Pack of Freaks: Beasts Among Us - Book 2 Read online

  Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Recap

  Helpful Terms

  Part 1

  Chapter 1: Mated

  Chapter 2: Banished

  Chapter 3: The Door

  Chapter 4: Zombies

  Chapter 5: The Grocery Store

  Chapter 6: Insults

  Chapter 7: Run Away

  Chapter 8: Survival

  Chapter 9: Lacey-Marie

  Chapter 10: Going Home

  Chapter 11: Caleb

  Chapter 12: The Question

  Chapter 13: The Ring

  Chapter 14: Night Rod

  Chapter 15: Dear Maude

  Chapter 16: Natasha the Russian

  Chapter 17: Knitwit

  Part 2

  Chapter 18: Evangeline

  Chapter 19: Town Hall

  Chapter 20: The Fae

  Chapter 21: Irate Skunk

  Chapter 22: Hurricane and Gravity

  Chapter 23: Training Treats

  Chapter 24: *57

  Chapter 25: Gone

  Chapter 26: Grounded

  Chapter 27: Betrayal

  Chapter 28: Obedient

  Chapter 29: Quitting

  Chapter 30: Home

  Epilogue

  A Note to My Readers

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  Cover by: Mirella Santana

  www.mirellasantana.com.br

  Stocks (material) used under right from the sites: ©Neostock – model

  Natalia & depositphotos.

  Copyright © 2019 Jennifer Zamboni

  All rights reserved.

  This novel is for your enjoyment only and may not be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted without the permission by Jennifer Zamboni except for brief quotations for book reviews. Violators will be fed to vampires and/or werewolves.

  This novel is a work of fiction all names, places, and events are a product of Jennifer Zamboni’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or events are coincidental.

  ISBN:

  ISBN-13:

  To my husband, who saved a characters life—at least for now

  And to Autumn & Hadassah, who saved another

  Beauty is the Beast Recap:

  Book one kicks off with the fact that the fae are real and they live among us. The three main gals, Gretchen, Lacey-Marie, and Percy, are a werewolf, vampire, and goddess, respectively. Competing hairdressers begin dying off in gruesome ways, including one of the stylists at Olympian’s Salon, Penny.

  Hades, Percy’s husband, arrives and Gretchen doesn’t trust him. There’s no time to worry about him, however, because it’s time to start interviewing manicurists. They hire Toni, a bubbly, Italian woman with a huge amount of talent.

  Amidst murders, a circus shows up in town that smells heavily of fae and magic. It also boasts an illegal sideshow featuring human and fae freaks. Suspicious, Gretchen talks Lacey-Marie into checking out the freaks after hours.

  They meet Sabrina, a petty sorceress, who shows them around and eventually introduces Gretchen to Doug, a human with a condition called “hirsutism” who is posing as a werewolf.

  Gretchen’s former pack shows up to claim her as a member and a mate for their alpha, and she doesn’t know how to feel about it.

  The girls hire a new hairstylist named Meredith and a masseuse named Fern to round out the team.

  A client and close friend, Mem, loses her husband and leans on Gretchen. Gretchen, in an effort to distract her friend, reveals the fact that she is a werewolf.

  The full moon hits, then Gretchen wakes up with a strange taste in her mouth.

  Several more murders occur, all hairdressers, and the media dubs the killer “Sweeney Todd.” The salon holds an invite-only salon day and a few extra guests show up: Gretchen’s bandmate, Scott, and Doug . . . and an alpha changer.

  Later, Gretchen snaps when a client insults her regarding her race, gender, and intelligence. She runs away before she tears him a new one. She finds Fern in the kitchen, holding one of Lacey-Marie’s blood donor bags, a.k.a. a red smoothie. She attempts to calm her down, but Fern is still uncertain how she feels about the fact that all the childhood stories her grandmother told her were true.

  The girls travel to a hair show, and Gretchen gets carried away with her boast to find Sweeney Todd and kill him herself.

