The Dark Monster (A Full Moon Mercy Novel) (shifter / MC romance)

by Ana W. Fawkes

  “You know, it’s a great honor to see Full Moon Mercy finally have a bloodline,” Dr. Carane said. “Not many clubs can survive without one.”

  “How much do you actually know about us?”

  “I know everything. Trust in that, son.”

  Lucas stared at Debbie. She looked up and spotted him. She smiled and put her hands out. She started to move and Lucas watched in awe as she rolled to her side and propped herself up on all fours. She then reached for the fence and literally climbed herself into a standing position. When she turned around, Lucas had to shut his eyes for a moment. Debbie’s belly was so big it hung beyond her knees. He’d never seen anything like it before.

  “She’s not going to be the same,” Lucas said.

  “I’m more worried of her living through this,” Dr. Carane said.

  “And if she does, then what? How do you… fix everything?”

  “I guess that’s why I’m the doctor and you’re the werewolf biker.”

  Lucas pushed by Dr. Carane and walked into the kitchen. He felt a hand clamp down on his shoulder. Lucas spun and threw his shoulder, sending Dr. Carane back against a wall. The doctor made two large fists and came at Lucas. He took two punches to the face and then lifted the doctor and threw him onto one of the kitchen counters. The doctor rolled to the floor and Lucas hurried and put a foot to the middle of his back to keep him down.

  “You don’t know what I’m going through here, doc,” Lucas said. “I’m in the mood to tear something apart. Limb by limb. I’m ready to watch something suffer and die and then feast on its blood. Don’t fuck with me.”

  “Do it then,” Dr. Carane said. “Then your girlfriend will die. And your baby won’t make it. This is the mess you’ve created.”

  Lucas made fists and took his foot off Dr. Carane’s back. The doctor climbed to his feet, his hair messy and a cut on his cheek. He looked at Lucas and moved fast again. This time he reached back and pulled a knife from seemingly out of nowhere. He had the tip of the blade to Lucas’s throat and Lucas just stood there.

  “What do you want?” Lucas asked. “You obviously have something to say or do to me. Just get it over with, doc.”

  “Do you feel remorse?” Dr. Carane asked. “For what you’ve done.”

  “What I’ve done?”

  “To the innocent lives. Two women are on the edge of their deathbeds because of you. Do you not feel remorse?”

  “Do I look like I’m capable of feeling remorse? If you don’t take that fucking knife out of my face, I’ll shift into a monster like nothing you’ve ever seen.”

  Dr. Carane smiled and took the knife away from Lucas’s throat. He tossed it to the counter. “Just think what you’ve done. Now go see your girlfriend.”

  Dr. Carane grabbed the whiskey bottle and walked from the kitchen to the room with the large window. Lucas shoved his feelings aside and moved through the house to find his Leah. There was a series of bedrooms and a bathroom along the back of the house. The first bedroom housed Leah.

  When Lucas opened the door, he saw her propped up, her head tilted to the left, her eyes shut. There were a few strands of hair in her face. For a second Lucas thought maybe she was dead but then he saw the hair covering her mouth moving as she took breaths. He smiled at her beauty. She was amazing. She was a light in the darkness around him. She was his love and becoming more and more of his life.

  Lucas approached the bed and sat on the edge of it. He touched Leah’s face and moved the hair from her face. As he did, she began to move. She shook her head gently, whispering No…

  “It’s just me, baby,” Lucas said.

  Leah’s eyes popped open. “Lucas. You’re here.”

  “Yes. Of course I am. I told you I’d come everyday until you can come home with me.”

  “I had a nightmare. You were hurt. And that Dr. Carane forced himself upon me.”

  “Just dreams, baby,” Lucas said. He touched her face again and smiled. “That’s all. How do you feel?”

  “Like I was shot.”

  “You keep saying that.”

  “It’s true.”

  “Where’s the pain?”

  “Through my body,” Leah said. “Dr. Carane said that’s part of this. The bullet came so close to killing me, but I need to rest and let the medicines heal me.”

