I settled in with the paperwork, filling out the incident report for the chief, being as detailed as possible. The entire time, my mind kept drifting back to my encounter with Bea at the diner earlier.
She hadn’t screamed or run at the sight of me. She’d even said she’d message soon, and something about the way she’d said it made me think she meant it. Even if she was struggling with the idea of a pack for whatever reason, she hadn’t written us off yet.
“What the hell has you smiling during paperwork?” Corvin accused as he walked in.
Did he expect me to be pouting? I swear, he was just being a dick after our mate all but ran from us.
“First you make me do paperwork, now you want to complain about how eagerly I’m doing it?” I shot back, raising an eyebrow, pen poised above the form.
He held his hands up, but, of course, he didn’t let it go. “No. What is it? Did you see her?”
“Maybe,” I admitted, a smirk tugging at my lips. “I may have run into her at the diner. And shemayhave agreed to message us soon.”
“God, I hope so,” he said, running a hand over his face before gripping his hair. I was right, he wasn’t handling this well at all. He was just pretending to. “I’ve been going crazy wanting to talk to her again.”
“I have a feeling we won’t have to wait too long.”
I finished the call's paperwork and I decided to go over the forms for the week. If Corvin wanted me to do it, I'd make sure that it was all correct.
"Hiding?" Apollo asked, poking his head in the little office the two of us shared.
"Nah, just being meticulous about this so Corvin has nothing to bitch about," I answered truthfully, sitting back in my chair.
"You noticed that, too?" Apollo questioned.
"That he's being a dick? More than normal? Yes, I did.” We’d been friends and pack long enough to know his ins and outs.
"Does he think it's not killing us as well?" he demanded, throwing his hands up in exasperation.
"He knows. Don't take it to heart. Corvin's been the guy that gets what he wants, when he wants it. This has to be harder on him because of that," I reminded my big friend.
"Harder on who?" Corvin asked from behind Apollo.
"My uncle's cousin. His wife is pregnant," I lied smoothly. There was no way that I'd admit we were talking about him.
"Why is that harder for him? Babies are a blessing," he commented and pushed Apollo over so he could see the both of us.
"They already have five," I added.
"Oh, the more the merrier?" he asked with a shrug.
"Maybe, time will tell, huh?" I countered.
Just then the alarm went off and we were rushing out to the truck for another fire.
We pulled on our turnout gear and loaded up in the truck. It was just a short ride to the lake that the station was near.
Corvin told us that it was a small grass fire but there was no smoke or anything to give us a clue to where it was.
"Were we pranked?" I asked my captain, stunned that might be the case. In all our years doing this, we’d never been pranked. The boys in the city? Sure. But Willow Lake wasn’t the type.
"Looks like it, let's check the shoreline just to be sure," Corvin told us, just as shocked as I was.
"On it, boss," Apollo said, heading left.
"I'll go right," I called back, already heading that way.
"I'm going to call dispatch and see what's up," Corvin called out to both of us.
