The pack hospital is small. It's my least favorite place in the whole house. But it's the only place I can ever find Lacy. She's always here. Either doing inventory or updating records like people's weight or health that's changed. She says she's a doctor. It's the only reason she's here.
I knock on her office door and wait to hear the welcome. When I hear her sweet voice saying to go in I open the door.
"Um. Hey Doc. I just had a quick question." My voice wavered and her eyes snapped up to look at me. Her paperwork is forgotten as she sees the look on my face.
"Oh, Luna. What happened? What's wrong?" She stands up and walks to the front of her desk. I hold up the bag slightly and show her the rip.
"I just picked it up. I wasn't rough with it. But all the books fell out and I can't sew and I remembered you could stitch so I was hoping maybe you could help me fix it." I felt my throat tighten and I choked on a sob.
"Luna of course I can help you. I'm not good at sewing, it's a little different than stitching a wound, but I'm sure I can figure it out or we could ask the pack if anyone knows how. It's ok Luna. Don't get worked up. We can fix this." She grabbed the bag gently and walked out of the room.
As she makes her way to the pack house she examines the bag. Screaming can be heard from inside the house. Lacy doesn't seem worried at all. She just stays focused on the bag.
'Do you think she can fix it?' I ask Sky. She ponders a minute and nods in my head.
'I do. She is skilled in the medical field and if she can't I think I might know someone who can.'
'Who?' I ask
'Let's see if she can fix it first, then we will set our sights on someone else.'
I leave it at that and watch as Lacy opens the door. The screaming gets louder and I see Cane and Austin playing video games. Austin seems more into it than Cane. Though, if you ask me Cane seemed to have a glint in his eyes that said he was enjoying himself more than he let on.
Lacy ignored them and stormed to the kitchen where the first aid kit was. She started her work after setting everything in a neat row on the counter. I watched her for a little while until my nerves got the best of me and my mouth got dry. I might as well eat while I'm in the kitchen. Levi fuses if I don't eat properly anyway.
I was rummaging through the fridge when I heard a bang behind me. I jump and turn around to see no one. I look around the counter and find a pan sitting on the ground. The pans hanging on the rack above the counter shook as if someone hit them.
"Lacy? You there?" I look around the corner of the door and see no one. Huh. She was just here. Heading back to the fridge I see the door open. Now I'm getting nervous. I know I closed it. I close the fridge, again, having lost my appetite.
When I close the fridge I see a tall figure standing on the other side of the door. I scream and try to back up but lose my footing and hit the ground.
Levi stands over me, his wings casting a shadow over my face.
"Did you fall?" He smirks and chuckles a little at me.
"No, I attacked the floor." I deadpanned.
"Backwards?"
"I'm fucking talented!" I huffed as I stood up and growled at him. He puts his hands up in surrender and backs up.
"Have you been crying?" He tilts my head as I stand and I slap it away from me.
"Leave me alone, Levi. I'm not in the mood for your million questions today."
"Nova. Tell me why you were crying."
"My mother's bag broke." My voice cracked and I looked away. I hate crying in front of him. "Just forget it. It's nothing. It's dumb." I whisper it, my throat closing up with sobs threatening to break free.
"Well, where is it?"
"Doc has it. She's trying to see if she can fix it."
He turns to the living room and walks through the house. I follow behind.
We find Lacy in the living room with Cane and Austin helping her. I wonder when she came in here. I don't remember her leaving the kitchen.
He snatches the bag away and inspected it. "Well this isn't hard to fix. Why didn't you come to me sooner?" He waves his hand in front of the open tear and chanted something I didn't understand. The bag closed and sealed itself up.
I grabbed it gently and ran my hand on it. "Wow," I whispered. It was back to how it was before. Like nothing happened.
"You'll be able to do that one day. Just keep practicing. You'll get there." Levi ruffles his wings as a smile etches across my face. I smile thankfully at him and head to the library upstairs after thanking dr. Lacy.
As I step into the library I feel Levi close behind me. It's exactly how I left it. The books are neatly on the table. I start filling the bag one book at a time, testing its durability.
"I made it just fine thank you. It won't break. I promise." Levi rolls his eyes as he talks. Probably aggravated that I'm doubting his magic abilities.
"I'm just nervous Levi." I start to put two books at a time and Levi grabs my hand, stopping my movements.
"Where did you get these?" He eyes the books with amazement.
"They were my moms. She was a royal." I open the Fox book and show him my mom. He takes it out of my hand and runs his finger over his name. "So it is meant to be." He whispers, almost to himself.
"Why have you never told me about this? How am I just now finding out you're a royal?" His face goes from amazement to anger in a matter of seconds.
" I don't know. I mean you've been in here while I was reading them. It's not like I hid them from you. You even read one the second day we met. Remember? You brought me breakfast and everything." I finish putting the books in the bag and set it in the corner.
"Well either way you know now. I don't know how you never noticed before."
"How the hell are we supposed to do this now?" He fists his hair and groans. "What are you talking about?" I look at him with perplexity.
"You simple minded fool. How will we do the approval process? You look exactly like your mother. The royal foxes will recognize you. They will know who you are. Then how will we hide the fact that you aren't human? The spell makes you smell human!" He started pacing trying to think of something.
"Well what if I tell the truth?" He paused, looking at me like I was crazy.
