The Alpha's Unrecognised Mate

Date Night

I sat at home that evening, tapping my phone gently every few minutes to stop the screen from going into sleep mode. I read and re-read the message written there, changing a few words every now and then, before erasing the whole thing and starting again. I had so much I wanted to say, I ended up writing huge paragraphs, when I was determined to keep it casual with just a few words. Rather than help me out, Lyra was chuckling at my expense. We hadn’t really done the dating thing much, and to avoid any potential awkwardness it had always been with humans. Lyra hadn’t enjoyed that at all, but I didn’t want to find my wolf mate and be completely oblivious on how to behave. If my current situation was anything to go off, it had been a wasted effort.

Hey Clint, this is Tori. I didn’t get much of a chance to talk to you today. Would you like to get dinner this week?

I hummed at the words, unsure. Was I being too pushy? Should I leave the timeline vague?

“Just send it!” Lyra finally butted in, amusement moving to frustration as the humour wore thin. Without waiting for my approval, she’d guided my finger to the ‘send’ button. I wanted to be annoyed at her, but I couldn’t. It’d been nearly forty minutes since I’d lay down on my bed and drafted the first message. It wasn’t going to get any better than it was, and I was wasting time thinking it would. Determined not to pine any longer, I threw the phone to the other side of my bed and swung my legs over the side of the bed, moving to stand. I refused to wait impatiently for him to reply. Surely I had better things to do than…

The phone ‘dinged’ with a notification and I dove for it wildly, Lyra just as responsible as myself.

That sounds nice :) r u free tomorrow?

My mind split in two very distinct directions. On one hand, I was ecstatic to be seeing him- tomorrow, no less! But ‘nice’? That was a word I used when my parents invited me to dinner. ‘That sounds nice’ was what I said to coworkers who told me about their vacation plans. I felt like I was being friend-zoned.

“We can change that…” Lyra purred wickedly. I hurried to type back a response before Lyra got to elaborate on her plans- although I had to admit, I wasn’t completely opposed to hearing her out.

Yup!

Nice and simple. I took a deep breath. I’d never gotten hung up on someone before. It was a rush, and even though it was terrifying, it was exciting too. The thinking and overthinking and rethinking was tiring and invigorating in equal measure.

I’ll cook, c u at 7 ;)

Just when I thought my head was settled on the issue he had to send a winky face. I groaned in agony, frustration, excitement and overstimulation as I threw myself back onto my bed. The smile on my face wouldn’t go away, and I didn’t mind. I had a date with the alpha!

“I’ll be there in a minute, Mrs Glover,” I replied tiredly to the elderly woman. She came out of her room asking for a cup of coffee every few minutes, but I still had two residents who needed help going to the bathroom. One had mobility issues that meant a special machine was used to help them out of bed and to the toilet, but it required a second person to operate it. My request for another nurse to come and help had been ignored so far, but I understood that everyone else was probably just as stretched as I was. Even the lazier nurses were run off their feet today- the ones that hadn’t called in sick, anyway. The only thing keeping me going was the clock ticking down towards the end of my shift, and the date with Clint that would come afterwards.

Liza walked down the hall, smiling when she saw me. She had the opposite affect on me. I only had fifteen minutes left until the end of my shift, but I knew what she was going to ask. I had to stay strong.

“Can you help me with Mr Bernstein?” I asked her as she came close, cutting her off before she had a chance to jump in with her own request.

“Fine, but you’ll need to do something for me,” she replied, half-jokingly, moving with me towards Mr Bernstein’s room. “I need you to cover for Juliet tonight,” she jumped right to the chase.

“I’m sorry, Liza, but I have something on tonight. I can’t,” I replied, doing my best to stay firm. Liza’s face drooped.

“Seriously, Tori? You leave early on Wednesdays for church and now you’re taking Saturdays off. You can’t bail out on me again,” she huffed angrily. I frowned, following her into the resident’s room. I wasn’t leaving ‘early’ on Wednesdays, it was on time. I knew I had to have shift flexibility, but I was allowed to schedule one day a week I was unavailable. Not to mention, as the night resident nurse, she wasn’t in charge of my scheduling anyway. Despite all of this, I couldn’t help but feel a little guilty. I knew what it was like to be working short staffed- I was literally doing it.

“Hey Mr Bernstein, are you ready to go to the bathroom?” I asked, doing my best to appear cheery and unaffected by the other conversation I was having. It wasn’t his fault people kept calling in sick- though, to be fair, it wasn’t mine that the nursing home didn’t hire enough staff to handle it.

“It’s a bit late for that,” he grumbled. I deflated another level. It was an awful spiral- not having enough time to take him to the toilet now meant I had to shower him and clean the bedding, which took even longer. It wasn’t fair on him, either. Giving dignity back to the residents in their old age was part of our responsibility as their carers, but our lack of staffing jeopardised our ability to do this.

“I’ll help you get him in the shower and come back,” Liza said to me, which was code for ‘I’ll leave this mess to you’. I nodded wearily.

By the time I was done, Liza had managed to reappear in the hall, handing Mrs Glover her coffee.

“Oh, thank you dear. I’m so glad someone is doing their job around here,” Mrs Glover smiled at Liza before turning to glare pointedly at me. She turned back into her room and closed the door before I had a chance to respond, but I had nothing to say for myself anyway. ‘I’m busy’ never seemed to be enough.

“So, have you reconsidered?” Liza asked as soon as Mrs Glover was tucked back away.

“I told you, I can’t,” I replied once more, exasperated.

“When’s this appointment start?” Liza questioned.

“Seven,” I replied. I mentally hit myself even before I heard Lyra,

“Are you stupid?!”

“Then you can stay a few more hours. You’re needed in the green court,” Liza explained breezily, rushing past before I could fight her. I was so angry, but also so, so tired.

“I’ll get out as soon as I can,” I told Lyra weakly. I could tell she wanted to berate me further, but she knew it would do no good for either of us. She let out a sigh mixed with a whine as she settled back into my head, considering me a lost cause. I was starting to feel the same.

I didn’t leave work until a quarter past six and I was thoroughly exhausted. I had planned to head home, shower, change, and put some makeup on. Maybe style my hair a little. Now, I wasn’t sure if I had time to even shower.

I sat in my car in the darkness. The parking lot for staff was up a hill away from the main entry, leaving the closer spots for residents’ visitors. Now, the closer parking was filled with the night staff’s cars. They were allowed to park there for their shifts as no visitors were expected out of hours. Since I started in the morning, my car was alone at the top of the hill.

I pulled out my phone, ready to cancel. It hurt so much it burned. Before I could even find Clint’s contact my tears began to fall down my cheeks, hot and heavy. Normally I would grin and bear it, being pushed to my brink day after day. I had nothing to go home to. But now, I yearned to be close to Clint every minute of the day. To give up on a piece of that was breaking me apart. The fatigue wasn’t helping, either.

My phone was flung into the passenger seat beside me and my seatbelt drawn over my body. It took me a moment to realise it was my own hands doing it.

“You’re going to have to pull it together, girl, because I don’t know how to drive,” Lyra ordered me. She’d been silent for most of the afternoon, but she’d reached her own limit. While my reaction was to break down, hers was to stand up. I admired that in her a lot. Not for the first time, I was glad that she had chosen me.

I wasn’t fully sure what her plan was, but I knew it was a good time to let her decide. I sniffled back my tears, wiping my eyes on the sleeves of my scrubs. Deciding my eyes were dry enough for me to see the road clearly, I turned on the ignition. Even though I was driving, it was Lyra at the wheel now.