Publicly Exhibited [Werewolves of Hanson Mall 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (6 page)

Almost all the managers had offices on levels five and six and could access both those floors and the conference room, which was on level six. But above level six, access was even more restricted. The senior cleaning team, all werewolves, were the only ones to work on levels seven to ten. Not that there were secrets in the offices, and apartments there precisely, it was more that the wolves valued their privacy and security.

While many humans didn’t believe shape-shifters existed, of those who knew them to be fact, too many either didn’t trust them, or thought them to be an evil to be eradicated. The Hanson Mall wolves had survived for generations by keeping their lives—and therefore their existence—as unknown as possible. This was no longer as easy as it’d been for the past few generations, now that they needed to mate with human women to avoid dying out. It was also why they were working hard to learn what the problem was and how they could solve it. In this task, they were cooperating with several other packs worldwide.

All of which led him back to thoughts of their dinner guests, who were arriving right now. Willow and Hawthorne were both still wearing jeans, but had changed their athletic shoes for boots, and were wearing pretty shirts. He guessed those backpacks of theirs hadn’t included party dresses. Or likely any dresses at all. When a woman was running for her life useful was far more important than pretty. Not that Willow didn’t look pretty in her purple shirt. She did. But to him she’d looked lovely from the start, even when her eyes were darkly shadowed from stress and lack of rest.

While Hawthorne was thanking Eilidh the buzzer rang and Cadfael said, “That’ll be our meal.”

“I’ll go down and get it for you,” said Eilidh.

Rhion went with her. Those food trolleys were heavy and it was easier with two people so one could hold the elevator door for the one pushing the trolley.

Sam himself was waiting at the door to the professional suites, and Rhion was suddenly grateful to this man who was a good friend and a damn hard worker.

“Thanks, Sam.”

“My pleasure. Enjoy your meal, and if you need anything else just call.”

“I’ll push the trolley. You hold the elevator,” he told Eilidh. She did, and repeated the process again at the top floor, then got back on the elevator to return to the guest apartment. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” she teased him wickedly.

“That gives me a hell of a lot of choice.”

She waggled her fingers at him as the elevator door shut. He buzzed Cadfael’s door, and Cadfael held it wide open for him, so he kept walking, pushing the trolley over to the dining table. The moment he lifted the metal cover off the tray of food, saliva filled his mouth. The steaks smelled amazing. The aroma filled his senses until he was ready to howl with delight. Instead, he stood politely behind one of the chairs and settled Hawthorne into it, before sitting down himself.

“It seems like we’ve done nothing but eat since we arrived here, and every meal is totally outstanding,” said Willow.

“I agree. I was going to say each meal is nicer than the last one, but that hardly seems fair to the previous meals because they were amazing as well,” added Hawthorne.

Rhion watched them talk, their faces mobile and expressive. Willow kept her hands in her lap, or resting on the table, but Hawthorne tended to wave hers around as she spoke. That was cute, but he preferred Willow’s more contained and quiet mannerisms. They were both very special, but Willow was the one he wanted.

Cadfael lifted four plates with personal chocolate cheesecakes from the lower shelf of the trolley and passed them around. Rhion had remembered to bring his own coffee beans with him this time, and made them all coffee.

“Coffee and chocolate. Life doesn’t get much better than this,” sighed Willow happily.

“How much time off work have you been given? Do we need to call up and get it extended?” asked Rhion. He would have preferred to suggest they leave their jobs altogether, and come live with the pack, but not only wasn’t it his place to make such a suggestion, likely it was too soon to speak anyway.

“I expect my job has disappeared. There’s a man at work who hated that I’d been promoted ahead of him. Likely he’s used my absence to go through my files and tell all the clients to contact him from now on. But, do you know, I don’t think I care. Being forced to run away has made me understand there’s more important things than work,” said Willow.

“It doesn’t stop me feeling guilty though. You left because of me,” said Hawthorne.

“No, I left because I chose to. And you left because Bailey made your life impossible. I don’t regret it at all. We’ll sell the house and start a new life somewhere else. Maybe we’ll even change our names.”

“You could change your last name to Jones. There’s so many of them around that even with an unusual first name, it’d be better camouflage,” said Rhion.

“Thank you for that idea. Jones would work. Eilidh told us about the rugby players who all had the last name Jones. But we’d have to change our first names as well. They’d make it too easy to find us. There can’t be that many sisters named Willow and Hawthorne around. Maybe we should be Ann and Jane.”

“Mary and Patty,” suggested Hawthorne.

“Cindy and Barbie.” Willow giggled.

The chocolate cheesecake was melt-in-the mouth delicious, but Rhion was more interested in watching Willow. Her movements were restrained and simple, but so graceful. One day soon he wanted to dance with her. He was sure she’d move with confidence and grace. But more important was to encourage them to stay with the pack. He hoped Cadfael had a plan for that because all he could think about was kissing her and he was pretty sure that wouldn’t be smart with her sister standing right beside her.

“I’ve got some people making enquiries about Mr. Hamilton but I couldn’t tell them to rush or that might make people look twice at the request,” he half apologized.

“You’ve been far kinder to us than we have any right to expect. Being able to sleep knowing no one will kick the door down and drag us away is such a relief. At times I wonder if I’ve blown this whole situation out of proportion. If I truly am going mad. Then I remember Bailey’s face as he tried to pull me into his car. It was horrible. He was so—so very angry. And I don’t know why he would be,” said Hawthorne.

“Relax. He can’t get you now. You’re under our protection.” Cadfael’s voice was stern and he exuded an authority he seldom used, that of the Alpha of the pack. His tone of voice told Rhion more clearly than any words could how much he cared for Willow and Hawthorne.

