Monster

Rick's POV.

That girl. At first look, she looks like a young, semi creepy woman. Either her scars fascinate you or scare the hell out of you. I’m leaning towards the last one. Her eyes are emotionless, unless you ask her about what she is. Then there’s a burning wrath in them and THAT scares the shit out of me, and I’m not a fucking pussy so that says a lot.

All those scars. Hunters. I never thought they were real. It was a scary story our parents told us when we were kids. Other than that, I’ve never heard about them. If she’s telling the truth, they seriously fucked her up. What she has had to go through... By the looks of her many, many scars, she must have been kept hostage for a long time. Maybe years?

I’m sitting in the kitchen, thinking, when Janet walks in and puts a hand on my shoulder, snapping me out of my thoughts. “Thinking about the girl,” she asks. I nod and scratch my beard. “Yeah. There’s something about her.” Janet sits down on my lap and says, “she’s staying.”

“She doesn’t seem like she wants to.” Janet runs her fingers through my hair. “I know, but for now, she will. She’s a good girl.” I furrow my brows. “How can you be so sure,” I ask her. She smiles and pats my chest. “I just have a feeling.” Chuckling, I kiss her on the cheek. She always has a feeling and she’s usually right.

“We need to know what she is. To find out if she’s a threat to us. If not, we need to up the security. If there really are hunters, which I believe there are, we need to protect her and ourselves,” I say.

Janet nods. “Yeah. I’ll take Dalton up to the library and go through the lore. Maybe we can find some answers there.” Dalton is my Beta. We've known each other since we were children. He’s my best friend, so of course, I made him Beta and VP of our MC club.

