Chapter Two
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SOMETIMES, THOMAS FELT like he didn’t know what not being exhausted was like. When was the last time he’d felt fully rested? Had he ever?
He groaned and took a sip of his coffee as he leaned back against the counter.
Maybe he had in the beginning, after they’d moved to Mayport.
It had been hard for him to relax back then, but he had eventually.
He’d finally been able to sleep more than a few hours every night because he’d known he was safe enough to do so.
He’d had a comfortable mattress and a roof over his head, and his stomach was full of food after spending so much time empty when he’d lived on the street with his family.
The first few weeks had been blissful. He hadn’t had anything to worry about. He was safe, and his family was, too.
But things had changed. Thomas knew he was doing too much, but he didn’t see a way out of it. He didn’t want to quit his job. He wasn’t sure he’d be doing it for the rest of his life, but he wasn’t ready to give it up. It wouldn’t be smart, but beyond that, he just didn’t want to. He liked his job.
What he liked less was having to study for hours every evening.
He took another sip of coffee. This wouldn’t last forever.
Soon enough, he’d get his GED, and he’d be able to relax.
He could get a full night’s sleep again and never have to think about books again.
Things would be hard until then, but he’d known they would be.
He’d decided to do it anyway, and now, here he was.
A door banging somewhere close by made him jump. He glared at the open break room door, listening to the footsteps of whoever had banged that door coming closer. His glare didn’t vanish when Rowan appeared. He didn’t have anything against the man, but did he really have to make that much noise?
Rowan frowned when he noticed Thomas. “What’s going on with you?”
“Nothing’s going on with me.”
“Why are you staring at me like I killed your dog, then?”
Thomas shook his head. “You banged the door. I have a headache. That’s all.”
Rowan slowly nodded. “I see. Well, sorry about that. I won’t do it again.”
Thomas snorted. “Of course you will. It’s fine.”
“Did you take anything for the headache?”
“It’s not my first time having a headache, so yes, I did. You can stop mothering me. I’m not one of the animals here.”
Rowan blinked. He was probably surprised by Thomas’s tone because Thomas was. He hadn’t meant to sound so harsh. Rowan wasn’t doing anything Shane hadn’t already done. Thomas had said that he was in pain, and both of them had wanted to know if he’d tried to make things better. It made sense.
“Right,” Rowan said. “Sorry again.”
Thomas shook his head. He didn’t have anything against Rowan.
In fact, even though he’d been keeping a certain distance between them, he’d been watching the man.
He knew that Rowan was good at his job. He was gentle with the animals, and Thomas had caught him playing with Finley the other day.
It had been good to see the dog finally out of his kennel, even with his leg still all wrapped up.
Rowan had apologized, but there had been nothing to apologize for.
This was part of their duties, too. They took care of the animals in all ways, including making sure they were happy. Finley had definitely been happy.
“I’m sorry,” Thomas said. “Like I said, I have a headache, and I didn’t sleep well.”
Rowan grabbed a mug from the cupboard. He poured himself some coffee, and while Thomas tried to focus on his own mug, he could feel the man watching him. He wondered what Rowan would ask when he finally opened his mouth, and thankfully, he didn’t have to wonder for long.
“You generally don’t sleep very well, do you?” Rowan asked.
“I don’t sleep a lot.”
“Why not? I mean, I get that we have to get up early to come to work, maybe earlier than some people, but still. You could go to bed early.”
Thomas wasn’t sure he wanted to tell Rowan about his GED, but he didn’t have an excuse ready. He was about to tell Rowan that it really was none of his business when they both heard the sound of the front door opening.
The front room was usually empty because they had things to do, but it was close enough to the break room that Thomas could get there quickly.
There was also a bell on the counter in case no one heard the newcomers, but the man on the other side of the counter didn’t have the time to ring it before Thomas appeared.
The man jerked backward slightly, as if Thomas had startled him, but he quickly smiled and held out a cardboard box.
“Hey.”
They didn’t have people dropping off wounded animals every day, but it happened way more often than Thomas liked. “Hi. What do you have there?”
“I found this bird on my balcony. The way its wing looks, I’m pretty sure there’s something broken, but I’m not a professional or anything.”
