The taller brute growled in an agitated fashion at Collin's slack face, large blood red eyes sizing him up. The other made a lunging gesture, but when Colin didn't flinch, it straightened up and huffed, like it was bored. Then miraculously the two monster dropped to all fours, both casting a lazy glance at Colin as though regarding him as nothing more than a lowly bug. Then the beast's turned their backs on him, and louped into the far off trees.

As he watched them leave Collin tried to force his battered brain to think of an explanation as to why they left him alone when they killed everyone else, why was he special. That had not been the first time the beast's had skipped over him. It seemed best to focus in the most recent occurrences. When he had charged the beast trying to capture Rachel's body, he was actually trying to attack the monster, and it had ignored him. Then a second ago when the monster tried to scare him, but he didn't even flinch and it lost interest. All the other's had been terrified, screaming, and running. Could it be that they were only interested in prey that they could terrorize? That seemed like confirmation that these things were the mythical werewolf, because only the minds of men could take pleasure in slaughtering those that feared them, but found lack of it a turn off.

Weincing Collin staggered onto his feet and swayed for several seconds before regaining his balance. If his theory was correct then these things would let him leave, because he would not give them what they wanted. They also would have no other reason to kill him because he couldn't identify them in human form, nor would anyone believe him. So he just had to get to his car, and drive away. Glancing to the sky, Collin could see the glowing sphere, like a giant spot light focusing it's beam directly on him. Deciding that orbiting rock had been nestled between the to nearby mountains, he began to totter along, leaning against trees he passed for support, making his progress slow. As he staggered forth his hypothesis seemed to hold water, for he had no further confrontations along the way, all though the hair on the back of his neck told him he was being watched.

A half hour of shambling later, Collin stumbled upon the remnants of his camp. The fire still had a few embers glowing feebly in the ashen pit. The tent was a flattened tangled mess of canvas and poles. The truck sat under a large redwood fifty feet away, calling to him like a siren singing a ballad of salvation. Heaving his chest, Colin totered to the far side of the camp past the picnic table. Collapsing onto both knees Collin felt around in shredded remains of the tent for his jacket, which he had left inside the flap. Feeling the denim sleeve, he dragged it closer, before fishing the keys out of the pocket. Then with tremendous effort he hauled himself up with the assistance of a nearby tree. Lumbering his way across the camp to his car. He managed to get within five feet of his goal, when he heard a familiar soft metallic click from behind. Whirling around Colin came face to face with John, who had his gun once again pointed at Collin's chest.

"Thought you would just leave me behind?" he demanded, face contorted into a furious grimace, eyes seething in hatred.

"I had no fucking way of knowing if you were even alive, asshole."

Collin's retort got an unexpected reaction when John jabbed the barrel of the revolver into Collin's ribs, with enough force to bruise them.

"Give me the fucking keys," John growled driving in the gun in further with each word.

Eyes burning with hellfire, Collin trusted the keys into John's hand causing him to fumble them.

"Let me guess you are just going to leave me here to die, right you piece of shit?"

John grinned smugly before redirecting the muzzle of the gun to Collin's right thigh.

"Not quite, I'm going to give those animals something to chew on while I make my escape."

There was a bang, that thundered like a cannon blast, and Collin's leg crumpled under him, white hot pain expanding from his thigh to the top of his head, and ends of his limbs. Clasping his hand to the punture, Colin felt warm blood seep out, and trickle between his fingers, and down his leg. Weincing Collin struggled to get his quivering lips to form the words go fuck yourself, when there was a roar that reverberated all the way to the center of his body. The tallest, and bulkiest werewolf charged out of the shadows, burning eyes fixed on the back stabber. Unlike Scott before him, John was much faster on the draw, raising the gun upwards over his shoulders and squeezing the trigger. At ten yards away, the creature buckled as the projectile struck it in the forehead, fur flying in a cloud as the beast lost momentum and collapsed face down like an aircraft crashing into the earth.

"You see that, no one is a better monster slayer then me, I'm the best," John shouted thrusting the fire arm up in the air several times in triumph.

