Overwhelmingly Precious [Werewolves of Hanson Mall 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (3 page)

“I don’t remember the incident at all because I was probably only a month or maybe two months old at the time. My great-uncle Harry insisted that my parents bring me to meet him. Harry had four sons, a passel of grandsons, and two great grandsons. When he heard my mother had given birth to a daughter he was ecstatic and all he wanted to do was hold me. But up until then I’d only seen people with dark hair. He had a full head of completely white hair and when he tried to hold me I screamed and screamed. The poor man was heartbroken. But later, when I was asleep, my mother put me in his arms and fortunately I didn’t wake up.”

“So he was a werewolf?” asked Wynn.

“Obviously I didn’t know that then, but all his side of the family were wolves, yes.”

“Where does he fit in your family tree?”

“It’s complicated, but let’s see if I can get it straight.” Wynn watched as Quintana closed her eyes and placed both hands flat on the conference table. From time to time she half lifted one of her fingers up, evidently counting or tabulating her family in some way.

“My father was the youngest of five brothers. Harry was his father’s older brother. There was a middle brother as well, but I think he’d been dead for a while before I was born. My father’s father died when I was little. Maybe three or four. I don’t remember him either.”

Wynn listened intently as she described the family tree, sketching the outline as she spoke.

“There were far too many people to scrape a living off the family farm, and my father always felt that as the youngest he was overlooked and not treated fairly. Also great-uncle Harry was the only person who ever supported him in family arguments, and really, that was because my father had produced the first girl in several generations, and even that rankled a bit, because I think Dad would have preferred a couple of sons, like all his brothers had. Anyway, when great-uncle Harry died we came here to the city. My father was convinced that living in town, he’d soon be wealthy. He saw himself as running his own business and making a lot of money. That never happened.”

“What didn’t happen? Didn’t he get his own business?” asked Keelan.

Wynn had almost forgotten Keelan was there. He was so much involved in his work persona right now, making a list of questions he needed to ask. Quintana still hadn’t said who was human and who was werewolf although he assumed Harry was a wolf with all those sons, grandsons, and great grandsons, and since she’d begun by talking about him.

“Dad simply didn’t do the math. He saw money come in and he spent it. He forgot all about allowing for utility bills, council payments, all those things that had been done by the family as a whole. Bills he’d always ignored because he wasn’t responsible for them. Now he had to earn money to pay everything himself and he had no clue about budgeting. Also he argued with the customers and yelled at Mom if she tried to get him to act differently. He died of a heart attack at forty-three and Mom went straight back to the farm. I was the one who sold up everything and had to pay the bills.”

No wonder she was so intent on making her business a success. She’d learned how to run a business the hard way, by brutal experience. Wynn longed to say something sympathetic to her, but wasn’t sure what to say. Finally he said, “I’m sorry he died so young. That must have been hard for you.”

“It was better for him though. He was already coming to understand he didn’t have the right skill set to make a success of a business.”

“So, Harry was a werewolf?” asked Wynn, leaning his pen on the tree he’d drawn.

“They all were except my parents and my grandmother.”

“All of them?” asked Keelan.

“Yes. My grandfather was a wolf but he married a human, yet he and my grandmother had five sons, no girls. The only difference was that Dad was human, not a shape-shifter. The older four boys were all shape-shifters. I think that’s another thing that rankled with Dad, and I expect it’s why he married a human. He didn’t want a wife who could transform and go out running with the rest of the family, when he couldn’t do that.”

“Can you give me all their names and birthdates, please?”

Quintana closed her eyes again, resting her hands flat on the table as she’d done at the start, and listed each family, with all the members down to her generation, and where they were now, for the ones she knew. With such a large family, it took her a while, and Keelan got up and refilled her water glass, so she could have a drink when she finally reached the end of the list.

“That’s been very comprehensive, thank you. That really adds a lot to what we know.”

Quintana smiled. “If you contact any of them, make sure you say you’re doing a genealogical study of the
Simon family
. That will warn them it’s the shape-shifter side. I don’t know if the extended families are aware of the ins and outs, so it’d be better to be circumspect at least at first.”

