After Midnight

5

"I already told you I'm not helping." I said, arms crossed. I was trying my best to look intimidating to Aiden, but I already knew my attempts were futile. This was Aiden Cage we were talking about, nothing intimidated him.

"Lily, just listen." He said while sitting down on one of the extra tables that were kept in the room. "I know that I've been a dick and I'm really sorry about that, but I need you to keep that in the past right now. Something's happened. It's about the company, about Mike. He was-"

"Lily?" Mrs. Deria knocked on the door. "Is everything alright? I need you to restock some more shelves now."

"Yeah, I'll be right there!" I called out, while scrambling to compose myself. "Listen Aiden, like I said before, I'm not helping. Now please, if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to work." And with that I hurried out of the room and back to my work station.

"Who was that young man?" Mrs. Daria questioned. I sighed and mentally rolled my eyes.

If only she knew

"No one." I stated simply. "Just a friend."

"Well, he was quite cute." She said while winking at me, making me turn beet red. I looked down at my feet, praying that Mrs. Deria didn't notice the sudden pink tinge that flooded my cheeks, and praying even harder that she didn't say anything about it. I didn't like Aiden, well not any more at least, but if he ever caught wind that at one time I was even remotely interested in him, his ego would go through the roof and I would never live it down. Thankfully Mrs. Deria didn't say anything, and ordered me to keep on organizing some shelves.

Soon enough my shift at the library ended, and I made my way back home to make a snack and take a well-needed nap.

"Hey, kiddo!" My dad greeted me as I walked through the door. I gave a small wave, and kicked the door shut from behind me, a loud yelp following the action.

"Can you keep it down!" Darren whined from the kichen, taking his soapy hands out of the sink to cover his ears.

I laughed at him while ruffling his hair. "Sorry Darren, I didn't know you were here. Shouldn't you be at school?"

"I thought it would be best if he stayed home today." My dad piped up from the dining room table, putting down the newspaper he was reading. "He can barely do the dishes right now, I doubt he'd be able to take his algebra exam."

"I'd rather be doing the exam." Darren mumbled while scrubbing away at a pot.

"Besides, I needed someone to help clean out the basement for our guests. It's gotten a little dusty down there, and Darren's gonna help tidy it up."

"What? Nooooooo!" Darren whined. "You said my punishment was dish duty, and I'm doing the dishes."

"Well now you've been upgraded to housekeeper as well." Dad said. "Oh, Lily. Rob, the owner of the convenience store, called. Apparently there was a break in after you left last night, the whole store is ruined. It's gonna be shut down for weeks, maybe even longer depending on how things are looking."

"What?" I asked. "Who the hell would do that?"

Dad shrugged. "Beats me. It's all over the news. Looked like a bunch of big guys from the surveillance footage. You're lucky you left right before it happened. Poor Paul got beat up real bad."

"Paul got hurt?" I questioned, feeling my stomach grow sick. I didn't know Paul that well, but it still made me sad that someone I knew got hurt, especially since he wasn't even supposed to be there in the first place.

I was.

"Did they catch the guys?" I asked my dad, my suspicion growing. Something wasn't right. Things like this didn't happen here, not without a good reason.

"Not yet, and I don't think they will for a while. No one around town has been able to identify any one of the guys, they were all from out of town anyways. They- oh look, it's on the news again, see?" My dad said pointing to the TV that hung in the living room. Sure enough video footage of four rather large men entering the convenience store was displayed on the screen. They weren't the ones that caught my attention though. What caught my attention was the figure that was partially out of view of the camera, standing near the front door.

Wearing a black leather jacket.

"Shit." I hissed under my breath. "I swear I'm gonna kill him."

"Is everything alright kiddo?" My dad asked, a worried expression etched on his face.

"Uh, yeah, I'm good. Just can't believe that this happened."

"Me either. You be safe out there, okay? Maybe we should get you some pepper spray, something to help you defend yourself with."

Pepper spray would do nothing in this situation, not if he was behind all of this.

"Yeah, maybe." I said while running a hand through my hair. "Listen, I'm gonna go take a nap now, I'll be back in a bit." I said, and ran upstairs to my room.

Closing the door, I fumbled around for my phone in my purse, but stopped when I couldn't find it.

"Looking for this?" Aiden's deep voice piped up from behind me, sending shivers down my spine. I turned around to see his all too familiar figure twirling my iPhone in his hand, a glint in his eye.

"We need to talk. Now."

----
A/N

Hey guys, I'm sorry that these last two chapters were bit of short fillers, there are many *hint hint* fang-tastic surprises in store though!

I've decided to take a bit of a turn in this book. Don't worry, it's still gonna be the werewolf romance everyone signed up for, but I'm going to be playing with a few ideas I've had for a while now, like Aiden. (spoiler: he wasn't even supposed to be in the book at all) Hopefully you guys end up liking where this is going, because I know I'm super excited.

PSA: The title of the book will be changing. I'm not sure what I'm going to rename it to, but it'll be done by the time the next chapter is posted.

Also, thank you guys for all your kind words, I really appreciate it!

Xx,
Bri