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"Please, have a seat," Camilla said, gesturing to the chair at the opposite end of the table.
"I would rather stand, if that's okay?" Melody said, her entire body tensing up. The wolf inside her whimpered, as if she, too sensed what was about to happen. "Is something wrong? Are you not satisfied with my work?"
Camilla raised one perfect pale-blonde brow before beginning to scowl. "It is not that," she said, shaking her head so that her golden-blonde curls bounced in the candlelight that lit the room. "It is just that I am not so certain we are a good fit."
Melody's skin crawled. She wasn't exactly excited about working for a blood-sucker either, but it was work and it paid her bills.
"I do a good job," Melody protested, "And I work my ass off."
"I am well aware," Camilla said. She took the time to clear her throat before she placed her fingers beneath her nose and announced, "Your cleaning is perfect and the house is spotless, though I am afraid nothing can remove the stench of wet dog."
Melody struggled to stop herself from exploding into a rage. Years of hiding her anger and frustration in Mario's pack merely to survive had taught her well, but now, faced with such blatant racism, it took all she had in her not to snap.
"I see," she said through gritted teeth. "In that case, "I'm afraid I'll need to request payment up to the end of the week to give me a chance to find something else."
Having cleaned for the vampire for three weeks, she was well aware that such a request was a drop in the ocean for someone who had spent centuries gaining wealth.
"Oh, yes, of course," Camilla said, smiling warmly as if she was pleased with how easy firing her had gone. Melody could see past that smile right to her cold, dead heart, and it made her feel quite sick as she took the check offered to her.
It was only as she gathered her cleaning supplies and made her way out of the house that she grumbled, "Who expects someone to clean in the dark, anyway?"
Cleaning by candlelight during the middle of the day, she might as well have been blindfolded. She ought to have known better than to accept a job from a vampire. But she truly had been desperate, and it was that desperation that clawed at her insides as she packed her car, climbed inside and headed home.
By the time she reached the driveway and killed the engine, she had no energy left to clamber out of the car, unpack it and head inside. And so she sat there for a while with her head on the steering wheel, fighting back tears.
What was she supposed to do now? There were only so many jobs in a place like Silverdale, especially when she wasn't willing to throw herself on the pack's charity and take on a job as someone's secretary or even a barmaid. Maybe being on the other side of the Silver Moon's bar wouldn't be so bad, but she had come too far to turn back now.
She bounced her head gently off the soft leather of the steering wheel in the hopes that an idea might come to her. If worse came to worst, she could always sell her car to pay her bills. It might stretch to a month, maybe two if she was lucky.
She was just trying to force the idea away when the sound of raised voices caught her attention.
"You can't just show up unannounced and expect to drop her on me like this!"
The voice was all too familiar, though it had been a while since she last heard it. Raising her head just enough to peer over the steering wheel, out the window and over the fence, she saw Jake standing on his porch. Beneath his smattering of black facial hair, his face was red with anger and his hands were balled into fists at his sides.
"She's your daughter, too!" a woman yelled back at him as she stormed down the porch steps. "I have somewhere I need to be."
"Seeing your shitty boyfriend doesn't count as a priority when it comes to caring for your kid!" Jake snarled back at her.
The woman with dark, wheat-blonde hair turned on the lawn, her heels digging into the grass. She was dressed to kill in stiletto-heeled thigh-high boots and a dress so short Melody could practically see everything. There was no doubt about where she was going.
But as Melody watched, horror overwhelmed her. It wasn't until Jake crossed the porch to lean on the rail and point an accusing finger at the woman that Melody saw the little girl standing in the doorway.
She couldn't have been more than five or six, black-haired and blue-eyed, her pale hands clutching a teddy tightly to her chest. The straps of a colorful backpack disappeared over her shoulders, and she looked like a little lost orphan child. The sight reminded her all too much of the children in Mario's pack she had been forced to care for due to the loss of their parents, either through death or their constant disappearances to please their alpha.
The more Jake and the woman argued, the rounder the little girl's eyes became. And though Melody was some distance away, she thought she could see tears gleaming.
It's none of my business,Melody told herself, trying to look away. It wasn't until she noticed the little girl sneaking away from the house and off the porch that she knew she couldn't pretend any longer.
Well aware of the two wolves arguing on the lawn, Melody discreetly popped open her car door, slipped out and tried to shut it again as quietly as possible.
With her head dipped, she tiptoed up the driveway, down the side of the house and into the back garden. Though everything in her was telling her not to get involved, she couldn't remove the feeling that she had to be sure the kid was okay.
When she heard the sound of quiet sobbing, she knew she had ultimately made the right decision.
Holding her breath, she hopped up onto the trashcan and perched on the edge of the fence to look over.
There was the young girl, crouched on the other side with her teddy still wrapped tightly in her arms. She sobbed into the stuffed animal's fur as if she thought it would muffle the sound. Melody knew that hope all too well. She had used a pillow or a jacket to do the same thing during her days in her old pack.
