Addie (Pack of Misfits #1) - Raven Kennedy Page 0,8
which, luckily for them, is completely enclosed. I shield my eyes with a hand so that I can look up at the tower without raindrops pelting my eyeballs.
A flashlight shines in my eyes before I hear Stinger over the intercom. “You’re lookin’ a little wet, Addie,” he jokes. “I bet you’re wishing you would’ve listened to Alpha when he told you to tape that window up, huh?”
I put my hand out the window and toss up my middle finger. He just laughs, and then he buzzes the gate door open and I drive through with a wave.
Our compound is a pretty good size now, with multiple structures all over the property. To the right are all the cabins for the mated shifters and families, and straight ahead is the alpha’s house and some of the shared spaces, like the gym and the hall we use when we all gather to eat together or celebrate.
I turn onto the dirt road on the left, where the singles’ housing is. All the single shifters live in one of the large, boxy buildings that we lovingly call the warehouses. They aren’t very traditionally pretty from the outside, but they do have a cool, urban feel to them that I dig. Especially given that one of our shifters has a propensity for decorating them with graffiti. It’s usually some pretty funny shit, but none of us have guessed who’s actually the one doing the tagging.
I pull off the road to head to the third warehouse and fit my car under the wooden carport alongside the others. Shielding my car from the rain is kind of a moot point by now, but oh, well.
I grab my purse and my bag with all of my work clothes, and run across the yard to head for the front door. The interior of the warehouse that I call home has polished concrete floors and exposed industrial piping on the ceiling. There are two stories and a metal catwalk that spans the entire side, bookended by staircases.
The ground floor is wide-open, so I can see the gaming area in one corner, the kitchen and dining area in the other, and the lounge space as soon as I walk inside. The bedrooms and bathrooms are upstairs. The rooms are small, and we only have four bathrooms between us, but it’s not so bad.
“Aderyn Locke, you’re late!”
I slip my wet, muddy flip flops off and look up to where Zoey is yelling at me from the catwalk. Her hands are braced on the railing, and she’s arching a brow at me.
“I know,” I say, making my way across, heading to the stairs. I see a couple of the guys playing video games on the couch, and I toss them a wave as I start ascending. “I went to the lake after work,” I explain.
Zoey takes in my soaked t-shirt and cocks her head. “Uh oh. What happened?”
“How do you know something happened?”
“Puhlease.” She rolls her eyes as she leans on the railing. “You always go wade around when something is bothering you.”
She has me there. “Robbery at the bank,” I admit.
Her mouth drops open, making a pretty comical “O,” and she straightens up. “Oh, shit. You okay?”
“Yeah, except I got fired.”
“Oh no! Why?”
I walk past her and she follows me into our room that we share. “I may have…sort of attacked the robber.”
She nods like this is perfectly acceptable. “Good for you, girl.”
Once inside our room, I shut the door and start peeling off my dripping shirt and bathing suit. It doesn’t even phase us to be naked around each other since we shift so much in here. “Not to the humans. They fired me for it.”
“Oh. Shit.”
“Yeah.”
Zoey tucks her sleek black hair behind her ear. She’s a rattlesnake shifter, except she was born without a rattle. All of the members in her pack over in New Mexico viewed her as defective, and none of the males would give her the time of day. She came here about nine months ago, and she’s been dating it up ever since. Her current boyfriend lives in the warehouse next door.
“Well, screw them. Hugo will understand, and you’ll get another job.”
The prospect of having to apply for new jobs makes me groan. “I hate interviewing. I always get nervous and my palms get all sweaty.”
“Wear pants. Then all you have to do is wipe them down before you shake hands. Problem solved.”