by Rae Foxx
“Caught me, what? Falling into a vampire's claws? Gods, you scared the living daylights out of me.”
“Caught you before you got to work. I wanted to walk with you. The kids already left for school and my mate is in the fields.” She was already in a full ramble, and if I had to guess she had been waiting for me to make my appearance.
My sister needed more to do--clearly.
“Fine, fine, walk with me.” I waved my hand to the side and continued, Amanda falling into step beside me. “Since it’s clear you don’t have anything else to do.”
Mandy glared at the eye roll I gave her but said nothing. Well, besides giving me an endless ramble of all the things that had changed since I had last been home.
Some things about Silver Moon hadn’t changed. Everyone still ran around barefoot, everyone smiling and sharing food like it was going out of style. The trees, the smell, and the feel of the air were the same, minus the pot fields of course. But even with that, it was still all familiar. Silver Moon had been brought into the twenty-first century with a tech center for the teenagers and they were even beginning to look into solar power for the entire pack.
I hated to say it, it was still home.
Shit. I never thought I’d call a place where Clint wasn’t in it home. And here I was... Lucy pity party, check.
“Here we are!” Amanda pulled me from my drudgery and I looked up, expecting the white-washed fence and blue shingles of the clinic we had grown up with.
I don’t think the place had been touched since the last time I had been there. The fence had fallen, the shingles were faded. At least the door was still on its hinges…
“Well, I’m overdressed,” I mumbled, as I tiptoed over the broken sidewalk towards the door, the old slab of splintered wood creaked so loud I was sure people on the other side of the pack lands heard it.
The scent of musty carpet and mildew hit my senses like a tsunami of grossness. Muck and mildew mixed with the underlying smell of disinfectant and rubbing alcohol that had lingered in the air from years before, it was not a good mix. Broken furniture laid over dust-covered flooring, broken beer bottles, and graffiti dotting everything. Wallpaper clung to the walls by only threads of glue and the ceiling was pockmarked with stains, tipping me off that the roof might be the first thing that needed repair.
If it was worth it.
It might be easier to burn the place to the ground.
“Good grief, this place has gone to the shitter since we were kids.” Mandy peeled one section of wallpaper off the wall. It gave no protest and fell to the ground like soggy toast.
I whirled around and gave her a horrified look. She wasn’t wrong, but that didn’t change anything. “My first patient is coming in an hour.”
“Oh!” Her face was as horrified as mine. “I mean, oh, I think we can fix this place up in no time.”
“Yeah, uh-huh.” We both laughed, neither of us believed that. “Let’s at least try to get all the trash into a back room before anyone gets here. It may not be an office in a historical building, but it’s what I’ve got.”
Amanda was happy to have something to do. She also wasn’t wearing heels, which helped immensely. It took some time, but at least the beer bottles and small animal carcasses had been shoved from corners into the back room.
I didn’t want to know what lived here to have left so many rat skeletons behind.
Already tired, I flopped down onto the nearest chair, only to have it collapse underneath me. With the snap of wood and a frightened shriek from me, I was on my ass in a heap of dust.
“I’m not sure, but that might not be the best chair for patients,” Mandy laughed, looking down on me as I picked myself back up on my heels.
“Thank you for the astute assessment.” I attempted to smack the dirt off my ass, but I was sure my skirt was now hosting a colony of dust bunnies.
“Would you care to see if this chair would work better?” I taunted her, pulling another of the broken chairs away from the wall. The thing barely supported its weight just sitting there. “You know what I remembered... I have to get some housework done,” she began, backing herself toward the door. “And wouldn’t you know I’m up to eyeballs in laundry.”
“Wimp.” I kept my grin plastered on her. When we were kids, calling her out always worked. As the mother of two boys, she was now immune.
“Ha! Besides, you don’t want me here when your patients start showing up. Who knows, maybe one of these patients will be a hot young stud who is looking for love.” She stopped at the door to waggle her eyebrows.
“Mandy, you know better.” I attempted to keep my voice firm and pain free. “Shifters only find their mates once and I found mine.”
She put her hands up and let them flop down to slap her outer thighs. “Can you promise to keep an open mind?”
I took one long, cleansing breath before speaking to her. She meant well. I knew that. But I had to nip this notion of hers in the bud before it exploded. “Mandy, that would be a violation of the patient/doctor relationship. Besides, you can’t see what you’re not looking for and I’m not looking for another male in my life. Can we drop it already?”
She smiled at me and nodded. She wasn’t going to drop it, but I would have to take what I could get for now.
“Whatever you say, Lucy.”
Mandy left without another word. The second the door snapped shut behind her I threw myself into the chair without thinking. Before I could get my dust-covered ass off the thing it leaned sideways and I was ass up on the floor--again.
“Well, I’m off to a great start.”
Seven
Lucy
I put on a smile as I opened the door to my first patient at Silver Moon. The man was older, as Cami had described, with silver hair that sat in a thatch on his head and flew out of his ears like wisps of smoke. I remembered him from when I was a kid, a theme I would have to get used to.