Collin kept his eyes on the crumpled form on the other side of the campsite. He refused to believe that it was dead, if these monsters lived up to the werewolf hype and so far they had, that shot probably hadn't hurt it to much.

Suddenly there was the pounding of feet on either side of Collin and John. Two pairs of razor clawed hands erupted from the darkness, each seizing one of John's arms. The two hulking brutes dragged John backwards several feet before tossing up and slamming him into the hood of Colin's car. The force was so great the sheet of metal crumpled under the impact, as the monster's held down the man's wrists. Dazed and terrified, Collin rolled on to his rear to take the pressure off his punctured leg, which in the moment the adrenaline coursing through his veins kept the throbbing pain from over taking him.

Then came a morbid laugh, hollow and rotten, like a dead tree. Turning his entire upper body, Collin saw that the largest monster had gotten back on it feet steadily, forehead pristine, no doubt the bullet had simply richet of it's skull. The beast continued to chuckle eerily as it strode towards John, with a very human like gate, despite walking on it's toes. Infact its features began to reduced, its broad shoulders scaled down, as its arms and legs retracted, chest collasped inwards.

The werewolf was now only slightly taller than Collin, its canine snout retracted to a mere half inch off the face, the pointed ears had migrated down onto the sides of the head. The fur was now simply patchy, but the muscle mass was still so intense that it distorted a complete human form. Even the face still hard some narrowed wolfish features making to hard to discern the identity of the human underneath. In all it looked like a human that had been disfigured by going through a combine harvester. The wretched mouth was twisted into a cruel smile as it trudge next to Collin, and came to a halt. The humanoid cocked its head slightly in his direction and sniffed deeply. Then it gave a casual flick of its wrist as it turned its attention back to John.

Collin yelped feebly as two fur clawed hands seized him under the armpits and dragged him backwards. His's back cracked rapidly as he swiveled around to see a fourth beast, the one in mocha colored that had killed Sarah so brutally. It's face was not contorted maliciously anymore, but instead the calm gentle smile of a mother gazing down at her child. Grunting it dragged him a good seven yards away from the other's, before gingerly grabbing Collin's hand and pulled it away from puncture on his leg before craning its neck to get a closer look. Once satisfied it gazed at the humanoid and gave a rough growl.

The monster glanced at it's comrad for a second before its eyes traveled back to the restrained man.

"Did you actually think you could kill me with that little peashooter," it scuffed in an almost insulted tone, it's voice gravely and distorted, sounding reminsant of James Earl Jones, if he was an ill proportioned beast.

John whimpered, eyes tearing up, looking like he was about to shit himself. The humanoid took several heavy steps closer, so it was towering over him.

"L.l..look you don't have to kill me, we can make a deal, I can give you money, property, whatever you like."

The humanoid chuckled again like rumbling boulders.

"You offer nothing a pack of shapeshifting feral humans would want or have use for, your a terrible negotiator."

Then with the reflexes of someone in the matrix movies, it latched its human yet still clawed hand on the top of John's head, and he squealed like agonized pig, as it tightened its grip.

"You know none of the other's we have ripped apart here tonight, tried to bargain or beg, before we slaughtered them. You turned on the other's, throwing them under the bus, and even shooting one, to save your own skin." it growled as John wailed from the increasing pressure.

"And they call us monsters."

Tears streaming down his cheeks, John began to sob, grabbing the humanoid thumb and index finger with each hand, and tried to wrench them off his head.

"I can't die, not now, I was supposed to be someone. Rich, powerful, on top of the world, with everyone bowing at my feet."

The humanoid straightened up, it's thick lips twisting into a cruel sneer as it looked the hapless human square in the eyes.

"You got quite the swelled head. Well you know what happens to something expands beyond its limits right?"

Then John began to shriek like a banshee, as the monstrosity, tightened it's vice like grip, fingers quivering as it mounted the pressure. There were sudden cracking sounds like eggshells, and John's face scrunch up, like he was suffering a combination of the worse migraine, and case of diarrhea, at the same time.

Then with a display of strength, only spoke of in legends of gods, the humanoid snapped it's fist closed, causing John's head to explode in a shower of blood, greymatter, and bone slivers, like a melon smashed with a mallet.

