Rejected, Then Reborn
Chapter 24

Perhaps he wasn’t so bad after all.

Lacy’s subconscious tried to reason with her as she combed through the closet for something to wear in preparation for her first day as nurse at the Clan’s clinic.

It didn’t matter that he had plagued her dreams, continuing right where he had ended. Continuing their steamy k**s. She had barely slept much, but someway somehow, the vigorously passionate, and erotically stimulating action-filled dream Lacy had had gave her all the energy she needed.

It was somewhere around 5:45 am, and Lacy would know this because sometime after the Alpha King had left her room, she had found his wrist watch on one of the coffee tables right before she had climbed back into bed. Now, as to whether he had intentionally left it there for her or not, Lacy had no idea… but she surely was not about to give it back anytime soon. If anything at all, it was one of the things she was going to take as a consolation price given the way he had played her like that.

So, she was pretty much stuck in the B***d Moon Clan for good.

Now, that one was going to take some getting used to, because ever since Lacy had arrived here, the only thing that had kept her going was the fact that soon she’d get to see her human family again. It had taken her through all the degrading treatment, through the almost being assaulted part of her time in the dungeons, and then through her whole back and forth with the Alpha King. But now, that happy day she had spent the entire two weeks she had been here dreaming of had turned out to be a hoax. She knew now that it was never going to happen, that she was never going to be allowed to leave… and did that bum her out? Well yes, it did.

But then again, Lacy had kind of accepted that she was never going to see her human family again when she had fallen in love with Lucius Smith. And until she had found out that he was cheating on her, the thought had never crossed her mind to want to go back home.

You see, Lacy had always been the rebellious one back home—her two sisters, Eliana and Elise, the golden girls her parents had always compared her to. They had all followed in their parent’s footsteps, and had actually actively taken advantage of their parent’s vast pool of connections to make names for themselves. But she had been different. She knew that her parents were frustrated with her at some point. Granted, she had been very much loved despite her annoying ways, but Lacy liked to think that her sudden disappearance brought some very much needed relief to her family, especially when she had gotten the family name tangled in as many scandals as she could back when she used to be in her wild days.

It was funny how she had stumbled into this new world just when she was getting her s**t together. But her family would be okay, it was what she had been telling herself all along… the only way she knew how to defend her selfishness for choosing love over family. And now look where said love had gotten her.

Oh, but Lacy wasn’t going to lament anymore, gods knew she had done enough of that already. Things weren’t the best now, but hey… just what seemed to be yesterday, she had been sleeping in the dungeons, and now she could come and go as she pleased. Who would have thought that that would ever happen?

And so Lacy was positive that she’d get through this as well. She’d just have to hold on until the mate bond had been completely severed, and then she’d be alright, even if she couldn’t go back home.

“Are you done, ma’am?” The sharp knock at the door snapped her back to her senses, “Yes, yes… give me a minute.” She donned a pair of camo colored Crocs and headed to the bathroom to check herself out. A deep blue, baggy round-necked t-shirt, comfortable army green cargo pants, dark curls tied in a low bun at the nape of her neck… she looked alright— not that she could be any better anway when her wardrobe only consisted of things way bigger than her, but she was sure that would be taken care of now that she was being allowed to go out, and so she wasn’t too worried about it.

Lacy stepped out of the room, only to find one guard standing outside waiting for her instead of the normal seven. Her confusion was obviously apparent, for the tall, hairy guy, Bruno shot her a look, “Only one guard at a time now, Ma’am,” He simply informed her, waiting by as she closed the door and placed the keys in her pocket. An unbelievable chortle slipped past her lips at that.

Look who finally got to keep the keys to her own room.

