Chapter 8 - Miley

Having been dragged out of Lauren"s home by her father, her mother trailing behind like a little sheep, Miley had become even more determined than ever to get away. She wasn't about to sit around and wait to be married off just so her father could pay off his debts only to rack up more a year later.

It wasn't the first time he had been in this position, though it was the first he had been willing to go to such lengths, and she wasn't sure where he could go next if he did manage to marry her off. After all, he had only one daughter to sell. Maybe it was time she ran away and left him to whatever consequences he would suffer if he didn't pay his debts. At least then she'd be free.

There was just one problem. She had to manage to find a chance to escape. It seemed her parents were wise to her now. Though they'd had no idea she was going to attempt to run away, going to Lauren's hadn't exactly left them trusting of her. And it seemed they weren't willing to take their eyes off her, even for a minute.

For days, she spent every waking moment looking for her chance, waiting for her parents' guard to slip. And every time she thought she saw an opening, something seemed to get in the way. One of her parents would appear out of nowhere, or she would be halfway out the shop door when a customer would come in and start talking to her, keeping her there until her mother or father returned from the back room. It was almost as if something was trying to prevent her from leaving.

And just when she was beginning to think she might be stuck in Nightstar forever, she found her chance.

With her mother out at her monthly book club meeting next door, her father was sitting in the den watching golf. And it was no surprise that the drunk ass's eyes started to droop not half an hour after turning on the television.

It was a usual thing for the third Friday of every month, and Miley watched from the top of the stairs, waiting for her father's head to loll to the side as it always did.

Then, with only a small rucksack on her back, she made her break for it. Her heart hammered heavily in her chest as she held her breath, tiptoeing down the stairs as fast as she could, stepping over the ones that she knew were loose or overly creaky.

And just when she thought she had made it to the door without a problem, she realized she had forgotten the creaky floorboard right by the door itself.

"Fuck!" she hissed under her breath, silently cursing herself for having spoken out loud even as the creaking of the board under her boot made her father groan and shift in his plush armchair. That goddamn chair smelled awful and looked even worse with its sweat and whiskey stains and its cigarette burns. She'd be happy if she never saw it or its owner again. And so, she remained stock-still, her hand on the door handle with her breath caught in her throat, waiting to see if her father would stand up.

In her head she counted, one…two…three…four…five…

It was all she could think to do to keep herself sane, to keep from screaming at the top of her lungs in the hopes she might scare him badly enough for her to make a break for it.

And by the time she had counted to ten, her father was still again, his head lolled back in its usual position.

Barely daring to breathe, Miley twisted the doorknob and tiptoed out onto the porch.

She didn"t allow herself a moment"s relief. She just darted down the porch steps, across the lawn and down the street in the opposite direction of the neighbor"s house where the book club was being held that evening.

Why her mother attended book club, anyway, she didn't know. She hadn"t seen her mother read in, well, ever. Likely, it was an excuse to get away from him. Miley glanced over her shoulder only once to be certain her father hadn"t actually awoken and followed her out onto the porch.

Then she headed in the direction of the only place in town she had ever felt safe, the woods.

She tried not to think of the last time she had been in there, when she had felt as though somebody was watching her from the trees. Or the time before that, when she had been in the ravine with Lauren and the others, and had seen a wolf. No matter what Kane said, she knew that was what it was.

All she needed to think about right now was the fact that the woods were her ticket to freedom. She just had to get to the other side of them and find the bus stop on the old dirt road that passed by Nightstar to take her to Pine Valley, and then from there she would catch a bus to the next town and the next until she managed to get close enough to walk to the Peters farm. Someone, somewhere, along the way would be able to point her in the right direction. She only hoped she had managed to stash enough money over the years to get her there safely.

But she wasn"t even out of the woods when she felt that familiar sensation creeping down her spine.

She was being watched again. She just didn"t know by who.

Stopping dead, she tightened her hands into fists, gritted her teeth and yelled, "Whoever you are, stop following me! I"m in no mood for games!"

Maybe it was Lauren. They"d snuck up on each other enough times over the years. Or maybe her mother had seen her leave, after all. Maybe it was even one of Mayor Blackwell's men out on one of their patrols that seemed to be growing more and more frequent.

Whoever it was, she wasn"t about to let them stop her from getting away. Not this time.

She turned to run again, only to stop dead when the shadows between the trees ahead moved.

A man dressed all in black slunk out from the trees as if materializing from them. If Miley didn"t know any better, she might have thought he actually did step out of the tree trunk itself, not just the shadow it cast in the moonlight.

She gulped, a lump forming hard in her throat when the man started to chuckle. It was a low, calculated sound that she was certain was meant to strike fear into her heart. And it worked.

"Who…who are you?" she stammered, trying to keep her head held high even though she was terrified.

