Lycanthropes. A place where they could be themselves. A place where they could be comfortable and live without hiding. Where they could nurture their cubs and teach them to master their powers without the fear of being discovered, outsiders were not welcomed, and those that did stumble on their property were runoff and, in some extreme cases (if they were Lycanthrope hunters), killed to protect the pack’s secrets. They did not like to kill mortals, it raised too many questions, but when it came down to the mortals’ lives or the safety of the pack, they were not above shedding some blood.

The pack leader Gordon Wilder had taken an interest in Darrell moulding him for leadership and the day Darrell would takeover. Still, a lot of the younger men did follow him. In Gordon’s absences, Darrell called the shots.

Reaching the grounds of their community, the men reverted back to their human forms. Darrell grabbed up the jeans he had abandoned earlier that night when he had changed for the hunt. He was zipping up

the fly when Charlotte held out his broken-in tanned hat with a smile. “Welcome back,” his sister said, glancing over at the dead deer and the other men as they got dressed. “It is a big buck this time.”

“It gave me a hell of a chase,” Darrell said, tucking his t-shirt into his belt. It was a hot summer’s night, and after that workout, he was already hot and sweaty and did not feel like putting it on.

“Hey, Charlotte, you want to cook this up?” Teased Lewis Hall, one of the men Darrell called a friend. As a man, Lewis stood six feet even with short brown hair and a nose that looked like a beak, which led his friends to call him Vulture when they were teasing him… how he hated that. He was a thin man but wiry and fast, and he had a thing for Charlotte, but that romance was one-sided because Charlotte could not stand him.

“I’m not your personal chef,” Charlotte snapped back. She was a pretty little thing with long blond hair and a curvy figure. She was very popular with younger men.

“Hey, Darrell, a little help?” Called Kenneth Wright as he dragged the buck across the ground. Kenneth was older than Darrell. He was not very big, but he was tough. He was a brunette with fine features. He had stolen Darrell’s girlfriend from him last year. Darrell did not hold grudges. He had only been playing with her anyway, so when she left him for Kenneth, he had been fairly ok with it. Besides, he liked single life better anyway.

“I killed it. You clean it,” Darrell said as he stepped into his boots.

“I’ll get it,” grumbled Stanton Bradshaw as he stalked over to Kenneth and lifted the buck up over his shoulders. Stanton was a big brute with an abrasive personality. He was not friendly by any means, but despite his many faults, he and Darrell were friends. Stanton was not so bad. He was an intimidating sight with his short straggly copper hair and one good eye. He had lost the other in a fight a few months ago, but it did not seem to hinder his abilities in any way.

“When you are done with that, let’s go into the city. I feel like dancing,” Darrell said, taking Charlotte in his arms, leading his sister in lively music less two-step, which made Charlotte giggle.

With a playful grin, Charlotte extracted herself from her brother’s arms, and they started to walk away from the hunting party. “The Mausoleum?” Charlotte suggested as they strolled through the streets.

“Where else?” He smiled.

“I’ll round up the girls,” Charlotte said, leaving her brother on the street.

“You do that,” he said, spotting another of the pack’s females. Aster Wilder was just coming back from a walk to the community mailboxes up by the convenience store owned by one of the pack members. She looked sensational as usual. She was the pack leader’s only daughter. She was a luna and very likely his mate when they were both ready to settle down.

Right now, they were just friends. Good friends. In fact, Aster was almost like another sister. Almost but not, she was easy-going and fun to torment. He liked to flirt with her because he knew how to push her buttons. She resisted him at every turn, and he never expected anything to come of his flirtations; it was just harmless fun.

Aster was a drop-dead gorgeous blond with a full bustline and curvy hips. He loved to walk behind her so he could watch her hips sway side to side as she struts her stuff. Darrell crept up behind Aster and pounced her from the rear. His arms wrapped around her waist, and he nipped playfully at her neck.

Aster squealed and struggled against him. “God damn it, Darrell, you scared the hell out of me,” she hissed and slapped his hands. “Let me go.”

Darrell released her with a chuckle. “Quit playing like you don’t like it,” he said, stepping back. Aster turned to face him with an annoyed look. “We are all headed into Aspen; you want to come?”

“Sure.”

“I’m just going to shower and change before we go.”

“Good, you need one,” Aster teased. “I could smell you a mile away.”

Darrell grinned. “When are you going to go hunting with me?”

“Why so you can try to mount me from behind?” She grinned.

“You know one day, you and me….” He said as he walked backwards, heading for his cabin, “it is going to happen. You best believe it,” she just smiled and waved goodbye. Darrell laughed; it was going to be a good night. He could feel it.

***

After dinner, Katelyn had taken her camera and gone for a walk in the woods. In the dead of summer, the sun stayed up until quite late in the evening, allowing her to see and navigate the woods. She had been crouching behind some bushes to go unseen so as not to scare off the small white rabbit fifty feet away.

Katelyn zoomed in with her lens and tried to focus. She had a perfect shot when a buck raced passed frightening off the rabbit. Katelyn looked up from her camera and watched as a massive tanned wolf launched itself off the trunk of a tree and took the deer down. Its massive jaws clamped down hard on the buck’s neck. The beast gave the buck a few violent shakes killing it.

With the deer dead, the beast stepped back, and Katelyn had an amazing view of this incredible beast. Katelyn lifted her camera to phonograph the wolf. She had taken pictures of wolves before, but this one was like no other. It was easily four times the size. It was six feet from snout to tail and stood at least four feet from the ground to shoulders. It looked as if it was all lean muscle beneath tanned fur. The

beast turned his head in her direction, and Katelyn was speechless. It had eyes as she had never seen before; they were a bright amber colour. This beautiful creature was magnificent.

Katelyn took a few more pictures and then ducked down even more when three other wolves the same size but with different colouring showed up, praying they did not notice her. They were all snarling and growling at each other, and then they howled. Katelyn looked up at the sunset. The sun was almost down, and the moon was already coming up on the opposite horizon. Not long after, she watched in awe as the wolves dragged their kill off. She had no idea that wolves did that?

Alone in the woods once more, Katelyn looked down at her camera screen, looking through the pictures she had taken. A smile curved her mouth. They were great pictures. These were going to sell very well.