Overwhelmingly Precious [Werewolves of Hanson Mall 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (2 page)

“All right. That might work. But we’ll need somewhere relatively private to talk to her. She won’t want strangers able to overhear the conversation, and we don’t want random customers listening in either. Shall I book the sixth-floor conference room, do you think?”

“That’s an excellent idea, and afterward we’ll go to one of the restaurants for a meal, to make the evening into a true date.” Keelan was nodding at him again.

Wynn licked peanut butter off his fingers as he spoke. “So about six thirty then? After the stores close, with a few minutes to spare in case she needs to talk to her staff or something. And I’ll let her choose which day.”

“But you need to make her choose. Don’t allow her to put you off or say she’ll get back to you ‘some time.’ Lock her down to a date and time.”

Wynn smiled. He could do that. He really could. Right after he had another shower and changed his shirt. Carelessly he wiped his still messy fingers on his shirt and stood to leave. “I’ll message you later with the details.”

* * * *

Keelan Griffith owned and managed the jewelry store on the third level of the mall. The third level meant he was a bit out of the way of browsing shoppers but it was quieter here, and he liked the ambience. Besides, he had a steady stream of customers wanting special birthday and holiday gifts, or an heirloom ring altered to fit them, which provided an adequate income for him. Over the past few months he’d even added a shop assistant to his store, a young wolf, Vaughan, who wanted to learn the trade.

At thirty-two, Keelan didn’t really see himself as ancient, but he was enjoying teaching Vaughan some of the skills of the trade. Next year Vaughan would begin school to learn about the more intricate side of the job.

Meanwhile Keelan stared at the ring he’d designed especially for Quintana. The white gold band was engraved with tiny spirals, and every fifth spiral had three entwined hearts at the center of it. Five because Quintana means fifth, and the three hearts representing her, Wynn, and himself.

He let his mental image of her face flood his senses. Quintana wasn’t classically beautiful, but she was perfect in his eyes. She epitomized elegance. She was taller than an average woman, and curved in all the right places. Although definitely not fat, neither was she runway model slender. She was just right. The clothing from her stores always looked amazing on her. She was a living, breathing advertisement for her stock. Her long dark hair was usually tied up in some kind of braid, but he’d seen it out a few times and it hung almost to her waist. Her eyes were a rich dark brown that made him think of bedrooms and sex.

Keelan’s own hair was black and his eyes brown. On him they looked boring, and ordinary. The same general categories on Quintana showed him how good such colors could be—on someone else.

It seemed like he’d spent forever trying to get to know Quintana better, with absolutely zero success. He wanted to know what drove her to work so hard when her stores were already doing well. Maybe he’d find out now. He was pleased with himself for finally thinking of a genuine reason why they should all talk. Well, maybe not a genuine reason for him, but since he and Wynn had agreed to share a woman it was genuine enough. Besides, it really would help the genealogy project to find out if there was some shape-shifter in her family tree. Even if there wasn’t it might bring another group of shape-shifters—the ones she knew—into the project.

So few girls were born into shape-shifter families. Boys predominated strongly. Only by mating with humans could werewolves survive. Now the packs had joined together to find out if this had always been true, or if it was a new development. Had there been some change in their blood or chromosomes to cause girls to become rare? Or had werewolves always intermarried with humans, but not really talked about it much?

Wynn and he were some vague kind of seventh cousins twice removed or something like that. His father had explained it to him once when he, as a mature and studious fourteen-year-old, had objected to being made to watch the noisy, unrestrained seven-year-old Wynn on a family vacation. He’d grown up, learned to be a jeweler, and gotten the store. And now Wynn had grown up as well, studied genealogy, and become the joint leader of the werewolf family history project. He traveled a bit with the work, and sometimes landed up at the mall wanting a bed for the night. Keelan had actually bought a pullout sofa bed after the first few times Wynn had arrived unexpectedly.

Now that Willow and Hawthorne Cunliffe were working on the history project full-time, Wynn traveled even more often, but these days the bedroom in the genealogy office was usually vacant and he could stay there if he needed to.

