Reviving Bloom (8 page)

Sitting behind the receptionist desk
i
s a girl about the same age as Bloom. She ha
s
hair the color of milk chocolate pulled into a loose bun and a smile that could rival the sun in brightness. When she notice
s
Bloom she jump
s
from her seat and bounce
s
across the room to pull her into a hug. Bloom hug
s
her back with the same amount of enthusiasm; this must be the girl from the phone.
I’ve never been great with names. Was it
Betsy, Billy, I’m pretty sure it start
s
with a B.

Turning towards me Bloom
answer
s
the question on my mind, “Bonnie this is Pike. Pike this is Bonnie. Her
Dad
’s going to check out your paw.”

Bonnie crouche
s
down in front of me and rub
s
her hands through my coat, “Geez he’s huge
Blu
. Are you sure he isn’t part horse?”

“Billy keeps referring to him as a bear, but I’m leaning towards part wolf.”
Blooms eyes zone in on Bonnie’s hands and I can tell she’s forcing herself to act like it’s no big deal.

“Wolf? He’s much too large to be a wolf breed. Well at least all the hybrid wolf breeds I’ve seen come through here. Maybe
Dad
can give you an idea. He is gorgeous whatever mix he may be. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a black coat th
is
vibrant and those blue eyes.”
Bonnie lets out a whistle.

I d
o
my best to stay still and unthreatening as she inspect
s
me. Though my wolf want
s
her hands off of him, hers
a
ren’t made to touch him. I
again
look at my unaware mate and s
ee
the same struggle going through her. She love
s
her friend but she c
a
n’t stand to see
someone else’s
hands on me, but she
’s fighting
the urge
to push her friend away and claim me as hers. She doesn’t understand why she’s so possessive over me, but I love hearing those thoughts coming from her beautiful mind.

Grabbing Bonnie’s attention back from me
she asks
, “So is your
Dad
available?”

“Oh, yeah! He said to bring you right back. I think he’s excited to see ya.”
Bonnie finally takes her hands off of me and stands up.

Just then a plump man with snow white hair and rosy cheeks walk
s
into the room.
If he gr
o
w
s
a beard he could easily pass for Santa.
“Of course I’m
excited
to see my other favorite girl.”
He pulls
B
loom into a big hug, “It’s been too long.”

“I’ve missed you too Mr. Harris. Thanks for agreeing to check out Pike’s paw.”
She hugs him then puts space between them.

Mr. Harris turn
s
his attention to me. “Anything for one of my girls. Bring this big guy back into my exam room.”

I follow
the two of them in
to a tiny white room and plop
down next to Bloom’s feet. Mr. Harris
snaps
on a pair of exam gloves
then he turns
that million dollar smile to us. “Bloom
,
why don’t you go ahead and have that lunch with Bonnie. I’ll fix Pike up
then
I’ll
bring him out to join you two.”

“Ok
ay
, but Mr. Harris
first
can you tell
me
what breed is Pike?”

He looks
me over quickly then sho
o
t
s
back, “
H
e’s de
finitely a wolf hybrid and by his size he has to have a giant dog breed in him. Wolves alone don’t get anywhere near this size. He might be part Mastiff.
I can’t say for sure.
Has he shown any aggression?”

“He got a little funny when Billy was around, but I wouldn’t say he was aggressive.
He seems more protective. I’m
thinking maybe he was someone’s guard dog. Do you recognize him at all?”

“No, he’s not a patient of mine. He could’ve been trained to be a guard dog; he’s definitely big enough for the task. He seems taken with you.”

Scratching behind my ears
she confesses
, “To be honest I’m a little taken with him as well.”

Mr. Harris doesn’
t respond he just g
iv
e
s her a knowing smile and changes
the subject, “Well your lunch is probably getting cold. Go join Bonnie and when I’m done I’ll bring him back to you.”

She bends
down and k
isses
the top of my head and whispers
just loud enough for me to hear, “Mr. Harris is a nice man and he’ll take good care of you so listen to what he has to say. I’ll be right outside waiting on you.” Then standing back up, “Thanks for checking him out Mr. Harris.”

“You’re welcome Bloom. Now get to your lunch so I can get started.”

