This is the sequel to "Of Wolves and Monsters"... obviously. In this installment, Miles works to come to terms with her new life, despite being unable to put her old life entirely behind her. She finds herself caught between the frightened girl and the dominant wolf inside her while Nathan battles the desires of his wolf to give Miles the time she needs to recover from a lifetime of trauma at the hands of men.
Rated M for sexual situations, eventual violence, and an abundance of impure thoughts.
*I do not own the Alpha and Omega series or anything about it and I make no money from this, so please review. That's all I'm getting out of this.
WILL UPDATE EVERY FRIDAY BARRING DEATH, DISMEMBERMENT, OR FLU.
-:- Miles -:-
Miles stared at the words on the page of the ancient book that Bran had given her. It was written in Latin. Her private lessons with Bran – though not as frequent as she would have liked given his many obligations – had given her a solid understanding of the spoken language. Her task now was in learning to read it. That was proving more difficult than she had expected. Not only did she have to learn the way that the words were spelled, but was also forced to contend with the antiquated phrasing and expressions.
She loved learning, she'd discovered almost immediately. She loved it that people actually cared enough to take the time to teach her something. Bran's homework though, was proving to be an unexpected challenge. It wasn't that she needed the direct counseling in order to understand. She just needed to have someone else there to keep her focused. Too much time alone was difficult.
Life had gotten easier when she'd moved to Aspen Creek. She'd spent the first couple of months as a guest in Bran's house, but he seemed to always have visitors. Too many people around all the time had made her anxious, so Bran had eventually consented to move her out to a very old cabin in the woods a few miles behind his house. It was very remote, accessible only via an overgrown trail that had been cleared enough to allow ATVs through.
It was also small, just a single room. Her bedroom area was in the loft, consisting of a cot, dresser, and an open rack to hang a few things. She had a curtained toilet area in one corner of the main room. The bathtub was an old wooden thing that she kept stored under a table when she wasn't using it.
There had been no electricity before she'd moved in, but Bran had insisted on providing her with a generator and some electric lights. There was no internet or phone, though she did have a cell phone, which she used basically only when Bran wanted to talk to her.
After reading the same line for the eighth time, she gave up and closed the book gently, setting it on the rickety little table next to her cot. It was useless. She couldn't concentrate. Exasperated, she bypassed the ladder entirely and hopped easily down to the floor below. She paced the little room a few times before deciding that a bath was what she needed. She loved that deep little tub all to herself. Before Aspen Creek, she'd never experienced anything like a quiet, peaceful soak in warm water.
She pulled the tub out and ran a hose into it to begin filling, then stoked up the fire some more while she waited. One benefit of such a small house was that it didn't take a lot to heat it. The room was getting toasty by the time the tub had filled. She gratefully stripped out of her clothes and sank into the tub.
After spending most of her life primarily in the nude, one would think that she'd would relish the clothes Bran had given her. Somehow, everything felt restrictive and uncomfortable. She didn't usually wear much when she was in her house.
She laid her head back against the high back of the tub and let her troublesome thoughts leech away into the warm water.
A knock on the door pulled her eyes open and Miles realized that she'd dozed off. The water was cooling, so she must have been in there a while. "Come in," she called, standing up out of the water.
-:- Nathan -:-
Nathan opened the door in response to her call and stopped dead when he found himself staring at her completely naked, dripping wet, utterly perfect body. For one long moment, he stood frozen, helplessly taking in the view. Then his sensibilities finally caught up with him and he did an immediate about-face, closing the door and staring at it while his wolf urged him against all gentlemanly thoughts.
They were alone and she was naked. He should go to her and take her now and claim her as his own.
Nathan took hold of those desires with an iron fist. Considering Miles' history with being raped, he was absolutely certain that any such forceful action on his part would result in a vicious fight – possibly to the death – rather than the happy picture the wolf imagined.
For a long moment, he heard nothing behind him.
"I'm sorry," he said finally. There was no chance that she'd missed the scent of his arousal. Nudity wasn't generally a big deal among wolves, but Miles wasn't just any wolf. Nathan's wolf had chosen her and four months of having his sentiment completely and totally ignored had left him somewhat less than entirely stable. Not that his wolf was entirely to blame. Nathan wanted it too, but he had the sense to know that Miles was not mentally ready to be courted by him or anyone. It could be decades before she was ready for that.