For a few minutes Keelan worried how they’d manage as a family if Wynn was away from home a lot. Then he shrugged those thoughts off.
We haven’t even convinced Quintana to date us yet. One step at a time.

* * * *

Quintana smiled when Wynn Evans walked into the Hanson Mall Dress Boutique. He was so obviously ill at ease and it was plain he wasn’t here just to browse through the stock.

“Hi, Wynn.”

“Oh, hi there, Quintana. I was hoping to talk to you for a few minutes, please. If that’s okay?”

He cast a nervous glance toward Meriel who walked across to the counter, leaned over, and picked up the day’s outgoing mail. “I’ll go and post these now. It’ll save doing it later,” she said with a smile.

Quintana was grateful for her quick-wittedness to both leave them alone and yet do something useful at the same time.

“Thanks, Meriel.”

Wynn relaxed a bit. “I didn’t know if she knows about…well you know.”

Quintana smiled at him again. He seemed so very young.
Was I ever that young? Or that innocent? Probably not.

“We’re alone for the moment, unless a customer comes into the store, so how can I help you?” She deliberately didn’t ask him about his reference to whether or not Meriel knew about something or other. About the wolves? she wondered. It wasn’t relevant to the conversation now, anyway.

Wynn stood up straighter, gained confidence, and suddenly didn’t seem quite so young. “You know about the werewolf family history project I suppose?”

Ah. He is thinking about the shape-shifters.
“Yes, and I know you and Georgia are leading it with a lot of help from Willow and Hawthorne.”

“Hawthorne and Willow are compiling the data sheets and cross-referencing all the various family groups. Georgia and I are leading the interview teams, except that most of the easy interviewing has been done. We’ve sent people into the senior citizen centers in the various packs and got video and sound recordings of the old people sharing their memories. We’ve interviewed the Alphas. But there are still huge gaps in our knowledge. I want to interview you. Because you’ve been involved in the mall since the very beginning I guess you must have knowledge of the shape-shifter community. Maybe with your help we can explore a new circle of connections, more from the human side of the situation.”

Quintana stared at him. She’d expected some question about buying lingerie for his girlfriend, not this. She hadn’t ever thought about it before, but she supposed she might know some people to add to their database, maybe even lead them onto a few more people.

“How long with this take? I have a business to run.”

“I thought we could meet up in the mall conference room in the professional suites one evening at six thirty. Or whatever time suits you.”

Okay, so just one evening. She could spare that much time. She didn’t spend every night working, just most of them. “All right. How long are you in town for? Will tomorrow night be okay?”

“Tomorrow will be excellent. Text me when you get to the glass doors of the professional suites and I’ll get one of the security guards to come down and let you in.” He handed her his business card.

She watched him leave, tapping his card against the palm of her hand. Then she pulled out her cell phone and entered the number in it right away, and the meeting time into her calendar. He was quite cute. But too young. So very young. Even his light brown hair was boyish, curling up at the ends.

Quintana shook off her thoughts. If she was going to be interviewed tomorrow night that meant she needed to be sure all next week’s orders were ready to go tonight. She hurried around the counter and sat at the computer. But he
was
good looking. Too bad she wasn’t twenty again.

No. I wasn’t happy at twenty. I’m much happier at thirty.

* * * *

As part of his job interviewing werewolves for the family history project, Wynn had talked to people in packs where the men were encouraged to join with another man they thought they could build a family with. Only when they’d settled such issues as how they’d work together as a team, where they’d live, how they’d support a woman, and similar issues, were they permitted to begin searching for a mate. Or, if they already had a woman they both were interested in, to invite her on a date.

Wynn had talked to Keelan. He respected his cousin and they got along very well together. Keelan had agreed to think about the idea, and the next time Wynn had stayed with him Keelan had spoken of his regard for Quintana. Wynn had nearly swallowed his tongue. Quintana wasn’t just stunningly beautiful, she was also amazingly smart, and four or five years older than him. Still, if she was the woman Keelan wanted, Wynn was good with that plan. Although he was nervous. Very nervous.

