by Terry Spear
He hoped the clinic was someplace that Kurt and Adelaide would enjoy working since they would be spending a fair amount of time there. He also hoped he would be comfortable living in Lexi’s house as a bodyguard when he wanted to be her lover instead. He wasn’t giving her up for anything!
* * *
When they returned to the house, they all shifted and dressed, then met in the living room. Everyone looked well pleased to have gone for a run, and Lexi was glad her parents had been so cute and playful and loving toward each other. They needed that—to feel the bond, to feel safe again, to be with each other. She knew she shouldn’t be nipping at Ryder as if he was her wolf lover, but she felt such an urge to do it that she couldn’t help herself. Maybe it was seeing the way her parents were with each other. Maybe it was because she couldn’t quit thinking of the hot wolf, naked in the creek, carrying the bear cub to safety, or remembering the way he kissed her back when she wanted to thank him for finding her father’s message.
Maybe it was because she was so relieved her parents were safe and together again that she felt so much more lighthearted and freer to have fun with another wolf. Not just with Kate, but with a male wolf she was wholly interested in.
“Are you sure you don’t want to at least stay the night?” her father asked Lexi before they drove over to the clinic to see the facilities.
Before she could answer, Kate reminded her, “Your schedule for your vacation is clear for three more days, if you don’t feel we have to get back right away. I could probably borrow someone’s laptop to keep up with emails and other business.”
“Thanks, Kate. Yeah, Dad. I’d love to stay and visit with you and Mom.” But she also wanted them to have their time together alone without Lexi and her three bodyguards imposing on them. Then again, when they left, her parents would have all the time in the world to get reacquainted.
As if someone had heard Kate’s comment about the laptop, there was a knock at the door, and when Ryder checked to see who it was, Edward had her laptop and a bag in hand. A couple other team members were carrying more bags. His, Mike’s, Lexi’s, and Kate’s.
“My team gathered all your things right away, but we didn’t have time to bring them here until now. The bags were with the other guys,” Edward said.
“Thanks, that’s just what we all needed.” Lexi really did want to visit with her parents a little longer. She didn’t know when they could do this again, between her work and theirs and all the trouble with Tremaine. “What do you think, Mom? Did you want to get back to work right away?” She knew her mom loved what she did, so Lexi didn’t want to make her feel she had to stay at home and visit with her daughter.
“Heavens no. I mean, I love my work, but after being away from the two of you for so long, I want us to be together. Besides, even if you don’t join the pack because you don’t want to give up your business, this will give you a chance to meet the people we’re going to be living and working with. You’ll be a pack member, too, though mostly in absentia. Oh, oh, can you do a makeup party? That would really make a splash. I miss doing those with you.”
Lexi smiled. “I would love to.”
Kate pointed at a big bag. “Samples galore. We take them with us everywhere. It would be fun. I’ll set it all up.”
“We all will.” Lexi smiled at Ryder and Mike.
They smiled back, nodding.
She was glad she’d hired them. They seemed to be good sports about anything she wanted them to do.
“When did you want to return to California?” Edward asked.
Lexi saw her parents’ expectant faces, and she took her mother’s hand and squeezed. “Three days from now. I have commitments back home after that.”
“Okay, great. We’ll come for you then and transport you there,” Edward said.
“Thanks so much for everything,” Lexi said, and everyone agreed.
Then Edward and his men told them goodbye and left.
“Let’s head over to the clinic, and after that, we can visit a while and then go to the pack celebration.” Her father put his phone in his pocket. “I’ve already texted Doc Weber to let him know we’re on our way.”
* * *
They headed over to the clinic, where Dr. Weber came out of an exam room and welcomed them to his domain. He was cheerful and seemed thrilled to be getting some additional wolf staff. Kate and Mike stayed in the lobby that featured a sitting area with a section for kids to play in with a TV, aquarium, and tables for building puzzles. The rest of the lobby consisted of the reception area and seating for adult patients and their families.
