Doubly Protected [Werewolves of Hanson Mall 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (11 page)

So what did this tell her?

“Do whatever the fuck you want and hope it works!”

Willow arrived once again with Cadfael. He stayed and listened while she laid out her thoughts.

“The house stealing thing, that’s so-called ‘sovereign citizens’ claiming ‘quiet title.’ I’ve heard of that. In your case you should be able to get the sale documents couriered to the mall. We’ll have an attorney witness your signatures just to be completely certain they’re legal. Make sure the courier is instructed to give the parcel to the addressee only, and after verifying photo ID. That should prevent them going astray.”

“Thank you.” Hawthorne appreciated Cadfael’s advice. He was quick to see both sides of a situation and his brain was very logical. Besides, he was basically family now. The equivalent of her brother-in-law.

She made coffee then sat at the table with Willow. “Do you think this is a genuine sale? Or do you think it’s Bailey’s brother just trying to kidnap us using a slightly different method?”

“I don’t know. I don’t understand his reasoning at all. Bailey I could understand. You were his date and he felt aggrieved at your comments. Some men are like that. They’re so egocentric. Everything is about them. Because he didn’t like what you said, he believed he had the right to take it out on you. That’s not fair or true, but it’s understandable. However, with Jackson, there’s just nothing. No reason, no logic, no basis for him to want to interfere in our lives.”

Hawthorne raced around the table to hug her sister. “I’m sorry, Willow. I’ve dragged you into this mess with me.”

“Don’t be silly, Hawthorne. If we hadn’t come here I’d never have met Rhion and Cadfael. But that doesn’t mean I agree with Jackson’s activities. I really, really hope this is a genuine sale. It’ll be good to be able to relax and make our home here permanently.”

“You’re right. I want that so much, too.”

“So when are you going to move in with them properly?”

“I don’t know. The men have mentioned joining Dylan’s apartment and Rhion’s apartment together into a single larger apartment. I have to say, we need a bigger bed. Maelor rolled over the other night and almost fell off.”

Hawthorne giggled and Willow laughed with her. It was good to be with her sister like this. Now that they didn’t live together, working together on a project was the perfect way they could remain in close contact with each other. She would have hated it if they only saw each other occasionally. They were still very close friends and being able to work together meant they were doing something useful, as well as having fun.

“Let’s get back to working on the werewolf family history data. It seems likes forever since we made progress on that and we’re getting nowhere with Jackson anyway,” she suggested.

“That’s a good idea. We need to give our brains time to work on it themselves while we concentrate on something fresh.”

Hawthorne knew the problem wasn’t going away. She understood that Jackson Hamilton had an agenda even if she couldn’t work out what it was. But for now, she and Willow were going to forget about their own troubles and do something that they could make progress in. Finding out whether or not werewolves had always needed human input to give birth to an equal percentage of female children.

Maelor had reorganized all the security guard duty rosters. He now had an extra guard on duty during the hours the mall was open, eight ’til six. This person was stationed on the fourth level, watching both inside the mall, the fourth-floor parking lot, and the foyer of the professional suites. It was this guard Sophia or Persia was to call if anyone unknown to them entered the professional suites.

“Even if they’re in UPS uniform. If it’s not someone personally known to you, always call the level four guard. Who knows if they might have some high-tech gadget that can override the elevator buttons or who-knows-what,” he said.

The rest of the guards still worked under the old shift system—midnight until eight, eight to four, and four to midnight. It meant the level four guard had to work an extra two hours, but they did a lot less walking than on a regular shift, so he hoped it worked out all right. Anyway, he was mostly doing that job himself, although Dakota would take some turns on it, too. He wanted someone up there he could trust, and Dakota was his best staff member even though she wasn’t a werewolf shape-shifter.

Cadfael had agreed he, Dylan, and Hawthorne could turn Dylan’s and Rhion’s apartments into a single apartment, and they were busy working out what they wanted to make of it. They were all happy with the plan to make the kitchen bigger so they could fully cater for themselves if they wanted to. And he was determined to find a way to make the bathroom bigger as well. At the moment, when all three of them were in there, they could hardly move.

