Beautiful Creatures Series

Another wave of pain washed over Mackenzie, and she cried out. Tears streamed down her face as she begged her captors to
let her go. They had been talking about how they were going to kill her. They wanted to torture her, but she was already in so
much pain they did not know what they could do to her that would be worse. They spent the day debating it. By evening they
decided to dismember her piece by piece while she was still alive. Gorge took out a cigar cutter from his pocket and slipped
Mackenzie’s finger through the hole. He was telling her how he was going to start by cutting off every finger and toe one by one.
Before he could sever her finger, a blood curtailing howl echoed through the mountains outside, followed by others. They
sounded so close, like they were right outside the door. Gorge walked away, and all four men and Melissa went to the living room
window. Mackenzie could not see out the window from where she was, but she smiled nonetheless because she knew Gordon
was outside.
“Holy shit, look at the size of those wolves,” one of the goons gasped.
“They are bigger than you said they would be?” Donald snapped with anger.
“Just shoot to kill,” Melissa barked back. Those bullets will do the trick.
“Oh, hey, look,” Gorge said, pointing out the window. “They are leaving, all but the black one.”
“They aren’t leaving,” Melissa said. “They are circling the house.”
Mackenzie began to laugh despite the pain. “What the fuck are you laughing at?” One of the goons growled at her.
“Didn’t she tell you, morons, how Meskler died?” The men looked at Melissa with question, then back at Mackenzie, who was
now watching them with a menacing smile. “That wolf outside literally ripped him apart. You motherfuckers are already dead,”
another wave of pain took her, and Mackenzie threw her head back and cried out in pain. They all looked back out at the wolf
who still stood there howling.
“Why does he keep doing that?” Donald asked.
“He’s communicating with the others. Telling them what to do,” Melissa said.
“What is he telling them to do?”
“He’s telling them to cover all the exits and wait.”
“Wait?” Donald barked. “What the hell are they waiting for?”

“They are waiting for me. Gordon’s calling me out,” Melissa said, undressing as she backed up from the window.
“What are you doing?” Gorge asked.
“Gordon came looking for a fight. I’m going to give him what he wants.”
“Alone.”
“Don’t worry. Putting this bitch down is my specialty,” she said as her eyes lit up, and she changed into a white wolf before
everyone’s eyes. The wolf ran forward and busted through the glass window out into the yard. Broken shards flew through the air
and came to rest scattered across the floor. All four men stood at the window to watch the scene outside. Mackenzie hung her
head in one of the brief reprieves before another bout of pain consumed her once more. He looked down at the blood on her
legs. She closed her eyes and prayed for Gordon to kill them fast because she needed a hospital. She was losing the baby.
***
Gordon stood in the yard with the others. He knew from the smell Mackenzie was inside. He could hear her crying out in pain.
Wanting to spare her the pain, he howled to announce his presence, hoping it would be enough to distract the men from hurting
her. Right after he howled, the others did the same in a show of unity. Gordon looked one way and then the other. The other
understood, and they dispersed, slowly circling the house to make sure no one tried to flee. The men inside were going to pay for
their part in this.
Gordon remained where he was, waiting for Melissa to come out. She was a real threat, and he needed to deal with her first.
Gordon howled again, calling Melissa out. He could see movement inside, then the glass broke, and Melissa stood in front of
Gordon, her white fur shimmering in the moonlight.
Slowly they circled one another. He knew Melissa was expecting him to lay down as he did when she used to smack him around,
but things had changed. Gordon no longer cared what his father had taught him. This time he would stand his ground. Tonight,
one of them died.
Gordon pounced, knocking Melissa over. Melissa’s powerful jaws snapped at Gordon, trying to bite his leg. He swiped at her with
his claws out, slicing across her belly, and he continued to pin her down. Melissa used her hind legs to push Gordon away. She
sent him flying a good three feet. They both recovered quickly and charged each other again.
Melissa managed to get behind him, jumping onto Gordon’s back. He bit down on his neck and dug her claws into his side so
she could hold on while Gordon tried to buck her off. When he couldn’t shake her, Gordon rolled, crushing Melissa between