The clinic’s color scheme was a cheerful mix of purple, orange, and blue. Photos of the mountains and flower-filled meadows were displayed on the wall, making it a pleasant place for both patients and the staff working there. Lexi noted the photographer was Jake Silver, one of the subleaders of the pack that she’d met when her family arrived in Silver Town. She could use some tips from him on photography!
She and her mom and dad, and of course, Ryder—who was still serving as her bodyguard no matter what—checked out the rest of the clinic: six rooms for overnight patients amounting to twelve beds, six exam rooms, three operating rooms, a nurse’s station, and a break room outfitted with a kitchen.
“Lots of room for lots of patients,” Lexi said.
“We don’t get a lot yet, unless we have an avalanche or bad weather and we have a lot of vehicular accidents. Though we’ve had multiple deliveries at one time, and they’re usually multiple births,” Dr. Weber said. “But we wanted to plan big for our growing lupus garou population.” He showed them his office. “I have a room off my office for sleeping, when I need to be here all night. The nurses’ office has a bed for when they have to stay on call overnight too.
“We have an extra-large room we use for storage, which we planned to turn into another doctor’s office if we had anyone join the staff.” He smiled at Kurt and Adelaide. “Looks like we now have a need. If you don’t mind sharing an office, it’s big enough to support two doctors.” He motioned to the bathroom. “Staff restroom. In the waiting area are the patient restrooms.”
He took them to the break room where the nurses were grabbing some coffee since they had no patients at the moment. “The nurses, Charlotte Grey and Matthew Adams, work here.” Dr. Weber introduced the nurses to Kurt and Adelaide. “They’ll be working here as soon as they are settled in and ready.”
“Welcome.” Nurse Grey was an older woman with a pleasant smile.
Matthew inclined his head to Lexi’s parents and then smiled at Lexi and Kate. “And you ladies are joining the pack?”
“Uh, no,” Lexi said. “Kate and I live in California. We’ll be returning there but visiting my parents when we can.”
Matthew appeared disappointed. Ryder was smiling a little. Lexi could just see Ryder chasing off any wolves who were interested in dating her. Which could be a good thing, she supposed, if some of the fortune hunters continued to plague her.
“Our receptionist is Carmela Hoffman, retired army lieutenant colonel, mated to Michael Hoffman, also retired army lieutenant colonel, now a deputy sheriff. You met her mate when you first arrived,” Dr. Weber said.
They took the elevator to the basement level, where the door opened to reveal a lounge area, a testing lab, a laundry room, and a snack room.
“And down this hall is the morgue. Doctor Featherston is our medical examiner. He’s off in Hawaii on a vacation at the moment.” Dr. Weber got a text. “Looks like I have a patient I need to see. Human hiker, broken leg. I’ll set it and send him to the nearby hospital at Green Valley. When we can,” he said as they all climbed into the elevator, “I send human patients there. Oh, and our vet sometimes pops in to assist with wolf pup deliveries if we’ve got a full patient load and the momma wants to shift into her wolf.”
“Now that’s something I never get to do.
Deliver wolf pups,” Kurt said.
“Or take care of kids who are wolves in a hospital setting,” Adelaide said.
Lexi heard the pride in their voices, and she was thrilled they were happy to cater to their own kind for a change.
Dr. Weber agreed. “You’ll love living here.”
“A lot different from working in a human hospital,” Kurt said. “I am going to love working here. Do you need any help with the new patient?”
Dr. Weber smiled. “Yeah, sure. Come with me and we can get this taken care of.”
Lexi was glad her father offered to help with his first patient case.
“We’re going home,” Adelaide said. “I want to visit with Lexi.”
“Sure thing.”
“And if you don’t make it back in time, we’ll pick you up on the way to the pack celebration,” Adelaide said.
Knowing her father, he wouldn’t make it home before the celebration started.
When they returned to the house, Ryder said, “We’ll give you some private time to spend with your mother.”