"They would kill you, Nova. No. Absolutely not. The reason we need them to think you are human is so they don't know you're a white fox. You just want to come out and tell them?" I put my hands behind my back and my face tinted red.
"Well they don't have to know I'm white." He rolled his eyes. "And how would we hide that? If they know you're a shifter they will want you to shift."
"About that. I've been working on some stuff with Sky and she's been showing me something that could maybe help." I fiddle with my fingers and try not to think of him being angry that I've been training without him. It wouldn't be a big deal if it wasn't so dangerous.
"Oh, great. Just really great. This is just perfect. So you've been training and now everything is gonna be fine. Did I get that right?" He rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. His tail flicked in irritation.
"Levi, that's not what I meant. I just meant this could help us." My frustration grew as he continued being dramatic. "Well go ahead. Show me this amazing trick you learned that's going to fix it all."
I growled at him and fisted my hands at my side. "You know what? Never mind. Forget it because I'm not dealing with your smart ass comments. You're such an asshole." I stormed out the room and headed to the woods.
As soon as I reached the tree line I shifted and bolted into the trees. The wind caressed me and blew my fur around. I wanted to scream. He just can't shut up and listen to me. Well let him worry about the other alphas seeing me. I'll just have to shock him as well.
I find one of our burrows and cozy inside. 'Why can't he just shut up and listen to me, Sky?' I curl into a ball and tuck my nose into my tail.
'Give him time. He's a demon. He doesn't have feelings the same as us. There will be times where he doesn't realize he needs to consider yours. Plus maybe he's just as worried about everything as you.'
'Yeah I guess you're right.'
'Maybe you should go try again. Tell him you have something important to tell him and go from there. If he's still an ass then maybe you should just tell him that and be done with the conversation for the moment.'
'Stop being wise Sky. You're the same age as me.' I laugh and get up. Fine I'll try again. But I'm slapping him if he keeps being an asshole. Sky laughs at my train of thought and I start to jog to the house.
Never mind my down time. I'll just relax later.
When I get to the back door I shift and walk into the kitchen. Austin was sitting on the counter and Cane was cooking dinner.
"Hey guys. Have you seen Levi anywhere?" I grab a water from the fridge and sit next to Austin.
"Nope. I think he's in the library still. You ok? You seemed upset when you left." Austin grabbed my water and opened it for me, then set it next to me.
"No. I'm ok. Just emotional I guess. I tried to explain something and he wouldn't let me. He just kept being an asshole." I sipped my water and took a deep breath. "Though I did have a short fuse. I just forget that he doesn't have feelings. So I shouldn't expect him to consider mine all the time."
Cane put a lid on the pot he was stirring and turned around. "Nova you were gone for like five minutes how did you come up with that conclusion so fast? On top of when did you get so smart? Grown adults in their 80s can't even figure this stuff out."
I laughed and stood up. "It was Sky. She helped me calm down and told me that because he's a demon he doesn't have feelings to consider so he probably doesn't think of considering mine."
"Wow that's one wise fox," Cane chuckled. I smiled as I walked out the kitchen, feeling pride swell in my chest for Sky.
I walk into the library and see Levi in the corner. He was kneeled down by my bag with all my books splayed out around him. One of the books was in his hand. As I got closer I saw it was the mates book. It was on the page I found about mates. The one I had to tear the book to find.
When I got close enough he turned his head to me. "You should reject me, you know. I'm not good for you. I'm going to be the death of you." His voice was gravelly and hoarse. He seemed as though he was in pain telling me this.
"Let me decide who is good for me. I'm not rejecting you. If I wanted to then I would. But I'm not."
He growled and his tail whipped to the side. As he stood up he twisted his body so he was towering over me. My body shrunk down and I took a step back out of reflex.
"See. You can't even be around me without cowering." He squared his shoulders and took a step closer. "Do I scare you? Are you scared of me right now?" He growled and bared his teeth at me.
I could feel my legs shake and my stomach drop. Sky growled back in my head and tried to reassure me. 'He wont hurt you Nova. He's just trying to scare you into rejecting him.'
"Of course you scare me when you act like a wild animal. I'm not scared of you. I'm scared of what you could do. And I don't care if I am scared of you. You wont hurt me. I know you wont." I balled my fists and made myself stand my ground.
He watched me square my shoulders and his wigs ruffled. His eyes narrowed at mine and he silently begged. It was like he was asking me to fight back. Like he wanted me to say something to provoke him.
"Have you read the demon book? Have you seen it?" He questioned me with eyes that begged for the truth. I slowly nodded my head and he hung his head. "Then you know you need to reject me. Either that or kill yourself." I could see his shoulders droop and his wings followed suit.
My heart ached at the thought of rejecting him. Or the thought of what must be going through his mind. "Didn't I tell you I'm not rejecting you? I choose who's in my life. Not you. Not some damned book. And besides, even if I did listen to some magical, ancient books I'm not listening to that one. I'd rather listen to the fox book." A smile slipped onto my lips as I thought of the family tree.
He tilted his head in confusion and my smile grew. "You haven't looked into all the books yet, have you?" He shook his head and I grabbed the fox book that was in the pile on the ground. I open it and show him the timeline on the front page. He scans it for what feels like forever.
After he properly registers the information he sees he puts it down and water clouds his eyes. "We end up having kids?"