  Lucas nodded and kept stroking Leah’s beautiful face. He then touched her shoulder and leaned in to kiss her. Her lips were dry, but her kiss was still delicious. She touched the back of his head, her fingers getting lost in his thick, black hair. She wanted more and Lucas stopped her.

  Their noses touched. “Hey, baby, don’t hurt yourself.”

  “Just fucking kiss me, Lucas.”

  Lucas couldn’t argue with that. He opened his mouth and kissed Leah deeply. The kiss was romantic. Lucas never felt the feelings running through his body as he did then. The way his heart pumped. The way his blood stormed through his body.

  “Wow,” he whispered to Leah. “I can’t believe how much you mean to me.”

  “I don’t want to die, Lucas.”

  “You won’t, baby. You’ll be back safe with me soon. Nothing can happen to you up here.”

  “I hear noises,” Leah said. “I hate the noises.”

  “What kind of noises?”

  “I hear crying and screaming. I think it’s Debbie in pain. I hear her talking to Dr. Carane a lot. I think… I think I hear her moaning sometimes too.”

  “Moaning?”

  “Like she’s… you know…”

  Lucas held Leah’s face in his hands. “Hey, look at me, baby. Don’t you worry or think of anything but yourself right now. You need to get better. All of this will be behind us.”

  “Those men that shot me though,” Leah said.

  “Shh…”

  “No,” Leah said. She pulled Lucas’s hands off her face. “I want to know.”

  Lucas rubbed his face and stood up. He looked at Leah in the large bed. Her skin was pale and it was obvious she was still weak.

  “There was a set up, okay?” Lucas said. “Another crew made it look as though we turned on our deal.”

  “I remember some of that,” Leah said.

  “The Oreno like to shoot first and ask later. That’s just our life, baby, I can’t control it. Kill or be killed, right?”

  “If you say so.”

  “The bullet that hit you wasn’t meant for you, Leah. You weren’t meant to get shot but you did. I can never forgive myself for that. For putting you in that position. It was supposed to be a clean deal and it got messed up.”

  “What happens next?”

  “For now I have to hold back,” Lucas said. “I need to use the Oreno roads to get to you. Same for Debbie. I don’t know what’s going to happen with her or the pregnancy, but until it all works out, we have to keep calm.”

  “You want to kill someone, don’t you?”

  Lucas swallowed and turned. “Leah…”

  “Please, just tell me the truth.”

  Lucas looked at himself in a mirror that hung on the wall. From the corner of the reflection he could see Leah as she sat up in the bed. She stared at him, her precious face and innocent eyes burning at him with wild passion. If she weren’t so frail, he’d be in that bed with her.

  The reflection of himself wasn’t the same reflection Lucas was used to seeing. He was an almost broken man, but definitely not a broken beast. Time would have to remain an ally and justice would be dealt when the right time came.

  Lucas turned around and looked at Leah. “I want to kill someone or something so bad. The pain and anger flowing through my body is like nothing I’ve ever felt before.”

  “Will you kill the man who shot me?”

  “Yes,” Lucas said. “I promise you, Leah. I’ll find out who it was and make sure that happens. The same for the one who shot Seth.”

  “Seth,” Leah whispered. She shook her head.

  “We’re putting him to rest today,” Lucas said. “Once I leave
here. He wasn’t the greatest of our crew but he was damn loyal and he didn’t deserve to die as he did. But he took a bullet for Full Moon Mercy. That entitles him to honor.”

  “I wish I could be there,” Leah said.

  “It’ll just be a bunch of pissed off bikers who want to drink, fight, and fuck.”

  Leah swallowed and tears filled her eyes. She covered her face and Lucas hurried to the bed.

  “No,” she whispered. “Just… no…”

  “What is it?”

  Leah blinked fast and tears fell from her eyes. “What if you… do all three?”

  “Do all three?”

  “You just said. Drink, fight, and fuck.”

  “Oh, baby,” Lucas said. “I would never hurt you. Do you think I would…?”

  “I’m sorry,” Leah said. “I feel trapped right here. I hate this.”

  “Leah, I would never touch another woman. You are my own now. We are connected deeper than you can understand.”

  “Because I’m not like you, Lucas. I can’t take a bullet and just walk away. Not like you can. I take a bullet and I should have died.”

