Page 8 of Lightning Strikes

Chapter 3

Angela

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I was able to sneak out without waking Cal and made it home around noon. Luckily my cabin is deeper in the forest away from any nosy neighbors, so I’m able to shift into my wolf and go for a quick run so that I can find some Golden Melia flowers to make a contraception tea… I tossed my reserves after Adam… So now I need to make sure I drink this for a few days since I’m so close to my heat cycle.

I toss my dress and heels on my porch, shifting before I shake out my fur. I raise my nose into the air to scent if anyone has come around my plot lately…

I smell Mac and no one else. Good. I race off into the forest, searching for the garden that I haven’t been upkeeping too well since my parents disappeared. Not at all to be precise… I haven’t even been out to the garden since before they vanished.

I sigh internally when I find that the Golden Melia’s are thriving. Good, Mother Nature must know that I need it. Or the neighbors have just been upkeeping this one area. Assholes… If you’re going to grow just one thing, at least add a few vegetables.

If only shifters could use the pills, injections, or implants that humans have. I shift back onto my two-legged form and pluck up a handful of the yellow and orange flowers and glance around the rest of the sad garden. We used to grow several fruits and vegetables back here with a handful of our neighbors as a ‘community garden’. I miss it.

I squat down and place my hands into the dry soil and frown. I should be able to get it back up and running and grow at least a handful of vegetables before the freeze hits… Now that I have the new vets working for me, I only have to work a few days a week.

I set down the flowers and shift back before lightly plucking them up with my teeth and racing back to my house.

Tea, shower, then nap. Maybe some food… Then I need to call into the office and see if we’ve had any inquiries on Cutie… he was supposed to be picked up by fosters days ago now. But they’re all too damn full.

I also need to call Mac to see if he can pick up Maximus today before either of the new vets decide to do more x-rays.

I toss my dress, shoes, and purse into my room before boiling water and letting the flowers steep. I end up adding some honey, ginger, and cinnamon for flavor. No pups for me, thank you very much, but I still want the nasty tea to go down well. At least taste a little pleasing.

As soon as it’s cooled enough, I chug the drink and pull out a container of leftovers from a few days ago. Some pasta dish that Melissa brought me to work. It’s not bad… But I need to hunt for some fresh meat tonight or tomorrow before my wolf flips out and takes over to do it herself.

After heating up my meal in the microwave I sit on my couch and stare out the windows as I eat and think about Cal.

Not that I’m anywhere remotely ready for a relationship, but he seems like a good guy. Rich and confident, but he wasn’t cruel or rude about his station. My parents left me a decent sum of money and I make a respectable amount from my clinic and other investments, but I’m certainly nowhere near spending thousands of dollars at a resort, driving sportscars, or dropping hundreds of dollars at a bar, rich.

I’m comfortable in this two-bedroom cabin in the woods, it sure beats Adam’s house that always smelled like sex and other women that he blamed on his ‘promiscuous sister’. Ha. I was too damn naïve. He made me feel crazy, even when my mind was shouting the truth at me. His sister hasn’t lived in the pack for years.

I was blind.

I should have known better, especially when he never announced our plans on mating at any of the pack meetings. I just followed along with his ‘plans’ that he wanted to covet our relationship on our own for a while.

Even Mac warned me. And I didn’t listen.

I take a long, hot shower before I can crawl into my unmade bed, curling up around my second pillow and closing my eyes. It’s too quiet without my mother’s singing or my father’s loud, boisterous laughter. I miss their scents and how much they enjoyed cooking together. How they would play music and dance more than sitting around on the couch and watching TV.

They pushed me to follow my dreams, no matter how ‘human’ they were. All they begged of me was to keep my powers to myself and never tell another soul. Along with this damn necklace… what even stays on my person when I shift. Must be magical, but they always just told me not to worry about it and not ask questions.

And I haven’t told a soul about either. I just hope that the alpha never accidentally lets it slip, because I would probably be chained up for attacking him. Not that he doesn’t deserve it.

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I wake up to my phone ringing, grumbling as I stumble around my room looking for my purse. My eyes are still closed as I fumble with sliding my thumb around the screen and yawning. “Hello.”

“Princess… I was wondering if you’d like to get dinner tonight? I leave tomorrow morning and I wanted to see you again…”

I purse my lips as I blink around my bright room and check the time on my clock on my nightstand. I have only been asleep for three hours. Asshole. “I’ll let you know if I can. I have to call into the clinic and have a few errands to run.” I sit down on my bed and eventually lay back and close my eyes again.

“If you’re tired, I can always pick you up.” Cal responds warmly. Gosh, how perfect is this human?

I snort at myself and clear my throat. “No, I don’t mind driving. I’ll send you a message soon and let you know.” I hang up before he can reply and roll my eyes. He’s leaving in the morning, shouldn’t we just… cut our losses now and not get all cute and attached? I laugh out loud as I scroll through my phone for the clinic number, talk to Dr. West about his day and how Cutie and Maximus are doing. No more inquiries on Cutie, the foster homes are too full. Maybe I need to have Melissa put up information about adoption… but he did let me know that they’re doing great and he hasn’t had any issues with any of his patients today.

Thank goodness. I hope he’s better at patient notes than Blake was…

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