by C. R. Jane
Hold it together and keep smiling.
But when he didn’t respond, anxiety beat into me that I’d come too late and the position was filled.
“I’m a hard worker and a quick learner, plus I can start today if you need me…” The words rushed out desperately, and I fidgeted awkwardly in place.
The truth was I’d never had a job. But I could learn. I tried out a smile again, inwardly wincing at how awkward I was sure it looked.
He sighed. “We’re still discussing with the team if we need an extra helping hand, so no news on it yet.”
“Marcus, who are you kidding?” the man at the booth by the window called out. “This place is a shit show right now. We need help.”
I wanted to hug the stranger for stepping in.
Marcus threw a glare at the man, so I seized the opportunity.
“Please. Try me out for a week or two and let me show you my worth.”
He ran a hand through his hair. “How about you come back in a few days, and I’ll have a talk with the owner.”
His words gutted me, and my attempt to appear professional and in control flew out the window.
As he turned away from me, I pleaded, “Please, I really need this job. I’ve run out of options. I’ll do anything, even scrub the toilets if that’s what you need.”
I loathed listening to myself, but reality was a brutal bastard. With only twenty dollars in my purse, I had no car or way of getting out of his town. If I tried to leave here right now, I would have no roof over my head, and where would I even go? I was in the middle of nowhere with wolves in the woods.
I trembled at the thought.
The bell from the front door opened, and a party of three older men entered, chatting, not even paying us attention as they made their way to the farthest booth.
“You seem really nice, Rune, but—”
“P-please.” I stepped closer and lowered my voice. “I’ll be honest with you, Marcus. My car is ruined, and I don’t have money. If I don’t find a way to pay for the repairs, I’m homeless and stuck here. I’m sorry, I hate saying this or putting you on the spot. Carrie from the inn mentioned you had a position.”
I tried to think about other options I had. There wouldn’t be a lot of open jobs in a small town like this. I could ask Jim if he had a job to help in the bar, but he probably would have said something if that was an option. There were a number of other stores in town, and I guessed I could try every one of them. My heart started to race at the prospect.
Marcus swallowed loudly, his lips pursed. Then he released a long exhale, and I knew I’d broken him down. “You start the day after tomorrow. Be here at six p.m. sharp. We won’t have time for a lot of training, so you’ll have to show us how quickly you can pick things up.”
My eyes widened. “Oh my goodness, I can’t thank you enough. This means everything to me.”
He nodded curtly. “I’m giving you a chance. Don’t let me down.”
“I promise.” I nodded.
“Good. See you soon, Rune.” He moved toward the newcomers, and that was my cue to leave.
To say my chest was bursting with excitement was an understatement.
I’d just gotten a job. I couldn’t believe it. I wanted to scream in excitement that for the first time in so long, something went right.
Making my way back to the inn, I practically skipped along the sidewalk, which wasn’t like me.
But I had a job!
My cheeks hurt from smiling so much.
Farther ahead, more people were walking around the main road and into stores, the town finally coming to life with activity. Every person I passed had a weird reaction when they saw me though. A flare of anxiety darted through me. People were kind of weird in this town. I couldn’t work out what it was, but things felt…off center.
Despite my good news, I tried to piece together the strangeness of today. Blood mentioned by the young guy in the inn. The way people watched me like they’d never seen an outsider in their town. Then there was that angry hot guy with his girlfriend who growled at me. A fluttery feeling hit my stomach at the thought of him, followed by a rush of anger.
I had a lot of experience in the danger of good-looking men. I’d be staying as far away from him as possible.
But as long as I didn’t cross paths with him again and I could get used to strange looks, staying in town might just be bearable.
3
Rune
I laid in bed the next morning, listening to the sounds of the river floating through the open window. I was beginning to be convinced that listening to running water should be a form of therapy. Or maybe it was? I’d have to look into that.
I sighed and closed my eyes, relaxing into the soft sheets. I wasn’t used to this…peace. Was that what this feeling was? I tried to remember the last time I’d felt something like this.
Was it never?
My hands shook as I sprinkled the powder that Nelly gave me in the drinks. If anyone ever knew she had helped me, she’d be killed. But I couldn’t do it. Not one more day. I couldn’t do it.
I would rather die.
Which would also happen if I stayed here any longer.
I stirred the powder into the brandy Alistair had barked at me to get for him and his friends.
Nelly had promised me that this stuff was tasteless. But I was the unluckiest person on earth, so all I could hope was that she was right.
“Rune, you piece of trash, get your ass in here.” Alistair’s comments were followed by the raucous laughter of him and his betas, all as high up on the asshole scale as he was.
I tried to still the shaking of my hands as I carried the tray of drinks into the living room where the men were sprawled out smoking cigars. A smoky haze filled the room, and I choked on a cough. The entire mansion would smell like the skunky cigars for the rest of the week. That, and sex. I’m sure they were expecting their usual prostitutes to show up tonight too. Good thing Nelly had made sure that order was cancelled.
“What are you waiting for?” Alistair growled out. I didn’t paste a fake smile on my face, that would be too suspicious.