"What an utter piece of human filth," the monstrosity, spat, eyes tightened in disgust. "Despite his inflated self ego his life was worth the least of those slaughtered this night."

Maliciously giving a smile from ear to ear, the humanoid flicked its hand several times to remove the human goop, before wiping the remainder off on the headless corpses blood spattered shirt, as casual as someone drying off water. With that grizzly task complete, the abomination shifted its gaze to Colin, all three of the other's following its lead.

This was it, it was now Collin's turn, well he was not going to give them what they wanted.

"You want to kill me, then come get me mother fuckers, I'm not afriad to die."

The humanoid rubbery lips stretched into a tight loving, almost proudful smile, like an artist admiring their own creation. As it turned its hand palm upwards, it gestured towards Collin.

"Now see this is a specimen above the cowardly filth. Aggressive, bloodthirsty, and courageous, to the point he isn't afraid to die."

The humanoid sauntered over to Collin and hunched over to look him in the eyes, while raising his head with its clawed finger. As it did its face began to shift, the face widening, rounding out, the fur on its head lengthening down the back to the shoulders. The muscle mass reducing to a lean thin build.

"Of course it was those every traits that I sensed in you the first time we met, that made me fall in love with you."

Collin felt the very earth crumble and fall away from beneath his legs, and he plummeted into a deep abyss. His mouth gapped, and a groan issued from the back of his throat. His mind thrashed to comprehend reality, as he stared up into Rachel's smiling face.

Incapable of proper speech, Collin stuttered, his words creating a pile up on the edge of his tongue. Rachel's lips curled further, clearly amused by his befuddlement.

"Don't be so shocked, I came back just like I promised I always would."

Finally after thirty seconds of struggling, Collin got his words flowing again.

"How? I found your dead body, mutilated, no one could have survived that."

Rachel released his chin, turning away and taking several steps towards the other beasts.

"You mean no human could have survived," she replied craning her neck to witness his reaction. "Sweetie it takes more than mere flesh wounds to kill a werewolf, especially ones that were self inflicted."

A sudden inferno ignited in Colin's chest, smoke practically curling out of his nostrils.

"Why the hell, would you make me think you had died?" he demanded jaw clenched so tight it was trembling.

"I'm sorry honey, but that was necessary to bring out the true aggressive, bloodthirsty nature, that I sensed sleeping within you the moment we met."

Heart fracturing in disbelief Collin's world went sideways as he toppled over, but was caught by the werewolf that had dragged him backwards. A she, judging from the cooing sounds she was making, forced him to lean back against her body.

"It's okay my love I know this is impossible to digest at first blush," Rachel said fervently, her face stretched into a look of pity. "Just take it at one step at a time."

His mind tailspinning towards the harsh rocks of reality, Collin struggled to think of what question to ask next. After Scrunching his eyes shut to give him focus, he constructed one.

"Were you this way wh.."

"When we met." Rachel cut him off, her eyes half closed, as though the memory of the occasion pleased her. "Honey I have been a Lycan for over fifty years, and haven't aged a day since. Of course that fact made it certain you were going to find out eventually, at least when you noticed I wasn't getting any older."

Collin paused to absorbed this piece of information, from the wistful tone of her voice, Rachel had never had any intention to wait for Collin to catch on to her secret on his own.

"And the other's are your pack?"

Rachel sighed and glanced over her shoulder at the the other two lycans that were lounging to on either side of the car. Colin recognized them as the two that had torn Paul asunder. When they noticed her gaze, they hauled themselves on to all fours, and began to lumber over to her, their heads hung low.

"They are my subordinates, that I turned myself, obviously I couldn't be an Alpha without betas."

The two beast's slunk to either side of her and began nuzzling her shoulders, to which she placed her hands on their heads and began scratch them between the ears.

"They are my family, and to me they are like children," Rachel chirped scratching the larger of the two under the chin.

"But I assume they were adults when you changed them?"

Rachel exhaled slowly and rubbed the muzzle of the smaller beast, a blissful smile playing across her lips, as she stared dreamily at Collin.

"Collin, if you give someone a new form of existence, is it not hard to believe that a sort of maternal bond would form."

