A Cat's Chance in Hell Read Free Page B

found work as a housekeeper for a wealthy family in one of the better suburbs on the edge of a rural, forested area. She and Kyle had the use of a small, self-contained apartment above the garage. He’d been enrolled in the local High School, which was full of rich snobby types, along with a few poorer souls who were allowed in from lower class suburbs because they excelled either academically or in sports.
    It ’d been important for Kyle and his mom to settle down near a rural area as she was a Werewolf and needed access to a large forested area during the time of the full moon. Werewolves were generally volatile creatures who struggled to contain their tempers, and were forced to change to wolf form over the three days of the full moon. Fortunately, the need to change was strongest at night, once the moon rose. So as long as his mom wasn’t expected to work in the evenings, and managed to keep her temper during the day, the housekeeping work suited her perfectly. Her supernatural strength made the daily chores easy and she was generally finished with everything before the bratty kids arrived home from school, thereby eliminating the chance of them igniting her temper. To Kyle’s utter astonishment, it had all worked out amazingly well.
    A few weeks after he started attending Parkhurst High he met her . Kyle had certain abilities that no one else in the world possessed, or so he thought. These abilities stemmed from the fact that when his mother had been infected with the Lycanthropy virus she had been over eight months pregnant. She’d survived the attack of the Werewolf, as well as the attack of the virus, and had given birth to him a few days later, shortly before she underwent her first change. She never told him the exact details of how she coped those first few weeks and months; it had obviously been an extremely difficult time for both her and his father. Kyle seemed to be a perfectly healthy baby and didn’t seem to be affected by the lycanthropy virus. His mother had hoped that somehow the womb had protected him. Kyle’s father hung around for a year or so and then vanished, leaving her and Kyle to fend for themselves. Kyle still had no idea where his father was, or even if he was still alive. Although he didn’t hold any real grudge against the man, he had no interest in finding and reconnecting with him.
    As Kyle grew, it became apparent that he had indeed been affected by the virus, but not in the usual way. He had heightened senses of smell, hearing and eyesight, and an uncanny ability to move absolutely silently. He was fearless and agile and often astounded other people with his physical coordination and ability. His mother began to tell people he was older than he actually was, for fear that someone would begin asking uncomfortable questions. She kept him well away from doctors and hospitals, terrified of what they may find. Fortunately he never got so much as a cold or flu, and with their frequent moves, no-one became suspicious of his incredible abilities and growth spurts. She taught him from a young age how to disguise his extra abilities, but he found it difficult to “play dumb” when he could smell and hear better than any normal human. He never experienced a need to change as his mother did, and somehow didn’t seem to have the volatile temper innate in all ‘made’ Werewolves. But the fact remained that he was a supernatural anomaly. Lycanthropy renders males sterile and females unable to carry a child to term. This startling fact meant that all Werewolves are made by surviving a Werewolf bite – Werewolves are not born. He was something no other Werewolf had ever heard of, abnormal in Werewolf society, and certainly outcast in human society if anyone ever found out the truth. This left him feeling like an outcast in life. He would’ve had no shortage of female company with his looks and physique, but he tended to brush them off when they tried to strike up any kind of conversation with