I appreciate him coming to tell me, and I wave him back towards the truck to get warm. When my eyes scan back over the sidewalk, Joseph's glaring at me. I knew he was gonna be an asshole, but I came anyway when they needed me. Fuck, it felt so good being at home cuddled with Kelly and Teddy.
Instead, I’m standing out here, freezing my ass off and about to deal with drama bullshit. There’s really no way to mentally brace yourself for this kinda thing. There’s no way to know what he’s going to try to throw in my face this time. If he’s still pissed about Teddy and Kelly, the age difference, the fact that I brought Garret…Fuck me, he’s probably pissed that I even showed up right now.
If all he wants to do is throw my pack back in my face, he can fuck all the way off.
Shit, maybe he wants to fire me?
Can they fire you if you volunteer?
Pretty sure they can.
But this isn’t a huge area, and on nights like tonight when we're already short staffed…
I guess it doesn’t matter, it just means more time to work on the house and spend time with my pack.
Now I kinda want to just quit so I 'll have the extra time for them.
Nah, they’d want me to help if I could.
Joseph stomps across the street to where I’m standing by the truck, waves of dominance and anger rolling off of him.
Oh, great, it’s to be another public shaming.
Goody.
Fucking crawled out of a warm bed for this shit.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing here? You’ve got a lot of fucking nerve showing your face around here after the shit you pulled!” Gabe perks up when the shouting starts, and while my main focus is on my brother—who is losing his shit right now—I’m not so far gone that I don’t pay attention to my surroundings.
Before I can even try to stop the vitriol spewing out of Joseph, Gabe is there, and he looks pissed. He grabs Joseph by the arm, pulling him away from my face, and I barely register that the shouting has also brought Garret back out of the truck. “Are you fucking kidding me right now, Joe? Seriously. Starting this shit at my fucking bonding ceremony wasn’t enough, now you gotta start it on a fuckin’ job? We were called out here to help people, which you have done jack-all to accomplish. Thank fuck Leo, Xan, and Paul are actually trying to put out the fucking fire right now…and Paul’s not even on our team, he came with the fucking cops!”
Gabe’s waving his arm at the house that’s still spitting and sputtering flames as two of his pack mates and Officer Paul work the hose. I feel like an asshole for not going over there to help, but with no one but Garret clueing me into the situation, I didn’twant to risk getting in the way and making things worse. “Get your head out of your ass and get your shit together, man.” Gabe reaches for my jacket. “Come on Sam, we need an extra set of hands over here.” I don’t actually care where he’s dragging me right now, I’m just glad to get away from Joseph’s bullshit.
Chapter 36
It’s not my finest moment being hunkered down in a firetruck in a snowstorm while other people do all the work. But I’m pretty sure I’d be useless right now out there. I haven’t been trained to do any of the stuff these guys have, and when they’re already shorthanded, adding in my bumbling inexperience might make the situation worse. I came to help if there was a medical necessity, but thankfully all the people and pets in the house are safe, if not happy.
There didn’t seem to be much of a fire when we arrived, more than the owners could have put out, but all the snow seems to have kept the blaze down, which is pretty fucking miraculous. Leo pulled me with him to check the people out, but the woman said that their son got them up, he was overheated and when he woke up, he saw lights dancing on the ceiling. It was already too big to put out, so she and her husband each grabbed one of their kids and ran out of the house. Luckily her phone was charging by the bed so she was able to call 911.
The husband walked down to their neighbor’s house to borrow some blankets for the kids, but the older couple just drove downand everyone piled in the back of their car to keep warm until we arrived—including the cat who apparently came running out of the front door shortly after he left. Leo looked it over, and while it's a cranky bastard—understandably—it seems mostly fine.
Xan must not have told Leo about what happened earlier today, because he’s been surprisingly friendly—as opposed to the death glares I’ve been getting from the mini-alpha. I should probably stop calling him that, even in my head—I’m pretty sure he’d savage my kneecaps if I accidentally said it out loud. Honestly, it’s so fucking weird to have someone as big as Leo and him in the same pack. The other one, Gabe, is almost as tall as Leo, but it doesn’t look out of place on him since he looks like he could tear my head off without much effort.
Now there’s a lot of yelling coming from the side of the truck. I think it’s Joseph, Sam’s brother that Leo tried to introduce me to earlier. He’s glared in my direction a few times but hasn’t deigned to actually speak to me. Which is fine—honestly the guy looks like an asshole. He also looks vaguely familiar.
Then I hear another voice, I think this one’s Gabe, he didn’t say much, but his voice almost sounds like he gargles gravel on the regular. Fuck, but I sound like a judgmental asshole in my own head tonight. That being said, this day was a fucking rollercoaster from hell, so I’m gonna give myself a pass, just this once.
Something slams into the side of the truck—not hard enough to rock it, but it’s still a pretty loud bang—and I pop my head out the door to see that yeah, it’s Sam’s brother, the douche. Apparently, he just hit the truck. I don’t know what the clang was, and if he wants to have a tantrum at his age, that’s up to him. Unfortunately for everyone, my opening the door draws his attention. His hard glare turns to me, but he doesn’t have anything on the angry stare of the mini-alpha I dealt with earlier—he doesn’t have anything to hold over me.
“What the fuck are you looking at, you little shit?” His low growl is menacing, but I don’t have the time or inclination to deal with anybody else’s bullshit, so I just ignore him and shut the door. Alphas don’t generally like that, and the next moment he rips the door open. His face is an ugly mottled red as he reaches in, grabbing at the jacket that Sam let me borrow and trying to drag me out of the truck. All I wanted to do was stay out of any more fucking drama…and now this.
Before he can pull me more than a couple of inches, we’re both yanked out. He flies backwards across the road, and I get unceremoniously dropped to the pavement. Fun-size is beside the open door of the truck, along with a man in a blue police officer uniform. “I know he’s kind of a punk, but I get dibs on kicking his ass first for how he treated Kelly today, get in line, shit-head.”
Ahh, shit.
I didn’t want to get arrested tonight.
Wait, what did I do?