“Yes, I will. Thank you. Now the questioning and family mapping is moving out of the shape-shifter homelands we’ll need to be more careful. Maybe we can do some of the interviews here. It’s a good secure place,” said Wynn.

Keelan stood up. “Quintana, you’ve been really helpful. Can Wynn and I take you to dinner at Sam’s Steakhouse, now? The least we can do is feed you after all your efforts for the wolf pack.”

Quintana had to work hard to hide her surprise. She definitely hadn’t been expecting that question. She’d been prepared for the questions about her family, and had thought through how much she was prepared to divulge, but neither man had pushed her for extra information. Wynn had accepted what she’d offered and the questions the men had asked had been logical and worthwhile, not intrusive or in any way pushy. So was the dinner invitation just generosity, a way to say thank you, or were they wanting more? No, she thought it was just a nice gesture, a means of thanking her for her time. They wouldn’t pry into her life in a public restaurant when they’d had the perfect opportunity to do it here in private.

“Thank you. That’d be nice.”

Wynn packed his things up quickly, and then Keelan held the door open for her. Maelor was already standing in the open doorway of the elevator. She’d missed that. She wondered which one of them had texted him to say they were ready to leave. It didn’t really matter. It just demonstrated that they were very organized.

Quintana liked Sam at the steakhouse. He was endlessly helpful and always made a point of talking to his customers, to the store managers, and just generally making everyone feel welcomed and special. He greeted them at the door to his restaurant and whisked them away to a table at the side of the room, where they had a little more privacy than in the open. Quintana appreciated the gesture, although she didn’t think she would be saying anything that required privacy here.

Sam handed them each menus, and she took a little time to choose what she wanted. Quintana seldom ate out. Mostly she was working in the evenings and ate at her desk. Unless she was relaxing, in which case she tended to eat while she watched an old favorite movie. Sometimes she ate sitting at the table with Helena and Dakota, her roommates, although they all had weird schedules so that was quite rare.

“What would you like to drink, Quintana?” asked Wynn.

“A green lantern please.”

“With or without the vodka?” asked Sam.

Quintana had already thought about that. One drink, with a meal, wouldn’t impair her ability to drive home. “With, please.”

“What’s a green lantern?” asked Wynn after Sam had walked away.

“Yeah, I’d like to know that, too.”

Quintana smiled. They’d both ordered beer. Typical male wolves. “Lime juice, lime zest, parsley, a little sugar and water, soda, plus a dash of vodka or gin.”

“Parsley? In a drink? Are you serious?” asked Wynn.

“It’s just for the flavor. It’s strained out before you drink it. I’ll let you taste it when it comes. It’s really refreshing.”

“No thanks. I’ll take your word for it,” said Wynn.

Quintana laughed and so did Keelan.

“You’re cousins, aren’t you? Or have I misremembered?”

“We are cousins but it goes back so many generations I can’t explain it,” said Wynn.

“My father told me all about the connection once, but it’s way too complicated to remember. I just say we’re seventh cousins twice removed. That’s close enough,” added Keelan.

Quintana was about to ask another question but Keelan got in first. “What’s your favorite gemstone or jewel? Precious or semiprecious, it doesn’t matter.”

“I don’t know. It’s not something I’ve ever thought of.”
He’s a jeweler, no wonder he asked that question.

“Think about it now, then,” suggested Wynn, his big brown eyes shining at her.

Quintana did a mental rundown of the colored stones she knew. Emeralds appealed to her, the most, she decided. “Maybe emeralds.”

“You really are into green, aren’t you,” said Wynn.

“I suppose so. It’s a restful, balanced color, and grass and trees are restful things as well.”

“What about jade, tourmaline, agate, peridot, or chrysoprase?” asked Keelan.

“I like jade. I thought agates were blue, and I don’t know anything about the other ones,” she said.

“Actually they’re often reddish or grayish, but they do come in blue, green, and other colors.”

