Filed To Story: Secret Shifters Next Door Series PDF Free
Meeting up with Felicity had rattled me. After it was all over, I’d been okay. It was only as the hours went by that I realized how badly things could have gone. I had no idea what Felicity had planned for me. Did she really only want me to meet her hunter friends? To try and get me to join her crazy cult? Or had her motives been more sinister? Maybe she wanted to hold me hostage. Worse yet, I might have been some sacrifice so Miles and his friends would act out of rage and anguish. They’d be mad with anger and make mistakes and probably go off half-cocked. The possibilities piled up in my head, each one more awful than the last.
On top of it all, Felicity hadn’t totally disappeared. Her constant presence in my life was nearly pushing me to the edge of a panic attack. It had been days since the restaurant incident, and she was still texting me. The crazy part was that she was acting like the situation in the restaurant had been something other than an attempted kidnapping. Every text was her asking me what was wrong with Miles, that he had anger issues, that he was crazy, and was bad for me.
I tried to ignore the messages, but they were starting to weigh on me. It hurt because I thought I’d actually made a friend, that
Felicity truly liked me and wanted to be around me. That had all been a show. A bald-faced lie, and the lies hadn’t stopped even when she’d basically been caught red-handed. Knowing I’d tried to open myself up to someone only to find out I’d been used was a slap in the face. As much as I didn’t want to, the whole situation was making me shut down and close in on myself. I’d locked myself away in my apartment.
Miles and his friends were all on the road doing their best to track down the hunter headquarters. They’d been in and around Denver for days. He checked in when he could. It was usually only a text here and there, one call, and one random email. I hadn’t even realized he had my email, but after watching Blayne work, it was pretty obvious how he’d gotten it. He was trying, but he was pulled thin. He was stressed out about what the hunters were doing and with finding their leader. He was also dealing with what the curse was doing to him. Then there was me. A new relationship, and all that came with it. I didn’t want to be the needy girl, but I missed him.
Three days before, almost as though he’d heard my thoughts from afar, my phone rang. I smiled when I saw it was Miles and answered.
“Hey, beautiful. How are you?”
“I’m good. I was just thinking about you, actually.”
“Dirty thoughts, I hope.”
I had smiled and felt the familiar flutters in my stomach. My usual embarrassment had started to fade. It was one of the surprises I’d had with being with Miles. I was starting to become more comfortable in my own skin. Though I still wasn’t comfortable enough to answer his question. Instead, I changed the subject.
“How’s the search going?”
“Not great. We thought we’d for sure found their training complex. Turns out it was just one of those weird clubs where
guys get together to pretend to be military commandos and do training. Good thing we double-checked. Tate and I were ready to nuke the place. Thankfully, Steff and Blayne had the cooler heads. So, we’re pretty much back to square one. How are things there?”
I had chosen not to tell him that I’d been pretty lonely and isolated. Instead, I let him know that things were fine and I was doing all right. I went with the old stand-by.
“Writing a lot. That’s about it.”
“Sounds good. I wanted to check in, that was all. Do you need anything?”
“Nope. All good.”
“Okay. Talk to you soon.”
That conversation had sent me into a little bit of a spiral. I know he’d only wanted to keep the connection between us, and it should have made me happy, but all it did was remind me that I hadn’t seen him in days and that the only other person I’d made contact with had been a wolf in sheep’s clothing. I kept thinking of all the awful things that could happen to Miles. It made me sink in on myself. The next day, I didn’t leave my house. I tried to sleep in, like the clichéd depressed person I was, but sleep eluded me. Too much was spinning around in my mind. I only let myself stew in self-pity for one day, though. The next morning, I decided to re-center myself.
I got up and turned off my phone and my computer. I sank into the couch and lost myself in a book. After several hours of that, I went to another go-to—baking. I was about thirty minutes into a batch of oatmeal-raisin cookies when I heard pounding on the front door. I jumped and yelped, slinging my spatula across the room.
“Celina?” Miles yelled from behind the door. He sounded panicked and afraid.
I went to the door as fast as I could and opened it. Miles stood there, eyes wide in fear. He stepped in, released a sigh of relief, and immediately started running his hands over my bodynot in the let’s-get-naughty kind of way, more in a shit-are-you-hurt kind of way.
“Are you all right?” he murmured as he checked me over.
“Uh…yeah. Why?”
“Why?” His head jerked up to look into my eyes. He stared at me like I was crazy.
“Your bodyguard called me and said he hadn’t seen you come out of your apartment for a whole day. He called me last night. I let it go, thinking you were just laying low. Then I tried calling and texting you this morning, and no answer. I was afraid something had happened to you in here. I freaked and drove straight here from Denver.”
I blinked at him, a little shocked. Before I could say anything, he cupped my face. “Have you been getting enough sleep? You’ve got dark circles under your eyes.” His look of concern was both nice and heartbreaking. I shook my head. He sighed and pulled me into a hug. I was stiff at first, but soon, sank into his arms, letting my body mold into his.
“This is my fault. It’s too much. I never should have gotten you involved with this.”
Before I could say anything, I shoved him back. Not hard, but enough to break our embrace. The hurt I felt at his words must have shown on my face. From the way he spoke, it sounded like I was some kind of breakable thing. A fragile Christmas bauble on a tree that could be knocked off from the slightest breeze and end up shattering on the floor.
“Miles, I’m not weak. I can handle this. In fact, I was handling it. I unplugged and spent the day gathering myself.”
“I didn’t call you weak,” he said, holding up his hands in defense. “It’s only that if shutting yourself away for two days
straight and unplugging from the world doesn’t necessarily scream overwhelmed, I don’t know what does.”
I usually kept my anger hidden. Most of the time, I was uncomfortable in arguments and any situation where I had to defend myself. In an ironic twist of fate, though, my relationship with Miles had helped me grow strong enough to say exactly what I felt.
“It’s okay to be overwhelmed, Miles. Christ, who the fuck wouldn’t be?”
“Easy now. I’m not trying to fight. I only want you safe. I think it might be best if I try to keep you further away from all this.”