Beautiful Creatures Series

Aurora rolled over onto her back and stretched as she opened her eyes. The morning sun filtered in through the windows filling the house with a soft, homey glow. Aurora reached out for Stanton to find herself alone in their bed.

Strange.

She sat up and looked around the house, expecting to see him up or even sleeping uncomfortably on the couch. Stanton was nowhere in sight. Aurora tossed the blanket back and placed her bare feet on the floor. She stood up and raked her slender finger through her long blond hair as she crossed the room to the door and opened it. She stepped out onto the porch and looked around the driveway. Stanton’s SUV was gone. He must have gone out.

Going back inside, Aurora looked at the clock on the stove. It was 8:00 AM which meant she had slept in, and he had gone to work.

She got dressed and then made the walk to Darrell’s to see if he were home. They still needed groceries because there was very little in the house. Unfortunately, the closest grocery store was in Aspen, and while it was the closest town, it was still too far away for her to walk to and then walk back with armloads of food. Reaching Darrell’s farmhouse, she stepped up on the wrap-around porch and knocked on the screen door. She waited, but there was no answer. She walked around to the side of the house, hoping to find Darrell’s truck in the driveway, but it was gone. He, too, must be at work.

Leaving Darrell’s place, Aurora walked along the road heading for the hub of their little community. That one small street only had a few businesses, all of which were Lycan owned. The whole pack lived within a twenty-five-mile radius of the central hub. That was their community. Their land. With the exceptions of travellers passing true and the odd person come to patron the businesses unaware of their owners’ true identities, the only people that ever walked those streets were pack members.

When she reached the hub, Aurora walked along the street, looking around. It was so inconvenient for the pack to have to go into Aspen every time they needed food. Standing in the middle of the street, Aurora slowly turned around a full 390 degrees, looking at what they had.

A tattoo shop…

A liquor store….

A butcher shop…

A gas station…

A community garden closed for the season…

… and a few vacant buildings with windows boarded up.

They really ought to build this little community up and make it a self-sustained town. Aurora walked over to a midsized building that looked as though it had been empty for a long time. Using the sleeve of her shirt, Aurora wiped away years of grime from the huge window. Placing both hands around her eyes to see better, she leaned into the window and tried to see what it looked like inside.

What little she could see, the place looked spacious. If fixed up, this place could be a quaint little community grocery store. They could stock the store with vegetables and fruits from local gardens. They were next door to the butcher shop so patrons could go from one to the next with ease. They could even knock out part of the wall between the two and build an order window so patrons could get meat and produce in one stop. Then all they would have to do was order in a few pantry products to fill a few local needs.

Someone should do it.

She was someone. Why shouldn’t she be the one to do it.

Aurora walked down the street to the Blood Moon Tattoo Parlour. Walking through the door, she found Gordon tattooing a butterfly to some college girl’s collarbone. He looked up just long enough to acknowledge her and then back down at his task. “Morning Aurora, how are you today,” the girl in the chair squirmed. “Listen, Darling, if you keep moving, this thing is going to end up looking jacked. I suggest you stay still because there are no refunds.”

The girl stilled.

one of the leather chairs along the nearby wall for people to wait on.

said, continuing with

know that abandoned storefront down the street? The one right next to the Mountain Meat Butcher Shop and across the street for the Last

know

wouldn’t know how to get a hold of the realtor or the owner,

“Why?”

her idea was stupid until she decided if it were even plausible. She decided to confide in

suppose to run this grocery

Gordon paused,

to own a grocery store?

home. I have nothing to do. I feel useless. I want to contribute to the community. I like gardening. I figured I could grow organic vegetables and some fruits and sell them in the store. I could probably make business relationships with local dairy farmers and get eggs, cheese, and milk. The fruits I can’t grow myself I could get from the growers down the highway. I think

hands on a shop rag. “That is not going to be cheap, and you would have to grow the stock first. You probably can’t even open your doors until next summer. After which, you will spend the first year of profit just paying your overhead and paying off the suppliers who helped you stock those shelves on credit. Plus, you need a business licence, a food handling permit, a few health and safety permits, not to mention registering with the government as a business so

think I can do it?” She asked, feeling a bit

“No, Darling, I’m just pointing out that it is going to be a lot of hard work for very little gain for a long time. I just think if you are going

money? “I could take out a business loan

a bank account. No fixed address until a few months ago. You have never

get a loan. There was no way Stanton had this kind of money. She wouldn’t want it

“I don’t know how I’m going to get the money, but I will get

are serious about this venture, educate yourself about the business. Most businesses fail because they forgot to plan. When you have a good plan, that is when you can start seeking investors to finance your start-up, you do that, and I will put you in touch with the correct people.”

“You would

first, you need to prove you are

making. If she wanted to

***

he got out. He ached all over. The machine had broken because the ground was frozen and the cat was from the dark ages. The company was too cheap to fix it or get a new one. His new supervisor, some arrogant little twenty-one-year-old shit head fresh out of school with zero real-world experience, who probably only got the job through nepotism, insisted Stanton dig despite Stanton’s insistence the machine couldn’t handle the strain. As Stanton

It wasn’t.

Stanton included, to dig the trench by hand. They made no progress and broke four shovels. As a result, Stanton’s muscles ached, and he

porch steps to his front door. He enjoyed having Aurora around. She always had a great meal on the table as he

and looked to the oven where he expected to find his Hummingbird. She wasn’t there. There was no food on the table, and it didn’t smell like anything was cooking. Stanton looked to the sitting area and found Aurora sitting on the floor, using the coffee table as a desk and typing away on his laptop. She didn’t even

the stove. He opened the oven and looked in only to find it empty as he suspected. Looking around the spotless kitchen, it didn’t look like she was prepping anything. In fact,

sit down on the furniture until he was clean. He stood next to Aurora, but she didn’t look up from

up at him with