excerpt

One
He hit the ground hard, the stones and sticks of the forest floor digging into his scraped palms as he tried to break his fall. It didn't do much good, though, when you had a heavy-footed oaf standing on your back to drive your face into the dirt. Jayden was not having the best day."Get up, fag-boy." The growled words punctuated with a vicious kick to his ribs."Come on man, we need to go. Someone could have heard him yell. I ain't going back to prison for no cocksucker, Billy. I won't face the pack either just 'cause you wanna get even. They'll skin you like they did your daddy." Heavy footsteps thudded through the ground to Jay's ear as one of the two thugs ran off, leaving just Billy next to him.For years, Billy tormented Jay, for no other reason than the fact he happened to be a Goth and liked to dress differently. Rednecks like Billy-Bob Jr. (seriously, can you believe his name) saw the long hair and assumed he was gay. In their world, it gave them the right to beat the shit out of him whenever they felt like it.It had never been this bad though: usually a punch or two until someone from town intervened and made sure they left him alone for a month or so. They had never dragged him away from a public street before. Now, deep in the forest, away from the town's Halloween celebrations, he doubted anyone would come to his rescue this time.Jay took advantage of his attacker's momentary distraction, leapt to his feet and tried to run back down the hiking path. He had a vague idea how far he was from the path, as he spent most of his free time roaming the forest to avoid going home. His step-dad and Billy were a lot alike. He had even praised Billy when Jay had turned up with a black eye and finished off the job, leaving him black and blue.Those bruises were in places easy to hide from the prying eyes of the protective community, under threat of losing the cabin his mother had loved so much. The more he fought back the harder his step-dad would hit. He'd learned early on to pick his battles in order to survive. He had only one year and three days left before the deed passed to him on his twenty-first birthday.It felt like a prison sentence, but the thought of losing the last thing left of his mother hurt more than anything his step-dad could dish out.Jay made it about thirty yards before Billy's big body shoved his own skinny frame into a tree, grabbing his hands when he tried to hit back and pinning them over his head in one massive, paw-like fist, cutting off circulation. Jay was only two years younger than the asshole in front of him at nineteen, but the other man had at least forty pounds of muscle on him."You wanna know how a real man fucks, you fag-bag? I'm gonna show you what a little bitch you are." The fucker leant forward, wafting rancid fish-breath into his face and almost making him puke. Perhaps he should have; maybe it would have allowed him to get away."Leave me the fuck alone Billy! You've had your fun, now piss off!" Jay yelled in an attempt to disguise his fear as anger, but, in truth, he was seconds away from screaming like a girl.Jay gave in to the urge when Billy started to pull at his clothes "HELP! Get the fuck off me, asshole! HELP! AAAAAHRH!" He got a smack to the face for his trouble as the bastard laughed. He felt his jeans begin to give way and slide down an inch. Shit!The grinning Billy laughed again as he too felt the jeans begin to fall, but his face looked odd, scary odd, as if he was growing a snout, and his arms were way hairier than they had been a minute ago. What the fuck? "They can't hear you. The pack is celebrating Halloween with the townies. It's just you and me out in this forest. No one is gonna stop me this time. You'll pay for what your bitch mother did to my father."Father? What? Jay had never met Billy's dad; he had disappeared not long after Jay's mother had died.Not caring now whether he hurt himself in the process, he resolved to get the fuck away from this freak, NOW! It took all of his strength to slip free of the sweaty, meaty fist and he savagely bit the arm reaching for him. He noticed the fist now had five talon-like claws and thick brown fur covered Billy's skin."What the fuck are you?" Jay whispered. He knew this town had more going on beneath the surface, but shit, this reminded him of a bad Buffy episode. He'd swear that Billy's now definitely snout-like face started to resemble a grizzly bear. His mother had been killed by a grizzly bear when he was young. He watched in horror as Billy's bones popped and cracked as he changed into something that looked disturbingly like the bear: the one that had haunted his nightmares and memories.It couldn't be. No way. That particular bear had been hunted down and killed after the town had discovered his mother's body.Cold, murderous eyes gleamed with excitement as it lifted its snout to sniff the air. The deformed human/bear hybrid's mouth twisted in sadistic humour as it growled "No one gonna help you this time. No townie, no mother, no goddamned council, or pack Alpha. You're mine now and I'm gonna make you scream and beg before I kill you. Your stupid human bitch protected you once and the pack has protected you since because of her 'bravery'. Now you're mine!" The last words were almost unintelligible through the growling, snapping jaws.