HEART OVER MIND

Chapter 2

Cynthia groaned letting her overheated head fall into her hands. She was supposed to be backpacking in France, enjoying the rich history, walking the cobbled stone lanes, savoring coffee in quaint little cafes and flirting with handsome men in her broken French. Not cooped up in a dingy small back office pouring over the account books to find a way to save her Fathers business.

That one drunken call her father had made in the middle of the night changed everything. She cancelled her much awaited vacation which took almost an year to plan to be in the middle of the deep pit her father had dug for himself.

Papers were scattered everywhere on her desk and the floor like a white sea. It took her 4 sleepless nights to figure how much of a debt her father was in. He had the most lazy inefficient and unprofessional staff she had ever seen. The middle-aged manager was a chauvinist pig that only made things hard for her.

It was very evident that her father had left the day to day running of the hotel in very incapable hands. It didn't take her long to see that Mr.Brodrick was dipping his fat grubby paws into the till. Not only were there many expenses unaccounted for, but her father had been taking huge amounts of loan to fill those gaps.

Selling the property was the only way out of this mess. She was dreading breaking this news to her Father. This was his life, his passion, but she didn't see any way out, except for selling it.

She had an appointment with the bank manager tomorrow, she only hoped he would be nice enough to go with her plan.

To make matters worst, her father's assistant had informed her that the Great Rafael Brodsky had been visiting her father quiet often. Rumor was he wanted her father to move out of town.

Rafael Brodsky. The name itself gave her goose bumps. He had made her life miserable before she moved away from Brownsville after her parents divorce.

She ran her hand through her hair reminding her, how uncivil he had been to a 6 year old in pigtails. He had teased, badgered and pestered her so relentlessly about her thin swirly ponytails that one day she walked home and chopped them off much to her mother's dismay. Never again did she ever grow her hair back. She sported a classic tomboy style now.

Even at that age she had never shed a tear at the loss of her hair, but hated him with a passion. Its true what they say, 'once a bully always a bully' and now he was bullying her father to move away from this town. What bothered her was, Why?

She paused from getting her papers ready for her meeting tomorrow as her phone rang. It was her father's assistant. She was enraged with what he told her. She threw her papers off and walked out angry towards her father's office.

--------------------x---------------x-------------x---------------x----------------x---------------------

Rafael hated doing this. He had literally pushed Mr. Clarke into a corner with no choice but to sell his place. He had been giving it a blind eye as Fred Clarke was a very close friend of his father. But this was also the only human establishment in town. Its not like he hated humans, no, he just tolerated them. He still had a few humans living in town, which was no trouble. The trouble started when outsiders came to visit.

For the past couple years, to make ends meet, Fred had been extensively marketing his property for destination wedding. IT was fine as long as the visiting crowds stayed on the property. But they would venture in to town and the clubs and bars and then ended up in fights and property damage and law suits.

Werewolves are very possessive creatures. They love , care and protect their own, so when humans, try to bully, heckle or flirt around, things don't usually end up well.