After a few moments’ silence, Hawthorne said, “What kind of businesses are there in this part of the building? Are any of them looking for an office worker, do you know?”

“Is that what you do? Work in an office?” he asked her.

“Not exactly. We’re both scientists, but I can’t imagine much need for chemists and DNA testers here right now.”

Rhion had to school his face carefully not to answer that they were very interested in scientists. Fortunately Cadfael spoke, asking them about their work.

Rhion didn’t know a whole lot about science but he did know that werewolf packs around the world were all experiencing the same problem as his pack faced. Namely, a decline in the number of girls born over the last two generations. When werewolves continued mating other werewolves, only about one third of babies were female. But if wolves mated human women the numbers jumped back up to fifty-fifty. Of course, the odds of the baby being human instead of werewolf was the same, fifty-fifty, but it did guarantee that wolves wouldn’t become extinct, which was increasingly likely if they mated only other wolves.

Various packs both in America and overseas were working together to discover why this happened. His own pack had a team of people tracing family histories, in particular looking at whether humans had been brought into the mix before, and how many generations of pure wolves there could be before girls started to disappear.

But a couple of scientists trained in genetics would be an absolute gift to their studies. Of course learning about shape-shifters had brought these women nothing but trauma so far. They might not want to help. And there was also the issue of how and when to tell them they’d landed in the heart of a wolf pack. That would need to be handled delicately as well. So much to talk about and decide. And absolutely nothing he could say as yet.

Just as he couldn’t pull Willow into his arms and kiss her until her knees melted and she demanded he do more to her. Well, he and Cadfael. That was another discovery they’d made. Not only did including a human woman into the mix help balance the genders, but also two men sharing the same woman led to much more cooperation and harmony within the pack. Men had to work together to gain and please a woman. Plus there was the added bonus that twice as many men achieved their mate. It was a win-win situation all around. Or it would be when they could speak openly about it to Willow.

They talked some more and then Hawthorne and Willow looked at each other and stood up.

Hawthorne said, “Thank you very much for this evening. We’ve enjoyed your company very much.”

“But it’s getting late and we need to go now,” concluded Willow.

He and Cadfael jumped to their feet and escorted the two women into the elevator. It was so hard not to brush his body against Willow’s or hold her hand, or anything. His dick was aching for her and even stroking her hand would have been good. But he leaned against the wall, keeping at least six inches of air between their bodies, and tried to soothe himself by drinking her in. Her pretty face, her straight posture, her contained, graceful movements, and her sweet feminine scent. All of which added up to a huge ache that she wasn’t in his arms right now and that he couldn’t demonstrate to her how very, very much he wanted her.

When Eilidh opened the door of 7C, Rhion wasn’t sure what Cadfael did, but in the blink of an eye Hawthorne was inside, the door shut, and Willow was pressed against the wall with both men in front of her.

“May we kiss you good night, Willow?”

“We? As in both of you?”

“Yes.”

“I— I don’t know. I—Oh, all right.”

That sounded like a yes to him. Rhion stood aside as Cadfael pulled her into his arms and kissed her very thoroughly. When they separated, Willow’s eyes had a glazed look and she touched her index finger to her bottom lip. “Wow.”

Rhion gave her a moment to breathe, then wrapped an arm around her waist, letting her feel his hugely engorged dick. But instead of possessing her lips, he trailed his mouth over her eyebrows and kissed the tip of her nose. He sucked the lobe of her ear into his mouth, then twirled his tongue inside the pink shell, hoping she found it arousing. Her body shivered against his. He hoped it was in a sexy way. Certainly she wasn’t trying to pull away from him at all.

Next he licked along her jaw before placing a row of tiny kisses there, and only then did he take her mouth. She opened immediately for him, and he tasted her. What he wanted to do was fuck her mouth deep and hard to show her how he’d like to take her cunt. Instead he kept his touch gentle, exploratory, promising a whole lot more but not overwhelming her.

Reluctantly he pulled away from her and Cadfael knocked on the door again. Eilidh opened it as Willow stared at them both. “Good night,” she whispered and slipped inside.

Eilidh shut the door again.

“I think that was positive,” said Cadfael leading the way to the stairwell.

Rhion would have preferred to take the elevator, but he followed Cadfael up the stairs. They had things to talk about and research to do. Having a couple of women in the pack who could understand genetics truly was a blessing from the gods. He’d felt all along the women were a gift from the gods. But now he
knew
they were.

* * * *

“Here at Hanson Mall, no one can force you to do anything you don’t want to do,” Eilidh said to her as soon as she was inside the apartment.

Willow looked around but Hawthorne wasn’t there. She couldn’t hear the sound of water running, so guessed her sister was already in their bedroom.

“Nothing happened that I didn’t want. But it’s very soon. Still, a kiss is perfectly acceptable on a first date.”

“Indeed it is. As long as whatever happens is what you want, there’s no problem. But if the men ask more of you than you want to give, just let me know.”

“Thank you, Ay-lee.” Willow deliberately pronounced the nurse’s name the way she’d learned to say it. This woman was fast becoming her best friend. Willow gave her a hug, then went into her room.

Hawthorne was sitting on her bed watching the door. “Are they good kissers? And did they kiss you one at a time or both together?”

Willow giggled. It was almost like being in high school again. “Yes they’re very good kissers. Cadfael kissed me first and then Rhion.”

“Which one was better?”

Willow sat on her bed and stared at Hawthorne. “You know, I never thought of them like that. They were quite different. I like them both.”

“That’s going to make it much harder to choose between them.”

“We won’t be here long enough for it to matter. As soon as we’ve worked out our next few steps it’ll be time to leave and make a new life for ourselves as Ann and Jane Jones.”