Deadly Beasts (The Curse of the Rose Book 1)

by T. M. Watkins

  Marty reported that many of my followers had returned, stating that they felt the curse lift. They didn't know that I was under a spell but many of them had said that it felt like a great weight had been lifted from their shoulders. Instinctively they thought of their master and wanted to know what was happening. There were also new members, ones that were fleeing from the beast that haunted their every step. Marty said that there were reports that vampires feared to walk the streets alone and that many had fled to the keep for protection. I couldn't imagine the keep being able to house them for too long before they would become a burden. The elders had discussed the lycans at great length and by the end of it, Marty reported that they agreed to one thing. All lycans were to be disposed of. They discussed their ideas, weighing up the options and agreed that a ruling would go out that if a vampire happened upon a lycan then they were to deal with it accordingly. I shook my head, thinking that this could become a war that would cost many lives. There was a tone in Marty's notes that I detected, one that indicated she wished for my return. I could not risk my beloved wife and child for a world that was slowly going mad and I would not venture anywhere without them. Marty and Nick had the power to be great leaders, if only they would believe in themselves. With a long and quiet huff, I returned the notes to my bag, looking to my sleeping love. Our time together has been short and I wanted an eternity with her. I was not going to risk losing her again. But I did worry for Nicolas and Martine, they have been so good to me when I deserved so little. No matter what I did, they stayed beside me and remained loyal. I didn't want them in the thick of a lycan and vampire war and I hoped that if things turned bad they would see sense and flee to this world. Giving up on a dynasty wasn't ideal, in fact it could open up a myriad of problems but I would rather have them alive. But their words about the way things were changing made me think that they might just be okay, that the vampires might survive the war if it eventuated. The problem was, it looked like one person was trying to take control in a sly and secretive way. It made me worry for the vampires as a race. How could one person rule them all?

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  Coming soon:

  Deadly Beasts Book 2 Divine Blood

  Excerpt from Chapter 1:

  She snorted awake when the sounds of a garage door rolled up, instantly her body sat up and looked at me.

  “Shit, he's home early. Get up, now!”

  “What?”

  “My husband. Get out of my house now!”

  She threw my clothes at me, searching for everything that I owned whilst completely naked. I had to say, standing here watching her bending over was a little distracting. She stood up and looked at me like I had grown an extra head.

  “Get dressed or I will push you out the back door naked!”

  “It's daylight, I can't go out there.”

  The woman snorted with laughter as she pulled on her underwear.

  “What are you, a vampire or something? Get out, now. If he finds you, he will shoot you.”

  “Honey, I'm home.” A deep voice echoed through the house.

  I rolled my eyes. “Well that's original.”

  “Shut up.” She hissed quietly. “Go through the laundry door to the right and be quiet.”

  Then she fled the room as she wrapped a silk dressing gown around her delectable body. I snapped out of it, wondering how I was going to avoid the sun and the deranged gun wielding husband. Dressing quickly, I pulled my phone out and made my way to the laundry. I could hear her being overly sugary to him to try and mask the fact that she was a cheat. He was trying to persuade her into moving their little saccharin fest into the bedroom and obviously she was hesitant. I suppose that I could call out that I was no longer in the bedroom and then run for my life but I don't think that a bullet in the back of the head would be good for me. I might lose hair there, god forbid I have a bald patch on my glorious mane. A bullet wound on my shoulder might give me more of an edge for picking up the ladies, nothing says bad assed than a gunshot wound. Knowing my luck, the wound would heal with the next feeding, or worse yet, the fool would get me on the backside, scarring my perkies. The ladies love to squeeze the perkies. No, we can't have the poor clueless sod realising that his whore of a wife has cheated on him. Tiptoeing through the laundry, ignoring the stinking pile of washing I carefully opened the back door. I couldn't help but think as I looked out at the overgrown back yard that I had to stop looking for someone that could replace the memory. All I was getting for my trouble was a woman that clearly wasn't worth it. As I closed the door, I could hear her moaning loudly. If it was to compensate for the noise she thought that I might make or if she knew that I would hear it and wanted me to think he was better than me, I do not know. But I swear the neighbours could probably hear her. My mind snorted with laughter, thinking that she was completely clueless if she thought the husband was better than me. If that were the case, why did she need to search elsewhere for sex?

