When You’ve Caught a Werewolf is out! This is a paranormal short story, and the day we’re celebrating is National Bunny Day.
Silas has a bunny in his garden, and today is the day he’ll catch it. But right as he’s about to get out there and try, a wolf rushes toward it. Silas can’t let the wolf have his bunny, so he goes after the wolf with a fishing net…
Read the first chapter below!
When You’ve Caught a Werewolf
What do you do when you’ve caught a werewolf in a fishing net?
Silas Applewhite only wanted to save Sam, his bunny, from becoming breakfast. He hadn’t planned on catching a wolf in a fishing net, but now when he has, he’d better feed him, right?
After days of running, Aysoom Dhib is starving. When he spots a juicy rabbit sitting on a lawn, he pounces. He hadn’t foreseen a human interfering with his food plans, but since the human is just as juicy as the bunny, though in a different way, Aysoom doesn’t mind. But can he persuade Silas to let him stay after having tried to eat his pet?
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Chapter 1
Aysoom Dhib ran between the pine trunks, the morning dew wetting the fur on his legs and belly. He’d been running for days, and hunger clawed in his gut. He didn’t know where he was but thought he’d traveled far enough.
He’d been shunned by the pack. Rightly so, if you went by pack rules. The pack dealt in real estate. They bought properties, rented them out to humans, and then steadily increased the rent. Aysoom wasn’t super opposed to the tactic, but he’d promised himself years ago that he’d never rent from anyone.
The problem had come when his alpha had tried to buy the old train station. It was an impressive Gothic-style building, and the plan had been to turn it into apartments and demand a ridiculous amount in rent. Aysoom believed some people would be willing to pay to live there—he might’ve been tempted to himself. Not many got to live in old train stations, or in Gothic-style houses for that matter.
About six years ago, Aysoom had been cornered by a group of five outcasts—betas—and there was no way he would’ve won the fight if Frey Skald hadn’t shown up.
Frey was one of the local vampires. Normally, wolves and vampires didn’t get along, but Frey had recognized him as one of the residential wolves and had intervened. No one wanted a bunch of pack-less strangers roaming around. Feral creatures.
With Frey’s help, they’d managed to get out of the situation and had sent the outcast wolves packing.
Wolves didn’t do well on their own, and castaways often bunched together, but for a pack to thrive, they needed members of all hierarchies. A group of betas would never feel like a real pack since it lacked a true leader. A group of alphas would never accomplish anything since all their time would be spent trying to assert dominance over each other. A group of omegas would be equally disastrous since no one would want to take the lead on anything.
Alphas sometimes survived as lone wolves. They were strong-willed enough to stay mostly sane, though there would always be a gaping hole where the sense of pack should be.
After the incident with the outcasts, Frey had told him he’d collect on the debt Aysoom owed him.
Years had gone by without Frey demanding anything, but it ate at Aysoom.
The city they lived in—or Frey lived in, and they owned part of—wasn’t big, and chance meetings were unavoidable. The pack lived outside of the city limits, where they had access to the forest, so they could shift and run.
When the train station came up for sale, the pack leader heard about it before it was listed anywhere. During a pack meeting, he’d told them all he was trying to make a deal before it became publicly known.
The thing was, vampires were strangely attached to the place where they’d been turned, and Aysoom had heard a rumor about how Frey, when human, had been working on the railway while it was being built, and one night he had been attacked and killed in the half-built station house.
Aysoom had seen a chance to get rid of his debt and had gone to talk to Frey.
It wasn’t until it was too late. Aysoom learned Frey had managed to convince the previous owner to sell to him, and Aysoom’s alpha had been furious. Since he didn’t think anyone could’ve known about the upcoming sale, he’d sent a group to apprehend Frey and had him tortured.
Vampires were tough, but he’d let slip Aysoom had informed him of the train station coming up for sale. He’d refused to cancel the deal and hadn’t agreed to sell it to the wolves either.
Aysoom hadn’t seen him, but he’d heard the beating he’d taken had been something out of this world.
The result?
Well, Aysoom was starving and far away from the place he’d called home his entire life. He should be happy he was still breathing, still able to run. Being thrown out of a pack was a harsh punishment, but they hadn’t broken any bones.
If he didn’t eat soon, he wouldn’t have to worry about finding somewhere to settle down. The gnawing hunger was consuming him from the inside, making him weak.