My wolf never liked him. Snarled inside me anytime he came within the vicinity. I had to tamper her down to let him in.
“Hi! I mean, hello. Welcome. You must be Sam! I’m Lucy, nice to meet you… again.” I was off to a great start, but I stuck my hand out anyway. He stared at it and muscled past me, grumbling something under his breath.
The grumbling continued as he looked around the old clinic.
Okay, so this was going to be fun.
“Take a seat, Sam. I’m Lucy Chapman. I’m not sure if you remember me, but I am sure you remember my parents.”
His grumbling stopped to give me a narrow-eyed stare, but continued as he sunk into a chair that I’d tested a dozen times for strength.
Thankfully it still held up.
“I remember you, Lucy Chapman. Used to fish all the time. Managed to get one of the biggest catfish in pack history.” He shrugged one shoulder and sucked on the toothpick in his mouth.
“You know, I’d forgotten about that. You have a great memory.” I smiled at him, hoping to open things up between us the right way.
His eyes darted to mine, something serious and steely in them. “I remember a lot of things. The way things used to be. The good ‘ole days for sure.”
I knew that tone. I had heard it enough in some of my older clients, upset with changes at work or home… or changes in the world.
I had a feeling this one circled all three.
I crossed my legs and reached for one of the notebooks that I had stuffed into my bag before leaving the apartment. I scribbled down some things and he leaned up, straining his neck in an attempt to see what I was writing.
“What were some of the things you remember that were better than now?” The question was bait and he gruffed, hair flopping around wildly as the chair creaked.
“I know you used to be a Beta,” I continued after a moment.
That was bait he took. Gladly.
“A good Beta. A decent Beta. Not like what we have now.”
If I was a betting woman...
“Who did you think the l
ast decent Alpha was?” This session was about exploration. Nothing would be attempted to be fixed here, I simply needed to gather as much information as I could.
“For one, it wasn’t a damned female. I mean, being led and having to take orders from a female.” And he was back to grumbling. I didn’t even bother to write something in my notebook, I didn’t need to. I kept my eyes on him as he grumbled and glared.
I needed to build trust if we were going to get anywhere.
“So, you don’t like a female running the pack?”
He nailed me with a look that could kill baby bunnies in their tracks. “Everything I say here is confidential, right?”
He was smart to reiterate that before he said anything. “Yes, Sam. Of course.”
He leaned back as though he were pulling back the string of an arrow, ready to let loose and hit the target right on the bullseye. “Well, for one it’s a damned shame to be in a pack with a female for an Alpha. I mean, in my day, that wouldn’t even be a consideration. I don’t give three shits and seven damns about whether or not she bested the other Alpha. There’s a place and a role for a female in terms of pack and being Alpha isn’t one of them.”
“I’m assuming you count the Beta in that?” I cut that in when he took a breath, knowing that Emma had taken that role.
This pack might be the first in our society to be led by women. No wonder he was pissed.
He harrumphed and cleared his throat. “Same deal. She’s got a mate now, but he’s no better! He’s from that other damned pack, did you know that? She should be home, taking care of things, or getting a job. Something. Not trying to be a Beta. A female Alpha and a female Beta. If someone had told me this would happen in my time on this earth, I would’ve beat them senseless for lying.”
Jeez, this guy had deep gender issues, it was harder than it should have been to pretend they didn’t bother me.
“So, let’s take away the fact that she’s a female. What has she done that you disagree with?”
He scoffed loudly and checked his watch like all of this was a waste of his time. “Just...everything. Changing people’s jobs. Building new things. All of this solar talk nonsense.”
He leaned forward and squinted at me. “Things should stay the way they were. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Not only did this man have an issue with females, but he also struggled with change altogether. No wonder Cami was having issues with him.
We talked more but he clammed up on me, unwilling to give me more than a nod or a grunt. “That’s it for today, Sam. I’d love to see you a few times a week. I will call you with the schedule once I get it set up. I’m so glad I got to meet you today.”
He didn’t believe me. I wasn’t sure I believed myself.
“Fine. Whatever you say, doc.”
He continued to mutter all the way out about women and how I wanted him to come back and talk about his feelings. He wasn’t being quiet, I was sure I would have heard him even if I wasn’t leading him to the door.
It was almost Saturday morning cartoon comical, like he was a villain straight out of one of the shows, whining about his life.
“See you next time, Sam,” I said and gave him a wave that he didn’t reciprocate.
He was already past the broken fence when I noticed the toolbox by my feet and the man who was standing next to him.
Gods above, it was Emmet. I hadn’t seen him since right before I left, we were both barely adults then. But now he was a man. A man with a tool belt slung around his hips and baby blue eyes that beckoned me. My breath caught in my lungs as a wave of tingles filled my body from head to toe. We stared at each other for a moment before he took a slow step toward me.
No, this couldn’t be happening.
I’d felt this before and I never wanted to feel it again.
Never.
I’d had my chance and fate had cut them off with a blunt blade.
“Lucy, is that you? Cami wasn’t lying when she said you’ve grown up.” I swallowed against the ‘this can’t be’ boulder lodged in my throat. Emmet ran his fingers through his dark brown hair and smiled at me. “Lucy?”
