Beautiful Creatures Series

Melissa sat at the bar in the Mausoleum, drowning her sorrows and fuming about the encounter she had with Gordon and his girlfriends. She was still infuriated that Mackenzie had dared to strike her. She was not going to let this go unanswered. Mackenzie would pay for what she did, and Gordon would suffer.

A dark-haired man in a black suit took the barstool next to her and ordered a drink from the bartender. Then he turned to Melissa. “Can I buy you a drink?”

She scoffed as she lifted her beer to her lips. “Go fuck yourself.”

“Well, aren’t you a pleasant one? No wonder your husband left you.”

She turned and looked at this man with great interest. “How did you know my husband left me?”

“I know more about you than you think… Melissa.”

She had an uneasy feeling. Was his man a hunter? He did not seem like the usual hunter type. He claimed to know a lot about her. Did he know she was a Lycanthrope? If he did, was he trying to blackmail her? If he was, he had a big surprise coming. With the mood she was in, she would not mind killing him.

Melissa looked over the man closely, trying to decide if he was a threat. His clothes looked slept in, and his square jaw was shabby and unshaven. No, she decided, she doubted he was a hunter. He did not look like one, and she was pretty good at spotting hunters.

“Ok, you have my attention. You know me. Who the hell are you?”

“Special Agent Lenard Meskler, FBI,” he introduced himself, offering her his hand. Suspicious, she shook his hand. “You came up in my investigation of your husband, Gordon Wilder.”

“Why is the FBI investigating Gordon? He is an incredibly boring man.”

“I’m not interested in Gordon. I’m interested in Mackenzie Starr, the woman he is living with.”

“Are you now?”

“You and I have the same problem.”

“Mackenzie?” He nodded. She knew her reasons for hating Mackenzie, but she was curious about what this man’s beef was with the young woman. “What do you want with Mackenzie?”

“I need her dead.”

on,” the idea of Mackenzie suffering a particularly violent death was extremely appealing. Who better than a crooked cop to

***

she was bored. She was tired. Mackenzie stood up, which drew Gordon’s attention

me an hour, and I’ll go with you,”

don’t want to wait an hour. I’m just going to walk over to the grocery store and visit

want you wandering off alone,” he objected.

can I possibly get into? The

I’ll join you when I finish up here. Please don’t

the walk to the grocery store and stopped halfway when she saw a dark car pull up next to her, the tires screeching. It stopped right next to her and out hopped Agent Meskler and Melissa. Agent Meskler opened the trunk of the car, and Melissa

Gordon but had no idea if he could hear her. Agent Meskler punched her, knocking her head back against

***

work, and he did not want her home alone. She had stopped taking clients on when she found out she was pregnant. She had simply been too sick and irritable to deal with couples.

he did only seconds later. Gordon dropped his tattoo machine and left his client in the chair. He ran

on. He would never catch them as a man. His eye lit up, and Gordon let the change take him. In seconds he was on all fours and faster than he had. His torn close already miles behind him. As soon as the other saw Gordon chasing a car while transitioning, they followed suit. They did not know

the speeding car, Gordon came up alongside it and slammed his shoulder into the driver’s door, throwing his full weight against it. The impact sent the car swerving out of control and slamming into the side of the mountain, caving the front end of the vehicle. Gordon ripped the

man from the car. Gordon shook his head violently, ripping Meskler’s left leg clear off, tearing it from the socket. Then he did the same with the left leg and both arms. Covered in blood, Gordon left Meskler in pieces all over the highway. Then he turned to go after Melissa, but she had run off, and the others had gone after her. Gordon was conflicted between going after Melissa or getting Mackenzie out of the trunk. He chose

threw it aside and reached in for Mackenzie. She was crying as she sat up and allowed him to remove her from the trunk. He carried her in his arms a few feet away from the car, and

with fear. As soon as he was on his knees, Gordon’s vision became askew. His arms became weak and fell away, no longer holding her. He became dizzy and then collapsed on his side in the middle of the road. He could hear Mackenzie screaming for help, but her voice was getting harder and harder

***

him. She recalled hearing gunfire, but she had thought Gordon had

wounds, trying to stop the bleeding, but she was failing. It wasn’t long until she was surrounded by giant wolves. The back had come when she called. The shared looks as if communicating by thought. A tanned wolf laid down on its belly right next to Gordon’s body while a pair of brown and grey wolves nudged at Gordon’s body until he was draped over the tanned ones back. The tanned wolf rose then took off down the road toward Feral. The white wolf next to Mackenzie nudged her with its nose. Mackenzie assumed the wolf wanted her to ride it back to Feral. She climbed onto the wolf’s back and held

laid him on his back on the dining room table. Mackenzie hopped off the white wolf that had carried her back and watched as the wolf was replaced by

of pants and Aurora the dress. They each thanked her as they put on the clothes. She assumed they dressed for her comfort, not theirs. Mackenzie draped the sheet around Gordon’s waist to offer him some modesty while the

plyers in the garage and a knife in the kitchen. He then stood over Gordon and pushed the tip of the knife into one of the bullet wounds, and began to cut the flesh, opening the wound wider. “What are you doing?” Mackenzie snapped.

the bullets out,