Chapter 49: Madness In The Midnight Hour

Duko's Childhood Bedroom,The Lovell Residence, South Pasture, Colorado.....

Nightfall had set upon the pasture and by extension The Lovell residence as Channon Duko Lovell and his slumbering expectant wife Rae slept rather peacefully following a day of good news. Duke had his arms wrapped around her and all seemed right with the world as far as the two of them had been concerned before turning in for the night. Charles had gone to bed early in the wake of the excitement about finally becoming a grandfather and his early morning routine of heading into town come sunrise. The old house had been quiet as the family slumbered no doubt due to good dreams as the news of Rae's pregnancy lifted everyone's spirits so to speak. She herself was more than at peace, sleeping beside her husband with their unborn child growing with each passing day inside of her. Duke shifted in his sleep as his pleasant thoughts of the previous day began to give way to the haunting memories of the past when he'd been stationed in Iraq and the hell that broke loose on his unit in the form of fire and bullets raining down upon them in rapid succession.

The comforting environment of his childhood bedroom and the company of his slumbering wife seemed to fade in the distance as Duke found himself back there in the thick of combat scrambling to get out of the range of multiple grenades which had already set everything ablaze and burned several of his fellow soldiers alive. He could still hear their collective screams and smelled the inescapable scent of the burning of their flesh and uniform fabric as he moved about trying his hardest to avoid the falling debris that came with their encampment collapsing.

Outside of his distant memory, Duke had fallen out of bed and crawled on his belly toward the door still very much locked inside his dream of the past as his mind continued to play tricks on him. His breathing grew rapid and his senses began to take hold of him as he slowly forgot his surroundings and began to adopt a defensive means of escaping the house believing it to have been the burning encampment.

His constant state of distress and anxiousness had begun to set off a rather spontaneous transformation in him as his fingernails became like razor sharp claws and his body began to contort in the worst way causing him to feel a good deal of pain, as if he'd still been fighting back then. He managed to make it out of the front door and down the path his instincts demanding that he survive the attack that would never come as he rolled into the grass in a bid to avoid the explosion his mind had recalled all too well to the point of the heat singing his skin just after the burst despite there being nothing around him aside from wide open space.

The shifting glow of his formerly blue eyes emerged and revealed the eerie red that accompanied the bloodlust that had always been sustained via the beast that lurked deep within him. The painful means of transformation saw to the rapid growth of blackened fur and a sprouted tail from his tail bone as he ripped and clawed at what little attire in the form of pajama pants he wore before his muscles began to bulge and his already impressive cock sprouted in the excitement of the shifting process.

He let out a howl as his body ached and his bones grew to accommodate the hulking size of the beast whom had at last been once more free of it's flesh prison. The taste of blood had been on the wind with each bit of air the flaring nostrils of the fiend took in and it only excited it all the more. The rage at having been in such a stressful position and the perceived assault had done a number on the creature's senses. The soft white glow of the moon's light brought with it the seemingly eternal song that further stirred the heart of the angry beast as it began to force it's way into the world that surrounded it before taking off into the distance keen on hunting for the blood that caught it's fancy.

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Duko's Childhood Bedroom, The Lovell Residence, South Pasture, Colorado.....

The late night hour had brought with it a sort of steady calming peace that seemed to permeate throughout the pasture and possibly the subsequent town as Rae Lovell found herself awakening in bed to find that the afternoon had passed her by following the excitement of hearing the doctors tell her that she had truly been pregnant. It was an altogether strange feeling, but it seemed to only intensify her bond with her husband Duke, whom had been missing at the present time. Slowly, Rae pulled back the covers and took note of the late night breeze as her formerly warm feet pressed against the cold hard wood of the floor below her. She took a moment to collect herself as she dared to venture out into the cool night air in search of her missing husband. It wasn't like Duke not to be in bed with her, but she knew all too well that he'd possibly gone out due to the contention in his blood via the feral nature of the wolf that dwelled within him.

She'd only seen it up close once, but she had known it about as well as she had known her husband and possibly better. She wasn't sure if Charles had been of the same nature given his tendency to disappear in the middle of the night as well, but Duke had mentioned something about him being sweet on a waitress at a local bar a ways from the pasture and guessed his father had ventured there on many an occasion. Rae continued her journey toward the front door where she could make out from the claw marks along the floor and the sides of the door that Duke had venture outside and that he might have been driven to seek the outdoors due to another one of his painful transformations.

She had hoped that he wouldn't get into too much trouble seeing as he had a tendency to leave a trail of blood and bodies behind no matter where they had gone and she had not the heart to tell the ailing man that he'd been something of a danger to the good folks of Colorado as well. With a small sigh, Rae made up her mind to venture after him, hoping to quell the rage of the beast before he had caused any damage to the town or the people before she could get to him. As she stepped out into the open air, she had no fear of what would become of her, nor of Duke even in his most primal of states as she knew all too well the strength of their mutual connection.