  It’s now festival time. Gretchen and Doug go together. She’s starting to have feelings for him, though she denies them to herself. Her band performs that night, and the pack shows up.

  Doug gets bitten by an alpha changer in an attempt to become a real werewolf so he can feel normal.

  Gretchen and the girls fight to keep Doug alive, which forces their hand and revealing themselves to the girls in the salon for what they really are.

  Doug survives, and Gretchen has her final confrontation with her alpha and triumphs.

  Gretchen and Doug go on their first date, have their first kiss, and Doug goes through his first change into a wolf.

  With the new moon and all the cards are on the table. Sweeney Todd is revealed to be Lacey-Marie. Gretchen, despite not being able to shift during the new moon, is determined to stop her best friend before killing again. She’s too late and in turn becomes a victim. Lacey-Marie leaves with an old friend.

  Gretchen survives, thanks to the intervention of Hades.

  Helpful Terms

  Alpha changer: a type of fae that can change human DNA with a bite.

  Douce enfant: French for sweet infant/child

  Fae: a magical being originating from a parallel universe. The more powerful of these were often worshiped as gods in the ancient world.

  Faewolf: a specific type of alpha changer whose bite turns humans into werewolves.

  Hypertrichosis: a genetic mutation where a person grows excessive amounts of hair in areas or their entire body. Also known as werewolf syndrome and sometimes hirsutism (though this term is technically incorrect, hirsute still works as it means hairy).

  Ma colombe: French for my dove.

  Masters: a specific type of alpha changer whose bite turns humans into vampires.

  The bright morning sun warmed my bare legs. A sigh escaped my lips, this was the most relaxed I’d ever felt after a full moon. I kept my eyes closed for a few moments longer, enjoying the feeling.

  Normally the adrenaline is so fresh in my system that I’m moments from wolfing out for the first few hours of my day. Physically morphing from a 400 pound wolf into a tall, athletic woman was exhausting; but mentally, my mind raced back and forth, trying to settle on which self it was supposed to be. Today, my wolf didn’t seem to care to fight for ownership of my conscious mind.

  Bizarre, to say the least.

  I lifted my arm from where it lay in the rough shavings and attempted to scratch the tickling sensation creeping its way across my stomach. The skin my fingertips met was much hairier than expected, and my touch didn’t get rid of the tingle. In fact, it elicited a groan of pleasure that definitely didn’t come from my throat.

  My eyes flew open. A dark hairy forearm rested across my middle.

  Nope, definitely not mine.

  Normally, I’m in desperate need of a shave when I come to, but that’s just the usual bits, not my stomach.

  The arm tightened around my middle.

  “Mornin’,” Doug mumbled, his voice heavy with sleep.

  I shrieked and attempted to scoot away. Our twined legs threw me off balance, so all I managed was a sideways flop. I untangled my legs from his and slid away.

  Doug propped his upper body up on one arm, and I a
verted my eyes.

  Naked man in my kennel! Percy had attempted to install a modesty wall to keep us separated, but at least one of our wolves had chewed through it the first time and we had had to give up. We usually woke up in separate corners, however.

  “’Smatter?” he asked, then cleared his throat. “What’s wrong?”

  What’s wrong? Was he serious?

  “Um.” I dropped to the ground and did my best to hide my curvy, naked body behind my folded arms and legs.

  Deep down I could practically feel my wolf giggle. My wolf is not girly. My wolf is a hulking monstrosity of an alpha.

  My eyes bulged in terror. “Shit!” I exclaimed, my muscles rigid.

  “What?” Doug asked again, sitting up, then leaning in my direction with an arm outstretched, his eyes bearing concern.

  “We’re mated,” I finally squeaked out in an unGretchen-like manner, my heart fluttering rapidly, threatening to shove me back into my wolf-skin.

  “Yes, I know, so?”

  “So? So! So that’s it, there’s no backing out now. Werewolves mate for life!”

  Wait a second, he knew? Why wasn’t he freaking out?

