Howls of Chaos

By Gabrielle Boyd

When a beautiful werewolf moves back to her Southern hometown, her peaceful new life is disrupted by a rogue pack in this fantasy thriller.

Alexsys hasn’t been to Chaosville, Alabama, in nearly two hundred years. But now the beautiful, intelligent werewolf is finally moving back home. And she’s bringing her friendly pack with her. Opening a local business with her boyfriend, all Alexsys wants is to live a normal life. It’s a small-town dream come true . . . until a rogue pack of werewolves shows up in Chaosville.

The rival werewolves aren’t just moving in, they’re trying to take over, picking off locals one by one. As Alexsys investigates the killings, she begins to uncover secrets from the past. Now, Alexsys and her pack must team up with the county sheriff in order to face a deadly common enemy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Oct 29, 2014
• ISBN: 9781612541815

Book preview

It’d been a while since I last visited the small Alabama town called Chaosville; perhaps a little less than two hundred years or so. The town had totally progressed since the eighteen hundreds. Chaosville now had factories, department stores, gas stations, and schools. It had fire stations, a police department, several grocery stores, a mall, and restaurants as well. The town also had a college that I had recently enrolled in, even though I am not even a year away from being two hundred years old.

There were so many new families and ethnic groups in the area. I remember the time when there were only a few ethnic groups—white, black, Native American, mulattos, Spaniards, and people of mixed origin.

Chaosville now had a greater variety of people of different ethnic groups and religions than they did in the early days. This sort of reminded me of being in California, which in my book was good because I’m mixed myself. My father was a Creek Indian, and my mother was a freed African slave. I was born in 1811.

At age fourteen, I was married to a Creek warrior named Strong River. We were happily married and had one son together named Little Hawk. We lived in one of the Creek villages near what is now the Chaosville area, but that was before I was attacked by a strange beast in the forest that caused me to become what I am today: an immortal.

This happened in 1830, when I was nineteen years old. Ever since I was attacked that night in the forest, I have remained nineteen.

Since then I have traveled throughout the world, witnessed the world progress and change for the better, and had other personal experiences as well. I have even fallen in love a time or two, but for some reason I keep running back to the same guy.

Even though I am not human, I tend to blend in with society and my main goal is to live life to the fullest. I am a student at Chaosville Community College where I am majoring in nursing. You would probably wonder why a werewolf—that’s right, I am a werewolf—would go to college and major in nursing. Well dang, what else is there to do when all you have is time and you never age?

Oh, and excuse me for being rude, I totally forgot to introduce myself. My name is Alexsys, Ms. Alexsys Four Rivers, and I know I don’t spell my name like most Alexises do. I guess I try to be unique. I picked this name up right after I was turned. I spell Alexis without an i; in exchange, I add an s and a y before the s. So it is Alexsys.

I stand about five feet four inches tall with an average, athletic build. I have sort of reddish, dark-brown skin, high cheekbones, flat lips, dark-brown almond-shaped eyes, and long curly black hair that hangs down to the center of my back. Let’s just say, I am the ideal description of what a black Indian looks like.

Anyway, like I said earlier, I am 199 years old. You’re probably wondering how I was turned into a werewolf. Well, here it goes.

Back when I was mortal and living with the tribe, a handsome Spaniard named Carlos Fernandez would come into the village and sometimes trade with us. He was well-known among the settlers and the natives. Carlos was outstandingly sexy. Even though I was married to a Creek warrior, I still could not help but to notice him. Most of the women in the village would stare at him because he was so incredibly fine.

Carlos was in his late twenties, perhaps around twenty-eight. He was tall, over six feet, and had an athletic, muscular build as if he were a gladiator. His hair was jet-black and came down a little past his ears, with bangs that were combed to the side. His skin was smooth with olive tones and his eyes were brown, with a touch of honey. His lips were full and sexy, and when he smiled everyone around him would just gaze at his radiant white teeth. He was always well dressed and clean-cut. I figured he probably knew that he was a total hunk.

Even though Carlos was a very attractive guy, he had a charm about him too. I guess you could say that’s common among werewolves; we have a personal glow that sometimes causes us to spark attention from people at times.

I could walk out the door with some old blue jeans with holes in them and a T-shirt that’s twice my size with stains and someone would still notice me. Ha, ha, not tryin’ to brag! It’s just a werewolf thing.