One possibility was to remove the toilet and the tub in Dylan’s apartment and replace them with a much bigger shower. There would still be a sink, tub with a shower, and a toilet in Rhion’s former apartment, so it wasn’t as if they’d be missing out, but it would provide them with more space. But on the other hand maybe two toilets would be a good thing.

Hawthorne had also mentioned purchasing their own washer and drier. She said it would make life a lot easier and they did seem to create a lot of laundry between them.

It was all just more things he should be thinking about. He wanted very much to plan and get his new life organized, but that wasn’t really possible while Jackson Hamilton was running around loose and trying to capture his woman.

Maelor found himself sincerely wishing the man would come near him so he could bash him over the head like he’d done to Sophie, and then lock him in jail and throw away the key. It was just a damn fucking shame life wasn’t that simple.

When he got back to Willow’s apartment that night he found Dylan sitting silently in front of the television and Hawthorne pacing around the living area.

Panic burst through him. “What’s wrong?” he asked, fighting to keep his voice level and quiet.

“Nothing’s wrong. I just wanted to wait until you were here before I asked.”

“Asked what?”

“Yeah that’s what I’ve been saying for the last half hour,” said Dylan, turning the television off.

“I want to spend time with you in your wolf forms. I thought maybe we could go up onto the roof and run around there. I know you used to run up and down the stairwell but that doesn’t seem a whole lot of fun to me. But surely we’d be safe on the roof. There’s no other buildings as tall as this one so no one can watch us up there.”

“Yes, we can do that. I don’t see a problem with that at all. It’s fair that you see us as wolves and get to know us in our other form,” said Maelor. He looked at Dylan hoping the other man agreed.

“It’d been a while since I last changed. I’ll enjoy a bit of a run.”

“When do you usually change, Dylan? I know Maelor used to run up and down the stairs as a wolf most nights.”

“I never changed in any set pattern. Just when I felt like it. Sometimes on weekends I’d drive right out into the countryside and go for a long run, but it wasn’t on any kind of regular basis. Actually, it’ll be good to visit the roof again. Cadfael’s said a few times we ought to do something about it. Make proper use of all that space.”

“Willow suggested a roof garden, so people could sit there to relax and enjoy the view. Maybe eat their lunch there on nice days, but Cadfael thought reprogramming the elevator might be too complicated,” said Hawthorne.

“Well let’s go and look. We can think of ideas while we’re up there.” What Maelor didn’t say was that thinking about a roof garden would make a pleasant change from all the other things that had been occupying his mind lately.

First they had to stop off at each man’s apartment so they could change into gym clothes so they didn’t have so many items to remove and put back on when they transformed, then they caught the elevator to the roof.
Even a simple thing like changing clothes is so complicated at the moment. We really need to work out how to live together as soon as possible.

Maelor thought it shouldn’t be too difficult to make the roof a destination that anyone with a professional suites swipe card could access. After all, every card made the lift go down to the fourth floor so there had to be some kind of code to do that.

Up on the roof he stood back and let Hawthorne choose where they went. It wasn’t a particularly pretty place, although the view in every direction was truly amazing. “You’re right in that everyone should be able to see the view. It’s very special.”

The rooftop area was quite large. Larger than he’d expected, but of course it covered an entire floor, taking up the space of all the offices, apartments, and hallways that would have been on each level.

“We could make the roof garden near the elevator, so people didn’t have to walk too far. Maybe from the elevator to the two closest sides,” she said, waving her arms at the nearest corner of the roof. Maelor watched her, loving Hawthorne’s enthusiasm and zest for life and the way she so often used her hands and arms to emphasize her speech. Here she was thinking about everyone’s pleasure instead of focusing on her own needs and desires. She was truly lovely in personality as well as in physical form.

“What about all the rest of the area? This is a surprisingly large space,” said Dylan.