Nathan was almost a hundred years old. He could wait a few decades for her if he had to. His wolf… Well, he wasn't so sure about that.
"Why?" she asked, sounding merely curious.
"Why am I sorry?" he wondered.
She said nothing for a moment, presumably considering her response. "Why are you afraid to look at me?" she clarified at last.
Nathan sighed heavily and further pushed down his wolf. "I'm sorry for that," he admitted. "It's just…" Did she really not understand why he didn't want to look at her? Well, obviously, he answered himself. She most definitely wasn't the sort to fish for compliments or play coy games. She truly did not understand. That made it absolutely necessary, but much more difficult to explain.
"I like you, Miles," he admitted uncomfortably. "Seeing you… naked… I guess I enjoy it more than I should."
Her pause was almost physically painful for Nathan.
Finally, he heard her step out of the water and then the soft sound of fluffy fabric rubbing against fluffy fabric.
"You can look now," she said at last.
Nathan turned around warily to find a large white towel tucked in around her chest and hanging nearly to her knees.
"I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable," she apologized genuinely.
"Not your fault," he smiled uneasily, having a difficult time looking her in the eyes.
"Did you need something?" she asked after a brief, thoughtful pause.
"Charles asked me to come speak to you," he admitted.
She frowned uncertainly. "Why didn't he call me?"
Nathan smiled a little. "He tried. More than once, evidently."
She grimaced and spun to sift through a pile of clothes on the floor until she came up with a pair of pants and dug her phone out of a pocket. "I couldn't hear it vibrate inside all those clothes," she admitted. "What did he want?"
"He wanted you to call him," Nathan admitted.
She speed-dialed him quickly. Despite living her entire life without such creature comforts as her own cell phone, Miles was a fast learner and she'd picked that stuff up very quickly.
"Hello."
Charles' deep voice sounded slightly irritated and Nathan felt himself instinctively tense at the sound.
"Nathan's here," was Miles' response. It was generally only polite among werewolves to make a caller aware that he or she may be overheard, since there was no such thing as a private call with a werewolf in the room, but something in the way that she said that so immediately made Nathan wonder if there was something particular that Charles and Miles wanted to keep from him.
"Good," Charles replied. "Change of plans. Meet me at the Marrok's house right away. Both of you."
"Yes, sir," Nathan piped in quickly.
"On my way," Miles added just a second before the other end of the line clicked dead.
Miles immediately put the phone down, then dropped her towel and started sifting through her clothes.
Nathan closed his eyes and bit his cheek until he tasted blood, ruthlessly repressing his wolf's urges.
His eyes snapped open again when he heard Miles stumble and he opened them in time to see her land on her rear whilst trying to slip a second leg into her pants. She wasn't wearing any underwear.
"Are you okay?" he asked with concern, though there was a slight growl to his voice thanks to his wolf's thoughts on her incomplete wardrobe and her vulnerable position. He took a small step forward with the idea of helping her up.
Miles' eyes flashed to icy wolf blue at his advance, stopping Nathan in his tracks.
She closed her eyes and let out a slow breath.
As she did, Nathan could smell the sickly scent of her panic permeate the room and he absolutely hated himself for frightening her. He wanted to apologize immediately, but his instincts warned him against it. Better to let her get control of herself first. The fact that she felt confident enough to close her eyes with him standing right there was enough to prove that she trusted him. For the most part.
After about half a minute, she opened her eyes again and they were the deep blue that they should be in this form. "I'm sorry," she said, beating him to it.
"It was my fault," he quickly contradicted.
She shook her head. "You didn't do anything wrong. They're my demons."
"Are you okay?" Nathan asked gently. Wolves didn't just lose their balance getting dressed, not even when trying to hurry.
She frowned at him thoughtfully while she shimmied her baggy pants the rest of the way up onto her hips. "You really mean that," she stated curiously.
"Why wouldn't I?" Nathan asked uncertainly.
After a moment more, she just shook her head and resumed dressing. "Nevermind."
Nathan very much wanted to question her further on that, but he'd learned a long time ago that pressing Miles on anything was the opposite of helpful. He was pretty sure that she could go months without talking if she wanted to.
"Charles and the Marrok will be waiting," he said when she was dressed.
She nodded and preceded him out of the little cabin.
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