“But you brought it to the professionals. That’s good.”
The man grinned. “Great. I wasn’t sure I was doing the right thing.”
“Helping an animal in distress is always the right thing to do.”
Thomas reached for the cardboard box. The man didn’t hesitate to give it to him, and when Thomas peeked inside, he was relieved to see that while the pigeon in the box did seem to have a broken wing, it was also alert and moving as normally as possible considering the circumstances.
The pigeon would need to go to the vet, but it would be fine.
“Thank you,” Thomas said.
The man grinned. “Of course. My name’s Jimmy.”
Thomas blinked, unsure why Jimmy was telling him that. “All right, Jimmy. Well, we’ll take care of the bird, so you don’t have to worry about anything.”
Jimmy looked around the room. “This is what this place does, right? Takes care of wounded animals and stuff?”
“It is. We’re an animal sanctuary.”
“So you have animals living here?”
“Some animals do live with us permanently. We try to rehabilitate them and release them into the wild as much as we can, though.”
“And what kind of animals do you have here?”
“We welcome everyone.” Thanks to Chance’s generosity. The pack alpha funded the sanctuary, so they didn’t have to make it profitable.
Jimmy nodded. “That’s cool. How long have you worked here?”
Thomas had no idea what was going on. Usually, the people who dropped off an animal were either out of there as quickly as possible or focused on finding out what would happen to the animal they’d brought in.
They didn’t ask about Thomas’s personal life.
They didn’t care how long he’d worked here or why. Why would they?
“Everything okay here?” Rowan asked from behind Thomas.
Thomas was relieved. He wasn’t sure what to think of Jimmy, but he wasn’t about to give the man any personal information.
“We just got an injured pigeon. We should take it to the vet.”
Rowan nodded and peeked into the box. “I already warned Dr. Reeves that we were coming. She’s waiting for us.”
“Good.” Thomas turned toward Jimmy. “Again, thank you for bringing the bird in. We’ll do everything we can to release it in the wild as soon as possible.”
Jimmy looked like he wanted to ask more questions, but Thomas turned away.
He wouldn’t say that the man was creeping him out, but he was weird, and he didn’t like it.
Besides, he had other things to do. He needed to take the bird to Dr. Reeves.
The sooner he did that, the better the chances that the bird would be okay were.
In the end, that was all that mattered, and it was the reason Thomas was here.
He wanted to make sure that these animals had a fighting chance.
Maybe it was because he was a shifter and his life had been hard, but if there was anything he could do to help innocent animals, he’d do it.
He could give this pigeon the love and care he himself had been missing for so long.
* * * *
ROWAN GLANCED AT THE clock on the break room wall and realized it was almost lunchtime.
His stomach rumbled, reminding him that breakfast had been hours ago.
He’d been so focused on learning the routines and helping with the animals that the morning had flown by.
But now that he thought about it, he was starving.
He grabbed the last of the clean food bowls from the drying rack and stacked them with the others, then wiped his hands on a towel.
As he turned toward the door, he caught sight of Thomas through the window that looked into the medical supply room.
He was hunched over the counter, squinting at a bottle in his hand.
Rowan frowned. He’d noticed that Thomas looked tired this morning—hell, he’d practically bitten his head off earlier just for making too much noise—but seeing him in the fluorescent light of the supply room, Rowan could see just how exhausted he really was.
There were dark circles under Thomas’s eyes, his shoulders were slumped, and his movements were slow, like he was fighting just to stay upright.
It wasn’t the first time he looked tired, but Rowan didn’t think he’d ever looked like he was about to keel over the way he did now.
Rowan hesitated. He didn’t want to hover or make Thomas feel like he was being watched, but something about the situation made his instincts prickle with worry. He walked to the open door of the supply room and leaned against the frame, crossing his arms over his chest.
“You okay in here?”
Thomas didn’t look up. “I’m fine.”
His voice was steady, but Rowan didn’t miss the way his hand trembled slightly as he set the bottle down and reached for a syringe.
Thomas was preparing medication for one of the animals, something Rowan had seen him do a few times before.
He watched as Thomas drew up the liquid, his brow furrowed in concentration.
That was when Rowan saw it.