“We’ll sit out on the back porch.” Lexi appreciated that Ryder and Mike wouldn’t be hovering over her the whole time. She really did feel safe here. “I’m going to have to get used to having you around.”
Ryder smiled.
“In a bodyguard capacity,” she clarified.
His smile broadened.
“If you don’t mind, I’ll join you,” Kate said to Lexi and her mother.
“Absolutely,” Lexi said. Kate was a friend and confident, and she never felt the need to exclude her.
“Would you like some iced tea or lemonade?” Ryder asked the ladies.
Wow, Lexi could really get used to this. “Iced tea sounds good. No sugar.”
Her mother and Kate asked for the same.
“I’ll help you make them,” Mike said, and the two men went into the kitchen.
Once Lexi, her mother, and Kate were settled on the back porch looking out at the woods, iced teas in hand, Lexi asked, “Are you all right, Mom? After all you went through, all that you had to survive, coming home to this chaos, are you all right?”
“It was all a shock. I have to admit I felt panicked when I took a taxi from the airport to our house, expecting everything to be the same as before. The new owners told me that you sold it. I didn’t know what to think. They didn’t have a forwarding address for Kurt, and you were gone too. I assumed he’d pulled up stakes, figuring I was dead and not coming back. But he would have sold the house, not you.”
“Yeah, I had to because he was declared dead and you were gone, so I ‘inherited’ it. I wired the money to him when I could safely do so.”
“Okay. I was so upset, confused, thinking I wasn’t remembering things clearly. Then I went to the hospital where we both worked, and the staff members I ran into there were aghast I was still alive. Not surprising. They said Kurt testified against Joe Tremaine and he disappeared. I was frantic that Tremaine had murdered him. Then I went to the DA and they waffled for a bit, then finally told me he was safe. When they learned I had suffered memory loss, they wouldn’t give me any information on how to get in touch with him, afraid I’d put him at risk. I didn’t want to put him at risk either, but he had to know I was alive. We needed to be together.”
“Humans wouldn’t understand.”
“I agree. Being with a pack like this couldn’t be better. You know, your dad and I were stuck in a rut. That’s why I went to Brazil. Well, to help out too. Those kids needed me. You had moved out, and I was helping you with your business online when I was off from work, but your dad and I weren’t going anywhere. Same old thing, day in, day out. Work, eat, sleep. Nothing new and exciting. We loved each other, but we needed some excitement in our lives again.”
“You sure got that.”
Her mother laughed. “Even just living here will do the trick. I’ll have wolves to socialize with.”
“And Dad. I mean it, Mom. If he doesn’t have some date nights, you call me, and I’ll set him straight.” Lexi was serious.
“It looks like the pack has a lot of activities going we can participate in throughout the year, which should be fun. I hope you can join us for some of them.”
“I will.”
“So what’s the deal with this Ryder?” Her mother sipped some of her tea.
“He’s protective and helpful and fun to be around and—”
“Hot,” Kate said. “Real hot.”
Lexi smiled, but gave her a look that told her to watch what else she said. She was afraid Ryder, and Mike, might hear them.
“He helped Lexi rescue two bear cubs and return them to their mother. He’s got a tender heart when it comes to animals in peril. He didn’t know we were down at the bottom of the cliff trying to take care of them ourselves. He had planned to do it all by himself,” Kate said.
Lexi’s mother frowned at them. “You could have been badly injured. But I know no one could have changed your mind about it.”
“Not only that,” Kate continued, having the floor and making the most of it, “but he’s really a good sport. He modeled for Lexi’s men’s skin-care line for a promo video.”
Her mother laughed. It was good to hear her laughter. “Ohmigosh, he’s a keeper.”
“He was good about that,” Lexi agreed.
“I’ll say. He seems to be a real macho wolf.” Her mother frowned. “He’s not interested in your money, is he?”
Lexi didn’t think so, but what did she know? “He didn’t know who I was when we first met.”
