Page 263 of Fangs
“You ready?” he leaned in to ask low in my ear.
My body was ready forsomething. I felt like I might combust, and it confused the shit out of me, but I nodded, anyway. Mac began to untie the handkerchief, and then the blindfold fell away, and I stared at the scene in front of me, my lips parting in astonishment.
My crew, Wolf, and the Fangs all stood outside the clinic, grinning at me, and I didn’t know where to look first. The clinic wasbigger.They’d put a whole fucking addition on. It looked like at least one more room and easily doubled the size of the building. On the other side, a cute little whitewashed wooden fence surrounded the garden plot, full of neatly raised garden beds. Tucked in the corner was a small greenhouse with see-through walls and a tin roof.
I stared, and I stared, my mind refusing to acknowledge what I was looking at was real. Vaguely, I could hear Sam asking me something, but I couldn’t focus on the words.
“Em?” Large hands gripped my shoulders, and a face appeared before me, blocking my view.
I focused on Mac, noting how his brow was creased and his eyes were studying mine like he was worried. It was only then I realized tears were streaming down my face.
“Are these happy tears?” he asked softly.
I nodded, still too overwhelmed to speak. Sam gave a dramatic sigh on the other side of him and handed me a handkerchief.
“You want to come take a closer look?”
I nodded again, wiping my face, and he smiled.
“C’mon.” Mac laced his fingers in mine again and tugged me forward up the slight hill.
I wanted to keep holding his hand, but Wolf hugged me as soon as I reached them, pulling me away.
“Come look inside first,” Wolf said, grinning.
He led me inside, and still, all I could do was stare. They’d put in two more windows, and the warm sunlight beamed in from multiple directions.
“All the windows open so you can get some air in here in the summer,” Wolf explained. “And over here, we have the addition.”
He led me to where the hutch had previously resided, but they’d removed the wall, creating a large entryway to the addition. I glanced back at the large empty space to the left of the front door to see the hutch in the corner with the stack of wooden chairs. The new addition had a hallway that led to three different doors. Wolf opened the first door and led me in. My dresser stood against the wall, and my mattress sat on a new handmade bed frame. There wasanotherwindow in here. It smelled like fresh-cut wood.
“This is your room,” Wolf said. “We put a lock on the inside of the door so you can have some privacy when you need it.”
“We made you a new bedframe, too,” Mac added from where he leaned on the doorframe. “Since Madame took the last one after you left.”
“There’s a trundle underneath,” Wolf crouched to lift Trey’s quilt and show how another bed could roll out from under mine. “I wasn’t sure if Roe would be movin’ in with you permanently, but this gives you an extra bed if you need it.”
This was only the first of three rooms, and I was already struggling to process the amount of thoughtfulness they’d put into it.
Wolf led me out to the second door in the hallway. “This is an extra bedroom. We figured some of us could sleep in here.”
It was empty except for a few bedrolls, but there was a fourth window. All the natural light made my heart feel like it was about to explode out of my chest.
Wolf opened the last door. It was a smaller room with no windows, but two cots were inside.
“This can be whatever you want. Storage, a room for patients to sleep, a private exam room—anything. The only thing these new rooms don’t have is electric lights, but we can add those once we get the materials,” Mac said.
“We put the rest of the bedrolls up in the loft, so we’ll be out of the way in the main room,” Wolf added.
“Em, come see the garden now!” Apple chirped from the door.
In a daze, I followed her outside to the garden. The beds were formed from neat piles of dirt, ready for planting. The fence had a gate that shut and locked to keep the free-roaming animals out. Leda and baby Jet stood in the garden talking to a woman I didn’t initially recognize.
“Em, do you know Vale?” Leda asked, gesturing to the other woman.
Jet reached for me, so I took him from Leda and turned to Vale. She was older, probably in her fifties, with greying hair and fine wrinkles across her skin. She looked familiar, but I couldn’t place her. Her expression bordered on stern, but her face softened as I met her eyes.
“You saved my life during the rebellion,” she said quietly. “A merciful action since I was not one of the rebels.”