Slowing to a trot, he took in his surroundings. Pines. Pines, pines, and more pines. Yesterday, he’d managed to find some overripe bilberries, but here there was only heather as far as he could see.
He came to a stop and looked around. Where was he? How far from civilization? As tradition had it, he’d been stripped of his belongings when cast out, so he had no clothes, no money, nothing. He couldn’t wander naked into a city and ask for help. Though he should try to contact his bank as soon as possible and block his card. He didn’t think anyone in his pack would be able to guess his PIN code, but he needed a new card sent to him ASAP.
He’d need an address for them to send it to. How would he buy a house when he had no access to money and no job? No bank would grant him a loan.
It was tempting to stay there, waste away surrounded by the heather, but after a few minutes, he stood again.
He walked. He no longer had the energy to run. When an Eurasian woodcock flew up a short distance ahead of him, he cursed in his mind. Maybe he could learn to hunt birds.
He continued forward, walking in a daze, until he grew aware of the surrounding nature having changed.
Stopping, he looked around. He was in a mixed forest, and he believed there was a field ahead of him.
He crept forward.
The forest was silent. When had it gone silent? Was he the cause, or was there something else around?
When a willow warbler twittered above him, he jumped. Then he snorted at himself, shook off the tension, and continued toward the edge of the trees.
He was quiet but not overly cautious. Dew droplets were clinging to the grass, the temperature cool on the verge of chilly.
Stalking forward, he peeked out from between the tree trunks, only to still.
It was a garden.
He’d been prepared for a field, but there was a log cabin with a porch facing the forest. Lush green grass and there, below a small apple tree halfway to the cabin, was the biggest rabbit Aysoom had ever seen.
Was he hallucinating?
It was huge, dark gray, had large standing ears, and it was nibbling on an apple on the ground.
Aysoom’s stomach snarled at him.
Lowering his head, he took a quiet step forward. It was busy eating the apple. He’d sneak a little closer, then he’d snatch it up.
* * * *
Silas Applewhite poured a cup of coffee and neared the patio door. He loved September, loved how nature shifted color, and how the air grew crisp.
Best of all—he’d be off work for two weeks. He’d worked his last day yesterday. While everyone else at the office took time off during the summer, he saved his vacation for the fall.
He hated hot weather; his fair skin would turn the color of a boiled lobster if he spent more than five minutes in the sun, and more often than not, he got sun eczema. Sun allergy, his mom had called it.
No, thank God for fall.
He peered out the window and sipped his coffee. His bunny was there.
It had shown up a little over two weeks ago, and he was trying to get it used to him. It wasn’t a wild rabbit, but he had no idea how it could’ve ended up here, and every day he didn’t manage to catch it, he feared it’d get eaten by a fox.
Maybe it was too big for a fox?
He’d Googled, and he believed it was a Flemish Giant, which made little to no sense. Who’d let out a fancy breed in the forest? But he couldn’t see any other reason. He had no neighbors and was surrounded by forest and fields. It couldn’t have escaped from its owner and hopped here on its own, surely. Or maybe it could have. How far did bunnies travel?
This was his grandparents’ old property he’d inherited—the luxury of being the only child of an only child. No one to share the inheritance with.
He never would’ve been able to afford something like this if it hadn’t been passed down to him. The property had both fields and forest. He leased the fields to a farmer but did next to nothing with the forest.
He took another sip of coffee and watched his bunny. He didn’t know if it was a boy or a girl, but he’d read up on everything a pet bunny needed, and he planned to litter box train it and have it moving around freely in the house.
First, he needed to get it to a vet to make sure it was healthy and get it spayed or neutered if it wasn’t already. He’d read litter box training would be hard otherwise.
Sam. He’d call them Sam. It was a good name no matter what gender they were. Did rabbits listen to their names?
He reached for his phone in his pocket. According to Google, they could learn their names, but wouldn’t come running when you called them. Hmm… It would’ve been much cooler if they came running.
While he was at it, he Googled about bunnies traveling too, and no, they didn’t go more than about six hundred feet from their burrow. Did Sam have a burrow?
No, he had to catch Sam today. This couldn’t go on any longer. They weren’t safe out there.
He sipped some more coffee and watched Sam. They looked so cute nibbling on the fallen apple. He glanced at the fishing net he had standing next to the patio door.
The guy in the sport fishing store had looked at him as if he were insane when he’d asked for a good net to catch a huge rabbit in. He described how big Sam was and how he couldn’t get within grabbing distance without them hopping away, so he needed a long handle.