  The shadow of the house protected me from the sun as I edged my way along the building. I stopped at the garden tap and looked at the large plastic bucket full of water, wondering if she was that lazy she couldn't get the plumber out to fix a leak. Then I saw the large, chewed on bone. It wasn't a little bone, this thing looked like it could be the leg of a cow which meant that the dog that was hiding in this jungle was going to be huge. My body stiffened, looking around the overgrown yard, wondering where the little demon was. The growling came from behind me, slowly I turned to see a large black dog behind me. I'm thinking he's a Doberman, he certainly looks like one. The teeth were bared and the lips rippled with the growl and I was about to start running maybe with a bit of terrified screaming. Screw the husband, I did not want teeth marks on my perkies. Okay, so teeth marks from a woman is fine but not from a frothing dog. I quickly scanned the yard and the fence that would be an effort to jump but considering that fangs will be chasing me, I know I will not have any issues. Taking a deep breath, I casually leaned down to the bone and picked it up.

  “Here boy, you want this?” I whispered.

  The dog continued to growl at me. I tossed it into the long grass and the dog ignored it. But the problem was, there was something in the long grass, something that the bone had hit. The yelp was enough to distract the dog and I ran for the fence, when I turned back the dog was barking and running after me. Worse yet, he had a friend. So now I had two nasty dogs chasing me and making such a racket that it was only a matter of time before the gun wielding husband was at the back door to investigate. The sun burned on the back of my neck as I jumped the wood paling fence, thumping to the ground on the other side. Satan one and Satan two were still barking loudly from the other side of the fence. I pressed myself hard against it, trying to get out of the sunlight. This yard was far more tidy, the house was on the large side and the woman sitting on the pool chair sunning herself was completely naked. She lifted up from her reclined position to look at what was going on and covered herself, screaming that there was a pervert in her yard. I wanted to sigh and I wanted to tell her that she wasn't my type but it all had to be forgotten in favour of escaping the husband that had just appeared. And yes, this one had a gun too.

  Shots rang out as I cleared the side fence and ran through the blistering morning sun. I had made it some distance down the street before I turned back, the gun totting husband had retreated and I was left standing under a tree. At least here I couldn't get into trouble, I was at the edge of a front yard, standing under a tree while I waited for my body to regenerate itself. I flicked through the contacts of my phone, dialling Marty. Of course it was likely that she would be asleep by now and I would have no hope in rousing her. It went straight to her message bank and I left a message for my darling sister in the hope that she might not be asleep just yet. I waited for ten minutes, figuring that Marty was a lost cause, I rang one of the followers. It was a life that I was not accustomed to as yet. Marty had taken to it with ease, lapping up the attention of those who were returning to the family.

>   The rule of the Lancaster family dynasty had been passed to us to rule equally, William had left it to us in favour of following his heart and his love. Now we ruled over a family line that was as old as time itself, it could be traced back to the beginning and was a noble family to be associated with. I could only hope that Marty would do it justice because I knew that I wasn't. This morning was a testament to that one. In the days after William had left, a few of the followers had returned as they said they would. They were always loyal to William and his family but the curse of being blinded to the antics of his former wife had made William difficult to deal with. Now that the curse was broken and he was his former self, his beloved followers were coming back. The first to come back was a dear old friend, Antonio. As I scrolled up to his name, I remembered the bleak day he left. He didn't want to, he always saw William as a father figure and it pained him to see him the way that he was now that Carmella was hanging around. It didn't help that William's former wife Carmella, had made several passes at him. He said to me that he couldn't be around a woman like her, she was always about the power that being a master's wife could bring. And William being cursed didn't help. Of course no one knew that he was cursed until recently, we just thought that he was blissfully blinded in love.

  The phone rang several times before he grumbled at me.

  “What do you want?”

  “A ride home would be great.”

  “You're still out at this hour? Are you mad?”