What kind of idiot was she to ever have believed she could escape Nightstar? It was as if there was some invisible force field keeping her there, holding her prisoner, and this hooded man dressed all in black was the keeper of it.

"Who I am does not matter," the man said, shaking his head. His hood slipped a little, and Miley caught sight of sickly pale skin. "What matters is what I can do for you."

Miley"s chest tightened, but her insides hardened. She straightened, her hands wrapped in tight fists as she glowered at him. "What you can do is get out of my way and leave me in peace!"

Her response appeared to amuse the man. From beneath his hood, he laughed haughtily and reached up to pull back his hood.

For a second, Miley thought she might recognize the man. He was pale, overly pale, as if he hadn"t seen the light of day for an age. And the black bags under his eyes suggested that perhaps, like her, he had trouble sleeping.

But no matter how she tried to think of where she might know him from, Miley couldn't quite place his face.

"You"re a little minx, aren"t you?" the man said, his tone still darkly amused. He took a step forward, and Miley stepped back, keeping the distance between them the same.

If he so much as tried to touch her, she would scream until her lungs gave out. The look in his dark eyes left her under no illusions as to the nature of what he wanted from her. It wasn"t entirely obvious exactly what it was, but it was clearly nothing good.

"Don"t be afraid, girl," he said, taking a half-step back again, and the dark amusement was gone from his tone. "I"m sorry. I didn"t mean to frighten you, you just looked so, so…"

Miley bit her lip.

"Lost."

Her stomach twisted. "I wasn"t lost. I know exactly where I am."

That wasn't entirely true. She couldn"t have pointed out the place on a map, but she could sure as hell make her way back to town easy enough. It was just a shame she had no intention of doing so.

"I didn"t mean physically," the man said, and the sympathetic tone of his voice made Miley"s insides ache. "I feel your pain. I have felt it, too. Being but never belonging, belonging but never being. Always feeling as though you are on the outside looking in or the inside looking out, wishing that you could have all that will never be yours."

It was a long and convoluted speech, one Miley really couldn"t bring herself to fully register in her current state.. And yet, somehow, it spoke to her.

"What if I told you I could give you all you"d ever dreamt of and more?" the man asked, raising one dark eyebrow. He ran his fingers through his dark hair and looked at her with his head tilted to one side.

Now she looked at him a little more closely, he was actually quite attractive, if a little cocky looking.

"What if I told you I could give you your freedom?" the man asked, and his words resonated all too deeply in Miley. "What if I told you nobody would ever be able to lay a hand on you again with the gift I have to offer you?"

Seeing the way his eyes traveled down to her cleavage, where her father had once stubbed out his cigarette and she still had a scar, she grabbed her hoodie"s zipper and pulled it up. "Who says I need freedom?"

In a flash, the man moved and came up behind her, plucking up the rucksack on her back by the strap. If he pulled it any higher, he"d be hanging her from it.

"Who wanders the woods this late at night with nothing but a rucksack?"

"I…I'm headed to meet my friends at our usual bonfire place for a drink," Miley said, gulping hard.

"Don"t lie to me," the man snarled, and his tone bordered on animalistic. "I can smell lies."

He sniffed, and suddenly, he was close to her, breathing her in as if he could smell everything about her. It was almost like being scented by a giant black Labrador, though it was far less adorable.

"Get off me!" Miley insisted, yanking herself free of his grip. "Whatever you're selling, I don"t want it."

"What if I told you that you"d be safe? Far from Nightstar and Blackwell and his men and everyone else in town?" the man asked, releasing her. "What if I told you I could rid you of all those who had hurt you?"

For a second, Miley imagined her parents gone. An odd mixture of happiness, regret and loneliness swirled within her.

She almost accepted the man"s offer, but her willingness lasted only as long as it took her to properly think about it.

"I, umm…maybe I"ll think about it," Miley said, turning on her heels to back away from him. Something about the man left her unable to even blink. She feared if she did, she might lose sight of him, and he would grab hold of her all over again. "I…I"m just going to go, and maybe I"ll come and—"

She didn"t get the chance to finish.

"You aren"t going anywhere," the man snarled at her. "You belong to us now! Nobody will miss you."

And then, with a click of the man"s fingers, two wolves came hurtling out of the trees.

Miley screamed. She screamed like she never had before and turned to run.

Why she ever thought she could be faster than a wolf, let alone two, she didn"t know. But when she felt fangs meet in her forearm, she knew the truth. She was done for.

She hadn"t made it out of Nightstar, but she was certain never to see her parents again.

The forepaws of the second wolf jabbed her in the small of her back, sending her flying forward even as the first dragged her to the ground by her arm.

And it was as the first came down on top of her, pinning her to the forest floor, that she knew she was going to die.