himself and the ground. It had been enough to shake her. They both got up and went at it once more. They tussled and rolled
around in the dirt, flipping and biting. There were fur and blood everywhere — white teeth flashing in the moonlight, amber eyes
glowing like fireflies in the dark.
There was growling, and then Gordon pinned Melissa to the ground and tore her throat out. Melissa’s body went limp as blood
poured from her neck, making the dirt beneath them red mud. Gordon lifted his head and howled in victory. He then turned his
attention to the house and climbed off Melissa. It was time to deal with the men inside. His victory howl had alerted the others he
was going in, and when they howled back, he knew they were also going in.
Gordon charged the house and leapt through the broken window. Landing in the living room, Gordon found there was shattered
glass everywhere, and the glass beneath him cut at the pads of his paws. He did not pay attention to the pain; he was focused
on the men that were backing away. They turned their guns on him, but they never got to pull the trigger. While the men were
focused on Gordon, the others silently came up behind them from the back room. Knowing the pack would kill these four men for
him, Gordon sat down, posing no further threat, which confused the four men until the youngsters jumped them and proceeded
to kill them.
With the mean dealt with, Gordon transformed back to his human form. He ran over to Mackenzie, the glass cutting his feet.
Using his claws, he cut the ropes, and Melissa wrapped her arms around him. Then she let go and held her belly as she
screamed again. Looking down, Gordon could see the blood on her legs, and his worse fears were realized. Mackenzie was
losing the baby. The taser had caused complications, and Mackenzie was suffering.
With the men who abducted her dead, the others changed back, each being careful where they stepped. “Oh god, what did they
do to her?” Darrell asked.
“Melissa tasered Mackenzie. It must have caused complications. Lewis, what do we do?”
“I don’t know,” Lewis said quickly. “I don’t do babe troubles. I’m a medic, not a midwife.”
Gordon looked out the window at Melissa’s body, which had reverted back to its human form in death. She was his only midwife,
and he had just killed her. His baby was going to die, and if he did not do something fast, Mackenzie would die too. “FUCK!”
Gordon screamed. Melissa was dead and still screwing with his life.
“Hospital!” Mackenzie snapped. “I’m not a Lycanthrope Gordon. If you don’t take me to a hospital, we are both going to die,” she
said and then screamed when the pain hit her again. “NOW, GORDON! NOW!”

“Shit!” He knew she was right. But he was covered in blood that was not his. HE would be arrested. But if he did not take her,
Mackenzie would die. Gordon ran over to Gorge’s body and stripped his pants off, then put them on himself to cover his nudity.
The last thing he wanted was to be perp-walked on the morning news in the nude. “You guys dispose of the bodies, then get the
fuck out of here,” he ordered the others as he picked Mackenzie up in his arms and carried her to the door bridal style.
“Where are you going?” Stanton asked as they followed him outside. Gordon carried Mackenzie to the car the goons had
transported her in.
“I’m taking Mackenzie to the hospital,” he said, placing her in the passenger seat then running around to the driver’s seat.
“Dad, no, you can’t,” Aster said with panic. “Look at you. They are going to arrest you. You’ll go to prison.”
“I have no choice.”
“Dad!” Aster yelled with tears in her eyes. “Please, no. I’ve lost my mother, don’t make me lose you too?”
Gordon paused and hugged his daughter. Pulling back, he caressed her face lovingly. “I go to see you grow up. What kind of
father would I be if I didn’t give this baby the same chance?”
Aster nodded that she understood his sacrifice. He kissed Aster’s cheek goodbye and told her he was proud of her, then he got
in the car, tore open the steering column and hotwired the car. Mackenzie looked at him questioningly, wondering how he knew
how to hotwire a car. Gordon offered her a half-hearted grin. “I stole a few cars in my youth. Let’s get you to the hospital.”
He made the city limits in record time and pulled recklessly into the hospital emergency bay, blocking an ambulance. The
paramedics came his way to tell him to move, but Gordon pulled Mackenzie from the car cradled in his arms, and the
paramedics jumped to the rescue.
One paramedic took Mackenzie from his arms and laid her on a gurney while the other started an IV. They brought Mackenzie
inside and instantly. She was surrounded by four nurses as they fast-tracked her to the operating room. Gordon was right at her
side, keeping pace while they took her up to the third floor and wheeled her into an operating room. Seconds later, two doctors
came running down the hall and into the operating room.
Gordon wanted to go in, but the security guard got in his way, insisting he stay outside in the waiting room down the hall. He
paced the hall like a madman ignoring the security guard as he asked Gordon questions like why he was half-naked and covered
in blood. He knew the cops weren’t far away, and they would want to swab the blood for DNA samples. He couldn’t let them. If
they ran Melissa’s DNA profile, they would realize she wasn’t human, and that would raise all sorts of questions he couldn’t