Today, he’d catch them.
He’d get Sam on his first day off, then he’d spend the next two weeks socializing them. They most likely were used to humans already. Bunnies like Sam weren’t wild breeds.
A big, dark shape followed Sam.
Silas shrieked, dropped his cup on the rug where he hoped it wouldn’t break—if it did, he’d deal with it later. Then he grabbed the fishing net and rushed out on the patio.
“Hey!”
Was it a dog?
It was huge, and it dashed after Sam.
A roar left Silas as he ran toward where Sam took a ninety-degree turn, forcing the dog to slow a fraction so as not to lose its balance. Sam looped back, circling the apple tree and zigzagging around the lawn. The dog closed in and fell behind, closed in, and fell behind.
For a second, he caught the dog’s eye, and fear slithered through him. Was it a dog?
He didn’t have time to hesitate. Sam would be breakfast if he didn’t get his shit together.
The next time Sam made a quick turn, Silas intercepted the dog, swung the fishing net, and managed to catch the dog’s head inside of it.
There was a snarl, and then Silas was pulled forward, but he yanked back, pleased to see Sam dash toward the tree line.
The dog growled and thrashed, but Silas held on. Whenever the dog tried to back out of the net, Silas backed too. Little by little, they were getting closer to the patio and farther away from Sam.
Silas hoped they had a bolt hole somewhere nearby. Did domestic bunnies build tunnels? Would he have to have an area where Sam could do that?
Eeep! He didn’t look like a friendly doggie.
“Easy.” Silas was about to raise his palm in a calming gesture, but realized it would mean letting go of the net. Damn, how would he release this dog without it attacking him?
“You can’t eat Sam. If you’re hungry, I can give you something, but Sam is off limits. Do you understand?”
Golden yellow eyes met his through the net. The growling stopped, and a chill danced down Silas’ spine. There was awareness in those eyes.
“Are you hungry?” His voice quivered a little, and when the dog nodded, Silas gulped. Dogs shouldn’t nod, should they? It was not a trick commonly taught, was it? Not in response to a question, at least.
He slid his gaze over the gray, brown, and black fur and gulped. Wolf? Fear filled him. Had he caught a wolf in a fishing net?
Silas looked around, but he couldn’t spot Sam anywhere. “Okay, I’ll remove the net, but you are not to follow Sam, do you hear?”
The dog nodded again. Could he be dreaming? Maybe he never got out of bed? Maybe this wasn’t real?
He removed the net from the dog’s face and took a quick step back. Damn. It was time to wake up now if this was a dream.
Slowly, he took a step in the direction of the porch, and when the dog followed, Silas forced himself to breathe. He took another step, as did the dog.
What kind of food could he give to a dog? Did they eat eggs and bacon? Bacon for sure, right? But maybe it wasn’t healthy for a dog to have something with a lot of salt.
He hurried toward the porch, and the dog kept pace with him. Blowing out a breath, he glanced at him. “All right. Eggs and bacon?”
Silas stepped up on the porch and in through the still open door. There was spilled coffee on the floor, but the cup was intact—small favors. He sighed and went to get a cloth.
The clickety-click of dog claws against the hardwood floor sounded. Maybe he could bring the dog with him once he’d caught Sam and go to the vet. He’d need help to cut the claws. He didn’t think he’d dare try it on his own.
He grabbed the washcloth in the kitchen and went back to wipe up the coffee. Luckily, he’d drunk most of it before the fishing-net adventure.
Once done, he went to the sink to rinse the cloth, took a deep breath, and spoke. “So… you want some bacon?”
“Yes, please.”
Silas shrieked and whirled around. There in his kitchen was a naked man.
N01-5-2, Vil, has lived four-hundred years as a second class citizen, a reptilian hybreed created from creatures from the stars who left as mysteriously as they came. Worshiped like gods, the ancient progenitors advanced humanity with gene therapy, which became their downfall, as the very DNA they relied on poisoned them. Relegated to traveling the galaxy with his ragtag reptilian crew, they set course to an abandoned military base on an old asteroid and find something the progenitors shouldn’t have left behind frozen in wait.
Call it a situationship, call it roommates with benefits—whatever it is, Riley Sweet is mostly fine with the arrangement. After all, he’s got an awesome off-base apartment on Okinawa, and he’s got someone to hook up with on the regular with no pressure and no strings.