I began to hand out the drinks. Desmond, the beta of the pack that I hated the most, reached out a claw when I began to hand him his. The jerk cackled loudly when I flinched back. He took every opportunity to rub in the fact that I would never be able to shift. I hated him.
I hated them all.
I finished handing out the drinks and went to wait in the corner of the room where I usually would be spending the rest of the night, waiting for Alistair to give me orders.
Tonight was going to be different though.
As the seven men sipped on their drinks and in general acted like the enormous douchebags that they were, my mind went crazy with all the possible things that could go wrong.
What if they didn’t all fall asleep? What if one of them was immune? What if one of them was just pretending to drink and he never ingested the powder?
My worries went on and on. There was so much at stake.
An hour later, they were all fast asleep in various places around the room. The powder had hit all of them within a few seconds span of each other, so no one had time to warn anyone else that something was wrong.
It was time.
Taking a deep breath, I darted from my corner of the room and went over to Alistair, where he had fallen asleep with his head on one of his beta’s shoulders, a position that Alistair would find incredibly embarrassing normally.
I picked up his arm and then heaved his body against my shoulder, almost crumbling under the weight. My broken rib on my left side screamed with the effort. This wasn’t going to work. Alistair had given me that particular injury a few days ago when I’d accidently dropped a plate in the kitchen as I was putting dishes away from dinner. It had been a rather nasty beating because he’d also accused me of staring a little too long at the visitor we had from the Redmond Pack that night. Of course, since my wolf had never been released, I had no
shifter powers to help me heal, so I would have to deal with the pain for weeks just like a normal human.
Internally freaking out that I hadn’t thought everything through as much as I should have, I grabbed a blanket from the couch and dropped Alistair on it, enjoying the sound of his head cracking against the tile floor a little too much.
I grabbed two of the blanket ends and began to drag Alistair across the floor to the hallway where his office was. Sweat dripped down my forehead from the amount of effort it took to drag a six foot four, two hundred and thirty-five pound man across a room. I was five foot nine, tall for a woman, but no match for Alistair’s size.
I had to take breaks every couple of steps. The pain in my ribs was better than it had been when I was trying to lean him against me, but pulling on the blanket was still excruciating.
I just prayed that the powder would actually last the eight to ten hours that Nelly had suggested because this seemed to be taking forever.
I made it to the hallway and took another break. Sweat dripped down on the tiled floor below me. My breath came out in tortured gasps. Taking another deep breath, I pulled on the blanket, groaning with the effort, and this time, finally made it into Alistair’s office…where his safe was held.
That safe was going to be my ticket out of here. Alistair’s presence was required because the safe needed his thumbprint and a retina scan in order to open. I’d been tempted to chop them off and save myself the effort of dragging Alistair into the room, but I’d figured he’d be mad enough once he woke up. I didn’t need to add the rage he’d experience if he had to grow back an eyeball and a hand at the same time.
I got him over to the safe and then realized I was an idiot.
The safe was behind the typical picture frame. The picture frame was bolted to the wall at the top and had to be held to the side when opening the safe. If I had my shifter powers, I’d be able to hold up Alistair and the picture frame with ease. But since I didn’t, I didn’t see how it was possible to do it.
I was actually going to have to cut his hand and eyeball off.
Holy shit.
There was no time for me to come up with a different plan. My hands trembled as I grabbed from the wall one of the long swords Alistair had decorated the room with. It was supposed to belong to some ancient conqueror of China… Was it the Huns? The sword was heavy in my arms, and I worried for a second, imagining having to hack my way through Alistair’s wrist instead of the clean swipes I always saw other members of the pack accomplish.
Giving myself an internal pep talk, I brought the sword up as high as I could manage and then sliced it down on Alistair’s wrist.
Blood spewed everywhere, but the cut went clean through. Evidently, Alistair had made sure the sword stayed very sharp. That attention to detail, along with the money I knew was in the safe, were really Alistair’s only redeeming qualities I could think of in the moment.
I didn’t feel bad about slicing his wrist off at all.
It was a testament to how strong the powder was that Alistair didn’t move at all during any of this. He laid there peacefully, even as blood poured out of the wound.
The next part was going to be the really bad part though. I was just going to have to stop myself from puking, or at least aim it over Alistair’s body.
I needed a small knife. I started out of the room, sliding a little bit in the blood that coated the previously pristine white floor. I ran to the kitchen and got a small steak knife and then made my way back, checking the living room as I went to make sure it was still as quiet as I’d left it.
Everyone was still sleeping peacefully.
I made it back to the office. “Ok, you can do this,” I coached myself as I lifted Alistair’s right eyelid. His eye stared at me blankly.
I cut that son of a bitch’s eye out then, and I managed to only puke once…right on his face.
I set the disgusting eyeball and Alistair’s right hand on the desk beside the wall and then lifted the painting to the side.
Why did it have to be so heavy?
The safe looked like something from a Bond movie but I’d seen Alistair get into it enough to know how it worked. I pressed a few buttons and then grabbed Alistair’s hand and pressed it to the scanner, signing in relief when it accepted his print. I belatedly realized that I could have just chopped his thumb off, but considering everything Alistair had done to me and taken from me, he could deal with more pain.