“And they still had the hots for each other,” Kate offered. “You should see the chemistry between them. Sparks fly. I can just imagine what will happen when he serves as her pool boy.”
“Okay so what’s all this about him being your pool boy?” her mother asked.
“He can serve drinks, apply sunscreen, and whatever else the lady needs,” Kate said.
“Aww. What about you and Mike?” her mother asked Kate.
“He’s really hot, too, but I’m interested in someone else.” Kate drank some of her iced tea, her cheeks suddenly a little flushed.
“Who?” Lexi and her mother asked at the same time. That was news to Lexi, and she was more than curious. Kate had never mentioned wanting to date someone. Unless the guy wasn’t interested in her. Or was dating another wolf already.
“I’d rather not say,” Kate said, dismissively.
Now Lexi was dying to know just who Kate was interested in.
Chapter 19
Ryder and Mike heard Kate talking about them to Lexi and her mom about how hot they were. They were chuckling about it when someone drove up in the driveway. They both checked it out and saw Nurse Matthew dropping Kurt off.
Ryder had suspected Kurt would still be at the clinic and waiting for them to pick him up for the celebration, so he was surprised to see him return home before that. Ryder opened the door for him. “The ladies are on the back porch visiting.”
“I’ll sit in here with you and talk then before we have to go.” Kurt took a seat on the sofa.
“Sure.” Ryder suspected Lexi’s father wanted to make sure he and Mike could protect Lexi. “Did you want anything to drink?”
“Water would be good. Thanks.”
“I’ll get it.” Mike hurried off.
“Are you certain you can protect Lexi in California?” her father asked them as he took the glass of water Mike handed to him.
“Yes, sir,” they both said.
“She’s headstrong. If she wants to do something, she’ll do it, even if it means risking her neck.”
“Uh, right. I’ve seen that firsthand.” Ryder was thinking of the bear cubs’ rescue.
“What else is going on between the two of you?”
“I won’t deny I’m fascinated with Lexi.”
“She has a lot of money.” Her dad raised his brows.
“I make a good salary, and I have a lot of money saved up. I may not have Lexi’s wealth, but I’m not a spendthrift and I’m good with my own money. And I’m not looking for an easy setup.”
Her dad smiled a little. “Hell, if Adelaide had money like that when I first met her, I would have been tempted.”
“You love Adelaide. That much is evident. Money or no.” Ryder had known this would happen. Even her parents would be suspicious of his motives. And he didn’t like it.
“Lexi’s had a lot of male suitors. Wolves and otherwise.”
Ryder wasn’t surprised. “I’ll keep them at bay, unless she’s interested in seeing one of them.”
“I’m surprised you’d agree to that.” Kurt raised a brow.
“We’re not courting.” And that was also the problem. Ryder was just her hired hand, even though she had said they’d been on dates already. “I’ll be working for her.” Possibly nothing more. He didn’t think he could watch her court someone else, though, and continue to work for her.
Kurt smiled. “I think there’s more to this than you’re willing to admit.”
“Your daughter is a wild card,” Ryder said quite frankly. He really didn’t know how he stood with her in the long run.
Her dad chuckled. “Yeah, she is at that.”
The ladies joined them, and Adelaide said, “It’s time to party.”
* * *
At the Silvers’ estate, the outer building and surrounding grounds were already set up for a party. They had food and drinks sitting on long tables and barbecued ribs, brisket, and chicken were cooking on a couple of grills. Ryder was impressed. If he didn’t love working with Aidan’s family and living on the West Coast, he would have loved to be part of a pack like this.
Everyone came to meet their new doctors. Wolves with young children were delighted to have a doctor who was trained in pediatrics.
The word had spread through the pack about Lexi’s cosmetics business, and Kate was already organizing a party to be held at the pack leaders’ estate the next day. Lelandi was delighted to offer her home for the party since it was so much bigger than the Summerfields’ rental house and set up for pack functions.