answer. He went into the washroom, and with some soap and paper towels, he washed the blood from his body, trying to destroy
the evidence.
It wasn’t long before the cops arrived, and they had Gordon cornered in the waiting room. They were all asking questions. How
did he find Mackenzie? What had happened to her? Where the men that took her were? Why was Gordon covered in blood
when he arrived? Was it all Mackenzie’s blood? They took his pants for evidence complaining about the fact that he had washed
the blood off. The pants were cover in blood, but not Melissa’s. This blood was from the human men. He would likely go to jail,
but at the moment, he didn’t care; he just wanted to know if Mackenzie would survive.
He sat in the waiting room under guard. Two uniformed cops stood by waiting to see what they could arrest him for when Aster,
the guys, and Gordon’s friends came off the elevator.
Aster was on Gordon in seconds. “Is she alive?” She asked, hopefully.
“She’s in the operating room,” Gordon informed them. The guys took Gordon aside and lowered their voices so the cops couldn’t
hear them. “Did you clean up?” Gordon asked.
Darrell nodded. “They are now floating down the river. But there is so much blood in that house. The cops are going to find it,
and they’re going to blame this on you. You’re going to go to jail for murder. That’s hard time in federal prison.”
Gordon smiled, “You don’t think I can handle it?”
“A few months maybe, but not years on the inside. We need a backup plan,” Darrell suggested.
“Go back to the house, drown it in gas and light a match. That will destroy the evidence. Then no one talks.”
“There must be some way to get the suspicion off you,” Darrell said.
“I’m going to prison. I know I am. So, you’re the head of the pack now. I don’t know how long I’ll be gone, so I’m stepping down
and conceding to you without a fight. The pack is yours. Lead them well.”
“How long has Mackenzie been in there?” Katelyn asked.
“About three hours,” Gordon said, sitting down, adjusting the scrubs the hospital staff had offered him when the police took his
jeans. They all waited for Mackenzie to come out of surgery.

