Page 42 of Lightning Strikes

Apparently he only works from nine in the morning to five at night, and then leaves his number on the door for emergencies.

I sit at the desk playing games on my phone when a child is carried into the clinic by his mother and they’re both breathing hard and crying. I jump up and raise a hand to Carter and Ryan as I meet them and hold out my arms for the pup. “What’s going on?”

The mother collapses on a chair beside the desk and places her head in her hands. “The pups can get… rough. One of them attacked Vinny and I just nabbed him from school to bring him here.” I frown and hold the boy tighter against me. “He won’t talk to me and none of the other pups admitted to what they did.” I sigh and nod as I turn around to take him to a room.

“I’ll get him all sorted out. I’m Angela Miller, new pack healer. Be right back.” She waves me off and I look over at Carter. “Can you grab her a water or something?” I step to the first open room and lay the boy down on the cot before I turn and close the door. I squat down in front of Vinny and run my fingers over his head.

“It’s just me. Anything you can tell me? What happened or where you’re hurt?”

He slowly shakes his head and bites his lips and tries to hold back on crying any more. “No.” He closes his eyes and tries to turn over to give me his back but cries out and a frown mars his sweet face. He can’t be any older than eight, why would someone hurt him?

I place my hand back on his head and sedate him and his body immediately relaxes as he falls asleep. I scan his body and find that he has three shattered vertebrae and a broken leg.

Someone broke his back and leg. This isn’t a misunderstanding with kids. This is fucking torture. I heal him all up before going through the cabinets and groaning when I can’t find anything I need.

I wanted a back brace and a wrap to have a temporary cast on his leg, just for show since obviously his mother knows something is very wrong. I pull out a blanket and wrap him up on my way out of the room and step into Ronnie’s office. “Hey… Do we have any back braces in different sizes… and wraps?”

He nods and shows me to the main supply closet and I sigh as I look through everything. Thank fuck, I was worried he was inept and hopeless. I shuffle through the supplies and find a small back brace and even one for an adolescent leg. Perfect.

I wave him off as I step back into the room with Vinny and set down the supplies. I’ll have his mother come in and undress him. I look in all of the other rooms and find a portable x-ray machine and maneuver him around for pictures of his back and leg.

My magic is still working so there are still small hairline fractures in the bones, but nothing as severe as when he came in. I pull up the images on the machine and leave it in the corner and head back out to grab the mom.

“Miss? Sorry I didn’t catch your name. Vinny fell asleep and I was able to get some x-rays. Come on back.” I show her the images and ask her to undress him so that I can place the binders on his back and leg and he can come back in a few days for another exam. Her tears have dried and she nods.

“Thank you, Dr. Miller… I’m Veronica Pond. What should I do about the school?”

I sit down on a chair close to the cot and I frown. “I think you need to speak to the alpha about this. They could have paralyzed him, Ms. Pond… He’s what? Eight? What could an eight-year-old do to have children attack him and try to break his back and leg?”

She presses her lips together and sighs. “Thank you.” I leave her in the room with her pup with instructions to undress him so that I can get him into the braces.

I head into Ronnie’s office for access to the network so I can pull up the files. He hands me one of the laptops on his desk and as I search. I explain what’s going on. He sighs and runs his fingers through his hair.

“That’s the third kid this month. They need to figure out what the hell is going on.” He shakes his head as he continues with his tasks and I focus on Vinny’s file. I ignore that as I read through everything I can get my hands on… I need to call Deacon.

Vinny was in here a year ago with a broken arm and bruised ribs. Same thing, his mother had to bring him here from school. This is fucking ridiculous. I start a new notation in his file and move the x-ray pictures to the attachments.

“What’s the alpha’s email?” I sign into my business email address that I use for the clinic in Prescott and begin to type it up. Ronnie looks it up and I send it off with what really happened and the x-ray images for reference. I tap my fingers against the laptop and sigh. “I have about an hour left. Is it okay if I take this with me to the front?” He waves me off and I get comfortable at the reception desk and pull up all of the recent patient files and read through what the other pups have endured recently.

I slam the laptop closed after I forward all of the patient files to the alpha and tell him I’ll see him tonight over dinner so we can get to the bottom of this. Carter waves his hand in front of my face with a frown.

“I’ve been asking you for ten minutes now if you’re hungry.”

I chuckle and stand up to stretch. “Sorry, I was out of it. We can walk to lunch after I’m done here, unless you need to eat right away?”

He shakes his head and pulls me in for a hug. “I’m good. I’ll go read another magazine.” I squeeze him one last time before walking to Vinny’s room and knock on the door.

“Can you get him undressed so I can get the binders on him? Bring him back in three days and I’ll do more scans, he should be fine by then. Keep him home from school until the alpha can get to the bottom of this.” Veronica nods and I close the door and lean against the wall as I wait.

____________

“So another meeting with the alpha?” Tom asks as we let him in to watch Max and Scout for a bit. Ella is bouncing up behind him and pulls me in for a hug.

“Yeah… Some issues that I noticed today at work.” I sigh as I shoulder my purse and nod to Russell and Paul who are already waiting at the car. Mac meets me at the door after he hugs his parents and promises his mother that he’s back to one hundred percent health, and we head off to the alpha’s house.

I’m still so damn enraged about the dozens of patient files I sent over to Deacon and the only reply was to tell me that he has no business to attend to tonight and he’ll see me when I can stop by.

Did he already know? Is this one of those bullshit things that we should ‘let boys be boys’? Because if that’s the case, my child isnotgoing to attend these schools. I’ll homeschool or move to another pack so that we don’t run into any of the bullies at the damn playground or lake.

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