  I sighed loudly and leaned on the tree, watching the burn mark on my forearm slowly healing.

  “Look, I fell asleep in the woman's bed and her husband came home. I really don't want to discuss how you failed as my wingman last night.”

  “Are you kidding me?” He roared with laughter. “Oh my stars Nicky, you do know how to pick 'em. Where are you?”

  “Under a tree.”

  “Location, dimwit.”

  I looked around the street, it was pure suburbia and not a sign to be had. The street was long and to find a street sign would take some serious searching. In the distance, over the line of the trees there was the edge of a shop sign.

  “I can see the sign for the East Village Shopping Centre.”

  “So go there and I'll pick you up.”

  “What? How am I going to cover that distance and not be burned to a crisp?”

  “Well what street are you on Nick?”

  I sighed loudly.

  “Fine but if you see a blackened charring on the ground just know I am coming back to haunt you.”

  He laughed and something caught my eye, a bike had been left on the neighbouring front lawn.

  “Gotta go, ten minutes, okay?”

  “Sure.”

  I wasn't a fan of stealing things so I went and knocked on the front door. A woman answered, leaning on the door frame in a way that made me want to drop to my knees and beg her to let me do dastardly things to her. Her dress was tight fitting across her hour glass figure, pushing her cleavage up into two fine balls of heaven. Long strands of auburn hair were curled around them, her lips were the softest pink I had ever seen and she had big blue eyes. Powder blue, perfect and sultry.

  “How can I help?”

  I wished I could be so bold as to tell her that she could help by doing any number of things but she probably had a husband and he probably had a gun so I decided to keep Nick Junior in the fabric cave and I behaved myself.

  “I uh, seem to have misplaced my car last night and I need to get to the shopping centre where a friend is going to pick me up. I was wondering if I could borrow that bicycle as I am short on time.”

  She raised an eyebrow and looked past me to the offending item on her front lawn.

  “Did you have a sleepover somewhere?” She grinned at me.

  “Uh yeah.” I pointed to the jungle down the road. “Wasn't aware that she was married.”

  “None of them ever are.” She said dryly.

  The statement was a clear indication that I wasn't the first to do the walk of shame out of that house.

  “I can pay you for the bike and if you've got a lock I can leave it locked at the shops.”

  The woman frowned and turned into the house.

  “Castian!” She screamed. “Your bike is on the lawn again.”

  I was a little taken aback as she bellowed quiet loudly, she had a set of lungs on her. She sighed and turned back.

  “I can give you a lift if you like, I have to go and get some groceries.”

  The kid grumbled his way past his mother and I was shocked as I watched the brown haired boy look up at me. He had stunning green eyes and it was like I was looking into the past, to the child version of me. The kid looked about ten, his hair was a mess just like mine was, his body was tall and lanky. Everything about this kid was making my mind scream at me, asking if it was possible.

  About the author

  TM Watkins lives in Brisbane, Australia with her family. When she's not working or running around after her family, she spends her days contemplating the next adventure for her characters and her nights writing about them. Under the pen name of xMishx on Wattpad, she has written many books that are still available to read for free.

  Deadly Beasts first appeared on Wattpad and was originally intended as a solitary book but the love of a particular character inspired the next tale.

  Acknowledgements

  Images purchased from Shutterstock

  Music mentioned in chapter nine:

  Kings of Leon: Sex on Fire

  Writer(s): Anthony Caleb Followill, Matthew Followill, Ivan Nathan Followill, Nathan Followill, Jared Followill, Caleb Followill

  Copyright: Coffee Tea Or Me Publishing, Martha Street Music, Music Of Windswept, Mcfearless Music, Windswept Music, Songs Of Southside Independent Music Publishi, Followill Music

  Muse: Undisclosed Desires

  Writer(s): Matt Bellamy, Matthew James Bellamy

  Copyright: Loosechord Limited

  Ke$ha: Tic Toc

  Writer(s): Lukasz Gottwald, Benjamin Levin, Kesha Sebert

  Copyright: Where Da Kasz At?, Kasz Money Publishing, Matza Ball Music, Dynamite Cop Music