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He frowned. “That should have been already in there.” He seemed to shrug it off as I did but promised to handle it. “What’s going on?”

“First, this is where me being different can be a problem,” I hedged as I sat down. “I’m not as upset as you’re reading.” I nodded when he seemed skeptical. “I promise you that I’m a healthy level of annoyed at petty adults and that I have to run to ‘dad’ to handle this. I’m notremotelyready to explode. I’ll find you if I ever am and you will…”

“What?” he asked, his tone curious and not dismissive.

“It will take your breath away,” I admitted with a shrug. “It does my dad and he’s Alpha of London. I’m not a normal wolf—a normal Alpha at my age even.”

“Well, you know yourself better than I do, and you’re not the only special supe we have here, so it’s not that odd. I’m just glad to hear you didn’t wait until things are ready to explode with the typical Alpha pride.”

I shook my head. “I handle my own issues as best as I can, but once I hit the line of not being able to see a productive course forward, I have no problem asking for help that I know will come through.”

He chuckled, hearing the compliment in that. “Okay, then do you have a suggestion, or do you want me to resolve it?”

“It’s time for me to give a lecture to the hospital staff on how what I do is different,” I told him firmly. “Or things will blow up and you’re going to need to replace a few people in ortho.”

To say he was shocked was an understatement, but at least he heard me out… And agreed with me that it was time for himto tap in. That was always the best outcome when there was a problem and you had to involve your boss.

9

Ellie

Ha-joon was trying to drive me crazy.

No, I was drivingmyselfcrazy denying us both what we wanted. It wasn’t to be petty. I swear it wasn’t.

I just… The stove burned me.

Funny how I’d let Tommy burn me, walk all over me, and emotionally abuse me, and now the slightest hiccup and I turned into one of those women who couldn’t make up her mind about a man. Or maybe that was being too harsh on myself.

Renee said it was, and we weren’t friends, so I was pretty sure her advice was legit and not just what I wanted to hear. To be fair, Joyce wouldn’t have just told me what I wanted to hear either, right?

Maybe not best to test it.

No, I knew her better than that. It depended on the situation. Something easy and could still be changed? Yeah, Joyce would have been honest with me and even offered help to fix whatever.

Renee… I really didn’t know, but I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with her. It didn’t feel like a session, but it was. I would be deluded if I didn’t acknowledge that, and I even thanked her for the session.

She’d simply chuckled at being busted and said she was glad that I was open to it as long as it involved food, wine, and distractions.

Especially since she wanted to keep having them. She was honest that I needed to talk to someone for real besides Alan knowing my secrets or I was going to implode. Everyone needed that, and it was to take the leap and trust at least her since we’d known each other for so long.

Like decades.

Yeah, that was fair.

I couldn’t even deny I needed help, though probably not for what Renee thought. No, it was for being a sadist.

Wait, it was a masochist when it was self-inflicted?

Except I didn’t enjoy it. It was just torture.

What was the term for that?

Awesome, I was a doctor, board-certified in several different fields, and I didn’t even know the basics of idiocy. But it was getting embarrassing.

Mostly because trying to turn the tables on Ha-joon made itabundantlyclear that I had no game. I was… I wasn’t super old to be this lame.

My first attempt at being sassy and I hurt him. He wasn’t faking or milking it. I saw the genuine hurt in his eyes that I would treat him as food.