A huge thank you to my editor Tex Beethoven for another amazing job and collaboration, thank you Tex you rock!!!
Book 1
Chapter 25
Monday morning saw Lily and Dante repeating their drill from the previous Monday of waking up early and loading the truck to head to the compound and unload it before beginning their Pack duties. It was scheduled to be a standard day, except that they were to meet Rose for the final reveal of their remodeled suite that afternoon after they'd wrapped up everything else. No, it wouldn't be okay for them to pop in for a look before late afternoon, Rose and her team still had hours of finishing touches to complete.
The day passed quickly for them both, Dante's morning history lesson and then instructing in firearms went well with no big surprises, and it was the same for Lily's morning. Late morning and early afternoon trainings were solid sessions with both Dante and Lily really beginning to shine in their Enforcer abilities, even the ones where a few weeks ago they'd been novices. Dante's wolf had been large and powerful from the beginning, but now was also becoming rather skilled as a technical fighter. And his human was getting ready to add his second practice katana.
Lily had made great strides in her hand to hand as well as in firearms, and she was refining her already formidable dual dagger skills to where she would be an almost unstoppable opponent in any confrontation. The constant devotion of such a large chunk of time each day, paired with it now having continued for a few weeks, were producing impressive results for them both. Her earlier claim to Dante of being fast and dangerous was proving to be no idle boast.
The afternoon was spent with Lily working with Odin on the family business and Dante on his security company, before they came together later on to handle Pack business. With a couple hours remaining before dinner, they wrapped up and Lily and Dante headed to meet Rose at their suite.
Rose met them outside the suite in the hallway and the mated pair was clearly excited to see the finished remodel.
Lily said to Rose before they opened the door, "Rose, we just want to say thank you for not only doing a terrific job which we can't wait to see, but also for working around our timetable for your available work days. We know that wasn't easy, but we really appreciate it and I know it worked out well just like we had hoped! We absolutely loved what we saw last weekend: the living room and bedroom were amazing! The hammered brass tabletop was a lovely accent, and I can't say anything at all about my portrait above the bed without saying too much, if you know what I mean."
Rose smiled broadly, absolutely thrilled her hard work and effort but most of all her artistry, had been noticed and appreciated. "I'm very glad you both liked it; we had to really rush to finish everything up today, but I believe it all came out well. Let's head in and see the final two rooms."
They walked into the living room and headed left to inspect the two additional rooms in their suite. They entered the small wing through a single door leading to a hallway leading straight back with identical walls and carpet to the living room and bedroom. It had a door on each side. They opened the left-hand door and stopped in at the nursery first.
Rose led them in and explained what she and her crew had done. "This is just a generic nursery right now, only a placeholder for the room until you become pregnant and want to personalize it; we went with a sterile, gender neutral look for now. We painted the walls a light cream color, using black and light gray accents throughout. There's a changing table, a dresser and a standard crib, all accented with sharp, narrow black lines to bring out the color contrast in the room. The one little touch that I can see remaining once you get pregnant is the wolf and moon mobile hanging over the crib."
They looked around and as a placeholder nursery it was perfect, and they said so. Rose next led them out of the room and down the short hallway to the completed office on the right.
Once again Rose explained everything. "We used the same colors in here as for the rest of the suite except the nursery. Rust on the top two thirds of the walls and creamy tan on the lower portion and the distressed crimson-red painted molding between the two. The large area rug which gives you a nice cushion to walk on, is the same rust color that's on the walls, but with swirls of red and black and cream to draw the eye. Since you both will require plenty of desk space, we custom-made one huge desk out of dark cherry that wraps around the entire back side of the room in a U
shape, as you can see. The middle section abuts the far wall, but I didn't think you would wish to work with your backs to each other, so the two legs of the U have generous alleys behind them for you to walk and sit and place more filing cabinets or whatever as you wish.
"On Lily's side of the room we have a large bookcase as well as a few filing cabinets, all of them constructed of the same dark cherry. There is a large computer display on a swivel near the back wall that you can either hook up to a desktop computer or a laptop to increase the screen size for whatever you are working on, that should be particularly useful for meetings. There are also pictures of the two of you, including a special one on the far wall above Lily's side of the desk for some eye candy."
Dante looked more closely and blushed a little when he saw it was a picture of him shirtless. It must have been taken during or after a sparring session, since he was sweaty and very pumped up and ripped. In this 'visual confection', he had a hard look on his face, and he could see why Lily had picked it.
Rose continued. "On your side Dante, we have a bank of six large monitors, all mounted in a grid pattern for your computer and programming work. We didn't pick out any computers for you, knowing you would want to do that yourself, but everything is ready for a plug and play setup. At the far end is a padded worktop for any electronics work you'll need to do at your desk. At least slightly inconspicuously behind the door when it's open, we have the massive free-standing safe you requested. It can hold any sensitive documents you may want kept safe, as well as money, jewelry or weapons. It has a biometric lock for quick and secure access. Opening it will require one of your fingerprints, as well as a 3-digit code so nobody can open it even if they should manage to render one of you unconscious; you two can set that up for yourselves after we're done here.
"Lastly, you can see in this corner couches and chairs set up as a place to sit comfortably during meetings or visits. You each also have an oversized and comfortable executive chair at your desk. Dante, Lily also left you a visual treat on the far wall above your side of the desk for whenever you need an ummm... lift."