Quintana leaned forward on the table as Keelan talked about various rocks and stones. She was quite fascinated by the conversation. She’d never thought much about rocks and jewels before. In fact, she had almost no jewelry, as it’d never been anything she really needed. She was also impressed with how much Wynn knew as well. It was obviously a topic the men had discussed many times.

Their meals were served and the conversation moved from topic to topic, both men regularly asking her questions and seeming to be very interested in her answers. Quintana wasn’t sure whether they truly wanted to know, or whether they just had excellent manners, but she had to admit it made her feel special and warm to be the center of attention like this. Although she managed to turn the conversation’s focus back onto them from time to time.

“From what you’ve said, it sounds like neither of you have any siblings.”

“That’s correct. More and more families are discouraged by the gender imbalance and so only have one or two children. But then society as a whole is more in favor of smaller families in most countries,” said Wynn.

“People can define their family the way they want to these days, and often friendships are more important to people than someone they might have a blood link to. As in your case. Seventh cousins is pretty much irrelevant. What you are is friends,” she said.

“What you are is pretty damn perceptive,” replied Keelan.

She wanted to say that, no, she was just interested in them both, but thought that might embarrass them. They were most likely just being polite in taking her out to dinner after asking her to be interviewed for the werewolf family history project. Not interested in her as a person at all. So she’d better not show any interest in them either. After all, she had a business to run. And Wynn was much too young for her. But fucking hell, they were delicious to look at and wonderful company for an evening as well.

No. Not an evening. Just a meal.

* * * *

Keelan had been very pleased with how the meal had gone. She’d been happy to talk to them, and he thought all three of them had gotten along well. As a first date it was a success. Now to move the program along to a second date, and hopefully a kiss good night at the very least.

“May we escort you home?” he asked.

She seemed surprised but smiled as she said, “I know the way, thank you.”

“I don’t doubt that you can find your own way, and you only had one drink so your brain will be as clear as ever. But it’d give us both great pleasure to see you safely to your door.”

Wynn was nodding madly at her, and Keelan watched her gaze go from him to Wynn and back to him again.

“I don’t think so. I need to use my own car so I can get back here tomorrow.”

“I could pick you up in the morning. Just say what time and I’ll be there,” said Wynn.

Keelan appreciated his fast thinking. He hadn’t planned an answer to that one. She was a damn smart woman, her mind always a beat ahead of everyone else’s.

“Very well. But I warn you I like to come in early.”

“Whatever time you say, I’ll be there,” answered Wynn.

“We’ll be there,” said Keelan. If she wanted to get in early that meant he’d be back in plenty of time to open up his own store. Besides, he already knew she arrived at her stores early and went home late. She worked harder than many of the other managers did.

Keelan held her elbow very lightly as he led her through the staff parking lot on the fifth level of the mall, to his SUV. He unlocked it and let Wynn settle her in the passenger seat while he walked around to the driver’s seat. In the morning Wynn would drive so they’d each have the opportunity to sit beside her.

“What made you decide to open a clothing store? Did you adore dressing up as a little girl?” he asked.

“I did like getting new things, but no more than anyone else, I think. I mentioned there were too many people for the farm to provide a good income for them all. That meant there wasn’t any spare money for luxuries, and new everyday children’s clothing was considered a luxury. I wore a lot of hand-me-down T-shirts and sweaters various boys had already worn, and the same with jeans and shorts.”

“So why open a dress shop?” he asked again.

She spoke more slowly this time, but he couldn’t tell if it was because she was thinking about her answer, or if she was censoring the answer she gave him.

“One thing I learned from my father’s lack of success in business, was that there has to be a market for what the business plans to sell. The former Alpha was opening an entire new shopping mall and he had far more men than women to advise him, and to manage the stores. As a woman, I had an edge with a women’s clothing store. I’d always had an eye for style and color, and I was more than willing to learn what would sell and what wouldn’t. Besides, he needed a women’s boutique in his mall. He wanted to attract humans as well as shape-shifters so half the customers would be female.”