How to Take Care of a Stray Were

Chapter eight

Mia

In the morning before Liam woke up, Mia had busied herself washing and drying Liam's clothes and gathering determination. She would help Liam. It might be a silly and somewhat naïve aspiration, but Mia wanted to do it anyway. Liam was someone who would not receive help from the system. She doubted there were any charities for lone werewolves.

She was not, however, dumb or overly careless. She had locked her bedroom door for the night, and her laptop webcam had been recording the living room/kitchen since last night. She didn't believe Liam to be the kind of a guy to do anything creepy or suspicious during the night, but she knew thousands of unfortunate women had had similar misconceptions before something horrible happened to them. Plus, Liam was a werewolf. So there was that.

The only issue was how exactly she was going to help him. He clearly needed a place to stay and an income of some kind. Those things, however, couldn't be arranged in a day or two. She would need to make some phone calls tomorrow and go through every shelter and youth shelter in the area – provided that the latter helped people who were not underage.

Today, however, there was not much she could do to advance those things. She would have to just focus on removing that defeated and tense look from his face.

After they had finished breakfast, Mia considered Liam's bare ankles and decided that there was one thing she could do immediately. If he was to go job-hunting and, well, anywhere outside the house, he would need something better than the ill-fitting clothes borrowed from Drew and his own jeans and jacket that had ripped at various places, probably when the other weres had attacked him.

"Should we go shopping you some clothes?" she asked suddenly.

Liam didn't answer at first, his eyes on the photo gallery Mia had put together on the wall above the couch.

"I don't really have money with me right now," he finally grumbled, still avoiding Mia's eyes.

"You can pay me back later, when you've got a job and you have settled down," Mia reassured. She had already known that Liam would not be the type to simply accept the help. "Don't worry, I'll keep account of the loan and add a nice interest to it. It's a good business for me, really."

Liam chuckled humorlessly. "I don't even have any kind of job yet."

"You will, don't worry. We could borrow my friend Toby's car and I could drive it in front of the building so you wouldn't leave any scent traces."

Liam finally turned to look at her, his eyes showing some interest. Guess he liked cars.

"Does he live close, then, this friend of yours?"

"Yeah, just a few blocks away."

Liam considered her for a while, as if he wanted to say something else, but simply ended up grunting: "Fine."

Mia fought a smile. He was always so elaborate – poetic, even.

She proceeded to call Toby, waking him up from his hangover and announcing that she would be there soon to take his car. She then took a minute to change her home clothes into a simple blue knit dress with a loose cream jacket, stockings and knee-high boots. She slapped on some gloss and mascara and grabbed her purse.

"I'll be back in a minute!"

She hurried down the stairs and stepped outside. The rain had ended at some point of the night and the drains had been unclogged so that the streets were no longer flooding. It was still grey and downcast, but the lack of rain has already a huge improvement.

Toby lived in a similar building to Mia's place just down the street. In fact, he had been the one to find her this apartment two years ago after she had split up with Kyle and had been sleeping on their friend Jenna's couch. Toby and the rest of her friend group, Jenna, Priya, Emily and Kat, had been an irreplaceable support network for her after the break-up, when she had been re-building her sense of identity and self-confidence.

Toby was a haggard-looking mess when Mia stopped by his door to get the keys. She decided to be merciful and leave the comments and questions about the night before for another time and ran back down to get his old Citroën parked on the curb. She cast a nervous glance on the street ahead before turning on the engine. It was a quiet early afternoon, and beside an older lady walking towards the bus stop there was no one to be seen. No scary wolf packs or lurking groups of gangster men. Mia tried to calm her imagination and reassure herself; what were the odds that the men just happened to walk by this street again?

Mia parked the car as close to her building's door as she could and noticed that Liam was already waiting by the stairway. He had worn his dark jeans and Drew's shirt underneath his denim jacket. His longish hair had been tamed, and it now framed his sharp features in loose waves. Somehow, even with the serious expression and the slight stubble on his cheeks, he managed to look like he belonged on the cover of a magazine.

Liam eyed the street and quickly slipped from the stairway hall and into the car. He had to adjust the seat to make room for his long legs, and overall, he somehow looked like he was used to something fancier, more horse-powerish and perhaps more German than the shabby old Citroën.

Mia smiled to herself as she started the car and drove down the street, taking a left at the next crossing to navigate to the opposite direction to the old town, towards the city outskirts and the malls.

"What's so funny?" Liam asked, still eyeing the streets warily.

"Oh, nothing much. You just sort of look out of place in good old Louie here," Mia said, patting the car's dashboard with affection.

"Louie?"

"Yeah, he's an older French gentleman, but very reliable. We've had many thrilling adventures together."

"You and this Toby?"

Liam's voice seemed somehow pointed, but Mia couldn't figure out what the issue was. Did he think she was leeching off Toby and ought to have her own car? Was he such a snob? She decided to ignore it.

"Yeah, Toby, and Jenna, Kat, Priya and Em too. They're my closest friends."

"I see," Liam said distractedly. He seemed to have something else on his mind, but he didn't elaborate.

Mia shook off the feeling that she should explain herself. Liam was tense and alert, and that was probably what caused the weird vibes.

"Hey, relax," Mia prodded softly. "I seriously doubt that they just pop up out of nowhere and this turns into a chase scene."

Liam finally turned his eyes from the alley on the right and met her eyes with a hint of a smile. Mia smiled encouragingly. "And besides, even if it does, I'm a hell of a driver."

Liam's smile deepened and his posture relaxed slightly. "Oh, really?" he asked with more than a little doubt in his voice, examining her face carefully.

Mia jutted her chin and smiled devilishly. "Yeah. Drew, my brother, has taught me to drive like a maniac at our parents' place in the countryside. I would get rid of them easily."

"You seem sure of yourself."

"I'm positive."

Liam snorted softly, but his eyes continued to linger on her profile. The atmosphere in the car seemed to relax significantly, but Mia started feel a little self-conscious under his soft scrutiny.

"I'm lucky, then, for having such a fierce sidekick."

Mia couldn't help a slight blush rising on her face even though the whole discussion was supposed to be silly jesting to take Liam's mind away from the multitude on concerns that seemed to be weighting him down. There was something about the way he said those words so seriously and looked at her with such weight in his gaze, like she was a lifeboat and he was a drowning man. Mia couldn't remember the last time someone had looked at her like that. If ever. As unfamiliar as it was, especially after it seemed like she had done all the drowning lately and her friends and family had been the lifelines, Mia found she quite liked the feeling. And the fact that it was Liam, in particular... Well, let's just say she had no issue with being regarded with approval by a man like him.