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“I . . .” Micah scoured his brain for an excuse, but came up with nothing. Except the truth. “Ten or twelve a day,” he said with shame. “The doses don’t seem to last as long as when I first started taking them.”
“Have you discussed this with Mac?”
“No.”
“Do that today also. Have her change the dosage, or the meds, or whatever she decides, but do not keep her in the dark about what’s going on. Same goes for me. If you’re having problems, you come to me and Mac. We depend on you, and so does your team. Is that understood?”
“Yes, sir.”
Nick’s expression softened some. “I’m only coming down on you because I care, dammit. Do you remember the vision I told you about a few weeks ago?”
“How could I forget?” he muttered.
Nick leaned forward. “It’s going to come to pass if you
keep this up. You’re going to die. I know Jacee is your mate, and you’ll leave her alone and grieving. I don’t know how else to impress on you how serious I am.”
A shudder snaked through Micah. He knew better than to question a Seer as powerful as Nick. But he couldn’t help asking, “What makes you so sure there’s any way to change my fate, anyhow?”
“Is that why you’re being so reckless with your health? You can’t change your future, so fuck it? Because if I caused that by telling you—”
“No! You didn’t. I swear that’s not the way I feel. I’m just asking, honest.”
The commander relaxed some, sitting back in his chair. “I know ‘anything is possible’ sounds trite, but it’s true. I’ll tell you something I told Jax once. The decisions people make are like pinballs, sending each outcome in a new direction. Every decision you make affects something or someone else in a thousand different ways. Even yourself. If you know something you’re doing is self-destructive, it’s not too late to change.”
“Until it is too late.”
“Exactly.” The meeting obviously concluded, Nick stood. “I’ll get a full report from Mac after your session.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Remember, we’re here to help you. Call on me anytime, and I know the same goes for any of the Pack.”
“I’ll remember.”
After shaking Nick’s hand, Micah left and went to the hangar, where he killed a couple of hours tuning his motorcycle, lost in troubled thought. Inevitably, his mind went to Jacee. What the hell was he thinking, pursuing her when his personal life was such a clusterfuck? He should call and cancel their date.
At the idea, his wolf howled in protest and his guts churned. As soon as his shifter counterpart had scented and recognized her, ignoring her wasn’t even an option. Not that he really wanted to, but his crap was the last thing she needed in her life.
Which means you need to clean it up, fool.
The first step to doing that was to speak honestly with Mac. With a sigh, he wiped his hands on the grease rag and tossed it next to his bike. Then he headed for Sanctuary.
Over the past few months, a connecting corridor that ran between the main compound and the new building had been completed. The worry in doing so had been keeping the recovering patients with serious issues out of the main building, but the Pack had installed security measures to ensure no one could get through the doors but staff. Punching in his access code, Micah waited until he heard the click of the lock disengaging, opened the door, and stepped through.
His boots echoed strangely on the tile, giving him the disconcerting impression he was going to his own execution. Which was stupid, since the doctors were trying to help him. After another security checkpoint, he turned down another corridor toward Mac’s office.
In the lobby area outside the doctors’ offices and exam rooms, Noah was standing with a clipboard in hand, looking over some papers. Micah swallowed his pride and stepped up to him, not blaming the other man for eyeing him warily.
“Hey, I want to apologize again for what I did earlier. I snapped,” he admitted. “I’m not sure why I lost control, but I’m going to talk to Mac about it.”
“You’ll be honest with her?”
“Yes.”
The wariness faded, and Noah smiled a little. “Fair enough. I accept.”
“Are you all right?” Micah gestured to Noah’s chest. The nurse had put on a new shirt, hiding the cuts.
