open and a disgruntled looking Rae stormed in.
“Woman! I’ve been looking all over for you,” he barked at a wide-eyed Miyu.
“You know you aren’t supposed to sneak off.”
Miyu had the grace to look chagrined. For a moment, I thought maybe she’d left him in a compromising sex position or something. She seemed like the type.
But the concern in his gaze as he stared at her, concern…mixed with something that looked like terror. It led me to believe it was something else.
“Everything all right?” I asked, looking between the two of them.
“You need to be careful too. I’ve heard about your little runs. They’re a bad idea right now.”
“Because of the wolves?” I asked, confused. Miyu had literally just gotten through telling me how safe the town was. But what I was seeing from Rae didn’t support that.
“I guess you wouldn’t know since you’ve only been in town a little while,” Rae said, his massive form settling into one of the chairs. He swung an arm behind Miyu, and she curled into him. A pang of envy moved through me, seeing how much they obviously cared about each other. Would I ever stop wishing I had that?
I doubted it.
I could dream though.
At that moment, Rae popped the last bit of Miyu’s blueberry muffin into his mouth, and I wasn’t envying them at all when Miyu hit him in the stomach and shrilly screamed at him. Evidently, she was passionate about her food. I made a mental note of that.
After Rae had stopped swearing from Miyu hitting him, they both settled back into each other’s embrace as if nothing had happened.
“What were we talking about?” Miyu asked.
I rolled my eyes but couldn’t help but grin. “Rae was about to tell me why he was so worried about you sneaking out this morning.”
Miyu sobered at that, nodding her head slowly.
“We lost a girl about a month ago. She was just a teenager. She was at a bonfire party, the kids have them constantly during the summer, and then…she was just gone. The whole town searched for her for days. And then we found her…” Rae’s voice trailed off, and he turned a little green.
Miyu stroked his back soothingly. “Rae was part of the team that found her,” she said quietly. “It…it wasn’t pretty. Something had ripped her apart.” Rae’s body shuddered, and his eyes closed as if he was envisioning it.
“Was it a wolf?” I asked breathlessly, leaning towards them.
Rae shook his head vigorously. “A wolf couldn’t do something like that. She’d been torn apart, for fun.” He looked out the window towards the tree line where the forest began. “Something’s out there. And until we find out what it is…” He turned his attention to Miyu. “You will not leave the house without telling me where you’re going. You didn’t even bring your phone! If I hadn’t seen that we were completely out of coffee, I never would have known where you were.”
“I’m sorry, pookie bear,” she murmured, tapping him on the nose. “I won’t do it again.”
I snickered, hardly comprehending that she’d just called the giant Rae pookie bear. The only thing she’d gotten right was the bear part. He was practically as big as a bear.
Rae blushed at the endearment and awkwardly stood up, dragging Miyu with him. “On that note, I need to get ready for my shift. And aren’t you doing Mrs. Chankleton’s hair in twenty minutes?”
Miyu looked at her watch and screeched in shock. “Fuck, I’m going to be late. And that woman is a beast of timeliness.” She began to pull Rae towards the door without another word.
Rae shook his head and waved at me. “See you later today,” he told me.
I smiled and waved, watching as they walked out hand in hand. Miyu waved at me frantically as she passed in front of the storefront glass, and I laughed and shook my head at her for what seemed like the millionth time this morning.
As soon as they were gone from sight, my smile faded. What Rae had said was sobering. I looked out towards the woods, taking the last sip of my coffee, remembering how I’d felt like something was watching me from the woods several times.
I really needed to look at whether they had a gym in this town. I didn’t really want to spend money on a gym membership, but I didn’t really want to die either, so I guess there were tradeoffs. I needed to be better at controlling whatever urge I’d