  “But you didn’t.”

  “Because of Dr. Carane. And I know you did something to make that happen. He didn’t do it from the kindness of his heart, did he?”

  “No,” Lucas said. “He didn’t. But that’s something I’m not going to talk about right now, okay?”

  Leah let out a whimper. “I know.”

  “Leah, I can’t leave with you crying. I swear to you that you’re safe here. I’m going to talk to Dr. Carane right now and find out when I can take you out of here.”

  “I’m sorry, Lucas. It’s just that when you’re not here I can almost feel the distance.”

  Lucas wiped a tear from Leah’s cheek. “That’s good. That’s our connection, Leah. Trust in it.”

  “Are you safe coming through that town?”

  “Trust me, after what the Oreno did… they know better than to even look at any of us, especially me. If I had it my way I would put a bullet right between Eli’s eyes. But killing the leader of another crew would start a war. I’m not there yet.”

  “Because of me.”

  “Not just you, Leah. Stop blaming yourself.”

  Lucas kissed her again. The kiss ended up lasting much longer than Lucas intended. But that was okay, he could never get enough of the taste of Leah. It was the only thing that calmed his urges to set out and kill for blood and revenge.

  After leaving the room, Lucas found Dr. Carane standing in the same spot, the bottle of whiskey half empty, his eyes staring straight at Debbie.

  “When can I take her?” Lucas asked.

  Dr. Carane didn’t look at Lucas. “Soon.”

  “Today?”

  “No.”

  “Can you give me a time frame?”

  “I said soon. Leave it be, son.”

  “And I’m supposed to trust you drinking like this?”

  “Do you have anyone else to trust?” Dr. Carane asked.

  Lucas gritted his teeth again, knowing he had no power right now over the doctor.

  “Fine,” Lucas said. “I’m leaving. I’ll be back to check on her again.”

  “Ride safe,” Dr. Carane said.

  Before leaving, Lucas opened the bedroom door one more time to see Leah. She was back to sleep, her head tilted, hair falling back to her face. He sucked in a deep breath and knew that it was damn impossible to fall in love and protect a human like this. But his heart knew what it wanted.

  Lucas then left the house and grabbed his helmet. He got on his motorcycle and started it. He looked at Ian and Cooper and nodded.

  “Come on,” he said, “let’s go bury one of our brothers now.”

  3

  Dr. Aldis Carane was nothing short of a mystery. He lived his life in a mysterious cloud of short sentences, always giving information to those willing to pay to keep him in business. He studied animals, preferably those who naturally lived in groups - or packs - such as wolves. His studies led to groundbreaking work on instinctive thinking within animals through experiments that were kept secret. Lately, it had been quiet, but Dr. Carane had enough money of his own to slide away into the night and never be seen again. He did enjoy his work, studying something he wished he could be. It was decades ago when an attack in the woods left him stranded, alone, waiting for death to take him. He had been jumped from behind and bitten several times. The creature that had been on top of him was like nothing he’d ever seen in his life. A magnificent animal of size and muscle, but eyes that were so big and so real, they seemed more human than animal. His mind told him the creature was a beast like no other, and a word came into his mind.

  Werewolf.

  Dr. Carane whispered that word and in that instant, the attacking animal stopped. It backed away and stood, changed into a man covered in Dr. Carane’s blood, and then ran off. The pain that went through the doctor’s body as he waited to die was nothing he ever experienced. Soon he found himself actually feeling stronger. Feeling more alert. Feeling more alive. Nightfall came and Dr. Carane slept in the woods. He woke the next morning to complete shock that he was alive and awake. The amount of blood lost topped with the amount of blood he should have lost overnight, meant certain death. But death did not come to him. In fact, Dr. Carane sat up. He moved his arms, his legs, and found that he was very much alive. He soon began to smell everything. From the pungent odor of a skunk who hadn’t sprayed, to the oily, floral smell of a woman’s scent as she ran along a trail that was located several miles away.

  That’s when Dr. Carane knew he was different.

