Page 55 of The Protector’s Heart

“Don’t bad mouth the car.”

“You know what I mean. I’m going to get you a nicer car, by the way.”

“You don’t have to.”

He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her to his chest. “Don’t be surprised if you wake up one morning and find a new car in the driveway with your name on it.”

“Hmm, how will I ever repay you?”

“I’ll think of a few hundred ways.”

“I’ll bet,” she laughed. He kissed her and gave her a gentle push toward the door and the conversation she wasn’t looking forward to having with Doctor Kimmi.

Glancing over her shoulder, she smiled at his thumbs-up. She straightened her shoulders and walked down the hall to Doctor Kimmi’s office. Rapping on the doorjamb, she said, “Do you have a minute? We need to talk.”

“Uh-oh,” Doctor Kimmi said, looking up from her paperwork. “I never like conversations that start that way. Have a seat.”

Nila sat down and pressed her hands together, willing the nerves away. She had truly enjoyed working at the clinic, especially Doctor Kimmi’s kindness and her willingness to overlook all of her infractions when a lesser person would have fired her after a week.

“I’ve accepted a job with the wolf doctor. I’ll have less hours and more freedom to be with Jack. It’s not as demanding, since he doesn’t have a ton of patients, but I can learn about holistic healing from him and also learn more about wolves, which will help Jack when he gets older.”

“Aw, I’m so sorry to see you go. I really want to ask you if there’s anything I can do to get you to stay, but I don’t want to take you away from Jack and what sounds like a perfect job for you. How long can you give me?”

“Two weeks.”

“All right. Damn, I was hoping to get you to work here for about thirty years.”

She chuckled in surprise. “I’ve enjoyed working here, Kimmi. I hope you know that I care about you and Frank a great deal, and I wouldn’t leave if it wasn’t the best thing for me and my family. You’ve been so good to me. I can never repay you for all that you’ve done.”

“You can give me a hug,” she said, smiling sadly.

“Sounds good to me,” Nila said as she stood and moved around the desk, hugging Kimmi as she stood.

“Don’t be a stranger,” Doctor Kimmi said.

“I won’t.”

Nila left the office and went into the employee bathroom, giving herself a few moments to collect her thoughts. She didn’t think she’d be so sad to be moving on, but she was. A little bit, anyway. Kimmi and her husband had been really wonderful to her.

A knock at the door made her twist the handle to unlock it. Malachi stood in the doorway. “You okay, sweetheart?”

“I’m great.” She stepped out of the bathroom and into his arms. He always seemed ready to give her a hug, to offer emotional and physical support whenever she needed it. She peered up at him. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

* * *

The full moon was the day after Christmas. Malachi’s family had descended on his and Nila’s home at the crack of dawn on Christmas Day, his parents’ car filled with so many gifts that he was surprised his father didn’t get pulled over for not being able to see out the back window. Jack had taken to his parents immediately, but they’d also brought plenty of toys for him as bribes. They’d loved Nila, too, not that he was surprised. She was amazing. The day had passed quickly in a flurry of torn paper, ribbons, and bows, and when his parents and Mia left after dinner, they made him promise to bring Nila and Jack to visit, wanting to reinstate their weekly Sunday dinners, which had fallen by the wayside when Malachi moved back to Wilde Creek. He was happy to share the weekly dinners with Nila and Jack. Some of his favorite memories growing up revolved around those dinners, when he got to stay in the dining room and listen to the adults in his family talk about hunting and the pack. He wanted that for Jack, too.

Malachi spent the afternoon of the full moon waffling between staying home and going to Acksel’s house. The pack would gather behind his home before the hunt, but because it was so cold out, there wouldn’t be the usual pre-hunt get-together. Those wouldn’t pick up again until spring. For now, only those that Acksel personally invited would be at the house before the pack gathered, among them his father, the elders of the pack, his sister Eveny and her human mate Luke, and Mia, because she and Brynn were best friends. Malachi, Nila, and Jack were invited, but the more he thought about it, the less he wanted Nila to experience anything even remotely close to what she’d been through before with her ex’s pack.

Something soft hit his shoulder and he looked down to see one of Jack’s stuffed animals at his feet.

“Did you throw this at me?” he asked, bending down and picking it up.

“I’ve been saying your name for two minutes, where are you?” Nila asked from where she sat next to Jack on the family room floor.

“Sorry, sweetheart, I’m just thinking.” He sat down across from her with Jack between them and put the toy in the pile of animals he was stacking. When the pile was five animals high, Jack shoved it over and laughed loudly. Then he began the process all over again.

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