Beautiful Creatures Series

Days passed slowly as Melissa waited for Aster’s reply. She did not want to go after Mackenzie and Gordon with Aster in Feral. She did not want her daughter harmed in the crossfire. She waited three days for Aster to leave town and join her in LA. Melissa was not in LA, but no one knew that. By the time Aster got to Melissa’s place in California, the pack would be dead, and Malissa could fly back to LA and deal with Aster.

She had been staying in a hotel in Aspen with her new accomplices, but she had checked in under an alias so Gordon would not know she was back. She had convinced Donald to wait a few days, but he was getting anxious to carry out their plan. They had located an abandoned farmhouse in the country where they were going to take Mackenzie and torture her to death. Melissa wanted to be there to watch the torture.

After day three, it was clear Aster was not going to leave Feral. She had chosen sides, and that pissed Melissa off. Her daughter, her own flesh and blood, had betrayed her. Fine, Aster wanted to side with Gordon, then she could die with the others. It was time to put their plans into action. They would wait until the middle of the workday. Most of the pack would be spread out. She could get in and out of Feral unseen.

Melissa looked down at the bullet in her hand. It had taken time to make up enough special bullets to deal with the pack. She now had a number of bullets with Wolfsbane hollow tips. Lycanthropes were very hard to kill. While a regular bullet, if well placed, could kill a Lycanthrope, there was still a good chance that the one-shot would just dig the bullet out and regenerate. However, with the wolfsbane, they could dig the bullet out, but the wolfsbane would be released into the bloodstream upon impact, and they could not dig that out.

Wolfsbane was like poison to Lycanthropes. It on its own could not kill a Lycanthrope, but it made them weak, and as long as it was in the bloodstream, a Lycanthrope could not regenerate. If wounded with Wolfsbane in their system, the Lycanthrope was almost guaranteed to die from their wounds. It took days for a Lycanthrope to metabolize wolfsbane out of its system. By that time said Lycanthrope was 99% certain to die.

A few well-placed bullets and Gordon would not get up. This time he was not going to survive.

As for the pack, Melissa had Donald and his men backing her. Only Donald and his close bodyguards knew what she was. Once his men had killed off the pack for her, Melissa would turn on her co-conspirators and kill them herself. Covering her tracks and insuring her secrets. By the end of today, Colorado would be flooded with blood, and Melissa would be in the wind once more. Perhaps she would move to Paris. She had always wanted to see the Eiffel Tower.

Deciding to it was time to put her plan into action, she took out a burner phone and paid a prostitute to call Mackenzie’s cell phone, pretending to be a bride who had gotten her number from a friend of hers who was just dying to have Mackenzie plan her dream wedding. The prostitute set up an appointment to meet at a house. The neighbourhood was in a new development that was closed for the winter. The built homes were unoccupied, and the rest of the sites were tented to protect them from the harsh winter snow.

By the time Mackenzie realized it was a trap, it would already be too late.

***

“I’ll go with you,” Gordon said, putting away his tools. He did not have another appointment for a few hours, and he could close the shop for a short time.

“I don’t need you to go with me to work,” she said, leaning on the counter. “I love you, but if I show up with you on my heels, you will make the couple uncomfortable.”

“Why?”

“Do you ever look at yourself? I personally love your bad boy look, but this business is all about impressions, and the one you make is intimidating.”

“Intimidating?”

“You look like an ex-convict,” she said, wincing. “I’m sorry, I don’t know how else to explain that to you. In tattooing, that gruffness is good, but not in my business. People expect someone classy and sophisticated. I’ll only be gone a few hours.”

“But…”

“Gordon, I know you mean well, but you can’t be with me every hour of every day for the rest of our lives. At some point, you have to let me venture out alone.”

“I don’t feel comfortable….”

“I’m going alone. I’ll call you,

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

“Just be careful… please.”

meeting. “I’ll be back in three hours,” she said goodbye, and Gordon frowned. He did not like

He was conflicted.

Mackenzie went home, he contemplated his options. If he was careful, he could follow her, and she would never know

Fuck it.

Gordon had made

was following Mackenzie.

***

excited to get back to work. Sure, spending her days with Gordon was great, and she loved being with him, but she was starting to feel like a prisoner. She wanted to get out and resume her own life. She had changed into a lovely blue dress and a pair of heels, then she hopped into her car and

her car, she pulled into a new residential development. There were only a few houses built, a few tented frames, and many empty lots with nothing but clay. It did not look like this place had anyone

and framing her eyes with her hands. As she leaned into the glass, she looked inside. The house was empty — void of any furniture. Mackenzie was getting a very bad feeling. Now she wished she had allowed

turned to leave and stopped short when she came face to face with Melissa.

on her side, twitching and unable to speak. There was so much pain she could not move. She feared the electric shock had

twice in the chest. It stopped Gordon cold in his tracks. He looked down at the bullet holes in

stood over him. She waved the gun in his face. “Hollow tips filled with Wolfsbane. It’s spreading through your circulatory system,” he fell over now, lying on the ground. “Now you are going to bleed out. Just know I’m going to take everything you love. I’m going to Kill Mackenzie and the baby. I’m going to kill our traitorous daughter, and I’m going to massacre the

on the news as Donald Falcone, the mob boss who had been looking for her for the last ten years. Whereas the other was a face

we caught up to you,” he snarled. “My, how you have changed.

put her in my car,” ordered Donald. “Let’s get out of here before someone stumbles across us, and we end up with a whole new

her over his shoulder and tossing her in the truck. She tried to call out for help as

drove for what felt like forever. As they drove the shock, her body was in had passed, and she regained minimal movement. She had developed some cramping in her belly, which concerned her. She was losing the baby. She had to get away. She needed medical attention. When the car came to a stop, Mackenzie searched the dark trunk until she

she painfully dragged herself out of the trunk. As soon as her feet hit the grown, she tried to run. She got thirty feet when a wave of pain washed over her. She clutched at her belly and dropped to her knees in too much pain to stand.

to tie her up. One man stepped back and looked down at

***

He could feel the wolfsbane coursing through his veins like his blood was on fire. He could not move. He watched as Melissa and the men she was with carried Mackenzie off and threw her into the trunk of a car that had just pulled up. Gordon had tried to get up, but his body would not obey him. He watched in horror as they drove

to

let