Page 16 of Brutal Mate

Chapter 6 - Miley

It had been a couple of days since the party in the woods, but still Miley couldn’t rid herself of the memory. She had been sitting quite happily on the tree trunk with a beer in hand, watching Lauren and Haley dancing by the bonfire and listening to the conversation going on all around her when one of the girls had screamed. She wasn’t sure which one of them it had been, but no sooner had she turned her head in the direction than she caught sight of the reason why.

At first glance, she had believed it was a dog. Its amber eyes glowed from the shadows of the trees at the top of the ravine like something out of a horror movie. But when it stepped out into the moonlight and its chin was illuminated by the orange light of the fire, Miley very nearly screamed herself. It was larger than any dog she had ever seen, and its shaggy pelt was jet black. It was even twice the size of any wolf she had seen on the nature channels she'd loved to watch when she was a kid and her parents weren’t demanding she work every waking hour at the hardware store.

Lauren had run to her so quickly, gasping for breath, that Miley knew she wasn’t the only one who had seen it. The mood in the entire ravine had changed in an instant. The music was stopped, the buzz of conversation turned to worried exclamations, and everyone started to flock together like a herd of frightened animals.

Then he had appeared, the guy from the hardware store, like a giant of a man skidding down the side of the ravine in less time than it took Miley to register what was happening.

Tall, dark and tattooed, several of the women and girls in the ravine had seemed to forget their fear at the mere sight of him, turning from prey into predators themselves. And the way they’d looked at Kane, as if they would have let him take them right then and there, made Miley feel sick to her stomach.

Her own fear at the sight of the wolf was quelled by the sight of him, too. Even she couldn’t deny the fact that he was drop-dead-gorgeous. He wasn’t a pretty boy or a supermodel by any means, but he could most definitely have been on the front cover of some tattoo magazine, or even a rockstar on some metal band's album cover. The leather jacket he was wearing allowed Miley to picture him all too easily on a motorcycle with the wind whipping through his jet-black hair. She could also all too easily imagine herself sitting behind him with her arms wrapped tightly around his muscular torso, holding on for dear life while he got her the hell out of Nightstar for good.

But all that had been gone from her mind the moment he told the group they were seeing things, the moment he tried to make them feel like they were insane for suggesting there was a wolf in the woods. And when he had gripped her wrist in order to warn her to be careful, she had felt the spark of his touch, but she had forced away the desire, choosing anger instead. It was anger at his being so familiar he believed he could touch her like that, anger that he cared enough about her to single her out and warn her to be careful, even anger at herself for actually believing someone like him could care about her.

She knew all too well what her parents would say. She was useless, worthless, and a fool. Nobody as handsome, as powerful, as well-connected as he was would ever look twice at a pitiful girl like her.

And yet, when his eyes met hers that night in the woods, she had felt like the only person in the world who mattered. He made her feel that way, and it scared her more than she would ever admit.

So she tried to force the whole experience from her mind. Even as she headed home, exhausted to the point of near-collapse two nights after the party, she couldn’t stop thinking about it, no matter how much she told herself it was over and that she would likely never lay eyes on either the wolf or Kane again.

She put her key in her front door and entered the house with the hopes of heading straight to bed only to find that her mother was awaiting her.

The look on her face told her immediately that something was going down. And it was definitely something she wasn’t going to like. Her mother never smiled from ear to ear like that. Nor did she wait for her in the hallway as if she had wonderful news. It was never good news.

“There you are! How was work?” her mother asked, taking hold of her arm just above the elbow to walk her down the hall. The hair on the back of Miley's neck rose on end. Her mother never asked her how her day had been, much less how work was.

“Fine,” Miley said in a clipped tone. “What's the matter? Has something happened to Daddy?”

The way her mother was smiling, how happy she seemed, she couldn't help but think that maybe her father had been in some kind of terrible accident. It was a horrid thing to imagine, and it made her stomach twist with guilt, but she was hopeful.

“Oh no, dear,” her mother said, reaching up to stroke Miley's hair back behind her ear. “Daddy is just fine. Better than fine, in fact.”

“Then what is going on?” Miley asked, fighting her mother's grip when she tried to lead her down the hall, into the kitchen. Something wasn't right.

“I just made coffee,” her mother said. “Have a drink with me.”

“Where is Daddy?”

“He's in his office,” her mother said. “Drink with me.”

Miley gulped. It was best just to have a drink and get it over with, yet she still couldn’t shift the odd sensation in her gut. There was something her mother wasn't telling her, a reason she was being overly nice and smiling.

“What's Daddy doing in his office?” Miley asked as she was urged down onto a chair in the dining area of the kitchen.

Her mother placed two mugs of coffee on the table between them and sat down next to Miley before she answered, “The mayor is visiting. Isn’t this exciting?”

Miley's skin crawled. The urge to jump up and run was so powerful that it took everything she had to fight it.

“Why?” she asked through gritted teeth. It wasn't every day the mayor of the town dropped by just for a coffee and a friendly chat, even if Jack Blackwell was better than the last mayor, he wasn't that much better.

He likely had far better things to do than sit in her father's office, unless…

It didn't bear thinking about. Miley cringed.

“Drink,” her mother insisted, pushing the mug in front of her closer. “He's been here a while. They should be finished any minute.”

“I'm not sure coffee is such a good idea, Mama,” Miley protested. “I'm exhausted and I won't sleep tonight if—”

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