Her mother had brought her in when she was a little baby of maybe two years old, seeking refuge. A few years later, her mother died of heart failure and the clinic—it was all they had there—hadn’t been able to help her survive the issues.
Orphaned and alone, Ceci was taken in by a few members of the clinic, and while no one took sole custody of the child, she was very much well loved by those who met her.
If there was anyone whom Ceci had a close—even paternal—connection it would be Rocko, who not only gave her a place to stay next to the clinic, but also gave her a job as soon as Ceci turned fifteen.
A whole decade of working and living with the people there, Cecilia had proved to have little ambitions at all.
“I love it here,” she had insisted when Rocko once asked if she wanted to explore the world outside their little town.
“It’s all I have.”
But even if she did love this tiny little town with its tiny little houses and home-grown businesses, she couldn’t deny it got boring here. She had attended school the next town over, and while she was just as familiar with the kids there as they were with themselves, she was still vastly ignored. It probably didn’t help that most of everyone saw her as a pity case, so she didn’t have many friends at all.
Ceci was on her own, had been for most of her life, but she was happy because she still had caring people who watched over her.
When she turned 21, Rocko had even allowed her very first drink—she loved his cocktails, but never ordered another one since.
Now, at age 25, Ceci could be called a town expert since she knew everything about her little home.
She wouldn’t deny she did feel some fear at the thought of wolves outside, even if it was shrugged off often. Ceci had never had an issue with wolves before aside from knowing they were kind of annoying scavengers that liked to take stuff that wasn’t theirs.
This abrupt change… where women were going missing, where people were fading from people to names and pictures on posters… it was frightening.
Cecilia had read the missing posters, had seen the pictures, and she noticed something about all of those women’s faces that she probably shouldn’t have out of human decency.
They were all skinny and gorgeous women…
She was neither skinny nor gorgeous.
It was shallow of her to think, immediately after seeing the posters, that she would be okay. And for a while, her hypothesis had been proven correct.
Women went missing and while she had walked home at night, nothing happened to her. She knew these wolves were not like regular wolves… she had read books, she had read up on the situation.
They were dealing with more than animals from the forest.
But at least they had a well-known M.O so there was some comfort in that at least… right?
It was ironic that this rare moment of selfish and even arrogant mindset would be the reason why Ceci had gotten overconfident, why she had snorted when Rocko expressed concern for her wellbeing—and thusly, why Ceci had been an easy target that night.
The last of the sunlight was fading into the deepest shades of blue that made the night appear beautiful. The moon was just barely peeking over the sharp edges of the mountain range that surrounded their forest.
Its face was a deep yellow, huge and amazingly vast as it ascended from the horizon and towards the sky. Ceci watched the face of the moon for a while as she strode down the familiar streets, sighing to herself as the summer warmth faded to a fresh and cool breeze that caressed her cheeks and teased her wavy hair.
The walk to her apartment near the clinic was only fifteen minutes away from Big Rocko’s Tavern. If she was in a hurry, ten minutes, and on times she liked to take her time, it would be twenty minutes. This should not have been a night where Ceci took her time…
She was maybe ten minutes away from her apartment when she heard it… in the distance.
It was a long and extended howl, one that rose high into the heavens. Ceci felt a chill run through her skin, make her limbs shake with unease and short bursts of adrenaline made her stomach churn.
It wasn’t until she glanced up that she noticed the moon was more pronounced that she finally felt something cold settle into her stomach.
Swallowing thickly, the young woman hugged her arms around herself and continued on her way, increasing her pace from a leisurely stroll to a brisk walk. Another howl followed the first one and Ceci felt her stomach wobble when she vaguely realized it was far closer than the first one had been.
Her nerves began to react, making her body feel heightened with attention. Suddenly, she felt like she was being watched, and a cold sweat began over the flesh of her neck.
Heart pounding, Ceci threw wary glances at her surroundings. She was alone. The streets where she was now were usually bereft of people, but now they were completely deserted.
“This place is a cursed one.” One of the patrons at the bar had said, nursing a cold beer and staring grimly at one of the windows that faced the forest.
Ceci had overheard him mutter to himself, had paused for just a moment to listen as she held to a tray of food and drink. “No doubt about it. These wolves are damned… and they have picked this place to feast until none remain.”
Shaking her head furiously, Ceci continued her walk, laughing at herself for getting so easily spooked about the words of some silly drunkard who had stumbled out of their bar and never returned.
It wasn’t the first time she had heard people mutter about their town like it was cursed. She doubted it would be the last.
Still the unsettled sensation refused to give to the soothing comfort of logic. Her footsteps did not slow down, but kept their brisk pace, and while her lips now curled into a wan smile, her heart was still beating uncomfortably hard in her throat.
She was two minutes away from her home, from safety. Her bed and a warm shower were within reach and Cecilia had already begun to calm down and breathe easily… until the light of the moon above shown down over unfamiliar figures standing right in the middle of the road.
They were men. Tall and gangly looking men whose features were indescribable to Ceci, the light of the moon above was strong but not strong enough to distinguish friend from foe.
Something in her told her to stop, to turn another way and find another direction home, yet her feet were already pacing out a steady rhythm Ceci was far too nervous to break now. She just hoped that she would be ignored.
These men were restless, moving about and speaking to each other in gruff grunts that were indecipherable.
All she could hear was how sometimes they would break into fits of laughter so harsh that it made her insides freeze. Everything came to a brief standstill when she heard their laughter stop without warning.
“HEY!” Cecilia heard, her eyes going wide as she foolishly reacted to the call.
