Not Bad for an Amateur (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (13 page)

“Here are the keys to Lily’s car. The homestead is due northeast on this road. You can’t miss it. I will tell Lily that you are coming.”

As he left, the sound of Jackson’s sneering tones made him happy it wasn’t him on the receiving end of that conversation.

He drove back to the cavern, and was tackled when he stepped out of his vehicle by a small shewolf. The larger male wolves piled into the backseat and Lily laid across his arm with her head out of the window all the way back home.

At the house, the agents went to change from their fur coats into street clothes. Lily and Joel changed in the bedroom, while Jim got a hot tub of water running for a group soak.

Jackson was glad to see Lily so happy. The girl deserved to be loved by men that would sacrifice their lives to protect her. Just like he and Lily’s biological father had with her mother at one time. When Glen died both he and Tina were so devastated that she refused to resume their living arrangements after he told her about Glen’s death. It took him three long years before he talked her into accepting the love they still felt for each other. Making her accept the fact that they still had to live on and that Lily needed a father just as much as they needed each other was the hardest thing he had ever done. All the hurt was worth it, but it was hellish at the time.

Jackson began explaining the reason for his easy acceptance of their fur-bearing sides. “Let me tell you a story, it cannot go past this room ever. Not many would believe it if they were told, but still a few would start to speculate and then the hunt for weres would be on again, so remember my warning please.

“Almost forty years ago, a pack of weres were discovered living in the Nicolette Forest in Northern Michigan. That would be 1973 or so if I remember correctly.

“Vietnam was still a hotbed, but we were just about ready to bomb Saigon. The countryside was a fireball of Agent Orange. Bombs were dropped in any location thought to be held by the Viet Cong.

Ten men from the Tall Pines Pack were in the Marines at the time. In a hush-hush operation, the ten men were assigned to get our prisoners out of the country before the bombing. They rescued many prisoners, and two of those men died in an effort to release three people from an underground bunker. As soon as they went inside the tunnel, the Cong blew up the bunker. We lost the two marines and two team leaders and a general.

“Tall Pines and Nicolette have been known to the United States Government for years. There are even four of the pack members on security detail at the White House. The three men that followed you were told to eliminate Lily by Demetrious because she not only dug up all of the information on his lucrative deal with Fensile, but her name was on the list of people who received the were blood by accident. They planned to track all of the people who got the blood and see how the blood might affect them. Five people got the blood. Three are dead, one is at large somewhere, and Lily.

“Now Lily is the only female that received the transfusion. She has lived with her wolf for over two years without going insane or harming humans.” Lily began to correct him, but Jackson held up a hand for silence. The accidental killing of the hunter in Wisconsin was nothing to worry about.

“We have destroyed any and all files that pertained to Fensile’s experiments and research. As Lily knows most of the research not pertaining to the wolves was stolen from other facilities. So far we have not found any documentation that others are researching were packs or people at this time.

“Now, Fensile Corporation and its offices had an unfortunate fire while I was enroute here. There was nothing left to find. The cause of the fire will be determined to be from a leaking gas furnace. Cleanup will begin tomorrow. And since it was a research facility there is the possibility of hazardous materials. So no one will question the speed of the cleanup. By the end of the month there will be a nice park at the site, courtesy of the generous donation that Fensile Corporation has made to the community. Sadly the board of directors appears to have died in the fire. Five of their top biochemists also perished in the fire.

“We are almost certain that one or two of the upper management at Fensile got away as soon as they heard about the fire. But we will be keeping an eye out for them to surface. Like most vermin they will have to come up for air sooner or later.

“Our dear Demetrious was killed in the fire attempting to save the lives of his friends that he was visiting. And the computer nerd Dimlip, I think his name was or something like that, was killed by smoke inhalation before his body was charred beyond recognition.”

