Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
CALEB
Tyde
Nova is crashing out and I’m stuck at work. I swear, I may kill this fucking hospital scheduler. She needs a safe place to scream and smash things. Think you can handle that?
Blinking slowly, I sit up in bed and head to find my brother. Based on the time, he’s already at the coffee shop baking, despite it being five in the morning. In fact, since he’s restocking the case and filling catering orders, I’d say he’s already been at work for hours.
I’m dressed in a blink of an eye and hurrying out of our house within ten minutes, needing to make sure we don’t fuck this up. I know that Nova is staying at her house today, but I’m unsure if she’s working today.
Fuck it, she can call out if necessary, because if Tyde is using the term “crashing out,” then she’s not doing very well.
Once I’m on the road, I call Hollis. I need to get onto Pack Ledger’s property without anyone having a problem with the level of noise I’m planning. If Nova needs to cry and smash things, then that’s what she damn well needs to do.
“ What’s wrong?” she asks, groaning as she wakes up.
“If I asked you to ignore any screaming and breaking of shit today, could you do that?” I ask.
I’m already thinking of how my next stop will be to a thrift shop to pick up the ugliest breakable antiques I can find.
“ You’re going to need to give me more information than that,” she growls. “ Does this have anything to do with my sister?”
“Yes,” I grunt. “I don’t know much, but she’s not doing well. I got a very ambiguous text from Tyde this morning.”
“ Hollis, what’s going on?” a grumble I can’t place asks, making me wince. It’s stupid early, but I can’t help that.
“ Go back to sleep, Felix. I’ll be back in a second,” she says. I hear her moving with soft mumbles, and I wince because I know that she’s still dealing with broken bones.
“You don’t have to get up,” I say, listening as she walks.
“ I do,” she says. “ I need to get to my computer to find out what could be making Nova so upset.”
A few strokes of her computer keys makes her hiss, and I miss a stop sign as I flinch, sliding through it instead.
“What?” I ask, forcing myself to take a breath. Thank God I’m almost to Brewed Awakening. I’m a fucking menace on the road with this fresh snow on the ground.
“ The Franco estate is burning,” Hollis whispers.
“ This is a good thing. I know she saw Pack Dresmond yesterday, and I guess Kane must have gone through with his offer to burn the place down. Nova’s got to be a mess.
Knowing Kane and the way his mind works, he probably called her to watch him blow it up.
There’s pieces burning all over the yard and ah, body parts. ”
“Fuck,” I grimace. “He always goes all in, doesn’t he? I know it’s the thought that counts, but?—”
“ No. This had to be done, but it doesn’t change the fact that she’s allowed to have really big fucking feelings about this. If Tyde texted you, it’s because he’s feeling them all. He gets a pass for being at work, because he saves lives."
“I…God, there are days where I hate that you’re a fucking brat,” I grumble. “Lars is already at work because he’s been baking, but I’m going to get him now. I figure it’s easier to take one car.”
“ He also isn’t a fan of driving in the snow. I bet he hated his life this morning,” Hollis says.
“It’s just part of living here,” I sigh. “After picking him up, I’m going by the thrift store, hardware store, and then we’ll be heading to Nova.”
“ Wow. You’re bringing the big guns in, huh?”
Smash rooms are great for rage releasing. This isn’t Lars’ and my first rodeo. I think we’ve been stumbling so hard with Nova because we don’t always have the best people skills, and on some level it felt like we shouldn’t do the same things with her that we do for Hollis.
Except, there’s little difference between taking care of your best female friend and your scent match, outside of your level of feeling toward them. It felt like we were doing something wrong, which led to a lot of fuck ups.
We aren’t cheating on our friendship with Hollis by being good to Nova, and if she knew that was a blip on our radars, she’d be so pissed. Blowing out a breath, I shake my head.
“Sometimes you have to blow shit up to fix things,” I grunt. “Warn your pack and please let us in when we get there.”
“ Maybe you should bring her pastries too ,” she muses.
“She’s allergic to gluten,” I say immediately. “I don’t think that’ll hinder Lars at all though. You know how he is about being allergy and sensitivity friendly.”
“Ugh, my poor sister ,” Hollis groans. “ I’m sure that Lars is already tweaking recipes in her honor. Food is his love language.”
“You’re not wrong,” I murmur. “I’m here. Again, this may get messy. I promise no one is getting murdered.”
“The guys took all of my weapons away. We’re supposed to be doing absolutely nothing today. You should be safe .”