Which was why he was pacing around the conference room, walking around and around the long table, until Keelan said, “For fuck’s sake, Wynn, sit down. You’re making me giddy.”

“But what if she doesn’t like us?”

“Wynn, we can’t lose. Even if she refuses to have dinner with us you’ll still have data for the family history project. Besides, we can wait a week or two and then say we need to ask her more questions, or get more details, or whatever it is that you do, and then we’ll ask her out again.”

Wynn turned to Keelan. “Rinse and repeat until we’re successful?”

“Exactly.”

“Okay. I can live with that.”

He sat down in front of his iPad and brought up the screen where he’d be taking notes, then minimized that screen and changed to the recording screen before minimizing it as well. He was as ready as he could be and just had to hope that she’d enjoy talking to them. That she’d like them both. Oh God, that sounded like elementary school all over again. Wanting someone to like him. But if there was to be any hope of a relationship at all, she had to enjoy spending time with them, not just tolerate it for the good of the pack.

However he couldn’t relax. It was one thing to know how to act sensibly, but it was another entirely to be able to do it. “I’ll wait downstairs for her. Maelor’s going to let her in as soon as I text him.” Wynn knew he was babbling. Keelan already knew that. But it showed how important this meeting was to him. He’d led dozens of interviews, possibly even a hundred, and he was never anxious. Oh sure, he always hoped for new information, and to be able to get it without upsetting anyone, but never before had he had this itchy sense of being unable to sit still, unable to wait like a mature adult for the interviewee to arrive. He should be sitting quietly at the conference table, talking about the latest movie star scandal with Keelan, instead of running down the stairs because he couldn’t bear to wait for the elevator to arrive.

He was standing by the glass doors, looking out into the mall, when the elevator dinged behind him. Wynn turned around to speak politely to whoever it was, only to see Maelor getting out of the elevator.

“Quintana’s always punctual so I thought I’d wait here instead of making you all wait while you texted me and I came downstairs.”

“Thanks, Maelor.”

“And here she is.”

Wynn turned around again, this time to the entry to the professional suites, as Maelor hurried past him and opened the doors, locking them behind Quintana. There was a special setting so the doors were locked to casual passersby, but anyone with the right code on their swipe card, such as the managers with apartments in the professional suites, could still enter or leave.

“How’s your day been, Quintana?” asked Maelor.

Wynn stepped into the elevator behind them and waited while Maelor swiped his card and pressed the button for the sixth floor. None of the buttons were labeled. People had to know which one to push.

“Not bad, thank you, Maelor. How about yours?”

“All peaceful. No dramas.”

Maelor held the door open for them at the sixth floor, then watched as they walked toward the conference room. Wynn had left the door open and he ushered Quintana in ahead of himself then turned and waved to Maelor, who nodded and presumably pressed the button for his own floor.

“Hi, Keelan. I didn’t realize you’d be here, too.”

“I’m just here to get the coffee for you.”

Wynn tried not to smile. Quintana, of all people, would see through that lie in a heartbeat. He waited until she sat down and then woke up his iPad. “I’ll be taking some notes, but they will mostly be for myself, to remind me of things I need to check or people I ought to talk to. The interview will be taped but at any time you can ask me to switch off the tape. At no time will your name be used in any of our paperwork. All the information goes into a central database and from there our researchers look for links to other people and to try to see if there has always been human input into the werewolf packs every few generations. Do you have any questions?”

He’d made that speech so often likely he could do it in his sleep. But it was important everyone understood that this project was about the big picture. They were looking for general trends not to pinpoint any particular person as a human or a werewolf.

“I understand.” Quintana was looking at him but she picked up the water glass Keelan had put in front of her and took a sip.

Wynn touched the screen to begin the recording. “Please tell us when you first met a werewolf shape-shifter with as much detail as you feel comfortable giving.”