Page 90 of Talk About… History

“I think it’s time to get you back, and then you can talk to your lawyer,” Arden said from the doorway. We turned to see him standing there with a smile on his face. “You’re officially busted out of here, Glenn. What can we help you pack up?”

Glenn looked flustered now, standing up and trying to remove dust from his shirt, even though there wasn’t any at all. “I don’t have much, but I need to say some goodbyes. I’ll meet you all in my room.”

He gave us one more startled glance then heading right for the nurses’ station. I had a feeling this goodbye was going to be rough on more than just him.

“What did the nurses say?” Cohen asked, looking at Arden and Mason. Their faces were grim now.

“Clara is his contact, but because he is fully in control of his faculties, he can advocate for himself. If he had fought a little bit more against her, he might have gotten out earlier. But he had no access to money, no one to pick him up, and he has to have someone to take him home from here. He can’t just walk out the door. She used all the loopholes she could to keep him locked away for some reason,” Mason summarized.

“While there’s plenty of room at the packhouse for now, I don’t think he’s going to want to stay like that very long,” Mason added.

Cohen froze then turned to me, eyebrows furrowed.

“Wait, what did you say about the house you’re building?” Cohen asked. “I thought you always planned on having a packhouse there.”

“It will still be a house, we’ll have guest rooms and a lot of communal spaces. If we ever need it, it’ll be there. I want it for holidays and hangouts… but we already have a packhouse, don’t we?” I pointed out.

Arden bit back a smile as we all looked at Cohen, waiting for him to respond.

“Does this mean you’re going to move in with us?” Cohen asked carefully. He was so hopeful that it made me want to crush him in a hug and never let go. I wasn’t the only one in our group that had gone through something. He’d been treated poorly by his family for too long and I wanted to spend the rest of our lives showing him what family should be like.

“I was thinking about it,” I admitted. “My alphas haven’t exactly claimed me yet.” I joked. Ford, Mason, and Arden’s eyes darkened as they looked at me, making it very clear they’d be happy to fix that.

“I’ll take you to one of these back rooms and bite you right now if that’s what you really want,” Mason said, his voice rough. “But I don’t think it is.”

“It’s not,” I agreed. “I don’t want to be bitten during heat either. But I couldn’t imagine going back home and staying there after all this. I don’t like being away from you guys for long. I’m ready to be a real pack.”

Arden was the first to break. He moved forward, sweeping me into his arms and twirling me around, holding me as tight as he could as he breathed me in. Marjoram and vanilla engulfed me, my pulse picking up in response.

“You have no idea how happy that makes me. I haven’t wanted to let you go since I met you.”

“Now you won’t have to,” I promised.

Avery

“The council will see you now,” Mary said formally, though a smile played on her lips as she gestured for me to enter. She quickly connected my laptop to the projector and gave me an encouraging smile before disappearing and closing the doors behind her.

Mayor Adams was practically beaming. “You know, I’ve seen you around town talking to our small businesses. I’ve heard nothing but good things from everyone.”

I grinned at the news. Knowing this work was having an impact was everything to me.

“It’s honestly been so refreshing. Everyone has been really nice and welcoming. There have been a few who don’t like being on camera, so we’ve made some adjustments to make it a little less stressful for them. But I’ve captured some amazing footage, and I have several videos ready to show you if you’d like to see the end results. I’ve also mocked up the website and it’s waiting for your approval.”

“I’d definitely like to see that,” one of the councilmen said. He was the same man who had been skeptical the first time I was here.

“Of course,” I replied, not skipping a beat as I pulled up the mock website. The imagery was gorgeous—I had edited every photograph and color-matched them so it all looked cohesive. The font was bold and easy to read, and the site was much easier to navigate than the current one.

“As you can see, each business that I’ve featured so far has its own button. So if someone is looking for the hardware store, for example, they would just click that, and it would take them right to the interview I did with Greg, along with photos of the shop and a little synopsis page that features him.”

“We’ve waited a few weeks for all this. How many businesses have you managed to get in that time?”

I swear, everything the council asked me, aside from Mayor Adams, was rude and judgmental. It was like they couldn’t believe that an omega like me could accomplish anything of this magnitude.

“Well, I’ve gotten several,” I said, listing off all the businesses one by one, along with my plans for the rest.

I waited for several beats to see if anyone would protest, question, or mock me. The best I got was a grunt. Mayor Adams shook his head and motioned for me to continue. He was just as exasperated with them as I was at this point.

“Now, on the main website,” I said, switching gears, “I have a walking tour of the town. This is probably my favorite thing we’ve done so far. It really showcases the beauty of downtown, and I picked the right time of day so there are people in the shots but not overwhelmingly so. I’ll play it for you now?”

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