Page 50 of Lightning Strikes

Chapter 18

Angela

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I feel like I haven’t slept in weeks. Ronnie left four days ago and I’ve been organizing his office and filing all of the paper patient records. Deacon is starting the build for the new clinic next week, so at least I only have to deal with this dim, ill-equipped clinic for another month.

Melissa is flying in on Friday and I’m a ball of nerves… I’m excited that she’s coming, she’s been the closest to another person besides Mac and Adam in my life. Well, aside from my four guards and I guess Alpha Deacon now. Especially now that I can be open and honest with her…

A mage. I still can’t wrap that around my mind. Packs stick together and I haven’t heard of Adam or his father ever hiring out other supes, so I’ve never met a mage or vampire, or they just haven’t outed themselves.

Do all mages smell human? Or does she do something to change her scent? Something to ask her this weekend. She mentioned she’s only staying for a few days, but I imagine she’s as sick of pretending to be human as I was. Who knows how old she even is, since Deacon made it a point to mention that shelookslike she’s in her thirties?

I sigh as I pluck Scout off of the paperwork I have all around me and place her back on my shoulder. She’s been a menace ever since she’s been running around on her own for the last week. I took Ryan’s advice and she now wears a collar with little bells all over it, and good thing she’s deaf, because they’re annoying as hell for the rest of us.

“Knock, knock!” Mac calls out from the reception area and I smile.

“In the office!” I call back as I focus on placing more files into the filing cabinet to my left and frown at the rest of the mess on the ground. What the hell was Ronnie doing in here the last few weeks if he wasn’t organizing?

“Want some lunch? I grabbed some burgers from down the road.” I nod and slowly stand up with a groan as I stretch out my arms and legs. I crack up when Scout claws her way down my body and lays on my foot with a yawn. “I’ll take her home with me, I’m done for the day.”

I cock a brow at him as we walk down the hall to the reception desk to eat. It’s the only clean surface big enough to use as a table in this place, outside of the patient rooms. “That’s an early day.”

He sighs and runs his fingers through his newly shorn hair. “Yeah, the group I’m with are just a bunch of slackers and I told Deacon I wanted a switch. Unfortunately all of the other groups are filled so he told me to hang out with your guards and just relax while he figures something out for me.”

I focus on my burger and fries as I mull it over. “Well, hang out with me for a few days. I can put you to work.” I wink at him as he licks his bottom lip and winks back at me.

“I’m sure you could. How’s it been going?” I sigh as we talk about the mess Ronnie left me with and how excited I am about the new building. Deacon showed me the completed blueprints a few days ago and I’m ecstatic about how it turned out. The reception area is going to be brighter with floor to ceiling windows and comfortable couches, tables, and a bookcase. There will be three triage rooms, one room for pregnant females along with a new ultrasound machine, a delivery room, a surgical suite, and five recovery rooms. There’s also a full basement with an apartment if any of the healers need to stay overnight, storage, and the break room and kitchen for the staff will also be down there.

He also allowed me to put up fliers on the boards around the pack looking for assistants and a receptionist. He promised he’s still in talks with other packs about hiring two more healers, especially with me being pregnant and due in about three months. Apparently there were already a few bites but none of them can come to New York for in-person interviews for another few weeks while they’re finishing up their training or have their own busy jobs.

It’ll work out eventually. I hope.

Ever since my lunch with Carter, the other guys have been even more comfortable cuddling with me on the couch, falling asleep in my lap, or even flirting with me. Mac and I still haven’t talked about it, but I don’t see why we need to. He’s made a point to me that he’s not jealous and doesn’t care, it’s just like how we’ve always been, except now he wants to be my pup’s father… and is living with me in my house as an adult, and not just fucking around in college.

Even though Adam damaged me, I feel myself healing – body, mind, and soul – every day we’re away from Prescott. Too many bad memories. My parents, the stress from the vet clinic, Carolina… At least Ella and Tom’s cabin sold and they got the money wired into their bank. They are going to take over this building for her seamstress business and they have been ordering all of the machines, fabric, and whatever else she’s been murmuring to herself about as she writes it all down in one of her notebooks.

Tom is having a blast in ‘retirement’ and I give him another month before he’s bored out of his mind and going through ‘training’ for Deacon to give him a job. We still see them at least every other day for meals, walks around the forest, and they steal Scout and Max several days a week to play with or have sleepovers.

Ella has also hinted that one of their bedrooms is being turned into a nursery for the pup. I cried. I don’t even remember the last time that I cried, aside from my parents’ disappearance. And my breakdown after Carolina destroyed my house and car.

“Or I can spend the rest of the week organizing all of our shit from Prescott… Melissa needs a room to sleep in, after all.” Mac reminds me and I grunt at him.

“Fine. Ask one of the guys to help you out or something. We need to buy or build a shed or something for all of our shit.”

He chuckles and nods. “Sounds good, babe. I’ll get right on that.” He cleans up all of our trash and kisses my forehead. “I’ll take Scout home with me and cook us all some dinner, I’ll invite the parents over and see if Deacon wants to swing by. I don’t think he has many friends in the pack.”

I chew on my inner cheek and stand up with a groan. “I noticed that, too. Have you heard anything about it?”

He scoffs and shakes his head. “No. The guys I’ve been working with the past week were so tightlipped and in so deep in their little clique that they didn’t trust me speaking out about anything. I tried asking about the pack, what their jobs usually entail… They would just point me to certain places on the map and tell me to check the fences and guard stations, ignoring everything else I asked.”

“I also wonder why no one has shown up since the first few days after we moved in. Remember how many damn casseroles were dropped off? Now? Nothing… Could that be because we’re busy and they don’t know when we’re home… Is it the guards? Or because we’re both annoying the alpha enough to build a friendship with him?”

We laugh and he shrugs. “Could be all of the above. None of the other pack members have guards… Apparently, they offer it to all pregnant females… Ronnie didn’t have any and he’s a healer, which confuses me. Margaret walks around the pack without any guards… So maybe Deacon stretched out the reasoning so that you would accept it? Or the alpha makes it seem like he offers it to more people and didn’t want you to feel special and be all weird about it.”

“Maybe we can get Deacon drunk tonight and see what the real reason is.” I smirk at him and he chuckles as he picks up Scout from my lap, waving goodbye on his way out the door.

“See you in a few hours.”

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