  “I believe you’ve mentioned that to me before.” He withdrew his hand, and his forehead creased in confusion.

  “Have I mentioned my feelings on the matter?” I scratched my arm in agitation.

  “Yes, you said you wanted to be completely sure before you made the commitment, and there was something about marriage in there somewhere. Apparently, our wolves were sure.”

  “Our wolves act on instinct, not logic. What are we going to do?” I ditched the whole modesty routine, obviously we were already intimately acquainted, and started pacing.

  “We’ll get married. Calm down, you’re going to wolf out.” He settled back.

  He was right, of course. This wasn’t the time to wolf out. I needed to think this through rationally. My wolf had acted on instinct, mating me to Doug without my permission, and I didn’t want her in the driver’s seat.

  I marched to the door, took the little silver key from the hook mounted high up on the wall, and fit it into the lock. I could escape, if only for a moment. I grabbed my pile of clothes and threw them on, not bothering to fasten buttons or pull up zippers.

  Doug was right on my heels, pulling on his own clothes. He took the time to button each button and made sure the fly on his jeans was in position.

  “Gretchen, you knew this was coming.”

  I felt better now that we were dressed. “You planned this?” I shrieked. Better enough to let it all out without getting fuzzy.

  “Um, no. but we have been discussing the possibility—”

  “I believe I let you know that you weren’t getting any from me until I was absolutely certain.”

  “Are you not certain?”

  “No!”

  “Oh.” He paused, letting it all sink in. “Oh. So what do we do then?”

  “I don’t know.” I sat on the cot, elbows on knees, shoving my fingers into my wild hair.

  Don’t get me wrong, the feelings I’d been experiencing towards Doug had definitely been strong, but I’d been alone for so long. I didn’t want to rush into anything. Especially anything that entailed the rest of my immortal life, which could only come to an end via murder. I’m not fae, in the strictest sense, but there’s magic in my blood, transferred there through a bite from a faewolf, previously known to me as an “alpha changer.”

  I went to work on the buttons of my flannel shirt, taking my frustrations out on the circular bits of plastic. Doug had picked out the not-so-Gretchen plaid pattern. I wore it because he was my boyfriend and I cared deeply for him, but did I love him?

  I sifted through my thoughts, I truly didn’t know. It should have been a simple quick yes, considering the newly mated status of our relationship.

  I didn’t fully understand the whole mating process. It was partly magic, at least I thought so. I just knew that wolves were fiercely loyal, so once they chose a significant other, they kept them until released by death. Whether that death came from the hand of that significant other, the pack, or an outside force didn’t matter.

  I didn’t have a pack, and I certainly didn’t want Doug dead, so it looked like I was going to have to deal and figure out how to get the human parts of me on the same page as the wolf parts.

  “You’re wolf must know something you don’t.” Doug broke the silence, walking over as he spoke, and rested his hands on the wall on either side of me.

  I held stock-still.

  He leaned in and kissed my lips.

  If I moved an inch, I’d explode.

  He drew closer and kissed me harder, knocking me back into the wall.

  Without thinking, I slammed my palms into his chest, knocking him back into some shelves, rattling them dangerously.

  He growled low, and I responded in kind.

  Finally, wolfy darling was backing me up. She was so close to my surface, ready for a good rumble. She wouldn’t hurt him, not really, but we were alpha, and he wasn’t respecting that rank. We were in charge.

  My growl turned into a frustrated groan. We initiated. It was my own fault that I was mated, not my dear hirsute honey.

  I stalked out of the little tack room-cum-locker room.

  I found it physically impossible to apologize for my behavior. I needed to, but with the wolf so close— she couldn’t relax her dominance long enough to let a challenger get the upper hand. I had to wait.

  I ran away. It felt like the coward’s way out, and the wolf inside was seething because of it. Normally he’d have to leave my presence, but there was enough human to let me do a girly stomp and slam.

  I ran through the kitchen, ignoring Percy and Hades, who were just sitting down to breakfast. I dashed through a door and ran up the stairs that were conveniently positioned next to the pantry.

