Page 4 of Lion Conquers All
The bear was in cahoots with him too.
Aarav wouldn’t show up to fix anything inside her house, but Owen would. Big heavy knock on her door. Tara was always with him. They would chat and Owen would fix—whatever it was. At least Owen never came by himself. She trusted him, but it would be so uncomfortable. She really did hate being alone with men, even men who weren’t interested in her.
“Connie, is it five breaths and then twelve compressions?”
Oh, dear Lord have mercy.
She took another swig of heaven in a cup and walked toward Gaven Hardisty—an English teacher at the local Mystery high school and single dad to a teenage girl that could give most survivalists a run for their money.
She gave him the instructions again, readjusted his dummy on the floor so the chin was up, then strolled through the room helping others for a few minutes before circling back to Gavin’s side. His dummy’s chin was down again and the man looked flustered.
“You okay, Gavin?”
He looked up, meeting her gaze. “Oh, yes. Thanks.” He pushed up his black-framed glasses. “I thought I was going to get to spend some time with Gretchen over this last week before school goes back. She texted and said she wasn’t coming back in from the blind where she camped out yesterday and not to worry. Which is good. I appreciate her keeping me updated. It just…”
“Sorry.” Connie couldn’t think of anything else to say. He was a good dad. He tried. His daughter was dealing with grief and that wasn’t an easy task.
He looked back down at his dummy. “It’s fine. She’s been hard to connect with since her mom—my wife—died last year. They did all the outdoor stuff together. And now it seems like that’s all Gretchen wants to do. It’s her way of coping. I get that. I just miss her. I miss them both.”
Connie stifled the urge to put a hand on Gavin’s shoulder. Touching a man invited him to touch back. And that was something she didn’t want.
“I’m sure it will get better.” Connie stepped back. “You know there’s a great family counseling group here at the MCC that Katherine set up. Maybe that would be something good for you and Gretchen to attend together? Maybe it would help?”
“Maybe. Thanks. I need to talk to Katherine and get some more information about it. I forgot it was here.” He gave her a reassuring smile. A smile that let her know it was safe to move on with class. A smile that said he was okay. For now.
She walked down the row, complimenting and correcting form.
“What are your boys up to, Helen?” Connie took another sip of her coffee. Helen Tragher had five teenage boys and they were constantly in Connie’s office for one gash or another. The last injury had been a slice to one of their thighs because they were experimenting with making spears and throwing them. “How’s Darren’s leg?”
“You wouldn’t even know he had an injury.” Helen snorted out a laugh and looked up from the CPR dummy. “When they got out of school two Friday’s ago, they made an archery range behind the barn. I’m quite convinced they were pretending to be Legolas from Lord of the Rings along with a half dozen other boys. There were capes, Connie. I saw capes and then I closed the blinds and prayed. I’ve had boys camping out in my barn since summer school got out. I keep the fridge stocked with soda and meat. Then throw a bag of chips at them every so often.”
Connie laughed hard. The scene playing in her head with a pile of teenage boys running around with capes, bows, and arrows was hilarious. She hoped they were only shooting at designated targets. Helen’s boys were smart, but they were daredevils and very good at getting others to follow along. “Oh, to be a fly on that wall.”
Helen shook her head. “You don’t want to know how bad they smelled. I told Oscar not to let anyone further than the bathroom behind the kitchen without telling them they had to shower. But mostly they stay outside. We have a fully functioning bathroom in the barn. That saves our house all the time. Especially when they come in from the woods and smell like something that died a week ago.”
Connie laughed again, knowing exactly what smell Helen was referring to. Nothing smelled quite the same as over-ripened-boy. “Alright, guys. Let’s rotate the dummies. If you have an infant, move up to the child-size, if you have a child, move up to the adult. And if you started with the adult, you get the infants. Turn to the correct tab in your booklets and begin practicing breaths first. Then we’ll talk about compressions again.”
The large gymnasium fluttered with movement, shoes squeaked on the well-oiled floor, footsteps echoed, and all the teachers and random parents that had signed up for the class swapped the dummies around to the different tables and got right to work.
At this pace, she would easily have them moving into the First-Aid portion of the certification before lunch. She was pleased with that progress. The more people she could educate in town, the better Mystery would fare since she was the only medical personnel in town currently. The town committee really needed to prioritize recruiting a family physician.
“Connie, will you offer this class again soon? My daughter wanted to take it too, but had a conflict for today.”
“Oh, yes. I can probably schedule another one for a couple months down the road. It’s August, so maybe late in October?”
“Oh, good. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
The door at the back of the gym swung open and Katherine walked in from the kitchen. Knox was right next to her and so was Penny. Knox had two of Penny’s babies in his arms and each woman was carrying another one. Penny had delivered quadruplets right before Halloween last year—two girls and two boys.
It’d been touch and go there for the last baby, but Penny was a fighter and so was that last little girl. They both looked energetic and full of life now. All of them did. They were beautiful and growing so fast. They would all be a year old in a couple more months.
Connie walked down the center of the gym between the tables toward the approaching Tribe members. Penny was human, but everyone else was Reylean, or at least had a Reylean beast inside them. Katherine had been human, but was now a wolf.
Connie wasn’t exactly sure how all that worked, but it was scary to think about. Katherine wasn’t the only woman the Tribe had changed.
Outside of Katherine’s stand-in-father—Harrison—she was the only unmated human thatknewwhat a Reylean was.