It was a buzz at the clinic when Lacy and Bruno arrived there, an apparent case of underage drinking and then some. It was the first time Lacy had met other people from the Clan who were not guards, it made her… excited. Her nurse instincts kicked in almost immediately and she jumped in to help out, connecting unattended patients to IV lines, putting others on hemodialysis, taking care of minor injuries and offering care and support to the other frightened teens who had brought their intoxicated friends to seek medical help. The human girl was on a roll, interacting with the other nurses who in that moment knew that taking care of the kids came first, and that anything else could wait. They worked hand in hand, and swiftly too… and in one instance, Lacy even saw Xavier, but they were both so busy that all they managed was a small smile and then they continued on with their duties.

“You must be Lacy,” One of the nurses approached her when the chaos had died out a bit, a woman in multicolored braids with chocolate skin and a brilliant smile on her face, “Yes,” Lacy shot her one right back as she scrubbed her hands clean, “I’m Simone,” She introduced herself, “For your first day, you were pretty amazing in there.”

Lacy blushed under all that praise. She was one of those people who never really knew how to react in situations like these, “Uh, thanks… It was nothing though, I was just doing my job,” She managed to mutter as she cleaned her hands. “Right. Right.” It seemed that Simone noticed her discomfort as well, and so she quickly changed the subject. “Come with me, Lacy… Dr. Mendoza asked me to introduce you to the head nurse when things cooled down a bit, I guess now’s a perfect time?”

“Oh, okay. Sure, sure.” Why was Lacy suddenly nervous? She had done this a couple of times already—meeting new bosses, that is—so why did this suddenly feel different?

I don’t know, perhaps because they’re not human and can easily kill you with a swipe of their paws?

She ignored the condescending voice in her head.

“You wanna get a move on? We don’t have all day, love,” The multicolored-haired girl raised a bushy eyebrow, an amused smirk on her face, snapping the little human out of her thoughts, “Right, right. Lead the way please.”

“A few things you need to know about the Headie—that’s the head nurse—sorry, we all call her that, so it’s kind of a force of habit, but behind her back of course, she’ll kill us if she ever found out.” Simone started as they walked down the hospital hallway, “She appears to be very strict, but she’s actually a softie at heart, though it’ll take some time before you get used to that, but… just a heads up, never let anything she says or does get to you, else you’ll always cry premium tears when she sinks her claws in you.” She finished right as an older looking woman with short, spiky gray hair called out her name, her fair skinned face seemingly red in anger. “Oh, oh… here she comes, brace yourself, human…” The dark-skinned girl managed to mutter right before the woman caught up with them, “Simone, what took you so long goddammit? Get the f**k back to your station and oversee the newbies in their new roles before they make a mess of my hospital.” She pushed the girl, frantically urging her on, putting so much pressure on her that all Simone managed was an apologetic smile, and then she was gone.

“You.” The woman sized her up, a look of disdain on her face. Lacy really couldn’t get over the fact that the woman could pass off as Ellen DeGeneres were she put in the right costume, the resemblance was so uncanny that it gave the poor human girl the creeps. “You missed your orientation, human,” She glared at the girl, not even bothering to hide her annoyance, “Look, if that is how things were done in your former hospital, I’m afraid it does not work that way over here. Stick to the f*****g rules and unlearn everything you know, am I understood?”

Lacy only nodded, quite lost in trying to figure out who had puked in the woman’s oatmeal to have her be this stuck up. “It’s not too late to catch up with your mates, follow Simone.”

Lacy nodded and turned to leave. “What’s your name again?” She heard the woman call out, “Uh, Lacy. Lacy Smith.”

“I see. I’m Shaunda Sunders, but you may call me Mrs. Sunders.”

Or Headie.

Lacy’s subconscious snickered. She did her best to ignore it even though she desperately wanted to laugh too. “You were pretty impressive in there this morning, human,” The head nurse begrudgingly admitted, as though it pained her to come up with the acknowledgment, “But next time, follow protocol for fucksake. Now come on, get a move on… duty calls.”

A smile broke out on Lacy’s face as she watched the woman sashay away, and even as she turned to go in Simone’s direction, she couldn’t shake the amused feeling off. Now that hadn’t gone as badly as Lacy had imagined?

She really couldn’t wait to see what the rest of the day had in store for her.