6Chapter One
Slumped over with her palm in her hand and elbow propped up against the counter, Brianne watched bored as a young man in a grey hoodie entered the store. It was nearing two am at the all night gas station she currently worked at, customers were sparse and it was the end of her twelve-hour shift. She pushed together her name-tag pin that was slipping off of her hideous red and blue vest, the gold plate reflecting the name 'Cassandra' as she made the adjustment.
It felt like a silly name, perhaps one belonging to a more vapid girl in one of the high schools she had attended, not one suited to herself. She hadn't been very popular in high school, her long dark brown hair far too messy and her baggy jacket and jeans hadn't gained her an invitation to any cliques. Not that it had ever been a concern of hers. She had always had much more pressing things on her mind to care about than school or friends when she was a teenager.
Another car pulled up at the stop, a sleek black one parked between the red and orange pillars. Only a handful of people stopped at this gas station at this time of night, most of which had exited the highway at random. There wasn't much in this part of California; desert for miles and it was a small town, not in a quaint, cute way. The town was on the outskirts of a sleazy casino where most of its citizens were employees and it tended to attract the wrong sort of visitors. Brie lived in a small apartment building complex that resembled more of a motel than a home.
Regardless, she couldn't wait to get back to that seedy apartment complex, to her crappy little bed, so she could pass out and wake up to go to the center the next morning. Brie sighed and pulled at her hair in frustration, loosening the messy bun, as she remembered that she had nothing left in her mini-fridge. She would have to buy a bag of chips for her dinner before she left the convenience store.
The young man walked up to the cashier, his back arched over and his hoodie hiding part of his face. She had been watching him out of the corner of her eye since he had entered and she could smell the fear and nervousness radiating off of him. He paced down the isles several times anxiously and finally snagged a soda at random and walked towards her. She could tell he was young, probably around sixteen, and she could easily predict what he was going to do next.
It was no surprise when he pulled a gun out of his hoodie and pointed it at her with a shaking hand. She had been surrounded by kids just like him most of her life. Kids who thought they didn't have any options, any choice, life had just dealt them a bad hand. Hell, she was one of those kids.
"All of-, all of the money!" He shouted, his voice breaking as he waved the gun at her angrily. "Give me it all or, or I'll shoot you!"
"Okay kid," She looked him in the eye. "I'm just gonna open it up and it's all yours." She knew how much money was in this cashier, and it wasn't a lot. She knew that because the pimply forty-year-old manager always took most of it before he left. She knew that this wasn't going to be enough for the kid.
"Hurry up!" He yelled, his hoodie falling back slightly to reveal his bloodshot eyes and she could hear his heartbeat beating three times as fast as normal, this kid was high, not another factor that played well in whether or not he shot her in the head.
"Okay, just calm down kid," She pressed open the cash register drawer and her eyes glinted gold as she prepared to shift. Transforming into her wolf form would hopefully spook the kid enough so he'd run off.
"Put the gun down." A threating male voice broke through the air and the click of a gun being cocked caused Brie to look up. There was a man standing pointing a gun to the back of the teenager, who was suddenly shaking even more violently. "Now." The man emphasized, his face stern and his eyebrows drawn tight in a frown.
The kid dropped the gun to the floor and collapsed on his knees. "Don't shoot!" His hands were raised in the air as he bent his head. "Please don't man, I wasn't gonna hurt her. I swear!"
The man sighed, relaxing, and glanced up at Brie, "Call the police." His grey eyes making contact with her now brown ones.
He lowered his gun and picked up the teenager's with his own. He was tall, wearing a leather jacket and dark jeans. His cheekbones accentuated with dark scruff and his nose looked slightly crooked. He was handsome, in a rugged way, but the bags around his eyes made him appear haunted.
She breathed in deeply as she reached for the phone and picked up his scent, her hand slipped in shock and the telephone fell to the floor in a clatter that resonated through the silent store. She dropped to the ground and tried to calm her racing heart, he had smelt so familiar. His scent was something she hadn't smelled in years, something she thought she'd never smell again. He smelled like home.
Against her better judgment, Brie picked up the telephone and dialed 911, standing up again and putting on a calm exterior. If it had just been her, she would have just scared the boy, knocked him off of his feet and watched as he ran from the store in fear. Now she'd have to move, not only did she have to give the police a fake name in the report, but also someone would notice that the manager had been stealing cash and she knew that she would be blamed. Not to mention the appearance of this man, who felt like something from her past, she needed to leave.
"Yes, I'd like to report a robbery." She gave the operator the gas station's address and hung up the phone. She calmly closed the cash register drawer and looked up at the mysterious man.
They made eye contact once again, neither wanting to be the first to break, her instincts were telling her to trust him but she knew that she wouldn't. Even still, she supposed she should thank him, that was probably what a normal person would do.