It was hours before a doctor came out to the waiting room to inform those waiting that Mackenzie was out of surgery and in a
private room. “She’s awake, but I must insist only two at a time in the room and don’t get her worked up. She’s in stable
condition, but that could change if she begins to hemorrhage,” the doctor said.
“Doctor,” Gordon began, unsure if he wanted to know the answer to his question, “the baby, did it survive?”
The doctor smiled. “Mother and son are both doing well.”
Gordon lit up with joy. Not only did the baby live, but it was also a boy. Everyone cheered and hugged Gordon.
They went up to the maternity ward where Mackenzie had been moved to after the surgery. Gordon knocked on the door and
went in. Mackenzie’s bed was already in an upright position, and next to the bed was a small plastic cradle just big enough to
hold their son. Richard hugged Mackenzie gently and kissed her forehead telling her how happy he was to see she was alright.
Gordon leaned over to kiss her lips, his hand on her arm. He walked over to the cradle and looked at his son. He was beautiful.
He looked normal. Ten fingers, ten toes, two eyes, no tail. He had a thick patch of dark locks. Gordon carefully picked him up and
held him in his arms. Instinctually the baby wrapped his little hand around Gordon’s finger. His little eyes opened partly, and
Gordon could see he had the same amber eyes as any Lycanthrope. He couldn’t help wondering just how much of him was
Lycanthrope and how much was mortal. He had to have the same powers the others had because he was three months early yet
strong and breathing on his own. The hospital staff was baffled.
Darrell looked at the baby over Gordon’s shoulder. “He’s a good-looking boy. I was worried he’d look strange.”
“Me too,” Gordon admitted.
Stanton took the baby from Gordon. Making baby sounds as he smiled at the child. “You did well, Mackenzie. He’s precious. So,
what are you going to call him?”
Gordon looked at Mackenzie. They hadn’t discussed baby names. “Something unique,” she said thoughtfully. “Joshua?”
Gordon turned up his nose. He didn’t like that one. “Travis?”
Mackenzie shook her head no. “How about Preston,” Aster offered. Actually, Gordon kind of liked it. He looked at Mackenzie and
figured she liked it too.
“Yeah, Preston Wilder,” Mackenzie smiled. “I think it suits him.”

There was a knock on the door, and two Detectives came into the room. They introduced themselves and asked if Mackenzie felt
up to answering a few questions. They started off with who had abducted her and where they had taken her. Then they asked
how she wound up here and where the abductors had gone.
“Are you aware that two bodies have turned up in the river? We’ve identified one as Donald Falcone and the other as Gorge
Falcone. Any idea of how they got from the farmhouse to the river?” One of the Detectives asked.
“How should I know? All I know is that Gordon found me and brought me to a hospital.”
“someone murdered the people holding you,” the other Detective commented.
“Then it sounds to me like you already have your answers,” Gordon said, putting his arm around Mackenzie’s shoulder.
“The coroner says both victims were killed by animals. What I wonder is how they ended up in the river, and you weren’t
massacred by wolves?”
“I had already found Mackenzie, and we were on our way to the hospital.”
“Were they still alive when you got away?” The Detective asked.
“I don’t know. I didn’t see them. I just found Mackenzie, and we got the hell out of there as fast as possible,” Gordon said calmly.
“Besides, it’s not the first time a body turned up in the river killed by animals. You can hardly put that on us.”
“Would you care to tell me how you got so much blood on you?”
“I don’t know there was blood all over the place. It was hard not to get covered in it.”
The Detectives looked at one another and then thanked them for their cooperation, and left the room. Gordon knew they were
talking in the hall and would likely come back in for him. He looked down at Mackenzie. “They are going to arrest me. I’m going
to prison. Will you wait for me?”
“You saved my life. Of course, I’m going to wait for you, and I’m going to pay for the best lawyer in the country to defend you,”
she promised.
“That’s ok; I already got a pretty good lawyer. I want you to stay in the community while I’m gone. There’s no telling what abilities
Preston has. Aster and the guys will be there to help you.”

As the night went on, the guys began to leave one by one until it was just Gordon and Mackenzie. While Mackenzie slumbered in
the bed, Gordon dozed on the chair in the corner. He wasn’t going to leave her side until she was ready to go home.
Early the next morning, the Detectives from the previous night returned with uniformed officers. “Mr. Wilder, you’re under arrest
for the murder of Gorge Falcone and Donald Falcone.”
The uniformed officer forced Gordon to get up and put his hands behind his back so he could cuff him. “Say goodbye to your
girlfriend because you’re going away for a long time.”
“No,” Mackenzie said, trying to get up.
“Stay in bed,” Gordon ordered. “Take care of yourself and Preston. Don’t worry about me.”