“Maybe we could make it something wolves would enjoy as well as humans. Like a bushwalk sort of track that wolves could run in or humans could walk. A dirt track between trees and grass.”

“That might be too hard to grow. To grow grass on concrete might not be easy,” said Maelor. “But a sand or dirt track would be doable. And trees in pots would be no trouble at all. Maybe things to jump over as well.”

“Oh, yes. Most wolves love to run and jump.” Dylan was smiling and nodding.

Hawthorne went across to the railing and leaned her back against it. “Okay. Time for you to change and let me watch you be wolves. I want to see you being natural, doing whatever you’d do if I wasn’t here.”

Maelor thought that likely he should have guessed Hawthorne would need to see them like this. A human joining with a couple of wolves was a huge step to take, and to do it without seeing them in their wolf form for more than a few moments wasn’t at all sensible. Trust his clever little human to have worked out the gap in her knowledge of them and found a way to fix the problem. He was determined to give her a true representation of himself as a wolf.

Maelor stripped off his T-shirt and sweat pants, and kicked off his athletic shoes, then stretched until his spine popped and his arms were fully extended, the pressure on his shoulders tight. Then he moved away from Hawthorne and looked at her. She was watching him so he thought “wolf” and changed. He was a black wolf, which, with his coloring, wasn’t surprising. She might be a bit surprised at Dylan though. He waited for Dylan to join him.

Dylan didn’t stop to turn toward Hawthorne. While he was still walking to the far side of the roof he transformed and kept walking. He was a gray wolf, not brown like his hair, and shorter and more muscular than one might have expected from his human form. Once he realized Dylan wasn’t going to stop and turn toward Hawthorne, Maelor ran after him and herded him around. Together they chased all over the roof, Maelor not running his fastest and letting Dylan lead for a while, before he put on a spurt of speed and shepherded the smaller wolf back toward Hawthorne.

She was sitting on the concrete now, watching them play, her face split wide with a smile. That was good. He was glad she wasn’t at all frightened.

They both came to her and let her pet their fur, and scratch behind their ears. He lifted his chin up into her touch and reveled in her gentle hands and smooth petting strokes.

When she stood up, he changed back into his human form, as did Dylan.

“Thank you. It was wonderful to see you both as wolves.”

“You weren’t frightened?” asked Dylan.

“Oh no. I was never in any doubt as to who you were. And I could tell Maelor was letting you outrun him there for a while.”

“You’re a damn perceptive woman, Hawthorne,” said Dylan.

That was just what he was thinking. But what the fuck did Hamilton want with her? What had she noticed or perceived or understood that he didn’t want her to know?

* * * *

Hawthorne was ready to go to bed with these men again. She’d reached the stage where sleeping with them almost every night was very important to her. The constant moving from apartment to apartment was a nuisance, and she found herself agreeing with their plans to renovate Rhion’s and Dylan’s apartments even when she was still pretending she hadn’t decided to commit to being with them.

It wasn’t just that her sister was very happily mated to Cadfael and Rhion and likely to stay here. It also wasn’t that she found herself completely drawn into the genetic study of the werewolves. Even if neither of those two factors had existed she’d still be agreeing to mate with Maelor and Dylan and move into an apartment with them. They were two very different people and that was important to her. She liked that they thought and spoke independently of each other. But she also liked that so often their decisions were identical. Variety was great. Endless arguments might not have been so positive.

Her body craved their touch. Maelor’s bigger, rougher, more possessive hands that nevertheless held her safe and told her far more clearly than any words ever could say that he’d protect and care for her, even if she was perfectly capable of looking after herself.

Dylan’s gentle care and thoughtful provision for her. He was the one who ran down to the stores after work, returning with things for them to cook and eat, or flowers, scented candles, the latest movie to watch, or other fun things to do.

She was protected, cared for, treasured, and valued. Her life felt worthwhile, and she wanted to show these men how much they meant to her. Mating them was absolutely in her future, and meanwhile spending the nights wrapped in their arms was bliss. Even if they really did need a bigger bed to share.