The True Beast (A Full Moon Mercy Novel) (shifter / MC romance)

by Ana W. Fawkes

  “No,” Leah said. “I don’t even know what’s happening with you. Seems like you’re growing by the minute.”

  “Thanks for that,” Debbie said. She touched her stomach. “It hurts.”

  “What does it feel like?”

  Debbie looked at Leah. “Like I’m hungry.”

  “Do you need something to eat?”

  “Hungry people usually eat.”

  Leah rolled her eyes. “Can I get you something? I’ll run upstairs if you need.”

  “That’s my problem,” Debbie said. “The urge and hunger for what I want…”

  Debbie lowered her head. She put her hands to her face. She began to cry. Leah let her go for a few seconds and then slowly crept across the couch to Debbie. When she touched Debbie’s back, Debbie jumped. She lifted her head with tears streaming down her face.

  “Your face looks like hell,” Debbie whispered.

  “Probably not as bad as yours,” Leah said.

  “You’re a bitch.”

  “So are you.” Leah paused. “You know, you can tell me whatever you’re feeling. I understand… sort of understand all of this. With Lucas. The club. You.”

  “You want to know what I’m hungry for?” Debbie asked.

  “Yes. Maybe I can help.”

  Debbie forced a smile. “You can’t help me.”

  “Try me.”

  Debbie put her face inches from Leah’s.

  “Leah, my hunger isn’t for food… it’s for flesh. For blood. Animal… or human.”

  6

  Seth sat on his bike outside a bar. He could have taken a quick ride and come back to the club to finish his night. He could have easily buried himself deep in a whiskey bottle and enjoyed stories and laughter with the rest of the guys. There would always be a chance to prove himself to Vince and the rest of the club. Full Moon Mercy wasn’t built on one chance only situations. Vince wanted Seth to have that chance to make a hit that would change the club forever. But Seth couldn’t do it. He froze… not out of fear, but out of the desire to shift and kill that way.

  If the urge to shift couldn’t be contained, then at least Seth knew he could satisfy himself elsewhere. He needed a woman and he needed to take her.

  Seth stepped from the bike and took off his helmet. He then walked to the bar and inside. The place was busy and the eyes that landed on him were a mixed variety. Some people looked away, recognizing him as part of Full Moon Mercy. Others stared, probably wondering where the rest of the crew was. Traveling alone and causing trouble was a risky thing. Respect went deep in the town of Mercy, but with respect came power and that power was best controlled and used within a group.

  Seth walked to the bar and ordered a beer. From the corner of his eye he caught sight of a woman sitting three spots down. She was alone, her finger picking at the label of her beer.

  She would be perfect.

  Seth sniffed the air and could tell the woman was nervous. She didn’t want to be alone. She wanted to be protected.

  This would his woman for the night. She would give him all he needed and he would give the protection she desired in return. Seth already felt better about himself. He already felt empowered, like nothing could hurt him.

  He backed away from the bar and looked around. No matter the size of the men in the bar, Seth knew with one lunge forward, his clothes would fall off his body and he would shift into something much bigger and stronger than anything they’d ever seen in their lives.

  Seth walked to the woman and worked his way next to her.

  “It’s best to drink cold,” Seth said.

  He tapped his beer bottle to the woman’s.

  She looked at him and smiled.

  Was she beautiful? Yeah. Her eyes were bright and innocent, full of fear, leaving Seth already feeling warmth throughout his body. It was the same kind of feeling he felt when watching that couple walk into the apartment at Leah’s place.

  “What are you doing here alone?” Seth asked.

  “What are you doing here alone?” the woman asked right back. “I haven’t seen any of your other guys here.”

  “We don’t always have to travel in a pack,” Seth said. She laughed at his own subtle pun. “Sometimes it’s fun to go alone.”

  “Is that so?” the woman asked.

  “That beer is probably too warm. Let me get you a cold one.”

  “Okay.”

  Seth downed his beer and ordered two more.

  “I’m Abby,” the woman said. “Just so you know.”

  “Well, Abby, I’m Seth. For the record, I don’t like drinking at bars. I hate it.”

