Page 43 of Lightning Strikes

Because I won’t hold back.

Mac rubs my tense shoulders and he kisses my temple as we park in front of the massive home. “I think we should all go in.” He stares the guards down and we all nod.

I step out of the car and wait for the three of them to catch up before I knock on the door. Deacon opens it hastily and motions for us to follow him and it’s damn silent in here.

“Where’s your mate?”

He smiles over his shoulder before twisting back around and opens up an office door down another hall. “Visiting our kids out in the city.” He settles down at his desk and waves for us to sit. “I read through all of the emails and have called for meetings with the administrators, teachers, and aids at the school. This was never brought to my attention before… When I asked Ronnie earlier about why he never mentioned any of the patients, he told me that the healer before him taught him to contact the school and the admins would take care of it and deem if it was necessary to tellme.I take it you’re smart enough to acknowledge that not once was I notified.

“I’ve shut down both schools, one is pre-school age to twelfth grade, the other is the college. I’m going to be interviewing every administrator, teacher, and aid from both. Read up on every record, and then will move onto the students and parents. I’m not sure how long this will take, but it will be done.

“I’d like you to revieweverypatient file and scan them for me to have copies of, or access to the records from my computer if possible.”

I nod at him and let out a relieved breath. “There aren’t different access points so I’ll log in for you if you can hand over your laptop. There are a lot of changes I would like to make and I’ll have the list ready for you by the end of the week.” He hands it over and I download the program the clinic uses and sign into the portal. “It’s basic. Just click on ‘patient records’ and you can filter the results from last name, age, or date last seen. I would use the latter so you can read through the most recent and figure out what’s going on from there.”

We end the meeting soon after that and we all end up walking to a pizza parlor down the road instead of eating at the alpha house. I imagine he’s stressed the hell out about all of this and I wonder if his mate knows about any of it. The parents should have gone to her immediately if they weren’t comfortable with telling the alpha.

The five of us take up two tables in the back of the restaurant and we each ordered a large for ourselves and we ended up sharing between all of us. The men all had a few beers and we forgot about our responsibilities for a few hours. It was relaxing and calm.

Usually it’s calm before the storm.

______________

After my first week of part-time clinic work, I’m looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow, relaxing through the weekend, and organizing all of our belongings from Prescott. Everything was delivered a few days ago and neither of us have wanted to deal with it.

We stacked up my parent’s furniture in one of the guest rooms and used another for all of the boxes from our cabins and my storage unit. He finally heard back from the insurance company for his truck and they’re sending him a check for the amount of the damages, plus how much his truck was worth before the accident. So that’s a nice surprise.

He’s been on the phone with Adam at least once a day, getting updates about the psychopaths that were working with Morrow, but he won’t tell me anything. I have half a mind to call Adam myself to get some damn answers.

My updates and daily phone calls from Melissa are a highlight in my days, especially while the alpha is pulling me into random meetings on what he’s doing with the schools and needing advice and a breakdown on the patient records. He’s even pulled in a couple of the kids and not one of them will talk. Either they have been conditioned to just take what happens to them, or they’re too afraid to speak up.

I’m sickened by it all.

Not one parent, teacher, aid, or administrator has stepped forward, and they all play dumb.

I’m considering offering the alpha myservicesto get them to talk. Like Adam, Deacon only knows a few of thegoodhealing services my powers provide… And I’m not patient enough to wait months for someone to step forward. These are innocent freaking kids. It’s deplorable.

I mean, really. There’s maybe a hundred or so pups in both schools, this isn’t some expensive, elite school for humans with the sketchy clubs and midnight meetings.

The last few days at the clinic have been busy and quiet aside from the drama. I’ve been writing up my list for what I would like changed, not just the clinic itself, but the patient portal. I want it more secure, different log-ins, that way only the healers and the alpha have access. I’ve also been looking through the pack maps to see if there’s an area to just build a new clinic to my specifications.

Mac pounces on me as soon as I walk through the front door and spins me around. “How are you feeling today?” He kisses my neck and I melt into him.

“Tired, annoyed. I need a damn break this weekend.”

He chuckles and pulls me into the kitchen, lifting me up to sit in a stool. “Good. That’s exactly what we’ll be doing. Mindless unpacking and organizing, and I’m taking you on a date tomorrow night.” I smile at him as he pulls out items from the fridge to build us a couple of sandwiches and tosses me a bottle of water. “Tonight we’re going to sit on the couch, watch TV, and cuddle with Max and Scout. Do you want your guards to join us?” He asks with a wink and wince at him.

“Do you want it to just be us? They can go visit their families or run errands or whatever they do when they’re not following me around town to the clinic.”

He smirks at me. “I’m not worried about them, Ang. I enjoy their company and you’ve been open and honest about how close you got over the week I was gone. Just as long as I have a place at your side, I’m not jealous.”

I roll my eyes and focus on my meal. I was fine with the closeness of the guys while Mac was away, but now that he’s here, I feel… Nervous about being so touchy-feely with my guards. My mother used to tell me about the fae and how they had multiple partners… But we’re shifters. No one has multiple mates since there’s so few of us and usually an even amount of female to male ratios in packs.

Good thing that all four of the guys either don’t want to mate, only want to work, or have been fucked over by a female so they don’t want anything serious any time soon… And neither do I. I love Mac, want to build a life with him. But actual mating? Not sure.

“Hey, where’d you go?”

I frown and blink up at Mac and shrug. “Just worried about how much time I’ve been spending with Ryan, Carter, Paul, and Russell…”

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