Chapter 8

• Hearing his daughters say they missed their mom was heartbreaking. It just reminded him of how much they’d lost. And the guilt he felt about his mistakes weighed on him. “Do you think I’m a failure of a father?”
• “What? No. We understand you’re lonely, Dad. Just don’t bring a strange woman home from the bar again. It was scary. The woman was weird, and I don’t think she was human like she said. I know you have a thing for human girls but promise you won’t see her again.”
• Payton cringed. “Paige’s right. That woman was creepy, and she yelled at us. We had to threaten to call the cops to get her to leave. No more drinking, Dad. Promise us.”
• “I promise, girls. It’s going to be a new chapter for us all this summer. I’m excited about going on the road with my girls. Papa Bear and his little cubs, taking on the world.”
• “Hey, Dad?”
• “Yeah, Payton.”
• “There’s this guy in Ritual-X in the cruiserweight division, and I was wondering—”
• “Not a chance in hell. You are not going anywhere near Cody Forester. I know he has all the young girls swooning over him, and he’s too old for you. Besides, he has a thing for Chase’s cousin, who started working there a few weeks ago.”
• Paige agreed, “Yep, Payton, he is into Haley.”
• “Dang it.”
• “I thought I told you, girls, you’re too young to date.”
• “Dad, we’re seventeen. We’re not little girls anymore. You need to stop worrying so much and let us grow up.”
• “You’ll always be my little girls,” he said, hugging them. “Don’t grow up too fast. The old man couldn’t take it.”
• “We won’t. We both want to fight, not worry about boys. We’re too young to settle down,” Paige said reassuringly.
• “Good, keep it that way. I swear you girls are going to be the death of this old man.”
• She shoved her father’s side playfully. “Stop saying you’re old. Do you realize all our friends have a crush on you?”
• “Now that’s creepy.”
• “Who are you telling? We can’t even have friends over because they always want to check out our hottie dad.”
• “Dad, speaking of dating. If you wanted to find someone, we’d understand. We know you were young when you had us and have your whole life ahead of you. Paige and I talked, and we know you took Mom’s passing pretty hard.”
• “I did. But I’m working on dealing with it. Maybe for now I just need my girls in my life until I can adjust. I think we all have a lot of changes to make for this to work.”
• “We love you, Dad.”
• “I love you too, girls.”
• ***
• Dylan sat in the back of the police cruiser, being transferred to the new jail, to wait for his court date. It was late, and the drive had been a long one to take him to the maximum-security prison for holding. He knew he was going to go away for a while this time if he didn’t think of something. Attempted kidnapping was a huge charge, and he had already been in jail several times. Not to mention the stalking and abuse charges.
• Moving his hips, he tried to keep the attention of the officer away from the back seat. The moon was full, and in just a few more minutes, his full power would be at its height. Extending a claw, he wiggled the nail into the cuffs, trying to pick the lock, but nothing happened.
• “Shit,” he grumbled.
• Being that he was a known criminal; a simple handcuff lock was nothing for the monstrous man. But he didn’t expect old-school silver handcuffs to be in the cards and wasn’t like breaking into houses like he once did. He assumed by now he would be on his way home, ready to take Anna as his unwilling bride, not being hauled off to jail.
• “Hey, cop. I need to take a piss.”
• “You’ll just have to hold it. We have an hour more to drive.”
• “I can’t. I have to go now. Come on. I know you don’t want me to piss myself in your cruiser.”
• Letting out an annoyed breath, the officer pulled over on the country highway, stopping the car with a jerk. “Fine. There’s no town close to here, so you’re going to have to go outside.”
• “Fine. Whatever. I just have to go.”
• With his hand on his gun, the human officer headed to let his prisoner out of the car. Dylan just stood there, staring.
• “What?”
• “I can’t do this with my hands cuffed behind my back.”
• “Can’t you hold it?” asked the unknowing officer, who wasn’t given the information on who Dylan really was.
• “No. I gotta go now. Please?”
• “Fine,” he said, unlocking the cuffs. “Hurry up. I need to get on the road.”
• As soon as the cuffs were free. Dylan smiled, rubbing his hands. When he turned to the officer, the man was looking up at the moon, clueless as to its power.
• “Beautiful, isn’t it?”
• “It sure is… Ahhh!”
• Within seconds. Dylan’s vicious claws swiped across the officer’s wrist so hard it almost severed his hand from his arm. Leaving him bleeding and dropping his gun, Dylan went on the attack, turning into a violent werewolf and biting down hard on the man’s neck. In the next few moments, the men screamed for mercy into the empty night. His cries echoed down the country road, miles away from anywhere.
• As the man’s body jerked, Dylan devoured his heart, taking his life force into his own being. With each kill, it was like a drug, making him stronger, faster, and more dammed to the evil forces than the last.
• As he stood to right himself in human form, he wiped his mouth with a lick of his lips and a maniacal laugh.
• “Now, time to find my bride,” he said, reaching to pull the gun from the bloody hand.
• Jumping into the driver’s seat, he sped off, leaving the officer dead in the street.