  “Then why are you here?” Abby asked.

  “I came for something I want. I’ve found it.”

  “You don’t know the trouble you’re stepping into, Seth,” Abby said. “You’re better off smiling at me one more time and leaving.”

  Seth curled his lip. Was this a challenge? He’d already fucked up one thing tonight, he would not fuck this up.

  “I’m not afraid of anything,” Seth said. “Let me ask you something. Are you in danger here?”

  “Here?” Abby asked. “No. But if I keep talking to you, and if I dare to leave with you, then there will be danger.”

  Seth put a hand to Abby’s back and moved closer to her. She looked at him surprised, but she didn’t pull away.

  “Bring on the danger, babe,” Seth said. “I couldn’t live with myself knowing there was a beautiful woman like yourself, sitting here because you think you had to. You can do anything you want.”

  “Including you?” Abby asked and bit her lip.

  These were the moments when Seth really loved being part of Full Moon Mercy. Women loved the biker attitude and it seemed they were attracted in a different sense, as if somehow they knew the crew weren’t completely human.

  “Come on, babe,” Seth said. “Don’t worry about that beer. I’ve got plenty to share and offer.”

  Seth stood up and Abby hesitated. He put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close to him. He could smell the fear radiating from her. Maybe she wasn’t exaggerating when she suggested trouble wouldn’t be far away.

  “You have nothing to worry about,” Seth said.

  “Except the guy that thinks he’s my boyfriend,” Abby said.

  Seth laughed. “I don’t give a shit about that. You coming with me or not?”

  Seth backed up and watched as Abby stood. The fire of desire raged deep in his body. There were two choices right now to control it. Shift or fuck. That was it. One of the two would happen tonight.

  “This is bad,” Abby warned.

  “Not with me, babe.”

  “Yeah, well, you might want to turn around.”

  Seth sighed and looked over his shoulder. He looked at the tall man walking toward him. The guy’s shoulders were a mile wide. He had tattoos on his neck, under his eyes, and the black bandana matched the last piece of the puzzle to make this guy look tough. And that was it. He looked tough.

  As the man came toward Seth, he didn’t feel fear. He gauged the rest of the surroundings. There were other guys with the big man, but they would need command to fight. The big man himself had nothing but muscle. He was more focused on Abby than on Seth.

  Seth tugged at his leather and said, “You better think twice.”

  “Fuck you,” the man said. “I don’t see anyone else here.”

  When the big man was within reach, Seth wasted no time in finishing whatever was about to be started. With a single fist, he punched the guy in the stomach. The big man hunched over and let out a deadly cry.

  Seth shook his hand. “That fucking hurt.”

  “I’ll kill you,” the man said between breaths. His eyes were watering.

  Seth grabbed the big man by the back of his shirt. “No, you won’t kill me. I’ll tear you limb from fucking limb before you would know what happened to you.”

  Seth wasn’t done though. He had one more fist. With a vicious uppercut, Seth brought the guy
off his feet. Blood sprayed and then man landed back on his feet, stumbled back, and fell to the ground.

  The entire bar seemed to go silent.

  Seth put his bloody hand out for Abby to take.

  “Come on, babe,” he said. “Let’s get out of here.”

  Seth kicked the door open the bar and led Abby out of the place. She hurried up next to him and wrapped her arms around the front of him. Seth lifted her and kept walking. She kissed him deep, her hands running through his hard.

  “That was so hot,” she whispered. “I owe you big time, Seth.”

  “Trust me, I’ll cash in everything you owe tonight.”

  Seth smiled. At least one of his urges would be satisfied tonight.

  7

  Lucas rode side by side with Cooper. Lucas had no idea what the hell was going on, but judging by how fast Cooper insisted on riding, it couldn’t have been anything good. In the back of Lucas’s mind he wasn’t comfortable with Leah and Debbie being alone. He hoped they didn’t tear each other apart. More so, he hoped whatever the hell Debbie wanted didn’t scare Leah away. Accepting Lucas’s life may have sounded easy to do - a biker who could shift into a werewolf - but it was anything but easy. There were risks everywhere, all the time.

