Beautiful Creatures Series

Aster sat in the courtroom listening to the jury convict her father of the voluntary manslaughter of two mobsters who had abducted his pregnant Fiancée Mackenzie with the intention to kill her. Turns out Mackenzie was a witness to a murder back in California and had spent the last decade in witness protection. Aster listened as the judge sentenced her father to ten years in prison with the possibility of parole after five. Aster tried not to cry. She could not believe it. The man had only been protecting his loved one from known criminals, and he was being punished when he should have been celebrated.

A profound sense of loss consumed Aster. She had recently lost her mother. Her mother, Melissa Wilder, had turned her back on her family, her people, and her daughter. Aster’s father had been forced to kill her with the other men. Only her body had never been recovered. Aster did not blame her father. He had only done what he must. Melissa had forced his hand, leaving him no other choice. Still, despite all her faults and sins, Aster had loved her mother and was saddened by her death.

Her mother died, and now Aster was losing her father to the unfair justice system. She felt as though she had lost everyone that meant anything to her. She did not even have a sibling to share her pain with. Aster was in her mid-twenties and until now an only child of an unhappy abusive marriage. Her mother had been a cruel woman who often beat her husband to near death on a number of occasions.

Her father, on the other hand, had been a caring, loving, stable individual. He was a good man who had finally decided he had taken enough of his abusive wife’s shit and filed for divorce. If the divorce was not insulting enough to Melissa, her estranged husband had taken a young lover and sired a child with her. A child that many of her people, including Aster’s mother, considered a sin against the natural law.

Aster and her family had a secret, a secret that was shared with the other residences of Feral. A secret that, if exposed, could result in the violent deaths of fifty men, women, and children. Aster and her people were not human. They were Lycanthropes. Mythical monsters to the human world. They walked among the humans. Lived and worked with them, and no one knew the truth. Those who found out were dealt with swiftly and severely. Sometimes people died. It was a sad reality, but the secret must be protected. The secret was the only thing that insured the survival of their species.

But recently, two of the male pack members had fallen in love with a human woman, and the pack brought these women into the fold. Her father was one of these two men. The pack accepted it because they had no choice. It was not until her father’s new girlfriend announced she was pregnant that the shit hit the fan. Up until that point, no one believed it was possible for the two species to breed together. For the first time in history, there would be a hybrid. This news upset the whole pack and divided them. There were those who were willing to accept it and others who strongly believed this hybrid child was the beginning of the end of their species. There was a hostile response to the news of this child. Many protested while others, such as Melissa, took more decisive action. As far as Melissa had been concerned, the child would never be born.

She had failed, thankfully. The child was born, and he seemed healthy. What powers he had were yet to be discovered. At this point, the child was too young to know just how much of this child was Lycanthrope and how much was human. Aster figured as her brother Preston aged, he and their family would be faced with unique problems. The poor boy would likely grow up ridiculed by the pack. He walked in both worlds accepted by neither.

At this point, Preston was only a few months old, and though she loved her brother on sight, Aster was far too old for there to be any sibling bonding. She felt alone in the world.

After saying goodbye to her father, Aster went out to a bar to drink her sorrows away. She sat at a bar in Aspen. She had not gone to the usual place she went to drink because she did not want to run into anyone she knew. She wanted to be alone with her loss. She sat at a table alone, getting drunk. No one bothered her because despite how pretty she was, she had a resting bitch face that made her unapproachable. Which was how she preferred it. She was a perfectly nice woman when you got to know her, but she was selective with who she allowed getting to know her.

Suddenly a body filled the seat across the small table from her. Looking up from her drink, she recognized the man who now sat across from her. He was a good-looking man of First Nation descent. He was on the smaller side of tall and was slim but fit. He was young, not much older than she was, if she had to guess. His dark eyes were lively and hinted to a wicked clever playfulness. His skin was a deep bronze colour. His raven hair was thin and long, which he wore loose. He was dressed like any blue-collar Joe you could come across. He was a handsome man, and his smile was welcoming and friendly.

Aster rolled her eyes with great aggravation. After the day, she had the last thing she wanted to do answer a bunch of questions this man undoubtedly had. “Wow, look at you. So pretty and so unapproachable.”

Aster’s mouth curved in a nasty sneer. “Yet here you are.”

His smile widened. “What can I say? I’m a confident man.”

“I have had a very long day, Detective. Why don’t you just get to what you want?”

He shifted in his seat and leaned forward, folding his arms on the edge of the table between them. “What I want it for you to call me Tyler.”

“Tyler? Isn’t that a little informal for an interrogation?” She asked, mirroring his body position as she looked him in the eyes to prove she was not one to fall for any mind games.

“You call it an interrogation. I call it getting to know each other.” He said, not missing a beat. “Ok.” He said, leaning back enough to remove his badge, which was attached to his hip, off then he placed it on the edge of the table. “There it is. As of right now, I’m not a cop. I’m just a guy in a bar wanting to buy a beautiful woman a drink.” He smiled confidently.

At that moment, the waitress placed two drinks on the table between them and walked away. Tyler must have ordered and paid for their drinks before he came over to the table. So certain she would welcome him. “That’s confident.” She grinned.

“As I said, I’m a confidant man.”

took up her glass and relaxed back in her chair. “Well, I suppose since it is paid

“Just one?”

one.” Tyler’s grin grew as a second waitress placed a large bottle of vodka on the table then walk away. Aster could not contain herself. She burst out laughing. “Well played.” She had to admit the Detective had game. She shot back her drink and placed the empty glass on the table. Tyler picked up the bottle

one: Are you single? And I mean REAL single, not I HAVE A SIDE DUDE POSITION I’M LOOKING TO FILL

“Do I look like that kind

empty cup back on the table. “Nope, see there, that’s a question. You’re going

“Two platters of

to the kitchen. “Um, sweet and spicy. You know

“Does it?”

tells me you are a

restrain her amusement. “Really? Is that the line you want to

good?”

that ever worked on

least he was willing to

of girl do you

never tell. Lots of guys have multiple girls, and many girls have multiple guys, and both sides call the other

alive

people at their worst. It has robbed me of my faith in humanity.”

a very

facing the pack over the last year, she too had a negative outlook. She liked him, though. She was trying very hard not to, but Tyler was a likable kind of

“Yes.”

“Yes?”

about what she was saying yes to. “I am REAL single and not

know. You

a lot in

are

you know

making an aggressive pass at the female bartender, but the woman seemed like she was handling the matter, so their attention returned to one another. “What do you say we get together tomorrow night and talk about…” The commotion at the bar got louder and more aggressive distracting Tyler momentarily. “Um, where was I? Oh yeah, we can talk about the cruelties of life and…” Suddenly, the drunk at the bar reached across the bar

one arm, twisting it behind his back. With one hand on his head, Tyler forced the offending man face down on the bar and

bellowed. “Get off

not nice to rough up women,” Tyler said

“Yes.” The bartender answered.

can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney and to have an attorney present during any questioning. If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be provided for you at government

the table where Aster was sitting,