My words came out in an embarrassing, stammered mess. “Yeah, that’s Lucy. I mean, I’m Lucy. You’re good to see. No, it’s good to see you again.”
Fuck, what the hell had gotten into me.
Or rather what did I want to get into me.
No.
Fuck no.
He chuckled and the sound made everything in me pull taut.
“I’m here to work on this place and fix whatever you need fixing. Looks like I might be here a while, though.” He laughed and my heart thrummed in my ears.
No, I refused to believe it. It was simply hormones. Or lack of sleep, or the fact that I hadn’t gotten any in months.
This man couldn’t be my second mate because second mates didn’t fucking exist.
Eight
Emmet
My mate.
Oh my God.
After all my moaning and whining about Emma… she wasn’t even mine. I should have known. Except I had no way of knowing. Not until this moment when I laid eyes on who I was truly meant for.
Lucy stood like a deer in headlights, eyes wide, cheeks flushed.
“I don’t...I don’t need help.” It took her so long to reply that I had nearly forgotten the question I had asked. I couldn’t even pull the five-minute memory back to life before she turned on me, whirling back through the door so fast that I thought she might get whiplash. She was already escaping inside, hinges creaking as she moved to shut the door in my face. I stopped it with one hand, catching it only millimeters before it slammed my fingers in the jamb. No way in hell I was letting her get away so easily.
“Don’t be ridiculous. I’m happy to help. After all, you’re my mate…”
“I’m nothing to you, and I don’t need help,” she hissed through the crack in the door. I was well aware she was putting all of her weight on it. I could move it easily, but that sentence had me standing down.
I could hear it in her voice, feel it in the way my hackles shot up. She was scared.
Nervous.
For whatever reason, she wasn’t ready to hear what she meant to me.
I didn’t understand why, but I wasn’t going to push her. I looked around, determined to change the subject and hopefully put her at ease.
“No offense, but you do. Even I didn’t realize they’d let it go this far.” I stopped pushing on the door to knock on the wall, two of the faded blue shingles gave way at the impact and fell to the ground with a snap.
Lucy jumped and yelped. The sound was so sweet that my wolf whined.
“I know how to do things.”
It was taking everything in me to quell my animal. He was clawing at me, hell-bent on reaching her. Needing to feel her skin next to mine, to commune with the wolf that was inside her.
“Is that right? So, you know how to reroute the flanges to the ceiling couplings? Because that’s the first thing that needs to be done.”
She bit down on her lower lip and the simple act made my breath catch in my lungs. She was fighting this so hard, it was almost cute. “Of course I do. I rerouted a flange last week.”
The lie slipped off her tongue with no trouble at all. I would have to remember that.
I laughed and she scoffed, thinking I was laughing at her. I wasn’t--for the most part. “I was kidding. That’s not even a thing.”
The red on her cheeks flared angrily and she exhaled, her wolf peering out of her eyes for a second. My heart restarted at the strength in that look.
“Can I at least take a look?” I took a step back, making it clear I wasn’t even touching the door, and gave her my best smile. Thankfully, she didn’t close the door in my face, she opened it wider and took more than a few steps back to allow me in.
I thought the outside was bad. One step inside and it was clear this thing needed to be bu
rned to the ground.
Not one thing about this building was solid. The ceiling was stained with splotches of yellow, which was unsurprising considering the roof looked like it had weathered more than one hurricane. Yet another thing about this place that needed to be ripped out.
I hated that this was where she had to work. It was no place for any person’s workplace, much less my mate.
“This leak is horrible. If we get one more bout of rain, this ceiling is going to cave in.”
“Why am I not surprised,” she grumped, jutting out her lower lip as she glared at the yellowed ceiling, hands on her hips.
Gods, she was beautiful.
Her auburn hair was fanned over her shoulders and every time she moved, her scent of ice and smoke kicked up, driving me wild almost to the brink of insanity. Pouty, full lips were covered with something shiny and begging to be kissed.
I swallowed, trying not to push her up against the nearest flat surface and make this whole thing official.
“It shouldn’t be a problem to get on the roof and repair that,” I said, my focus still on her.
“I can do that,” she said defiantly, the same bright glare darting right into mine. “They have spray sealant.”
I shook my head, that stuff wasn’t going to do it, and I had a feeling that she knew that. She was making this way too hard for no reason at all.
“Okay, so what about these floors? They need to be sanded and refinished, and every damned wall in here needs to be stripped of that God-awful wallpaper and painted. I hear the buzzing of several lightbulbs so the electrical needs to be checked before it causes the whole damned place to burn down.” I ran through everything I could think of, hoping to overwhelm her to the point of giving up and letting her mate help her.
Me. Letting me help her.
“I’m sure I can figure something out.” But, no. She was stubborn and defiant to the bitter end. Her sass made my lips twitch into a smile.
“Or you can let me do it.” I wasn’t going to let her get away with it that easily. “Cami sent me here to help you. To fix everything that needs repairing.”