Moon Beast

By Monica Muniz

Nora Blake is a rookie detective that catches the case of a man who has been brutally attacked
but has survived. Upon further investigation, she realizes that the man, is in fact, a werewolf...A werewolf
on the run from a cabal of scientists that have created him. Guarding him while he recuperates, she quickly
falls for his charms...But can she defend her new love interest from a secret squad of the government that now want to cover the fact that their experiment that went awry?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trellis Publishing
• Release date: Jul 2, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201170486

Book preview

MOON BEAST

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MONICA MUNIZ

table of contents

MOON BEAST

BOY WEREWOLF

HUNTING WEREWOLVES

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Moon Beast

Mendez! Blake! the captain called from his office. You’re up.

Evan moaned dramatically and ambled to his feet, moving toward their superior for the case file in his hand. He barely looked at it before tossing it to his partner. Unlike the surly, seasoned detective in front of her, Nora Blake pored over the words, her eyes growing larger with each word she read.

Is this a joke, Mendez? Nora demanded, staring at the note in her hand. She blinked, reading the report with mounting dismay but through her peripheral vision, she realized that he was not waiting around. If it was a joke, Evan clearly was not in on it.

Are you going to sit around pondering the great mysteries of life or are you coming? her partner replied, grabbing his jacket from the back of his chair, and heading toward the elevator without checking to see if Nora was behind him.

She jumped up, hastily downing the last of her coffee before rushing off to join Evan. She had a feeling she was going to need the extra boost of caffeine. Her partner grunted when she made the same lift and flopped back against the dilapidated elevator, folding his arms over his bloated chest.

Just when I thought we might get out of here at a normal hour, he grumbled in his usual, sour way. It wouldn’t have mattered what time of day the case had come in—Mendez generally had the same reaction to any kind of work.

But Nora was excited by the case before her. She had only been in the Violent Crime unit for three weeks and while there had been some activity, nothing like this had come her way.

Has anything like this ever come anyone’s way? She mused, shaking her auburn curls with morbid amusement. How can this guy still be alive, let alone conscious?

The quickly emailed paper had described an unidentified male in his late twenties suffering from multiple stab wounds, a gunshot and severe beating. He had been picked up by Liberty State Park but was refusing medical treatment.

He’s probably high as a kite, Nora mused. Feeling no pain.

She wondered what kind of drug would numb the agony of a gunshot wound. She intended to find out.

The pair headed out of the South Division and into Mendez’s beat-up Buick Le Sabre. Nora was sure that Evan Mendez could afford much more than the lump of cold metal that reeked of old sweat and pepperoni sticks but she had not gotten to know her new partner well enough to ask him about it.

I rue the day that I get to that level of closeness with this buffoon, Nora thought, sliding mutely into the passenger side. She had made the mistake of offering to drive when they had first paired up and any passerby would have thought she had chopped off his manhood merely by asking.

She didn’t try again.

It was clear that Mendez was as happy to be her partner as she was to be his.

Thankfully, the ride to Jersey City Medical Center was smooth and silent. Nora tried to process what she had already learned about the victim.

Assuming that’s what he is. Anyone who has been beaten, stabbed, and shot can’t be that innocent. I wonder what shady deal he was up to before that all happened.

A pang of guilt shot through her and she trained her dark blue eyes out the window, reminding herself not to judge until she knew the facts.

That’s how cops get a bad rap. It might not be gang or drug related. Maybe there’s a real psycho running amok in Jersey City.

It didn’t please Nora to realize that the idea aroused her if only from an intellectual standpoint.

She had known that working in Violent Crime was not the same prestige as say, Major Crime or SWAT, Nora had hoped for some excitement if she was not going to be challenged cerebrally. What she had found in the past three weeks since transferring from Hoboken, was that it was still the same stale, pointless, heat-of-the-moment aggression for money, or drugs, or jealousy.

It was all senseless and underwhelming, the understanding that people were still, at their core, animals. Most of the cases were cut and dry and even after such a short time, Nora found herself disheartened.

I just need to put in my time here and then I can transfer out to Homicide or something. In the meantime, let’s hope this case is as intriguing as I’m making it out to be in my own head.

She turned her eyes back toward the file in her hand, rosebud lips puckering as she again read through the simple report emailed from the hospital.

Don’t worry about what that says, Mendez grunted at her. Patrol will brief us and they doctors try so hard to stay impartial, even when it’s crystal clear the idiot was probably up to no good.

But so much was done to him, Nora said, the awe in her voice almost palpable. "How is he