The pieces were falling into place in Colin's head like a puzzle displaying a macabre image of lies, deceit, and murder. There was just one piece that didn't fit.

"But wait, I found those text on your phone, the communications with someone you were having an affair with."

When he had thought she was dead, Colin had felt that fact was irrelevant, but now that she had tricked and betrayed him, he was starving for her to explain. The last thing he expected was for Rachel to smirk in amusement.

"Sweetie, I wasn't unfaithful, those text were to my pack, coordinating our hunt tonight. They are my family, almost my children, I'm not intimate with any of them in that fashion." Rachel chirped as she leaned against the larger male, nuzzling his cheek, lovingly. "And no doubt you have grown suspicious of the fact I went out of town the last weekend of every month, well it was to run with my pack. Though you have no idea how unbearable it was to see them only a few days a month."

Unable to remain seated with all the questions that were buzzing around his head like fuming wasps, Collin placed his feet beneath him, and tried to stand up. Before his punctured leg could crumple under the strain, he was forced down by the shoulders by the female, who clucked dismissively.

"Yes time for introductions, you of course know Rosa," Rachel nodded over Collin's shoulder. "She is the first I turned of the three, and acts as our nurse, often giving the nurturing when I'm not in the mood."

In response to her acknowledgement Rosa began to stroke Collin's head gently, clearly in an attempt to comfort him from the onslaught of horrific facts.

"And these two are Jose, and Frederick," Rachel continued gesturing with her head first to the larger beast on her right, then the smaller on her left."

Collin closed his eyes, mind threatening to shut down from overload, but he forced it to continue to process.

"So what now, I take it your not going to let me go home, now that I have know your secret, and seen so much?"

Rachel's lips stretched into a larger smile, and she chuckled softly, waltzing from the males and over to Collin lightly on her feet.

"I have total confidence that you would keep my secret, but I'm still not letting you go home, because I brought you out here for a reason," she replied rubbing the back of her hand against his cheek lovingly. "I know after what you have seen me do to those idiots, you don't think I love you, or even capable of the emotion, but I assure I am and I do."

Collin glared at her skeptically, eyes focused on her lips and every word that came out of them.

"You see, for a few decades now, I have been lonely, wanting love and passion, and someone to share my life with. And in that time I had converted three others in my pack."

Rachel reached out and scratched Rosa behind the ears, before focusing her eyes on Collin, with a now hungry stare. "This was enough of a pack for a while, but no longer. It's time to start recruiting, but before that, I need a mate, someone to serve as Alpha male next to me. That's why I brought you out here."

The instant Rachel finished her sentence, Collin jerked his shoulders trying to shake off the females hands and rise to his feet, but Rosa held fast digging her claws into his shoulders.

"You think that after all I have seen you do to innocent people that I would want to spend my life with a heartless monstrocity, let alone become one?"

"First I don't have to give you a choice, and second you won't mind what I have done and will do when your the same as me," Rachel crowed, her lips twisted into a cruel grin. "You need to understand the moment I met you, I knew we would fall in love, and I also knew you be the one I would turn to be my mate. I just felt we should build a bond first, so you would have an easier time accepting your destiny. So I patiently waited till our first anniversary."

Colin gridded his teeth, so hard the nerves of the roots ached. He glared piercingly at the women he had been so sure he had known better than anyone, and she just grinned back at him, with unwavering confidence.

"Do you actually think, after you lied to me about who and what you're, made me think you were dead, and slaughtered seven innocent lives, that I could actually still love you?"

Lips curling into a cruel smile, Rachel bent gracefully down until her eyes were level with Colin's, their faces an inch apart.

"You can deny it to me, and even yourself, but I know you still love me, from the way I can hear your pulse quicken, and the hormones your exude whenever you lay eyes on me. Even now your body betrays this fact."

Colin's head trembled with seething fire, incapable of accepting her claim. Rachel however merely straightened up to her full height, and cast a glance at the moon shining just above the nearby mountains.

"We only have a few hours of darkness left to leave with its cover. It's time to move on to the festivities."