Jackson did not share the information that Fensile was actually owned and bankrolled by the oldest, most powerful were family in the world. If Gregory wanted it known, then he would have passed the word through the packs himself. His conversation with the man had consisted of “Do you want to deal with it or do you want me to make it go away?” Jackson had assured him that the government would deal with the cleanup on this particular operation.

Jackson folded his hands and stopped talking for a second or two. “Now I do believe that ties up most of the loose ends. However there is one last thing that must be settled before I leave here. Lily is my daughter. I will not leave her in a situation that gives her no security or guarantee for her welfare. What exactly are your plans, young men? Her mother and I have been down too many dirt roads to leave her to have to experience the same.”

Joel grinned and looked at Jim then back to Jackson. “Well, sir, since it is illegal in this country for her to have two legal husbands, she will marry one of us, and since she refuses to choose for herself, I will claim her as my wife. Should something happen to me, then Jim will marry her as soon as permissible. The truth is, sir, that we have loved her from the beginning. Your daughter will come to no harm through us.”

Jim got to put the icing on the cake. “And just think of the grandkids that you might get to hold. Don’t parents always want grandkids?”

* * * *

Two months later

Joel was at the end of his patience. Lily was stomping around the compound, muttering to herself again, and he knew why. He watched as Jim walked into the room and stood next to him at the window as they watched the little shewolf throw small rocks at a post in the training yard. She turned back to the house when she ran out of ammunition, and the men walked out of the study that housed an entire bank of computers and electronics belonging to their wife.

Lily had introduced the twins to online gaming, and the men became avid fans of spending hours shooting pretend enemies and crashing cars. They all had separate computers now, and Lily had been adamant that the twins learn how to use them.

They found her outside sitting on a bench crying like her world had crashed. Jim pulled Lily up then sat down with her in his lap to cuddle her while she cried. Joel sat next to them, running his hand up and down her smooth leg from where the cutoff jean shorts stopped to her knee.

“I’m pregnant and I don’t know anything about babies,” Lily stated between sniffling and wiping her hand across her tear-drenched face.

“Really? That’s wonderful news to us. And the three of us can learn to take care of a baby or two,” Jim told her. It was not really news to the men. They had known for weeks now that their little shewolf was pregnant. They waited for her to tell them, but she kept putting it off until now. She was afraid of failing at motherhood, but Jim had every confidence that she would make them all read every book she could find to make them all baby savvy before the little person made his or her appearance.

Joel looked around the home that had sheltered generations of Logan weres. His sister was leaving in two days to visit the elders in Canada, so she would be able to carry the good news to them before they passed. They would know that the legacy lived on, and Joel was thankful for that. He pulled Lily from Jim’s lap and settled her on his to reassure her that he was as happy as his twin.

THE END

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About me? I am a very fortunate woman. I have three careers and am thinking about a fourth. Domestic, as in wife and mother. Professional, as in realtor. And entertainment, as in writer.

I am married to my fun-loving husband and am the mother of four children who are the greatest things I have ever accomplished in my life. I enjoy cooking, and I will read anything that catches my eyes and interest.

My ancient poodle is blind in one eye and cannot see out of the other one. She has four teeth left, and yes, I am one of those people who cooks chicken for my dog.

I have been writing short stories for my own amusement for years. One day while I was busily typing away, I decided to take a leap and send some of my short stories to a publisher. I didn’t tell anyone until my first story was accepted. Then I texted my husband and called one of my girls at 10:30 p.m. after checking my e-mail and discovering the good news.

My point is this, take that leap of faith in yourself. Challenge yourself. If you want that job, apply for it. You want to go somewhere no one else wants to go? Then do it. Please don’t let fear hold you back.

I worried that my children might be embarrassed by the genre of my short stories. After all, who wants to know that their mom writes erotic fiction? Silly me, they are proud of me for finally taking that first step. Take your steps, believe in yourself, and trust the ones that love you.

I do hope you enjoy reading my books as much as I enjoy writing them.

Contact me: [email protected] or Lynn Ray Lewis on FB.

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