Well anyway, back to Carlos. Every time he would come into the village, whether to trade or just hang out with some of the guys, he would always stare at me or look at me with this saturating smile that said, We should meet later so we can get acquainted.

Sometimes he would come up and try to spark a conversation with me. I never paid him any mind, but I wasn’t that fluent in English at the time. I could understand English really well, and I knew quite a few words and how to keep a simple basic conversation with someone. I just could not speak it that well.

Let’s just say, everything changed after I met this guy. It wasn’t until one night when the moon was full and everyone was asleep that a loud howling noise swept across the village and awakened several members of the tribe, including Strong River and myself. We stepped out of our house and noticed several other members of the tribe running away from the camp.

People were screaming and crying. Weapons were being fired. At first I thought someone was raiding our village, but that’s when I noticed these two large wolves. Well, they weren’t wolves exactly; they were walking like men on two feet before they got down on all fours like wolves.

I stood there in shock because I had never seen anything like that before. The two wolf-like creatures were just walking in the camp and destroying anything and anyone in their way. I was trembling all over. That’s when Strong River went back into the house and woke up Little Hawk. He quickly came back outside with a gun and his bow and arrow in one arm and Little Hawk in the other. He quickly handed me his bow and arrow and yelled, Come on!

The three of us began to run quickly toward the forest. When we got a few yards into the forest, Strong River put Little Hawk in my arms and forced us to run and hide. He told us to go and get help in one of the other Creek villages in the morning.

Before we ran any deeper into the dark forest, Strong River gave me a kiss that I remember to this day, and then Little Hawk and I took off deep into the forest. We didn’t stop running until we reached a cave that wasn’t too far from the village.

We quickly went inside and remained there for a few hours. After a while, I made Little Hawk stay in the cave while I decided to peek outside to see if the coast was clear.

As soon as I stepped out of the cave, something grabbed me by the arm and slung me down to the ground. I began to scream. I tried to get up and run, but whatever it was quickly slung me back down on the ground and jumped on top of me, pinning me down so that I could not get up.

It was a beast that was holding me down, one of the wolf-like creatures that had raided our village earlier. The wolf-like creature hovered over me and just glared at me with its yellow, glowing eyes.

The creature’s fur was black and somewhat gray tinted and was wild and entangled as if it had never been brushed. Its claws were long and dirty, maybe about six inches or so.

I struggled to get away from the creature, but could not manage to get away from its grip, not even enough to grab the bow and arrow that Strong River had given me.

The creature began to growl at me while showing its gruesome teeth; it opened its mouth and bit down onto my arm. As soon as the creature bit me, I cried out so loud that my voice echoed throughout the forest. I looked over toward the cave and saw Little Hawk standing on the outside, crying and yelling, Get off of my mommy, wolf!

After the creature bit me and scratched me up some, it threw its head back and began to howl at the moon. Then it ran off and disappeared into the wilderness.

I can only recall bits and pieces of the rest of that terrifying night such as lying in the spot where I was attacked, crying and screaming for minutes, Little Hawk sitting on the ground right beside me crying and yelling for help, hearing people’s voices in the woods nearby, and being rescued by a couple of the warriors from the village. Those are the only things that I remember before I passed out.

The next day I woke up in the chief’s house with Strong River by my side and members of the council examining me.

After a couple days, I had completely healed from my wounds and began to act somewhat strange. I can recall going to sleep in our summer creek house and waking up in the wilderness naked and mostly craving raw meat for meals. One day I caught a raccoon and started eating it alive. Once I realized what I was doing, I turned it loose. My temper would usually rise at just the slightest mistake and any little thing would cause me to have an outburst. Plus I felt as if I was stronger, and things that were usually heavy to me were not anymore.

I later realized that I could run a lot faster than usual without getting tired. I could outrun anyone and anything. I could hunt a deer in just seconds. I tended to keep most of this to myself, but eventually members of the tribe began to notice my strange behavior.

It wasn’t until the day of the first full moon that I sensed something was wrong and that something was going to happen. I had a horrible feeling come over me all at once, and I began to feel sick. My body didn’t feel like my own.

That afternoon I went to the river to wash off. While I was bathing in the spring, I heard a man say, Hesci (translates to hello in Muscogee Creek), Four Rivers. I quickly jumped and turned around. As soon as I turned around, there stood Carlos. It was like he had popped up out of nowhere.