Hollis hangs up as I park in the alley next to the coffee shop, and I hop out of the vehicle as I roll my eyes. It’s colder than a witch’s tit outside. I can only hope that the weather will get a bit warmer, or I’ll be doing this all with a very bundled up omega.
Using my key at the back door, I call out to my brother so he doesn’t think I’m an intruder. I can hear the music blasting in the kitchen and sigh. I’m going to have to take a chance at being punched it seems.
Why is everyone in my life so violent? Well, Nova isn’t, but it’s kind of surprising for me at times.
Walking into the kitchen, I stand still and wait for my brother to finish pulling something out of the oven before I wave at him. Even still, it takes forever for him to raise his eyes.
“Oh,” his mouth moves more than I can hear him, and he moves to turn off his music. In the aftermath of his rage music, the kitchen seems to echo in the silence.
“The Franco estate is burning,” I say in greeting. “Nova is feeling kind of raw in the aftermath according to Tyde, who is at the hospital saving lives or some shit.”
Lars hums under his breath as he nods, brows knitting. “Are we thinking the same thing?”
“If that includes buying the ugliest antiques for her to smash in the backyard, then yes,” I grunt.
“Let me clean up here,” he says. “I’m just about ready to open. I just need to set all of this to cool. The catering orders are ready too. Fuck, I’m going to make lists for my incoming people.”
“You need a manager or two,” I sigh. “This place is almost always busy, Lars.”
“Pot calling the kettle black much?”
“Yeah, yeah. Orla has taken up that mantle already,” I grumble. “It’s time to loosen the reins a little.”
Lars makes a face at me, but I can tell that I made an impression upon him. He cleans up the kitchen, labels everything as it cools, and then begins to pack up a box of treats.
“They’re gluten free,” he says, glaring at me as I raise my hands in the air with a smirk. “I made them before I started using regular flour this morning, and kept them in a separate area.”
Now that he says that, I can see that he’s actually packing the treats up on a far off counter.
“I believe you,” I murmur, not wanting to get smacked over the head for reminding him of how predictable he is. “What did you make?”
“Muffins, lemon squares, bagels, and cookies,” he mumbles.
“Dude. That’s a shit ton of food,” I laugh.
“I’m not packing up all of it,” he mutters.
“Most of it will be a test for the coffee shop. I’ve been wanting to expand into gluten free food for awhile, and this is a good way to do it.
I noticed the way she watched you eat your bagel, though.
It has to suck not to be able to eat things that you’re craving because it’ll make you sick. ”
“No shit. Did you see how happy she was eating her pancakes though?”
“They were really fucking good,” he confirms, lifting his box of treats. As he comes closer, I can see that each section is different, and he puts inserts inside the box to keep everything separated. “Okay, so I still went a bit overboard, yeah?”
The front door opens, and he checks the time.
“Let me just tell Sarah about how today needs to go,” he says, handing me the pastry box.
I hear him talk to his employee, smiling as she grabs a pad of paper to take notes.
“I got it, boss. I have the times the catering orders will be picked up, I’ll restock things and add the new menu items too, and it sounds like you’re on your way out,” she says cheerfully.
Ugh, almost too much for the early hour.
Lars grumbles something to her before walking back toward me and leaving things in Sarah’s very competent hands.
“She’d make a good manager,” I tease him as I make my way to the car. We’ll come back for his later.
“Maybe,” he grunts. “She’s part time right now, but when she’s here, I may as well not be.”
Smirking, I slide into the SUV, glancing at Lars’ truck that’s currently getting dumped on by more snow. We’ll probably have to dig it out later. Lovely.
“Hardware store first,” I murmur, waiting for the engine to warm up once I turn it on. I should have left the fucker running, but didn’t think about it.
“May as well go big or go home,” he says. “Let’s see if we can set this all up before she wakes up.”
Nodding as I shift the vehicle into reverse, I nod.
“I’m always up for a challenge.”
NOVA
Knocking on the door pulls me out of my sleep, and I’d consider refusing to answer it if I didn’t think it was my sister or her pack. They have a key to the house, so it’ll just delay the inevitable need to get up.
Pushing myself up to a sitting position, I wrinkle my nose at how salt crusted my lashes are. I can barely open my eyes, and walk haltingly to my bathroom to wash my face. Since it’s a tiny house with one bathroom, there are two doors into it for easy access.
“Coming!” I call out, my voice completely fucked from crying earlier. I use a gentle cleanser to wash my face and eyes, and then pat dry. A quick check of the mirror shows that my face is blotchy, but there’s no help for it now.