Page 7 of Twisted Lies
Four
“No!” Mikah screamed as she flew from her bed. Her legs twisted in the blankets, sending her crashing to the floor. Chest heaving, rapidly rising and falling with each sharp intake of air, her lungs burned as she fumbled with the light switch next to her bed.
“It was just a dream,” she chanted to herself, completely unconvinced. Thedreamhad been too real, too vivid. A chill crept over her body, the tiny hairs on her forearms stood on end.
“Lie.”
“Ugh! Would you just shut up already? It was just a damn dream. People have those all the time, you know,” she said to her wolf out loud instead of telepathically, figuring her wolf needed the verbal reassurance just as much as she did.
She refused to think that something so horrible, like what she had witnessed in her dream, could be a vision of an event to come.
Mikah glanced around at her bedroom, half expecting to see bloodied bodies strewn across the outdated shag carpet. Grabbing her phone, she checked her music subscription service and wondered why the room wasn’t filled with the melody of her nighttime playlist.
“I know I set this to play before I laid down. That’s so odd.”
The coppery smell of fresh blood filled her nose, sharp pains sliced through her stomach. “What the hell?” Her hand flew to her abdomen. Warm liquid coated her fingers instantly. The smell of old copper pennies filled the room.
Her wolf, who had been oddly quiet in her mind, whined—worry filled the animal’s mind.
“It was just a dream,” she repeated. Her hand shook as she grabbed a towel and pressed it to her stomach, slowing the flow of blood.
“If it was just a dream, why are we bleeding?”
“I don’t know, but Shane is dead. Griffin killed him.” Images of the man she’d once loved filled her mind.
Shane West had gone from her crush to the love of her life until he’d gotten mixed up with the former Alpha, Griffin Engle. His life went to hell in a handbasket and so did hers. It started off as little lies then swiftly moved to Shane getting hooked on drugs, cheating with more women than she could count, and shady back-door deals with the worst of the worst.
A single tear slid down Mikah’s cheek as she thought about her ex. They’d had the perfect relationship—friends to lovers. Though Shane wasn’t her true mate, according to her wolf, she thought she’d spend the rest of her life with him. But that all changed when he turned on her. Coming home after a drug-fueled weekend, Mikah had confronted Shane the minute he’d walked in the door.
Mistake.
Epic mistake.
Shane attacked her, beating her within an inch of her life. When she had healed enough to leave,he chained her to a wall in the basement with silver. The scars on her wrists remained, reminding her of what she somehow had managed to live through.
Griffin found her days later when he’d come to confront Shane about missing drug money. She’d watched as the former Alpha and his men beat Shane until he stopped breathing, then they beat him some more. She cried, she screamed. But it did no good. They dragged his lifeless body out of the house and dumped him God knows where.
Reluctantly, one of Griffin’s men had released her but not before he’d had his fun with her. Bile filled the back of her throat at the memories. She could still smell his putrid breath, the pain when he’d shoved himself inside of her.
Hot tears streamed down her face. Never again would she be the victim. Never again would she trust a man to love and protect her. Instead, she’d spouted lie after lie when people asked what had happened to her. The lies were easier than the truth. Telling her friends and family something she’d made up had been far better than telling them what had really happened to her.