Seeing the greedy light in her eyes Collin began to struggle, causing Rosa to wrap her long arms around him in a tight embrace, before she rose to her feet, without any effort despite dragging him with her. Now suspended inches off the ground Collin's heart began to bombard his chest like it was a door it was trying to break down.

"Now since you were so invested in binding our bond with a ceremony, I prepared a little vow, for the occasion of you're conversion."

Shuddering, Collin opened his mouth to scream in protest, but Rosa clamped her clawed hand over his lips so he only inhaled a mouthful of fur.

"You are my love, my mate, and my life," Rachel began, eyes glowing amber, boring deep into Collin's like a drill. "I promise with with this bite, to cherish you, support you, and teach you in our ways, and that when you mature from a cub, you will rule over this pack by my side. To never lose patient's, and to be gentle and caring, so that our love may last many centuries."

Having finished her speech, Rachel stiffened her back, which cracked several times as it began to elongate. Her feet extend, her heels lifting off the ground so that she was standing on her toes. She groaned as her shoulders broadened and her face became more snout like.

Fully transformed, Rachel snorted crinkling her face before raising her gaze to lock with Collin's. That is when Collin began to scream against the hand covering his mouth, begging Rachel to not carry out her plan, but all his wailing did was make Rachel coo gently before seizing his left hand.

Pulling his wrist in front of her monstrous face, Rachel nuzzled it lovingly, before giving it a gentle lick. Collin for his part tried to wrench his arm free but her grip was unyielding as an iron vice. As Collin's eyes began to tear up at the corners, Rachel reach out and stroked his cheek tenderly. Rattling like a pennies in a change jar, Collin closed his eyes, finally relenting to the fact there was no way out.

First came the pressure as Rachel's jaws clamped down on his forearm like a vice, then the searing of her teeth piercing his flesh, followed by the bone in his arm actually fracturing. All these sensations would have been beyond Collin's ability to imagine before that moment, but they were nothing to what would follow.

Starting from the site of the bite, and spreading outwards like a shock wave came pain that he would only describe as the tearing of his very soul. His blood burned like sulfur, while every cell in his body writhed in agony, as the invading virus spread like wildfire to every corner of his being. Collin gaped his jaw and issued a blood chilling shout, which the pack joined in with a howl, initiating him into the family.

After almost a minute the pain was replaced by a gnawing numbness, that caused his entire body to ragdoll. Now deadweight, Collin was slowly lowered to the ground with tender care by Rosa, who supported his head on her thigh.

"Now, now it's okay, just relax while you can," Rachel purred having transformed back to human unnoticed while he was in agony.

She got down on her knees and began to run her fingers through his hair in a gentle caress, her hand still holding the one of his she had bit gently squeezing so that Collin could feel that it was still attached.

"In about ten minutes, your body will start to seize up, but you will lose consciousness before it is complete," Rachel said in a sing song voice, her eyes fixed on his so that he would know that she was with him, until Collin lost consciousness. For ten minutes she hummed, a song her mother used to sing to her when she was little and still human, long ago. One about the sun and the stars, and that happy days were ahead.

It was when Collin's hand stopped flexing and became petrified that Rachel knew the process had started, causing Collin to whine like a puppy, as he stared at her with wide pleading eyes.

"Just sleep, when you wake up, the worst will be over, and we will be safe in the den I have chosen for us during your transition, till the next full moon."

Collin showed no signs of being comforted by her kind words, but his eyes were starting to droop, and Rachel could hear his heart start to slow. Smiling gently Rachel rose to her feet as they elongated, and when she straightened up she was a beast again. Kneeling down, Rachel scooped Collin up in her arms, pressing his face against her fur covered chest, placing her hands on his upper back and buttox, pressing Conil against her securely. After hefting him up slightly she began to trudge across the clearing away from the battered car, mutilated tent, and civilization, and towards the opposing mountains.

Rising to all fours, Rosa followed Rachel closely behind, while Jose and Frederick flank the alpha on both sides, making their way back to their den, far from humans and the area the search partying would cover when they tried to locate any sign of Collin and Rachel. As she forged up the steeply inclined hillside, Rachel smirked to herself, for despite imagining every possible way the event could have unfolded for the last few months it had turned out much more wonderfully then any expectation she had found.