She gives
us
both one last smile then exits the room. Mr. Harris turns back to me and starts
un
-wrapping the bandage Bloom
put on my paw
the night before. The wound’s
a
lmost healed, but that doesn’t seem to shock him. He cleans the area and pu
t
s
on an ointment. Taking off his gloves and throwing them in
the
trash he crosses
over to the door and slid
es the lock into place. He turns
back to me with his arms crossed over his chest and the kindness that had been there before
gone and demands
, “Shift now!”

Chapter 11 – Pike

~
That’s not my story to tell
~

I’m so shocked I just stare
at the man for a good five minutes before I let the change
take me.
He watches
as
it slid
es
over
my body
and
the
fur recede
s
back into my skin, but it doesn’t
faze
him.
You’d think it was normal for him to see one of his animal patients change into a human, hell maybe it
is
. After the
last few days I’d say anything’s
possible.

My
voice’
s rough from not talking for so long
but I manage
to grumble, “How
do
you know?”

He uncrosses
his arms and pull
s
the small doctors stool over and
explains
, “We had a
shifter
who lived here years ago. She taught me
a little about
your kind
. Why are you here?”

I look the man over and feel he’s
telling the truth, but he
doesn’t need my full story,
yet.
I cross
over to the lit
tle sink in the room and grab
a mug that
’s
s
itting on the counter and fill
i
t with cold water. Once I down the whole mug I answer
,
“I needed to get away from my pack for awhile and seemed drawn here.”

“How’s the pack dealing without their alpha?”

That female wolf spilled an awful lot it seems, “Yes I’m the alpha. I haven’t been one long and the last time I checked they’re doing fine. Why did this female wolf tell you so much about our kind?”

“That’s not my story to tell so I’ll just say we
were
friends.”
As in they no longer are. Hmm, interesting.

“Who can tell me the story?”

“Why do you need to know?”

Good question
.
W
hy do I want to know about this female
?
I
t’s not against our laws to tell people about us, as long as they can be trusted.
I decide
to be honest. “I’m not sure. But I feel it might be important.”

He looks me over searching for whether I can be trusted and then coming to his decision he nods his head and says,
“Billy may tell you the story. If he feels you need to know. But before we decide whether to tell you, we need to know what your intentions are with Bloom.”
Why the heck aren’t the people in this town intimidated by me
?
I’m the alpha for goodness sakes. No one from back home would ever question me or any other alpha
s
this way.

“
With respect sir
,
I think she needs to hear what my intentions are before I tell you.”

“You think she’s your mate!” How a man with such a kind face
can
sound so hat
eful I don’t know, but he pulls
it off.

Staring him down I reply through gritted teeth
, “I don’t think
. I know she’s my mate. I imagine that friend of yours told you how a mating works.”

“She said a little.”

“Well let me inform you of this lit
tle fact about a mating.” I make
sure to emphasize my words putting a little of my alpha authority in them, “You
do not
try to come between a wolf and his mate!”

He
scoots
his s
tool closer to the door and holds
his hands up in surrender, “Calm down I’m not trying to come between you and your mate.
I just have to make sure Bloom doesn’t get hurt anymore.”

“I can respect that, but you have to realize I’d give my life to protect her.”

“When are you going to tell her?”

Releasing the alpha
tone
from my voice I let
out a sigh, “I don’t know. Have any advice?”

“Yeah
,
tell her before Billy does. He has a hard time keeping secrets
,
especially one this good.”
Then his face soften
s and the love he has for my mate shows
clearly. “Bloom really is like my other daughter Pike and I want to see her happy. So I hope she takes hearing the truth from you well.”

“I hope she does too
.” She’s already connecting with me threw the bond, even though she doesn’t understand it yet. Once she knows the truth it won’t be too hard to convince her
shifters
exist and that we belong to each other.
At least I’m hoping
.

“Well you best shift back so I can take you back to her, unless you want to fess up now.”

“I think she needs to see the shift for herself and I’m n
ot sure she’s ready for that
. So I’ll wait.”

“You’re probably right. But give her some credit she’s handled a lot over the years and I believe she’ll handle this
just as well
.”

A respon
se isn’t needed so I nod and start
the shift back
to my wolf form. Mr. Harris leads me
out of the room and
through the lobby. The girls aren’t there so he tells me they’ve
probably taken their lunch t
o the park next door. He flips
the sign to
close
d
and guides me to what he says
is their favorite spot. I don’t
need hi
m to guide me to her, I can
find
her b
y
following
her scent but people might
take notice of a huge
“
dog
”
wandering around by himself.