Beautiful Creatures Series

The days passed, and Stanton spent much of his workday distracted. He kept looking across the street, hoping to see Aurora right where she always stood, but for the last three days, she was nowhere to be seen. She must have found a new place to work. It was a shame, too; it had taken Stanton days to get up the nerve to talk to her. Sure, the girl was a prostitute and, for the right price, would have done anything he asked, but she was also extremely pretty and well beyond his league. But given she was a Lycan and there were so few of them left in the world, he had wanted to talk to her. To help her to offer her a better life, to bring her into the fold and help her join the pack. They had to stick together and help each other, or the species would die out. Lycans were quickly going extinct.

After days of no sign of Aurora, Stanton was ready to give up. Apparently, he had sent her running for the hills. Not knowing what she was had to have her thinking, he was utterly insane to insist she wasn’t human. He could understand it would be a hard pill to swallow for someone raised by humans. Had her Lycan parents been able to teach her, she would know her truth and how to control her powers. He wasn’t sure why she was in an orphanage at birth. He doubted her parents had given her up, Lycan's parents never abandoned their cub, so they had to be dead. It was sad, but it was the norm for people like them.

Many Lycans were orphaned by the time they were teens. It forced you to grow up and quickly. But thanks to the pack, no orphaned child was ever alone. Another Lycan adult would take the child into their home and finish raising them. Gordon had stepped up and helped Stanton into manhood. He could never thank the man enough for doing so.

Now he had a chance to pay it forward, and he had scared her off. He went about the rest of his day. When he clocked out for the day, Stanton headed for his SUV parked down the street with the other crew vehicles. As he approached his SUV, he slowed and was happy to see Aurora seated cross-legged on the hood. God Damn, she was a beauty. Everything about this woman was sexy, from her brooding eyes to that flawless swagger she had when she walked. Even her voice was lyrical like a songbird. She didn’t smile a lot that he noticed, but when she did, it was stunning, and when she laughed, it was infectious.

Stanton walked up to the front of his vehicle, and her sexy eyes lifted and locked with his. He said nothing as they stared at one another. “You were right about everything. When I get upset, I mean really upset, something happens to me. I become this thing, this horrible thing and I hurt people. The nuns in the orphanage believed I was possessed by demons. By the time I was fourteen, I had undergone numerous failed exorcisms. You have no idea what that kind of torture does to a kid. It nearly killed me every time. So, I ran away,” she took a breath choking on her own emotion. “I ran away a lot. The police always brought me back. I’ve been in sixteen orphanages because the nuns didn’t know what to do with me. The other kids… hated me. When I was fourteen, I ran away to Las Vegas, looking for a fresh start. I ended up a prostitute, so I could eat and sometimes sleep in a bed. I came here for a new start, but it’s going to be the same shit.”

“I understand.”

thinking something evil is inside me. I’ve done horrible things. I’m only eighteen, and I have killed six people. I don’t know what

“I do.”

others like

many, but

from him. The elevation of his hood bringing this petite woman eye to eye with him. On his level. She

me,” he finally spoke. “No funny stuff, I promise, but this is a matter better suited to privacy,” he would show her what they were but not in the middle of