  He could not change into the beast that had attacked him, but it seemed everything else that came with the ability was inside him now. His obsession with shifters grew by the day and he had never been able to recreate what happened, but he was able to meet several shifters in his life. It angered him deep within his soul that he wasn’t able to somehow command his body to grow and become a monster. He wanted that sense of freedom. He wanted to run through the woods, scale the mountains to their highest, snowy peaks, and he wanted to feast upon wild animals as prey. During his years, he had tried to eat the raw flesh of animals and it only made him violently sick.

  But now, standing with one hand to a thick pane of glass, Dr. Carane stared at what he believed to be the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen in his life. She slowly walked back and forth, breathing heavily, her massive stomach stretching almost to the ground. Her breasts were engorged and at a size he never saw on a human before. It made his mouth hungry and it made his body react. To simply put it, he was madly in love with Debbie. The love didn’t begin during her stay with him, no, but it had most certainly grown.

  A man afraid of his own urges and strength, Dr. Carane never engaged women in conversations, dates, relationships, or even the enjoyment of casual sex. It had been such a long time since he felt wanted or even connected to a woman. To take the edge off, Dr. Carane spent many nights at the local stripclub. He disguised himself and spent a lot of money for very little pleasure. The only woman that made him feel alive was the one he stared at now.

  Debbie.

  She was beautiful before and even more beautiful now. More beautiful now because she was vulnerable. She needed the doctor to save her. Her body was big and beautiful. She understood some of the life of a shifter. And her urges were insatiable. Dr. Carane had never experienced sex like this, ever. He had not planned on touching Debbie at all when she arrived. His goal was to tend to her and bring the bloodline to Full Moon Mercy. But once he learned of what Lucas had done to her, Dr. Carane had a change of heart. It was no shock to him that Vincent was an asshole and he sensed tension between Vincent and Lucas. Then Lucas arrived with a human woman, one he claimed to love with all his heart. Yet the son of a bitch had another woman pregnant and he didn’t care about her. He left her to be. To just give birth… and what? Die?

  Debbie could never be normal again. She needed someone to care fo
r her for the rest of her beautiful and precious life. She would be mother to a shifter and would be connected to Full Moon Mercy. And yes, in the back of the doctor’s mind he hoped to be connected to the motorcycle club, somehow, so he could learn more of shifting and perhaps someday become the monster that once attacked him and almost took his life.

  The love for Debbie grew, and it was just a short time ago when he went into the bedroom he made for Debbie and found her on her hands and knees, naked from the waist down, groaning. Dr. Carane refused to keep Debbie in a cage like some kind of animal, even if she was something like it. When he found her in such a position, he tried to help her by talking to her. He fell to his knees and touched her back. He pulled her hair from her face. He stared into her eyes. It all cut straight to his heart, hurting him that Debbie was in pain. She shouldn’t have been in pain. She was too beautiful to suffer this fate.

  Dr. Carane had wanted to tell Debbie all of this but the words just wouldn’t come out. But perhaps it was his eyes that spoke louder because Debbie took his hand and gently placed it to her body. Between her legs, his fingers explored her and before Dr. Carane knew what was happening, Debbie was ordering him for more. He was then behind her, loving her, pleasuring her, offering himself to her like he had dreamt of for so many nights. When it came to an abrupt end, the doctor scrambled to his feet, left the room, and drank half a bottle of whiskey. He passed out on the kitchen floor and woke hours later. He went to the room to apologize to Debbie and make sure it had been nothing but a misunderstanding. That didn’t happen. He found Debbie waiting for him, waiting for more. And again, he couldn’t help himself. He loved her. She needed him. He touched her again, thrust himself deep into her body, and this time he lasted damn near forever. The sex was hot, wild, and by the time he finished, he felt weak. It was nothing he ever felt before.

  And that’s how it had been since several times a day. They would come together and then Debbie would put her head to his shoulder. Dr. Carane would hold her, stroke her messy, greasy hair, kiss her forehead, and whisper how much he loved her. It was all true. Holding Debbie reminded him that love did exist. The only problem was when he ran his fingers down her arm and would touch her stomach. That was the problem. The damn stomach. Yes, it was his connection to Full Moon Mercy, but it was the one thing that threatened to kill Debbie.