  Cooper sped up behind a car. For a second Lucas thought Cooper was going to hit the back of the car. At the last second, Cooper made a quick right and sped around the car. He then waved his hand, signaling for Lucas to do the same.

  As Lucas added more throttle, the bike roared louder. It made Lucas feel more alive. It made his heart race. He felt like he wanted to shift. That would have been a hell of a sight to see. Lucas couldn’t imagine it though, the amount of damage that would do the bike.

  Lucas cut around the car and then began to follow Cooper as he moved in and out of the traffic through Mercy. They then cut to the left and started down into the residential area of Mercy. The ride didn’t finally come to an end until they were damn close to the border of Mercy. The houses and apartments down there weren’t the best looking, and it’s where the most trouble brewed. There were a lot of drugs and violence down there. Being so close to the Mercy border, the lines for other crews to cross and deal were greyed out. Mercy PD was supposed to monitor the activity, but they mostly cared about keeping the bullshit contained. Any real big problems, especially including the Saal crew or the Reckingdune crew, were left for Full Moon Mercy to take care of.

  Cooper continued down to a small alley cut between two rundown apartment buildings. The smell was of shit and neglect. At the end of the alley, Lucas saw the problem. There was a man on the ground, blood everywhere, and standing over him was Ian, with a gun pointed straight ahead.

  They cut the engines on their bikes and Lucas ran in front of Cooper to Ian.

  “What the fuck…”

  “Lucas, don’t,” Ian warned.

  Lucas looked and saw a gun pointed at him. A man stood about ten feet away with a handgun in each hand. One pointed at Ian, one pointed at Lucas.

  “Don’t fucking move,” the man ordered.

  Lucas didn’t give a shit. He reached for his gun and pointed it at the man.

  “You’ve got two guns pointed at you,” Lucas said. “Put your guns down.”

  “Fuck you, biker boy,” the man yelled.

  “You shouldn’t have come here,” Ian said. “I shouldn’t have called for help.”

  “What the fuck is this?” Lucas asked.

  “Personal,” Ian said.

  Lucas wondered where Cooper was. His answer came a few seconds later when a wolf jumped from the second floor landing of the back of the apartments. The wolf came down and the man turned and began to fire both guns. The bullets may have hit Cooper’s thick fur and skin, but it didn’t matter. They would hurt, but they wouldn’t severely harm or kill.

  Cooper came down on the man and the two handguns went sailing. The man was on his back, staring into the eyes of a hungry wolf.

  “Cooper,” Lucas called out. “What the fuck are you doing?”

  Cooper looked at Lucas, showing his massive, hungry fangs. Lucas realized then that he had to babysit both Cooper and Ian now.

  “Let him go,” Ian said to Lucas. “Let him tear the piece of shit apart.”

  “Why?”

  Ian ignored Lucas.

  “Do it,” Ian yelled to Cooper. “Do it.”

  “Help me!” the man yelled. “What the fuck is this… help me…”

  Cooper put his face down to the man’s face. His mouth slowly opened. It was large enough to take the man’s entire head in his mouth and with one bite, the man would be decapitated.

  Lucas could hear Cooper breathing. The deep breaths of temptation, wanting to feast. Cooper backed away from the man. He hurried to get back to his feet. By the time he did, Cooper stood and shifted back to human form. He then went up behind the man and took him by the arms.

  “Move,” Cooper ordered.

  “What the hell… where’s that… oh shit… another one…”

  The man was in complete shock. How could he not be? He just had a massive wolf jump him and now that wolf was a human.

  Lucas knew nothing good would come of this situation and he still had no idea why it happened.

  Cooper brought the man to Ian. He then broke away and ran back to his bike to get his clothes and get dressed. Lucas looked at Ian to ask him what was going to happen now, but Ian gave the answer with the pull of the trigger. The gun went off and the bullet went through the heart of the man. He stumbled back and fell.

  A second one dead.

  The silence that fell was intense. Lucas had his hands in fists, wanting to fight Ian again.

  “Bro, what the hell is going on here?” Lucas asked. “I better get some answers right now.”

  Ian held his gun out for Lucas to take. “Take it. I’m done here.”

