Page 230 of Secret Shifters Next Door

The reheated food smelled amazing, and I realized I’d done what I always did: got into the zone on a project and forgot to eat. I didn’t think I’d had anything since breakfast. I went and stood by the table as Miles set down the last bowl. It was the most delicious-looking peach cobbler I’d ever seen.

I raised an eyebrow. “One little old lady makes all this out of her garage?”

“Well, she had her sons revamp the garage into a kitchen, but yeah, basically.”

“Whatever, let’s eat, I’m starving.”

We sat and…talked. It shouldn’t sound so strange, but for me, it kinda was. I’d never felt so comfortable with anyone. So much had changed in a few short weeks that I almost couldn’t believe it was real. The conversation was so banal that anyone listening would probably be bored out of their mind, but I thought it was wonderful. Miles, though, seemed a little lost in his head. It was like he was trying to be in two places at once. He was doing a great job of it, but I still noticed.

“Are you okay? I feel like you’re thinking about something,” I said, taking a bite of collard greens.

He put his fork down and leaned back in his chair, rubbing at the stubble on his chin. “That noticeable, huh?”

I shrugged and kept chewing.

“I’ve been calling all the other packs we know of to let them know everything we’ve found out about the hunters. One of the packs I had to call was my old pack leader. It was rough. I guess I should give you the whole story. You need to hear it.”

I did want to hear it. So much of Miles’s personality seemed to be tied up in whatever had happened to him back when he left. It had to have been something huge or tragic. Forgetting my food, I leaned forward, so I could listen.

“I was in love with a girl named Liz.” He stopped abruptly and laughed. “Sorry, that sounds like the start to a bad novel. Anyway, Liz and I had been together since we were like twelve or thirteen. Head over heels in love. She was the first girl who’d ever loved me back, and I knew, absolutely knew that we were going to be mates and end up together.”

I had a sinking feeling in my stomach. This story already sounded like it wouldn’t end well. I was already dreadinghearing any more, and he wasn’t even at the bad part. I kept quiet, though, not wanting to interrupt his story.

“We got to high school, and things were going along like you’d imagine. Lovey-dovey notes to each other, angsty teenage sex, and plans and talks about the future. It was smooth as silk. Until”—he snapped his fingers, making me jump—“it wasn’t. One day, out of the blue, Liz wouldn’t respond to any calls. She skipped the classes we had together and avoided me in the halls. I even went to her house, but her parents said she wasn’t home. This went on for…I don’t know, three or four days.

“Finally, I asked one of her friends what was going on with her. If I’d pissed her off in some way. She gave me this real guilty look, and I could tell she was debating over what to tell me. That was the first moment I knew something was badly wrong. So, instead of telling me outright, this chick gives me an address. That’s it, a piece of paper with a street address scrawled on it. Then she heads off on her way.

“I didn’t recognize the address until I got on the street. A lot of the pack lived in that neighborhood. The house she’d sent me to was the home of the pack alpha—basically the king. I’d been born an alpha, but his son was next in line. I was cool with that. And I’d always been cool with his son, too. It was the middle of the day, and the dad was at work, but…” Miles stopped and made a snarling face, one lip curled like a pissed-off wolf. “But I could hear people inside the house.”

“What…what did you hear?” I asked, even though I was almost a hundred percent sure I already knew.

“Fucking. The sounds of two people fucking each other’s brains out. I lost it, kicked down the door, and barged in. I found them on the bed on the main floor. They weren’t even under the sheets. I think it wouldn’t have been as bad if at least some of it had been covered up. No. He had Liz bent over the side of the bed and…shit, you get the point. They saw me and screamedfor me to get out.” His eyes went distant. “Liz didn’t even look ashamed of what she’d done. She was more angry that I’d…I don’t know…interrupted them. I walked home, fucking dazed out of my mind. I alternated between sobbing and kicking rocks as hard as I could. Punched a couple trees and fence posts too. If I hadn’t had my shifter strength, I totally would have broken my hands.”

“Did you leave after that? Is that why you left?” I asked.

He looked at me, and my heart almost broke. He’d never looked so sad. He shook his head. “Nah. I was heartbroken, but I had nowhere else to go. So, after a day or two of sobbing in my room until I vomited, I finally went back to school. The first day back, the alpha’s son shoved me into a locker, got right in my face, and taunted me. Told me how good my girlfriend’s pussy tasted, how tight her asshole was around his cock—all kinds of vile shit. I lost it. Straight up lost my shit. I proceeded to beat the fuck out of him right there. He was the next alpha, but I was always stronger and bigger. Three of his friends tried to pull me off him, but they couldn’t fight me when I was in that state. I broke his jaw, gave him a concussion, busted both eye sockets, cracked three ribs, and knocked out five teeth. He somehow also broke three toes and a finger in the fight. The worst was when I kicked him in the stomach and lacerated his pancreas.”

“Oh my God,” I whispered, putting my hand to my mouth.

Miles chewed the inside of his cheek for a minute before continuing. “Yeah, if he wasn’t a shifter, he woulda been dead. The cops arrested me, but the alpha wanted to deal with things in the pack. I was a minor, and he didn’t press charges, so the cops let me go. What you have to know is that, at least in wolf packs, an attack on the alpha or the alpha heir is punishable by death.”

I gasped. They killed people? For fighting? I knew that what Miles had done was much more than a fight, but the deathpenalty seemed a little excessive. I tried to remind myself that these people lived in a different world with different rules.

“He brought me up and told me what the penalty was. My parents begged for my life. My…my dad even offered his life for mine.” Tears were forming in Miles’s eyes, and I could tell it was painful for him to remember. “The alpha took pity on me. Instead of death, he banished me. Never to return or contact anyone in the pack again. Not even a phone call. My parents said they’d go with me. That night, I realized I couldn’t let them suffer banishment for something they didn’t do. So, I left. Dead of night, with a bag of my stuff and five hundred dollars. I disappeared, and I haven’t seen or spoken to my parents ever since. I send them postcards every now and then, but I never sign my name or include any details about my identity, just in case someone else in the pack sees them.”

“Are you serious?” I asked, incredulous. “You were banished? How is that fair? Anyone would have done the same thing in your shoes.” The anger that had been building inside me as I listened to his story was now boiling over. “That’s such horseshit. He gets to steal the woman you love, and rub your face in it, and you’re the one who gets punished?”

Miles chuckled humorlessly. “You didn’t see him after the fight. He got punished pretty good.”

“You know what I mean. He deserved what he got. And even if the alpha was his dad, he should have realized that.”

“The alpha did sound like he had some remorse when I talked to him today. His son died in one of the shifter attacks. I’m pretty sure he’s seeing things from mine and my parents’ perspectives now.”

I hadn’t known the guy was dead, and that made me feel a little guilty for talking about him like I did. I wasn’t the kind of person who spoke ill of the dead—even if the guy had been an asshole. Even assholes had people who loved them. I still stoodby my feelings, though. Miles didn’t deserve to be cast out that way.

“Did you ever get over Liz?” I asked.

He nodded. “Years ago. I don’t love her anymore. I’m pretty sure the love I had died the moment I saw her banging another dude. It fucked my head up pretty good. I gave her everything I had, and she pissed it away like it meant nothing. I loved her so hard for so long, and it wasn’t enough. Ever since, I’ve had this fear of letting myself love another person. I wasn’t sure I could handle losing anyone else again.” Miles looked at me. “Not until the right person came along to show me it was worth it.”

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