What Love doesn't know

  It was always frustrating how time seemed to crawl whenever a person needed it to move faster, Mia thought. The last thirty minutes of her shift dragged and felt like it would never end, but eventually, with relief in her voice, Mia announced it was time to close and everyone had to leave. The usual murmurs of complaints met her announcement, but she paid them no attention. She was already stretching the reserves on her tank of patience. The two guys, Rick and Ben, together with Joy, all of whom also worked in the bar, made quick work of getting rid of the handful of patrons who didn’t seem eager to get home. If given the chance, Mia was certain they would sleep in the bar and wake up tomorrow morning, ordering their favorite liquor as breakfast.    She shook her head as Jim grumbled about being denied one more drink for the road

Mia stormed right into her tiny bathroom. She slammed the door and leaned against it. A cocktail of emotions hit her like a blow to her gut. On one hand, she was glad Asher was out of her apartment and she never had to lay her eyes on him again. But on the other hand, she wanted him back in her tiny apartment, passing judgement over her living conditions as though he had a right. The man had the nerve, and she was losing her mind to even find it remotely sexy.  With angry jerky movements, she removed her clothes and stepped into her shower. She let the hot water beat against her skin till it turned red and steamed. It felt good. Her apartment left much to be desired, but at least the place had hot water. It felt like she was cleansing her body of the events of the last two hours. But more importantly, it felt like she was washing away her own reaction to Asher Deavan. After a moment, against her better judgment, Mia allowed her mind to wan

“There he is!” A deep voice bellowed from the doorway, the sound cutting across the quiet office space like a roar. “I was beginning to think we should send out a search party for you, man. Where the hell have you been? Did you get lost on the road or something?” Asher smiled and looked up from the pile of documents on his desk. “I was wondering how long it would take you to find me once you heard I was back.” He made a show to glance at his wristwatch with an intense look. “Exactly six hours and twenty-nine minutes. Not bad.” “Don’t forget to count the seconds too,” Dave retorted as he lowered his body into one of the brown leather chairs opposite Asher’s desk without waiting to be invited. Asher snorted. “Of course, how could I forget the seconds?” Dave gave him a big grin, extremely pleased with himself. He lifted his leg over the other and tapped his fingers on his raised knee. “So, how was the adventure?” He actually sounde

There was a routine to Mia’s days. The Red eyes bar took up exactly nine mentally gruelling hours out of her days from four in the afternoon to one in the morning. She usually had a full eight hours of sleep from two to ten, unless she went for a run in her wolf form to release stress or just to stretch her muscles. The hours between ten and four were filled with mundane activities like laundry, cleaning, listening to music, and cooking. If she had still been in the pack lands, her days would have been extremely different. Her thoughts wandered to her days in the pack while she prepared some steak for herself. She was hungry enough to consider shifting into her wolf and eating the meat raw straight from the floor. Her wolf was in full agreement with that idea, but Mia held back. She was living in a human town. In a tiny apartment, in a building with three other apartments. She had to refrain from giving into such impulses. She could never be too safe.

The bar was full. The usual patrons in various stages of intoxication occupied every available table and space. Mia assessed this in a split second. Calculating the probabilities and chances of escape. Small, seemingly insignificant, and very crucial facts aligned themselves in her head. One, the packed small bar would buy her some time. And second, the entire place smelled of alcohol and like a poorly ventilated sweaty room. But she knew if she could catch his scent, it wouldn’t take him long to catch hers. In conclusion, her chances were not good at all. Connor stood at the door. His muscular build and tall height put him well above the majority of people in the bar. He hadn’t yet looked her way. His wandering, studying eyes had his face turned towards a small table of noisy drunks in the back, but Mia knew it was him. Not only from his scent, but she could never forget that face. The head enforcer of Blue creek pack was one of those people a