AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I really need to get you a T-shirt that has that quote, what is it? ‘Failure to plan on your end does not constitute an emergency on mine’. Just wear a sweater over it and whip that baby open the next time she pulls this bullshit.”
“I could imagine her face.” I laughed.
The rest of the trip was reasonably free of traffic considering it was mid-afternoon. The guard at the community gate waved us through, and I pulled up to the home that we all shared: a three-storey brick manor that Billie had inherited from their grandparents. Gabe was in the driveway hand washing his motorcycle in a tank top and ripped jeans.
“Tone it down, babe,” Billie said with a laugh. “I can smell that alpha funk from you eyeballing Gabe.”
I shrugged. I’d long since gotten over my embarrassment at being wildly attracted to my pack. “If he wasn’t out there looking delicious then I wouldn’t have to be hungry.”
Billie snickered and hopped out as we came to a stop, bounding over to give Gabe a kiss on the cheek. My beta was already gone by the time I got out of the van, and Gabe was standing up, waiting for me. I pulled him into a slow kiss that bathed my tongue in the sweetness of black tea and brown sugar.
“Did our beta get you all worked up?” Gabe asked.
“Nah, that was all you.”
Gabe smiled and hooked his fingertips into the waistband of my jeans.“You know how I love compliments.”
“And that's exactly why I tell you how perfect you are every single day.”
Gabe growled and tugged me in sharply for another delightfully deep kiss. “If I wasn’t meeting friends after I finish this little tuneup, I might have to take you upstairs.”
“That's okay. You know I’m a patient soul. I’ll leave you to your work. I’ve got to get started on mine, too.”
We parted ways, and I found Billie in the living room on Hana's lap. I didn’t see Jasper yet, but he was probably still asleep.
“I’ll be in my office if anyone needs me,” I said as I passed the two of them and headed up the stairs.
Billie had spared no expense when renovating to make sure it suited our pack. They had added in a pool next to the walkout basement and had included a full gym for Hana, a workshop in one of the garages for Gabe, a totally up-to-date kitchen for Jasper, a painting studio for themselves, and a library office for me. As perfect as the house was, we all still made a concerted effort to leave it outside of our working hours so we didn’t become a pack of hermits. Of course, in the winter that was exactly what happened, the same for any bad weather really. Home was comfortable, but it was important not to get too stuck in our ways.
I’d grown pretty fond of the new library at the twenty-four-seven community facility, and it was nice to get a change of scenery that was still a quiet space. Now that Nicky was there, I imagined that Billie would be all the more eager to spend time there. At home, the pack tended to leave me be when I closed myself up in my office, and I could blast through the majority of my work, which made the trips to the public library that much more enjoyable since I didn’t have to worry about struggling to finish while Billie talked my ear off.
I opened up the Harvey documents, and, after only a page, ice started to settle in my blood. The fuckingaudacityof this bitch. I’d known from the get-go that Councillor Harvey despised the new community facility, but these documents were a new level of fuckery, even for her.
I scanned a few pages ahead.
Any facility that is available twenty-four hours a day encourages illicit behaviour. In the time the facility has been open there have been numerous reports of patrons engaging in sexual activity, consumption of alcohol on the premises, and even the formation of a cult.
What the hell was Councillor Harvey smoking? The only way any of those things were true was if her own little cult of followers were the ones doing it to make the facility look bad.
It wasn’t my place to get involved in municipal politics, only to copy edit the documents that would become their white papers and bylaws, but damn if this didn’t make me want to run for mayor just so I could verbally bitch slap her during meetings.
I started on the copy edits with a sour taste in my mouth, the nausea growing the further I got. It seemed like she was trying to hold hospital funding hostage, with a sole goal of stripping the facility's funding and restricting it to bankers hours. That would be fucking useless. Only a woman who had never needed a community facility like this would make such stupid rules and restrictions.
I worked for a couple of hours until there was a knock at my door, and I pushed down my anxiety to answer it.
“There's food downstairs if you're hungry,” Jasper said as I opened the door. “Whoa, what's crawled up your butt?”
I took a deep breath to try to even out my scent. “Just work.” I held my arms open for him.
Jasper stepped into my embrace and his purr buzzed against my chest. It was far more effective than anything I could do for myself. Chocolate and cinnamon saturated every breath, and his purr evened out my ill-temper.
“Come for snacks and cuddles,” Jasper ordered.
I had zero desire to refuse, so I didn’t. Jasper led me back downstairs, his hand in mine, and sat me down at one of the barstools overlooking a tray of fresh sticky buns and a bowl of fluffy icing. He fetched me some coffee and sweetened it exactly to my taste before setting the cup and an iced bun in front of me.
Hana joined me, but with a cup of tea instead of coffee. She tugged her sleek, dark hair back into a ponytail, amber eyes looking me over as she used another elastic to twist her hair into a bun. “Rough day?”
“Just the start of it. I know I’m not really supposed to share, especially since I’m pretty sure Billie's going to bite some faces off if I do, but…”