I wrap my arms around Janet and kiss her cheek again. “You do that honey. I hope you find something, and if you do, don’t tell anyone.”

~~~~

Jason's POV.

I wasn’t able to sleep last night. Knowing that my mate was just out there in the forest. So, I decided to let out Malok and go for a run. Of Course, we couldn’t help ourselves. We just had to see her. So, we snook closer to the cottage and saw that she was sleeping on the ground outside.

Looking at her, I’m surprised that she doesn’t wake up and attack us with one of her knives. She must be exhausted from running. Maybe she’s already feeling a little safe here? I also know that if she sees the first signs of problems, she will run away from here. From me.

“We have to prevent that. We need her,” Maloc says.

“I know.”

She looks a little malnourished and thin which makes my need to protect her kick in. I Don’t know her, but I would give my life for hers.

I reluctantly let her sleep. I don’t want to look like a total creep. Taking a deep breath, Maloc and I inhale her scent of bonfire and jog further into the forest. I let Maloc take over so he can stretch out and run off some of his restless energy. We’re both frustrated. We finally found our mate, but she doesn’t seem like she wants to have anything to do with us. All we want is to be near her. To touch her. I’ve seen other mates go crazy when they found each other and locked themselves in a room for a week to fuck.

The need to mark my mate is very strong, but she doesn’t seem to feel that need. Maybe that’s because of what she is? What is that exactly? She smells very differently from a wolf. She smells... Warm?

I reach my favorite lake, shift back to myself and take a swim. The cold water clears my mind a little which I need. I swim for a long time and then I smell her. She’s close by. I look around but I can’t see her. Knowing that she’s out there, probably watching me, makes me smirk. Maybe she’s not that uninterested after all.

Just when I start to think about how she would look like swimming naked in the lake with me, I see Charlie run naked towards the lake and jump into the water. Not exactly the naked person I wanted to swim with.

“Hey fucker. How are you doing,” he asks. Kat’s smell disappears and it makes me irritated. “I’m fine,” I snap.

“Uh huh,” he says. “You always swim when you have a lot on your mind.” I scoff even though he’s right. It always helps me clear my mind and right now, Kat is on my mind. I want her so bad it hurts. My fucking chest feels tight, and my stomach is one big knot.

“Come on man, spit it out,” Charlie says. I sigh.“It’s just... I finally found my mate.”

Charlie smiles. “Yeah, that little badass woman. Man she can throw a punch.” I chuckle. He’s not wrong. She could knock me out with one punch like a fucking pro.

“I don’t know what to do,” I say. “She doesn’t want me and... “ I can’t finish that sentence, but Charlie does it for me. “It hurts.” All I can do is nod. I’m usually not the touchy-feely kind of guy, so I find this a little embarrassing.

“Look, Jason, I know it sucks. It’s not supposed to be this way, but unfortunately, it is, so you should look at it differently. You got a special mate. As far as we know, there’s no one like her and she’s badass.”

“I know that,” I snap at him again. I don’t need to be reminded of how fucking awesome she is.

“Alright then. Start by figuring out what she is. Talk to her…” He frowns, “If she’ll let you.” That makes me chuckle. If she’ll let me. I don’t really think she will, but it’s worth a try. Then again, I don’t want to be rejected again.

For Goddess’ sake, stop being such a pussy and just talk to her.

Without saying anything to Charlie, I get out of the lake and get dressed before I go back to the small cottage she’s staying at. When I get there, she’s not there and her scent is faint. I search around the forest, but I can’t find her. I highly doubt she went up to the pack house, but nevertheless, I go up there. The place is busy with people preparing for a meeting with another club tomorrow night and she’s definitely not here. Sighing, I go upstairs, and I find myself walking into the library where I find Janet and Dalton sitting at a large table full of open books.

I bow my head slightly at my Luna. “Sorry, Janet, I didn’t mean to interrupt.” She waves a hand in front of her “Don’t apologize, Jason. Come in.”

Walking over to the table, I look at all the books lying on it. “We’re just looking to see if we can find anything that would fit on Kat,” Janet says. I look at Dalton and it looks like the blood has drained from his face. “Uh Janet... I think you should see this.” He gives Janet an old book. “What is It, Dalton,” She asks.

He takes a deep breath and says, “I was looking at some old lore about all mythical creatures on earth and saw... Well, there's something about an old creature, last seen in 1459. It's called a hellcat. The description of its scent fits on Kat.” He looks at me, “She smells warm in some way.”

I nod. “To me, she smells like a bonfire.”

“Well, if it’s true, a hellcat is said to be...” He swallows. “Is said to be the ruler and protector of all supernatural creatures. Their Goddess is called Loxi. She’s a demon Goddess older than the moon Goddess herself. A hellcat is supposed to bring Loxi damned souls for her to torture forever in hell. Souls from seriously evil people. Loxi is the equivalent of the devil, and a hellcat is made from her.”

What the actual fuck? That can’t be true. “You’re shitting me, right? How can a demon Goddess protect all supernaturals? We’re not evil,” I say. Janet shakes her head “We’re not, but rogues can be. Just like humans, Supernaturals can be evil too. This is very interesting. Dalton would you please go get Rick.” He stands up “Of course.”

We can mind-link with each other, but if your Luna asks you to do something, you do it. When Dalton leaves, she looks at me with a big smile and asks me to sit down.

“So, what do you think about all of this?” What do I think about all this? I have no clue. If, and that’s a big if, this is all true, I think I got the biggest baddest mate ever but that also scares the shit out of me. Not that I found my mate but because of the whole ruler and protector thing.

“I don’t know what to think,” I say. “I mean, this can’t be real, right? An old mythical creature? She looks like a 25-year-old woman. She hasn’t been around since 1459. She can’t have.”

Janet just smiles. “Well, the only description of her scent fits this hellcat. That weird warm smell. It could be true.”

Rick walks into the library with furrowed brows. “Is this true? Could she actually be...” Janet shrugs, “It’s a possibility.” He shakes his head. “That’s bad. So fucking bad.” I raise my eyebrows and ask, "why do you think so?" He takes a deep breath and says, “because, if she’s the ruler over all supernatural’s, she can make us do things and bend our will to her liking.”

Janet shakes her head. “She's also the protector of all supernaturals. Why would she make us do things?” He scratches his neck with a frow. “I don’t like it.” Then he looks at me and asks, “what do you think?”

“I think we should talk to her, but we should be careful about it. You saw how she reacted when you asked her what she was. It shouldn’t be in the pack house but outside where she doesn’t feel trapped.” Rick nods before he says, “fine, go find her and bring her out to the backyard. Make sure that nobody is around.”

I shake my head. “She’s not here, she’s...” Then I smell her scent. It’s faint but it’s there. “Wait, I think she’s here. Let me go look.” Rick nods again. “We’ll be out back.”

With that, we all leave the library. I go out the pack house where her smell is strong. I see her walking across the lawn with a bag from the deli in town, so I jog after her, but she starts walking faster.

“Kat, wait.” She slowly turns around with a glare. I smile. I can’t help it. Just seeing her makes my stomach flutter. “I wondered if we could talk to you? Rick, Janet, and I.” She stiffens, and looks around. “Why?”

How can I explain this to her? Just ask her straight up or be vague? “We just have some questions:” She looks around again. “Ok, but not in the pack house!” I quickly shake my head before I say, “no, in the backyard, just like yesterday.” She relaxes a little and nods. “Ok.”

She follows me around back and I see that Rick and Janet are already there. Janet smiles but Rick looks tense. “Come sit down, Kat,” Janet says. I take a seat first and Kat reluctantly sits down next to me before she takes a sandwich out of the bag and starts eating. She doesn’t give a fuck if it’s rude or not which makes me smirk. I suddenly like that in a woman.

“What do you want,” she asks with her mouth full. Rick clears his throat. “We have done some research, and we would like to ask you a question.” Kat tenses. Janet still smiles her reassuring smile while Rick gets straight to the point. “Are you a hellcat?” Kat freezes and swallows before she looks around the yard.

“She’s scared,” Maloc whispers to me and I want to put her at ease, but I don’t know how.

Kat looks like she’s debating with herself. I bet that whatever her animal is, if she has one, is talking to her. Janet reaches a hand over the table to takes Kat's hand, but she flinches back.

“No, I’m not a hellcat.”

Janet gives her another reassuring smile. “You don’t have to be scared. You’re safe here.” Rick scoffs and Kat glares at him while Janet gives him a pointed look.

“I’m not a Hellcat or whatever you think I am.” She gets up and without thinking I reach for her hand to stop her from going. Just as my fingers brush hers, she flinches back with wide eyes like I just burned her. I raise my hands in surrender,

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to...”

Her eyes tear up, “No...I...” She holds out her hand. “Could you do that again?”

That surprises the hell out of me. I look at her and see that she’s crying which breaks my heart. Tears are running down her cheeks, and I want to wrap my arms around her and tell her that everything is alright.

Slowly reaching my hand out to her, I grace my fingers against hers again and she flinches back again, this time with a wince. Taking a couple of steps back, she swallows and says in a shaky voice, “I gotta go.” With that she turns around and runs away.