  Lucas took the gun and tucked it away. Cooper walked to the scene and looked to the two dead bodies and then to Lucas.

  Lucas shook his head.

  “This piece of shit right here,” Ian said as he kicked the second dead man, “he deserved it.”

  “Why?” Lucas asked.

  “He beats his girlfriend and her daughter. Time and time again. Mercy PD doesn’t do shit about it though. They keep letting him slide and slide.”

  “Christ, Ian,” Lucas said. “We’re not vigilantes here. This isn’t our problem.”

  Ian looked at Lucas. “It’s mine. I called Cooper to help me because he would understand the urge. I didn’t expect you to come.”

  Lucas looked at Cooper.

  “I didn’t know a thing,” Cooper said. “He said he was in trouble.”

  “Before I could get to him, his buddy came out and tried to take me down,” Ian said. “So I had to shift and take care of things. I wanted to put a bullet in this one though. He deserved the bullet.”

  “Fine,” Lucas said. “It’s done now. You two can clean this mess up. I’ll call Chief Charlie and give him the heads up of some potential gang activity down here. Make it seem official.”

  Ian shook his head. “No, bro, that’s not going to work.”

  “Why not?” Lucas asked.

  Before Ian could answer, the sound of squealing tires cried out. Lucas glanced down the alley and saw headlights coming and coming quick. Someone had called for a little backup.

  “Oh fuck,” Lucas said.

  “What do we do now?” Cooper asked.

  Lucas looked at Cooper, then Ian. Tonight was going to get bloody. They could fight this out man to man, but it wasn’t worth the waste of time. Whatever score Ian had to settle was his problem. Right now, Lucas needed to make sure he, Cooper, and Ian could get back to the club, and to make sure nobody saw what had happened or what would happen.

  “Step back and shift,” Lucas ordered. “Let them come out of the car. Get a head count and then attack. Just go for the kill so there’s less to clean up. Got it?”

  “Okay,” Cooper said.

&nb
sp; “I can’t fucking wait,” Ian growled.

  Lucas and the two guys slipped into the cover of darkness. After a few steps, Lucas turned and lunged into the air. He felt his heart swell and his clothing fall from his body as his arms and legs grew to their massive, animal size. He took a deep breath of air through his animal nose and opened his mouth, ready for an unfair fight. It wasn’t Full Moon Mercy policy to just attack people and hurt them. But sometimes there were circumstances that were beyond the control of the club.

  Lucas looked to his left and saw Cooper. His eyes were a deep yellow and glowed. He snarled his lip and nodded. To Lucas’s right, Ian was crouched down, defiantly, licking his mouth, waiting for the call.

  “Oh, fuck,” someone yelled. “They fucking killed them. They shot… they… look at this mess…”

  Lucas growled from deep within his chest. It rumbled his body and went down to the ground. The rumbling was the signal to Cooper and Ian, but it also drew the attention of the two men standing at the bloody scene of their dead friends.

  The three wolves emerged from the darkness and the men hurried to pull out guns.

  “Holy fuck,” one of the men said. “I’ve never seen anything that big before.”

  Lucas showed his teeth and kept moving.

  “Shoot them,” the other man said.

  “You do it,” the first man said.

  “We do it together. Hurry. Kill these fucking things.”

  Fucking things?

  That was the line for Lucas. Strangers, victims, whatever the hell these men were, they were reduced to nothing but prey in Lucas’s eyes and mind as he let his deepest animal instinctive needs come forth. He jumped at the first man. The man began to shoot. The gun sounded, bullet after bullet flying by Lucas, a few grazing him. Ian went for the second man. The man was so scared he didn’t even pull the trigger once.

  Lucas bit into the first man’s throat and then backed away. The man reached for his throat with shaking hands. He looked to his right and saw Ian devouring the other man. Biting and tearing at flesh. The man was long since dead, yet Ian continued to rip away at him.

  Lucas hurried to Ian and rammed his head into Ian’s side. Ian flew off the mangled body and skidded to a halt. He then looked at Lucas and showed his teeth. Lucas shook his head. He didn’t feel like doing this with Ian. Not again.