He winced as if I’d slapped him. Salem rose to his feet, his voice calm and professional. “You should go lie down and take a nap before dinner. Don’t get yourself worked up.” His eyes darted down. “It’s not good for the baby.”
Chapter 3
Rather than taking Salem’s advice to rest, I accompanied him in the library while he browsed through Cecilia’s new inventory. Once finished, he left me alone to help Lakota with a project.
One of Melody’s aunts had contributed a whole box of romance books, and since the library was my job, I added each one to a spreadsheet on the laptop before shelving them. It was easy to lose books in our enormous library, so Lucian had given me a laptop to keep track of them. We had two options since not everyone wanted to advertise what they were reading. They could either sign a clipboard with their name, date, and the book they checked out, or they could write the information on a small piece of paper and put it inside a locked metal box. I popped in once a day and updated the computer. When they returned the books, they placed them on the designated table for me to shelve in the correct location. Lucian didn’t want everyone having access to the laptop to enter their information, so that’s why I’d taken on the responsibility.
When Cecilia joined our family, I worried she might take over my only contribution to the pack. After all, she was not only abookworm but also owned her own bookstore. But one evening she revealed to me in confidence that she enjoyed coming home and having someone else organize everything. The bookstore overwhelmed her at times, especially with the negotiating she did with sellers. Occasionally Robyn or I would work the register when she was out of town or just having a stressful day.
All the ladies had important roles in the house. Hope was the pack mother and ran a business. Melody was her partner and designed her own clothing, purse, and shoe lines. Mercy not only earned big tips at the Rabbit Lounge, but she was our pack accountant and handled all the finances. Robyn earned money on the side with her sketches, but now she was starting up yoga classes. Cecilia brought in decent money with book sales.
And that left me. Working in the library was my only contribution.
I took more from this pack than I gave, and that wasn’t like me. I’d spent my entire life building a career and living comfortably. Now that I had my own pack, I had nothing to offer.
Gripping the ladder, I inserted one of the books onto an upper shelf.
“That’s too high,” a voice boomed from behind me.
Startled, I twisted around, and the ladder moved.
In an instant, Lucian flashed across the room and caught the rolling ladder. He turned his golden eyes up and gave me an admonishing look. “Like I was saying, that’s too high.”
I carefully descended the ladder. “Well, we can’t put everything on the lower shelves, now can we? It only makes sense to shelve the least-read books higher up.”
“Such as?”
After my feet touched the ground, I caught my breath. “Encyclopedias, modern plumbing, and manuals. We also have a few books on automotive repair nobody looks at.”
A crooked smile appeared. “Not in Lakota’s case. His truck’s been in the shop more times than Virgil’s emptied the cookie jar. What troubles you, female?”
I held the side of the ladder. “What makes you ask such a thing?”
His nose twitched. “Because anxiety burns my nose, and I could smell yours from across the house. Why are you so nervous?”
“Why are you so nosy?”
He sat on top of a wooden table and thumbed through a new fantasy book. “I’m a Chitah living in a house filled with emotional Shifters. What do you expect?”
I gave his black attire a once-over. Lucian was a dapper dresser whenever we went out, always in a leather belt with expensive button-ups. But around the house it was always dark T-shirts and tank tops.
“Are you checking out this book?” I touched the novel in his hands.
Lucian let me take it, but he kept his gaze fixed on me as I turned around.
I switched on the computer to type Lucian’s name in the spreadsheet and the name of the book in the next column. “Be sure to leave it on the return table when you’re done.”
“I could set up a scanning system and put stickers on the books.”
“We decided against that two weeks ago. Cecilia advised against putting adhesives on the books, and Tak is against wrapping them in plastic covers. It would ruin the aesthetic of his home, not to mention he hates plastic.”
“Funny, because they bought a shitload of diapers a few days ago.”
I chuckled softly while entering the date in the computer. “He wanted cloth until Hope said he would be in charge of cleaning them.”
“When are you going to tell them?”
I saved the file. “Tell who what?”