Next up was the eyeball. I held down the urge to retch once again as I touched it and held it up to the scanner, hoping I hadn’t damaged the retina at all while I was tearing the eyeball out.
When it worked and the safe door popped open, I almost cried.
Alistair had stacks of cash in the safe, and I quickly grabbed five of the stacks, carefully avoiding the ones with a green dot on the band that held the cash together. Those had a tracker on them. Alistair was suspicious and thought everyone had an eye on his cash. He would periodically put trackers on his expensive items. This included his collection of jewels, artwork, antiques, weaponry…and his cash.
I’d picked today because he’d just gotten this cash this morning from whatever drug sale he’d recently completed, and Nelly had conveniently not gotten to placing the trackers yet.
She was an angel.
And Alistair was going to make her pay for that.
Shaking that dark thought off, I took the money and then ran to my bedroom to grab the bag I’d stashed in the back of the closet under a pile of dirty clothes. Throwing the money in there, I readied myself to leave. There was a bus leaving in thirty minutes that would take me to a town an hour away from here where Nelly said there was a car salesman that was well-versed in quiet, under the table transactions.
I was almost there.
As I rushed to leave, my footsteps faltered outside the office where my mate still lay sleeping.
I couldn’t resist taking one last look at him.
I stood over his body, just staring at him. My brain raged for me to kill him, to take the sword and hack off his head. I knew Alistair kept silver bullets in the safe, just in case a rogue pack of shifters ever attacked. It was all right there, the keys to end it all.
But I couldn’t do it.
Alistair was beautiful, even now dressed in blood and the last few years of pain, agony, and disappointment. His hair was matted with blood and puke currently, but it was usually a perfect shade of sable brown flecked with streaks of gold. He had a gaping hole where his eye had been, but the grisly sight couldn’t make me forget how brilliant of a green they normally were. I’d been enamored with them…with him from the start.
I’d loved him. I’d thought he was my hero.
And even though the truth of him was forever etched in my soul, I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t kill him.
I may have been a coward for walking away and leaving him there.
But it would be like killing myself to take his life right now.
And I was already dead enough inside.
I tore myself away from the memory and sat up in bed, my whole body trembling. Pain ripped through me as I tried to push the image of Alistair away. It wasn’t getting easier. Did he feel this too? Like he was a half a person? Or was his heart already so destroyed that the agony was nothing to him?
I put my face in my hands and tried not to weep with frustration.
After Alistair had revealed himself, I’d spent a lot of time raging at the universe for how unfair it was that this was my fate. But eventually, I’d come to accept I wasn’t the master of my universe. The moon goddess was in charge, and for some reason, she had decided this path for me.
It helped, telling myself that I wasn’t in control.
So I was a little out of sorts sitting here in my bed, realizing that for the first time in a very long time…I did have some control of my destiny.
I didn’t know what I thought about that.
Determined to get as much done as possible today since I would be startin
g work later on, I dragged myself out of bed and got dressed in a pair of cut-off shorts and an artfully ripped T-shirt I’d found in the bargain bin at Target before my money had been stolen. It read ‘Savage’…which had seemed funny to me at the time, considering I’d just cut a man’s eyeball out, but I wasn’t sure how appropriate it was for a place like this.
It was all I had though until I found a laundromat and a second-hand store…and got some money. So it would have to do.
Carrie was working the front desk when I walked into the lobby. She waved me over before I could slip out. Reaching under the counter, she pulled out a selection of pastries and donuts and a paper cup filled with coffee. “You need to eat something, young lady. I noticed you eyeing the chocolate donuts yesterday, so I hid some away for you today.”
My heart did that thing again…where it felt. Chocolate donuts on lazy Sunday mornings had been my mom’s and my thing. Although I’d tried to get rid of anything that reminded me of her, my love for chocolate donuts hadn’t been easily eradicated.
“Thank you,” I said, doing that awkward throat clearing thing which was fast becoming a necessity in this place.
I stuffed the donut in my mouth, hoping the chewing would spare me from chatting.
Don’t get me wrong, I wanted to be the kind of person that could chat for hours with a sweetheart like Carrie. I just didn’t possess those skills anymore.
After I’d managed to inhale the donut and take a few swallows of the coffee…which somehow tasted better than any coffee I’d ever had before, I waved goodbye and hurried out onto the sidewalk. I took a deep breath of air, enjoying the breeze on my face. Out here in the sunshine, I could almost believe good things were possible.
Almost.
I was only huffing slightly by the time I made it to Dentworks. Exercise was definitely in order if I actually stayed here for any length of time. Next time I had to run for my life, it would be nice to do it without the risk of fainting from hyperventilating too hard.
I looked around for the man from the day before, but he was nowhere to be found. The garage opening where my car had been yesterday was closed, so I followed the sound of tools clanging and hitting metal from nearby until I found three huge stations, one with two cars deep…and the other filled with motorcycles. A crew of workers were working on them while they laughed and teased each other.
