The door chime rang and a silky voice spat out “good morning Louisiana peaches” Mj blushed and shot upright. she looked at Lou, half horrified and another voice rang out, just as deep as the first one but not as smooth to the ears. “I think that’s Georgia peaches bro but I get what you mean”. Mj could not believe her ears,” were they really talking about her ass right now?” She spun around on one heel to face the taunters and pearcherd her hands on her hips. “Excuse the fuck out of you!” she spat with as much disgust as she could muster.
The man standing in front of her was about a foot taller than she was, and had beautiful deep lagoon green eyes. His hair was a dusty gold blond with darker highlights dancing underneath the top layer revealing how thick and beautiful it really was. Build was athletic and firm, his skin looked weather touched with different shades of neutral cream and olive tones. He was standing so close to her that she could swear she felt the air move around her when the corners of his mouth turned upward into a small wry smile but did not expose his teeth.
He leaned forward and almost whispered in her face,“ I said good morning”. This man stood so close she could smell him, he smelled musky but sweet and Mj caught herself inhaling a little deeper to savor the scent. She was seething with annoyance not only had this jackass taken advantage of an unfortunate situation now he was insulting her intelligence.
Mj wasn't sure if it was instinct or just poor choices but she hauled back and headbutted the beautiful man standing in front of her, pushed passed his stunned companion and out the front door ignoring and angry Lou hollering behind her.
She raced around the corner and jumped into the old beat up farm truck Lou used, started the old beast and yanked her into gear, before the sequel of angry cold belts hauled her down the road toward the slaughterhouse and away from the problem Mj had just unnecessarily created for herself.
Mj drove a little ways down the road and pulled over, she hit the steering wheel with her palms and cursed herself. “What the actual fuck is wrong with you!” She thought, “you are a grown ass woman, cant you fucking act like one? You could have just walked away, but no you had to act like a child and headbutt him.”
She smirked a little as she remembered the satisfaction of cracking her scull against the soft cartilage of that jackass’s face. “Serves him right” she thought as she made her way back onto the road and toward the slaughter house.
It only took about 25 minutes for her to get to the slaughterhouse. Mj pulled the truck off the main road and into the dirt drive up that led to the slaughterhouse main office and loading dock. She backed the truck in next to the loading port so that she wouldn't have to walk too far, in case Lou went overboard and ordered a pallet or something like that.
Mj made her way up the stairs of the office and walked inside. She was met at the front desk by a woman in her early 50s,she had a bubbly and happy little voice all the time. She was nearly 5 feet tall and so when she was sitting at the desk you could almost see a small tuff of her overly curled and teased black bob hair cut. Mj slapped her hands up on the desk and made the small woman jump.
“Morning Beth” Mj said with a start “jesus H fucking christ MJ you little shit! What is wrong with you for fuck sake? I'm an old woman and you could have killed me just now!” her voice was happy and high pitched but not shrill. “Sorry Beth”, Mj chuckled “I just thought you could use a little pick me up”. The woman behind the desk stood up and smoothed her shirt almost like trying to brush off the goosebumps that just shot up her spine.
“That's what coffee is for sweetie” Beth said with a smile, as she rounded the side of the desk and walked to Mjs side.
“What the hell happened to your head Mj?” Beth said in an accusing tone “you piss off Lou again and get hit in the head with another flying plate or what?”
“No” Mj said shyly, trying not to make eye contact with the woman in front of her. “Hay, do you think Lou would ever fire me?” Mj asked, still not making eye contact with Beth, which was hard to do considering she was an inch shorter than Mj. Beth started laughing “what in the world happened this morning”.
Beth was Lou’s sister and Mj had met Lou through Beth 3 years ago when she mentioned she was looking at picking up more work so she could save money to get the hell out of this small town and maybe do something with her life. Sure Mj had lived in Lowder since she was small, but she kept to herself mostly because she was just kind of cast aside by everyone. Not on purpose, but people had their own lives. Mj met Beth when she was about 12, Beth volunteered at the youth center in town and Mj was a ward of the state on account of the fact nobody came forward to claim her after the flood and they had to do something with her.
The State wouldn't take her as they already had too many kids in the foster system as it was. So the town of Lowder became her home by default and Mj ended up aging out of the foster system. It's not that she didn't want a family, it's just that she had a knack for getting into trouble with other kids, and nobody wanted to adopt a someone that was always fighting with other kids.
Mj took a deep breath and explained the morning to Beth so fast she thought she might faint. She explained that she was late and had to go pick up the cutlets that she missed this morning and how she dropped the keys and a greek god made lewd comments about her ass so she confronted him about it. “Good night” Beth began to say as she fanned herself with her hand “that's a hell of a morning and all dear, but what does that have to do with your head? And no, I don't think Lou would fire you for that” she said with a warm smile.
Mj could feel her ears turn hot and her cheeks flush and now she was furious. “What the hell gave this man the right?” She thought and decided to try an old trick she learned in her early years as a bartender. Some drunk asshole would make an advance more than once or confront her in the parking lot after shift when she was alone and she couldn't always overpower them physically, a few times they had grabbed her and she couldnt get free and had actually started to panic. But for whatever reason Mj always just became very calm and focused like she knew exactly what to do to get herself free of the situation. She had figured out that most of the time all these dirty fu
The others didn’t move an inch, they had no expression other than the wide eyed stare they each had locked on the man still holding onto Mj by the seat of her pants. “Please!” Mj began to plead quietly. She had stopped struggling in an act of defeat and at this point had all but fallen to her knees. Lou still wasn’t moving and Mj still wasn’t sure who all of these men were.
Dante walked up to Mj and gently loomed over her. “We have not been properly introduced” he paused as if waiting for her to run or slap him. Mj was so overrun at the moment the only thing she could do was wipe her eyes and stare at the man in front of her “You can call me Dante” he began “and these four clowns are harmless they just got a little over excited” he had started to come much closer to her now and once again Mj could feel little sparks of electricity pop all over her body, like internal fireworks.
Dante stood with his back against the front door, positioned so he could watch his little obsession work. He was paying absolutely no attention to what the others were talking about.He knew that Azreal, their alpha, had sent him and the other hunters here to check out some suspicious behaviour involving butchered cattle at the slaughterhouse.
Outside Mj was doing her best to level her anger and nausea while she cleaned bird nests and egg leftovers out of the sign letters above the butcher shop, she so very much just wanted this day to end but unfortunately she still had her shift at the bar. “Luckily Lou was sending her home after this so she could take a much needed shower and she would even have a few extra hours to herself before she dove once again into the pit of other people and their bullshit” she thought.
Mj crouched low as the two men on the ground looked up toward her and the one they called Tanner waved at her like an excited child in a parade. “Come on down doll, we don't bite much” he paused before the last word. Ace punched Tanner in the arm “Look we don't blame you for being standoffish but we really wont hurt you and I think Lou was looking for you anyway, if you would like we can help you down but if not we understand and won't get in your way”
“It's nice to meet you Sam,” Mj said partially ignoring the others, she looked directly at Ace and spoke through gritted teeth“As long as you dont ever fucking put your hands on me again we can call it good”. Mj darted her eyes to the man they called Ed “Ed….nice to meet you” then she looked at Tanner.