Her gaze rose over its place on the ground to meet with one of the men, and she felt her body grow still with alarm.
She didn’t know how she knew, but she did. She knew as intimately as she knew that she was in more than danger now, because one look only made her mind click with revelation.
These were not regular men. These were not simply degenerates looking out for a good time that meant worse times for her.
These men were them. Monsters that had risen from fairytales and into their modern world abruptly.
And suddenly it made sense.
Why it had only been women that were disappearing, why the woods were feared more than ever.
It made sense why there were no coincidences when it came to the full moon.
She could see it on their faces, the way they contorted between half-men and half-animal. Their eyes bounced off light like that of beasts, their noses elongated past their faces to resemble deformed snouts, teeth bunching out of their lips in canine jags of jaws.
She had heard tale of sightings of men like these…
Cecilia was a deer caught between headlights, star
ing wide and gasping short frightened breaths as she saw this group saunter toward her.
Fear didn’t strike until she could clearly see their faces, and it wasn’t until she saw one of them grin widely at her—all teeth and jagged edges—that she felt her body spook into a sprint.
“Hey, baby come back!” she heard as she turned and ran, gasping far too hard.
Ceci could hear them laugh, hear them making some other comments she couldn’t quite catch before one of them erupted one loud and soul tearing howl.
Cecilia ran, wanting nothing more than to return home, but knew that if she went there… they would know where she lived.
She made a sharp turn right, then another turn down an alley, and she could hear them catch up. Their breaths were hard against the wind, sounding like vague huffs that Cecilia could feel on her neck.
Suddenly she heard a snarl, felt a snap of teeth just shy of her elbow. A shriek startled out of Cecilia’s throat, and she could hear the beasts behind laugh in response.
Tears burned in her eyes, making her gasps become harsh wheezing pleads as she tried to escape. In her fear and anxious desperation to escape, Cecilia found herself turned around, unable to recognize her surroundings as she had booked it into the woods.
The realization of her mistake—of this insanely idiotic blunder—only made her already building fear for her life skyrocket. She had given up familiar streets for unknown towering branches and shifting shadows of the dark.
She had only been able to take a few more steps into the unknown before gravity took hold of one of her feet and yanked her down an unexpected decline. The scream that began in her throat ended out in a feeble cry of pain as Cecilia tumbled down the rivers of shadows and sharp jagged rocks.
The ground evened out, her ribs aching and her mouth tasting of blood. Her body finished rolling, falling hard against the trunk of a tree.
Her skull smacked hard against the wood, making her already dizzy eyesight become riddled with spots and heaving visions that made no sense.
Groaning, Cecilia tried to push herself to her feet, grimacing when she felt the skin of her knees sting violently.
“Whoa there, baby,” the words were warbled and strange in her ears.
Adrenaline surged clarity back into her head when Cecilia realized who the voice belonged to. Blinking up, she spotted the same man whom had called her out, waltzing towards her with a smile that stabbed into her eyes.
“Have a nice trip?”
Wolves—huge and impossibly wide—bled into sight and beneath the shattered fractions of moonlight that burst through the canopy above. They stared at her with nothing short of amused starvation and black desire.
“P-please,” Ceci croaked out, whimpering when one of her palms slid roughly against the wood of the tree. It hurt.
She begged, “Please, don’t… don’t kill me.”
“Why would we want to kill you?”
The man chuckled, and the other wolves let out sounds that were rough huffs of breath and wheezing that might have been laughs. Might have been growls.
“It makes no sense to kill such a pretty bride.”
This made no sense to Ceci.
“What—what do you mean?”
The man shook his head, snorting through his snout, “I guess introductions are called for, all things considered. I’m Caleb, this here is my pack, and you? You are the next in line to expand our pack into one of the biggest around. It’s a pretty ingenious idea, and I’m sure you’re familiar with it, but we’ve been looking for pretty little things like you with hips like yours… You’ll be popping out litters of pups far easier than the others, I’m sure. Don’t you think so, Kip?”
“Oh I know so, Cal.”
One of the wolves spoke, its skin shifted slightly between animal and man.
Ceci stared in terrified awe. “I reckon she’ll last much longer too… just look at all that flesh…”
Caleb gave a sound that might have been a purr of satisfaction, his eyes honing right on hers, black with lust.
“She’s rather pretty… not bad for my third bride, eh?”
The group let out a few joined howls that opened into malicious laughs.
Ceci swallowed, shaking and gasping faster now that she understood what they wanted. This was much worse than death… and right now, she wished they had just killed her, wished that when she fell… she had fallen to her death.
A babble of pleadings and sobs exploded from Ceci’s mouth as she saw them approach. Her wide eyes searched wildly through the darkened woods to find anything that could serve as a weapon, literally anything that could help her.
Caleb was barely a few feet away, his expression staining her mind with an image that would never leave her, and Cecilia let out a final shriek, hoping that someone could save her.
The end of her shriek ended in an abrupt sound that was so explosive, it drilled into her ears and made her curl into herself instinctively. The sound seemed to have surprised her attackers as well, and they all glanced in the direction of the source.
Through a single column of moonlight, another man stood, one of his hands held a small pistol in his hands high in the air. It was difficult to see his face, yet his body was tall and strong, muscles flexing tightly beneath his clothes.
“I hate to interrupt your little party,” the man spoke, his voice grave and barely hiding disgust.
“But you seem to be in the wrong part of the forest here.”
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Romance: Bearilicious: BBW Paranormal Bear Shifter Romance Collection (Werebear, Bear Shifter, BBW Paranormal Romance) Page 25
