Page 1 of Twisted Lies
One
Mikah Dawson tugged on her favorite jeans, the ones that hugged her ass and hips like a second skin and pulled her hair into a messy bun. She threw on some lip-gloss, grabbed her purse and raced for her truck. Frantically digging through her big-as-a-fucking-suitcase-purse for her keys, the first of many of her daily allotted curses slipped past her lips.
“Fuck! Where are they?” She held her bag up and shook it, carefully listening for the sound of her keys jingling inside.
“If you wouldn’t have smashed another alarm clock, you wouldn’t have to worry about being late,”her wolf reminded her.
Mikah rolled her eyes.“I didn’t smash it. I bumped the table, and it fell off on to the floor and broke.
“Lie.”
“If we’re late again, Cam is going to kill us, and that’s no damn lie.”
“Uh-huh,” her wolf answered.
Her boss, the owner of Cam’s diner, was awesome—most of the time. She loved working for her, but there were also times when Cam was a tad bit overbearing. Not that Mikah could blame her. After all, she had a restaurant to run, a hot-ass male to keep happy and a bun in the oven. So yeah, Mikah really needed to get her ass in gear and make sure she was moving forward instead of backward. As of late, the whole moving backward thing felt all too real. It wasn’t something she had intended.
“Lie,”her wolf spoke up once again.
“Okay, okay. So, maybe my current predicament is my own damn fault. I shouldn’t have drunk texted Marcus and invited him over, but I felt like I’d die if I didn’t get laid.”
“Ha! Finally found the bitches!” Mikah broke out into a quick happy dance the second her fingers closed over her key ring.
“You shouldn’t have invited him over. He’s not the one for us. He may think he is, but he isn’t our mate.”
“Whatever. You can be such a self-righteous hag sometimes, you know that, right?”
She was so freaking tired of hearing about mates. True mates—fated mates, blah-fucking-blah. There had to be something in the water at the diner. Something she was going to flat out avoid. The pattern was clear—first, Callie found Wyatt, and Mikah had cheered them on silently. She loved Callie and wanted nothing more than to see her settled and happy in life. Then, Cam and Ethan went rounds with each other before finally hooking up. What a shit show that had been, but it all turned out for the best in the end. It had just taken them for-freaking-ever to get their happily ever after. Mikah shook her head at the thought of Cam and Ethan’s damn-near train wreck. Then, there was poor Ruby Jean. The girl had fought like hell to avoid being trapped in a relationship with Liam and the fact that Ruby Jean nearly killed Liam when she’d inadvertently unleashed her majik on him.
Thinking about those two brought a smile to her face, each time their story passed through her head.
As much as her friends’ stories warmed her heart, there was no fucking way she was falling for that shit. Each of her friends had fallen hard. Like—straight up hook, line and sinker bullshit for their men. And who was she to say whether the men were or weren’t her friends’ true mates? It wasn’t her place, to burst their bubbles or call them out for her lack of belief in the supposedone true matecrap. They all seemed happy enough, even if she only saw them at work these days.
So, what did all of her friends have in common? Gerri Wilder. That’s what, or more specifically, who. There had been a string of matings recently at Twisted Tail, and Gerri seemed to be at the center of each of the happy couples’ good fortune.
No thank you!
“Note to self—stay the fuck away from Gerri,”she said to her wolf as she threw her truck in park and hopped out in the parking lot of the diner, ready to take on the day.
Not that Mikah believed all that hocus-pocus bullshit or anything, but it was best to avoid the matchmaker extraordinaire like the fucking plague of romance she seemed to spread. Mikah was perfectly content living her life alone and on her own damn terms.
“Lie.”
“Look who finally decided to show up on time for once,” Cam said, cracking a smirk as Mikah flew through the door like a squirrel on crack.
“Pfft. Please, plenty of time to spare. I didn’t worry for a second.” Mikah threw her purse in her locker and tied on her apron.
“Lie,”her wolf called her out again.
“HaHa. Even I know that’s a lie.”
Mikah rolled her eyes at Camryn. “So, what’s on the agenda for today? Same shit? Different day?” Not that she expected anything different from her normal routine. Cook up what the customers want, ring the bell and start all over again on the next order. Mindless and easy.A massive change from her previous job—in her previous life.
But now wasn’t the time to think about that. She couldn’t. Not here, not now.
Panic began to creep in, worming its way through her body. Her wolf whined in her mind, knowing the outcome wouldn’t be good if she didn’t nix that stroll down memory lane.
“Actually, we have a tour bus filled with a bunch of gossipy old ladies swinging by for lunch today.”