"Umm, thanks-."
"Are you alright-?" They both spoke at once in a rush and then fell silent. She glanced outside, breaking eye contact, not being able to stand the intensity of his stare any longer.
"I'm fine," She noticed the black car that had pulled up was still waiting at the pump and realized that it was his. "Did you need to fill up? Cause I can ring you up."
He looked at her with disbelief and uncharacteristically seemed to chuckle softly. "Yeah, give me fifty bucks worth."
She realized her stupidity and quickly followed up with, "I mean, it's on the house, or, I mean on me, or, you shouldn't have to pay."
He looked her over again, as if to check if she really were fine after all. "Cassandra?"
"What?" She looked at him in confusion and then caught herself. "Oh, oh, yes that's me."
"Cassandra who?" He asked, leaning forward slightly, again looking at her with his haunting dark eyes that drew her in.
And suddenly the reflection of red and blue lights on the large glass windows of the store drew her attention as sirens came closer and closer. She looked back and saw that the man was kneeling over and talking to the kid.
He emptied the bullets out of the boy's gun and put them in his pocket. She heard him whisper in the boy's ear. "Look, you're going tell them that it wasn't even loaded and you'll just end up in juvie for a little while, okay?" The boy nodded frantically as the man placed a strong hand on his shoulder and shook him. "And get clean."
He looked up at Brie searchingly, maybe trying to see if she would keep their secret, and without meaning to, she felt the corners of her lips turn upwards in a small smile.
"What's your name, miss?" The stout cop asked routinely, barely making eye contact.
"Cassandra Woods." She lied through her teeth easily. "I'm really sorry sir, I didn't bring my ID with me to work today, you see I ride the bus here and I just don't use it that often."
"It's alright, we'll just look you up." He drawled looking her up and down, she resisted shivering and stood her ground. "And you say he came in here, pulled the gun, asked for the money, and this guy happened to apprehend him."
"Yes, that's what happened." She glanced over at the man, looking as he talked to the other policeman who almost seemed frightened. He loomed over the thin man and his broad shoulders certainly made him an imposing figure. She watched as he pulled out some sort of badge and ID and flashed it to the cop. She should have guessed, of course the handsome fellow who "saved" her happened to be law enforcement, her past was finally catching up to her.
"Miss?" She snapped her attention back to cop that was tapping his foot impatiently. "I said you're free to leave now, we'll contact you if we need anymore information." She looked at the boy sitting in the back of the cop car dejectedly and felt relieved by the mysterious man's unexpected kindness in helping to get the kid a lighter sentence.
Brie approached her apartment building complex after walking the half hour from the bus stop. It wasn't exactly the high end of town; to be honest most would call it down right sketchy. With the amount of muggings that happened in a week, Brie was shocked she hadn't been a victim yet.
She tucked her jacket around herself a little closer as she felt the cool nighttime air creep against her skin. During the day, this place was hot as hell and the humidity was stifling. The youth center she volunteered at couldn't afford air conditioning and it often became unbearable, she was thankful that the gas station was cool at all times of the day. She was suddenly filled with regret. She would have to call the center once she relocated to explain, after working there for almost a year, she had started to bond with several kids and she hated herself for having to walk out of there lives without even saying goodbye.
She opened the door, kicking it slightly as the key never did quite the trick, to her tiny one bedroom hovel. The wallpaper was cracking and peeled, she didn't dare walk barefoot on the carpet, and the room was completely sparse with the exception of the bed, mini-fridge, and microwave that had came with the place. She kept everything she owned in a duffel bag that was hidden under the bed. She pulled it out with a large tug and slung it over her shoulder. Giving the room she had lived in for the past ten months a last glance, Brie walked straight out of the complex with no intention of returning.
Declan watched from the shadows of his tinted car as the girl exited the building with a duffel bag slung over her shoulder. He wondered why, after working since eleven in the morning, until two in the morning, and commuting an hour both ways, she had decided to leave immediately instead of sleeping for a short while. Did she know he had been following her? Or had the police scared her off?
He looked at the manila folder sitting in the passenger seat he had received a week ago. He knew her real name was Brie, not that silly fake name she had given him and the police. In fact, that file had told him everything there was to know about the girl. That her full name was Brianne Miller and that she had been born to Jessica and Donald Miller in North Carolina. That her parents had been violently murdered when she was twelve in front of her and that she had been in the foster care system until she was sixteen and she had ran away. Since then, she had been living in different towns across the country, never staying long enough to make any friends or leave any records.
He watched as the girl walked back towards the bus stop. She was thin, almost as if she wasn't eating enough. Her hair was long dark brown and curly, complementing her olive toned skin. It framed her face haphazardly and drew attention to her round brown eyes and full lips.
If he hadn't seen those beautiful eyes turn gold he would have never believed that she was a murdering werewolf.