BOOK ONE OF THE PRIDE
Amie Heights
Copyright 2015 by Amie Heights
This work of fiction is intended for mature audiences only. All characters represented within are eighteen years of age or older and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. This work is property of Amie Heights, please do not reproduce illegally.
This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.
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Adult Reading Material
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T he pride was restless tonight and Gerald could feel it in his hackles.
For the past three nights they had been searching for their youngest member, a kit named Samuel who had gone missing. Samuel was small and naive at only twenty years old and Gerald was terrified when he thought of what could have happened to him. Since the cat people aged much slower than a full-human man, most members of the pride were at least in their forties before they stuck out to find a family of their own. This had to be something different.
He looked at his remaining brothers and saw nothing but concern for the missing Samuel. They were preparing to head out again tonight to resume the search but after looking for so long with no clues they were starting to lose hope.
"Where do you plan to start tonight?" Gerald asked William, his second in the pride.
"The other four are going to check the East side, down by the waterfront," William told him, and Gerald nodded.
"And you?" Gerald asked wondering why William hadn't volunteered the information.
"I'm going to check someplace else," he said. Gerald growled and he had to force his ears to stay up instead of flattening like they wanted.
"You will tell me exactly what you have planned, now," he commanded. As the alpha male he would be obeyed or there would be Hell to pay. He knew that William's emotions were high out of concern for his missing brother and that was the only thing that prevented Gerald from showing his claws already.
"I'm going to check inside the building he was last seen on. I am going to explore when it still has people inside, because it is never empty...," Gerald cut him off.
"No, you will not," he said. As much as he wanted to find the kit he couldn't allow any member of the pride to risk being discovered by the humans.
In the day time the members of the pride looked like normal men. A bit taller, a bit leaner, but still human to the untrained eye. Night time brought on the Change. As the sun lowered they would experience a heightening of their senses and a primal urge begin to grow inside. When the sun set the transformation would be complete and pride members took on their true forms. More muscle mass was added, and they grew hair from nearly every surface of their bodies. Feline features became more prominent until they resembled big cats as much as men, halfway in between a man and a beast.
Gerald's had always believed that his own face took on a more lion like appearance than any of the others, but that could have been just his vanity. He continued explaining to William.
"I know it is tempting to look where you can not, but we must not be discovered, you know this," he said.
"I also know that is Samuel may have already been discovered," William said flatly.
Gerald had already considered this. If the kit had been captured at night, the world would soon know of their existence. What would come next would a life on the run from constant hunting for them.
"Yes, and if he hasn't you could be putting everyone at risk for no reason. We will continue to look, but safely," Gerald concluded.
"As you command me," said William and he started to join the others. Gerald had one more thing to add.
"William, check the outside of that building again and if you find anything, I want you to come to me first, do you understand?" he
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