  The pantry moved sometimes. I’d found it in my closet once when I was hungry in the middle of the night, but currently, it sat where it belonged, next to the kitchen. I kept moving until I got to my room and slammed the door, throwing myself into my big easy chair, and pulled a scrap of paper from the stack on my bookshelf.

  I penned a quick apology, changed into running clothes, left the note tacked to Doug’s bedroom door, and blew off some steam running towards the coast.

  The leaves were at peak color; bright oranges and reds all splashed together, accompanied the scent of cut grass, dew, and a tinge of skunk— a feast for the senses. I swerved north from the last bit of odor and pushed myself as fast as I could go. Tree branches barely missing my curly messy bun as I danced and wove through trees and brush. I frightened a couple of deer and managed to resist the urge to hunt them down. Breakfast could wait.

  I needed to be able to access a fully human self when I sat down to my eggs, toast, and tea.

  The icy water of a shallow stream helped, soaking me up to my knees, with loose rocks under foot to concentrate on as I ran up the center against the flow. If nothing else, I’d cool off in every sense of the word and get a killer workout.

  I dodged around boulders and came out in a small pond. Hurriedly, I stripped down to my underwear and dove in, shaking the water out of my ears as my head broke the surface. It was nasty stuff, thick with muck and algae. Not really what I was hoping for.

  I sloshed back out, somewhat more subdued than when I went in. I pulled my clothes back onto my drenched, muddy body and plodded back homeward, settling on a jog that outstripped most dirt bikes.

  It felt good. The easy flow of limb and muscle. The sun dried the mud and my shirt to my skin, but I couldn’t find it in me to care, which was a good sign. My little dip in the goo had done its job.

  When I appeared, dry and smelly, in the kitchen, Percy and Hades were still at the table, sipping coffee, and sharing the local newspaper. Both of them neglected their glamours, as there was no need to hide from me, or any of the farm staff.

  Without any glamour to tone down their otherwo
rldliness, those two were easily the most beautiful people you’d ever clap eyes on.

  Persephone’s long blond hair waved gently to her waist, not a tangle from sleep to rough it up. Her violet eyes peered at me over the rim of her oversized mug, from which the smell of coffee and cinnamon wafted.

  Hades had his combat boot-clad feet set up on the chair opposite him, he was as dark as his wife was fair. You couldn’t exactly expect the god of the dead to be pure and innocent looking. No, he would have been nearly impossible to look away from if this wasn’t a scene I had witnessed every morning for several months now.

  “Gretchen, dear, I think maybe you should shower before breakfast.” This was Percy’s way of telling me to get my hairy mutt butt up the stairs and soaped up, or she’d do it for me. She was too polite to say I stank.

  “Yeah, whatever.” I grabbed the milk from the fridge and a couple eggs from the basket on the counter. I cracked the eggs into an enormous green glass with a dash of vanilla and cloves, and poured a good amount of milk on top, tipping it straight down my gullet without blending.

  I smacked my lips loudly. Tasty.

  “Has Doug come in yet?” I asked casually, placing my glass on the growing pile of dishes in the sink.

  “He headed straight upstairs without so much as a hello. Did something happen between you two?” Percy didn’t even blink at my choice of nosh. She was as used to that as I was to seeing two full-blooded fae seated in the kitchen.

  “Um, you could say that.” I made for the door before any questions could be asked.

  I needed that shower. I stank of pond muck.

  Thankfully, the house hadn’t decided to move the stairs too much, and even helped me out by opening up into my bathroom door.

  “Thanks,” I muttered to the house, never sure if it understood.

  The hot spray of the shower was almost as wonderful as my run. The experience was heightened by my matchy/matchy bath products, which contained a heavy dose of lavender and lemon, concocted by none other than my good friend Percy.

  I lathered up, scrubbed, scraped, rinsed off, and stepped out of the shower onto a towel the house had put down for me.