Beautiful Creatures Series

Chapter 17: 15

Aurora stared blankly at the food in the cart. She and Stanton had gone into Aspen on his day off to pick up some groceries. It had been three days since her nightmare, and she was having trouble getting over it. It had really messed with her head. “Which one did you want again, rosemary or thyme?” Stanton asked, holding up two bags of dried herbs he had picked up from the spice aisle.

She looked up at him, and it took a second for her to understand the question he had just asked. “Um… it was basil.”

“Damn it. I knew it was something green. I’ll go back and get the right one.”

“It’s fine. I’ll go get it. I know what I’m looking for,” she said, moving past him.

Stanton reached out and took her by the arm, stopping her and turning her back to face him. “Are you alright, Hummingbird?”

“Why do you ask?”

“You seem different lately… withdrawn… quiet. Is something bothering you? Have I done something wrong?”

Oh, bless his heart. She smiled and caressed his face lovingly. “It’s not you. I just haven’t been sleeping well.”

“Do I snore?”

She giggled. “No. I’ll be fine. Why don’t you go to the frozen food aisle and get us some ice cream while I go get the basil, and I’ll meet up with you at the cash register.”

“Ok,” she watched as he took the cart and walked away.

Aurora made her way to the spice aisle, where she browsed through the packets looking for dried basil. She would have preferred fresh, but the store didn’t have any. She looked for a few minutes but didn’t find what she was looking for. It would seem the store had no basil in stock, fresh nor dry. Rethinking the spices she would use in the soup. She wanted to make Aurora made her way to the checkouts. She didn’t see Stanton, which surprised her because she was sure he would have been here by now.

She decided to go meet him by the ice cream. As she came around the corner, she paused when she saw a middle-aged man walk over to Stanton and ask if he knew where the frozen fries would be. “I don’t know,” Stanton said, grabbing a tub of ice cream and putting it in his cart.

“Wow,” the man said, not sounding as surprised as he was pretending to be. “Look at those eyes,” Stanton tensed. “Interesting. You live nearby?”

Stanton looked uncomfortable. Aurora was sure he thought the same thing she was. This man was a hunter. He was trying to find out where the rest of the pack was. “Try the next aisle,” Stanton said, “I think you’ll find fries at the endcap.”

The man smiled, but it was a knowing eerie kind of smile. “Thanks,” Stanton then turned and headed her way.

Aurora darted out of sight, hoping the hunter had not noticed her. As Stanton came around the corner, he saw Aurora. “We need to get the fuck out of here,” he said, pushing the full cart aside. Stanton took her by the arm, ushering her quickly to the doors, leaving their unpaid groceries behind.

“What about the food?”

“Fuck the food. You can’t eat it dead.”

“He was a hunter, wasn’t he?”

“Yes, he is. We need to tell Gordon. The pack must be warned.”

***

a middle-aged biker himself, Gordon appealed to the jeans and leather crowd, which made up a fair bit of his clientele. He was working on a piece with

when they looked at her. A few months ago, she would have slept with him for the price of a warm place to sleep for the night. She was grateful she would no longer have to sell herself to any more filthy slobs. No man would ever touch her

girl?” Stanton growled at

at Aurora. “Are you blind, Honey? You should come

have a chance,” Aurora

this Neanderthal, you

batted her long dark lashes. “Maybe, but at least with him, I don’t require a magnifying glass to find his cock,” she leaned

rabid monster. The fat biker growled in outrage. “Listen here, bitch…” Suddenly, the biker yelped loudly in pain as Gordon drug

way you talk to my friend. You

not apologizing to this

working on, ruining it beyond repair. Being a Lycan, Gordon was stronger than the human biker and was able to keep him in his seat with one hand. “You sure are a stupid fuck, aren’t you?” Gordon laughed. “Hasn’t anyone told you it is a bad idea to piss off your tattoo artist?” Once his vengeance was satisfied, Gordon let him go, and the man jumped up, cradling his bloody arm. “Let’s see… six hours of work at $160/hour… you own me $960 for my work, and since you annoy me, let’s make

fucking paying you,”

smacked the biker in the back of his head as hard as he could, and the biker hit the floor, slamming his head against the tattoo chair on his way down. Stanton them bent over and took his wallet out of his back pocket. Stanton cleaned out all the cash in the wallet and handed it to Gordon, who proceeded to count it. “Pleasure doing business with you,” Gordon said as the man began

with the cops,” the biker threatened.

lit up like flames in the dark, and he bared his fangs. “That would be a bad idea,”

smugly as he continued to count his earnings, unconcerned about that man had seen him wolf out. “Are you sure that was a good idea?” Aurora

drinking all damn day,” he said, nodding his head to the nearby counter littered with empty beer bottles. “The man wreaks of booze. They will write him

that well

could, and practically have done this job in my

make good

“I do well enough.”

Stanton spoke softly to

“What?”

think we have more important things to talk about than the economy of

gasped as she remembered.

was now eyeing them inquisitively. “Is there something I should

he knew how to tell Gordon. “There is a Hunter in town,” Aurora

asked with

nodded. “He couldn’t have been

does he know

he knows there is more than one of us. He is defiantly searching for the pack,” Stanton explained.

“And now with that dick head, I just drove out of here. He’s going to know

we go hunting?” Stanton

took a moment to think. “Gather the pack. We hunt tonight before any more pick up his trail. We got to keep this one quiet, though, no

“Understood,” Stanton said.

dismantle his body and hide it. She worried. With Stanton’s reduced vision, how good would he be in a fight against someone trained to kill their kind? He could be hurt or, worse, killed. She didn’t want him to get

***

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