For some reason, I just stood there and glared at him. It was like I knew him, and he was a part of me. I was not afraid of him either. Most women would have covered up immediately if a strange man came up while they were bathing, but I didn’t. I was attracted to him and felt like we had known each other for many moons. I just could not understand why I would have feelings for this stranger because I was married.

Carlos walked over to the edge of the river and said, This is the beginning of us being together, and you will understand everything after tonight, beautiful.

I looked at him and said, What do you mean?

He smiled and said Wow! You speak English.

I glared at him and repeated, What do you mean?

Still smiling, he said, The wolf, the dreams, the cravings, the hunger, waking up in the middle of the wilderness nude. You’re changing, and you know it.

I stood there listening to him, and then I thought, How would this fool know all this about me, and how did he know my name? This frightened me. Plus, no one knew about anything he mentioned. They just noticed that I had a more aggressive attitude.

I quickly got out of the river, grabbed my clothes, and began to run. Then all of a sudden, he appeared in front of me again.

Get away from me! Who are you? What do you want from me? I yelled in Muscogee.

He yelled back, My name is Carlos, and you need to come with me!

No, I said.

Four Rivers, you are marked, and when the full moon rises tonight, you are going to change. Now if you don’t want to hurt anyone, you will come with me, said Carlos.

I stopped and looked at Carlos. Then I began to run once again. This time I did not stop until I got back to the village. I put my clothes on along the way. For some reason, the words that Carlos said, talking about being marked and it being a full moon, stayed in my mind. What did all that mean? I thought. I did not know, and it sure did not seem pleasant or make any sense.

The rest of that day I spent with my husband and son. That night was a full moon, and I was curious about what was going to happen. I remember that night right before the moon began to rise, I kissed my son and husband goodnight and good-bye and whispered I love you. Then I quickly snuck out of the house and ran deep into the forest. It was like I was drawn to the forest, and I had to go there.

I went to the river that I had bathed in earlier and stopped to take a break. Carlos was there waiting for me with a smile on his face.

I knew you were coming, said Carlos.

How? I asked.

He totally ignored me, placed his hands on my face and said, Are you ready?

Ready for what? I asked.

He smiled and said, To hunt, to feed, to be extremely fast, to never age, to have major strength, to travel the world with me and go on adventures throughout the nations, and more.

Not too long after that, the transformation began and the two of us hunted, and I made my leading kill that would count for eternity. After that night, my whole life changed. Everything changed. After that night, I became an immortal.

Carlos and I became lovers, and we lived in Chaosville for some time, but after a while, the town became quite suspicious of us because everything and everyone was changing except for us. So we had to leave.

The two of us traveled the world along with members of our previous packs, and we settled in places such as Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, New York, California, Colorado, Spain, France, England, China, and so many other places. We used to move around like crazy, especially right after I turned because I kept making mistakes and it was so hard for me to control my actions.

We moved to California in 2002 and remained there until a few weeks ago. We thought it would be nice to move back to Chaosville since we haven’t been there for almost two centuries. Not only have we moved around the world a lot, we have had quite a few professions throughout the years. I have been a bartender, stay-at-home girlfriend, teacher, hair stylist, pharmacist, business woman, and outlaw. I usually try to keep a low profile.

Carlos, on the other hand, has been everything, including a knight, cowboy, doctor, businessman, and lawyer—due to the fact he is a little over five hundred years old.

Right now he is a lawyer and has been since the 1970s. Even though we have moved like crazy, Carlos has managed to stick with something he enjoys.

Since we moved back to Chaosville, Carlos and I opened up a local coffee shop called Chaosville Discount Coffee. I sell purses and jewelry there, as well as other fancy items. Carlos also opened up a new law office in town. I thought I would take a break from doing hair and go back to school for the fifth time.

You’re probably wondering, How do werewolves blend in so well in the public? Well, we have had centuries to practice. Sometimes we have had to leave places because people have realized and suspected something about us, especially when we live in small country towns or suburb areas.

Most of the time we live in large cities—well, before we moved back here. Carlos has been around since the fifteenth century, so he is pretty clever when it comes to blending in. So am I now.

When you are a werewolf, you have to control your actions. Not only on a full moon, but any time and any place. It’s not true about changing only during a full moon. Werewolves can change whenever and wherever they please. But when you have fully turned, it’s best to be out in the wilderness when you do because you really don’t have control over what you do.

Over the years, Carlos and I have learned to control our actions (most of the time). We haven’t attacked or eaten anyone