Love Found [Pack Law 6] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (3 page)

Twelve minutes later she was pulling the truck into the large warehouse. After turning off the ignition, she hopped out of the driver’s seat.

“Alyson,” Jerry called from his office door, “come into my office.”

Oh shit! Have I done something wrong?
Jerry was scowling as usual, but there seemed to be an underlying tension around his mouth.
Did I take too long making the delivery? Did the Friess brothers complain about me? Maybe I should have been more persistent when Tarkyn took the hand truck from me.

Alyson hurried across the blue-painted concrete floor and into Jerry’s office.

“Take a seat.” He waved his hand toward the chair across from his desk. “The Aztec Club has changed their delivery schedule.”

Is he studying me more intently than normal?
Alyson tried to keep her face blank and her body still. It took more effort than she would have thought when the sexy image of the Friess brothers flashed through her mind.

“Okay,” Alyson said, and even though she wanted to ask questions, she decided silence would be more prudent. If the Friess brothers had something against her, she wasn’t about to open her mouth to help get herself in trouble. She needed this job to put food on the table and keep a roof over her head. Her last job hadn’t paid much, and she was always living from paycheck to paycheck. Maybe one day she would have enough money to start her own business and work for herself, but she couldn’t see that happening in the near future.

“You are to make smaller deliveries daily and a larger one on Saturday afternoon,” Jerry said.

“But…” She hesitated.

“Go on and say it,” Jerry said gruffly.

“That doesn’t make sense. Why would they want smaller deliveries done every day when it would be cheaper to have one larger one done every week? They’ll be paying extra for the man hours and fuel.”

Jerry studied her, and then she saw a glimmer of amusement in his eyes. She watched with fascination as a smile slowly spread across his mouth and he tipped his head back and let rip with a deep belly laugh. Alyson had no idea what was so funny but smiled anyway. She’d never seen Jerry smile or laugh. His humor seemed to lighten his whole gruff exterior. Finally with a last chuckle he looked at her and grinned as her smile turned to a frown.

“Don’t worry about it, sweetheart. If the customer wants their deliveries done every day and is willing to pay for it, why question it? The customer is always right. Your last delivery every day will be to the Aztec Club. By the time you finish up, the warehouse will be closed, so you may as well take the truck home with you.”

“You realize that I will have to park it out on the street, don’t you? I don’t have a garage or driveway I can secure your truck in.”

“You live in Bloomfield, sweetheart, not New York. The truck will be fine.” Jerry smiled again.

Alyson eyed him and wondered what was going on. Jerry was up to something. She just hadn’t figured out what yet.

“Since it’s only twenty minutes until knock-off time and there are no more deliveries today, why don’t you go on home?”

“Don’t you want me to wash the truck first?” Alyson frowned at her boss. He was a stickler about using any free time in the afternoon to keep the company vehicles clean. He sure was acting strange.

“No. Take the time while you can. I have a feeling you aren’t going to get any more free time. By the way, you’re no longer on probation. You do good work, kid.”

“Thanks, Jerry.” Alyson rose to her feet and gave Jerry one last look, but he didn’t seem to intend to explain. She headed for the door. “See you tomorrow.”

* * * *

Chevy answered the phone in the office, kicking the door shut to muffle the music and voices from the front of the club.

“Aztec Club, Chevy speaking.”

“Chevy, Jerry here.”

Chevy grinned even though the man on the other end of the line couldn’t see him. The old wolf had called back just like he’d promised. Chevy asked at once, “What did she say?”

“She’s pretty confused over the change to the delivery schedule. She didn’t argue, but that’s not to say she won’t figure out something’s up. She’s not stupid, you know.”

“I never thought she was, Jerry.” Chevy sat down on the edge of the desk. “What do you mean ‘confused’? She wasn’t annoyed, right?”

Jerry sighed. “If she’s really your mate, pup, you have bigger problems than whether or not she minds driving out to Aztec every afternoon.”

Jerry was a lone werewolf but had been under the Friess Pack’s protection for years. Jonah, Mikhail, and Brock’s father hadn’t wanted a lone wolf in his territory, and when he had tried to get Jerry to join his pack, the man had adamantly refused. But Jerry and Jonah’s father had become great friends and had often socialized together before Jonah’s dad had handed the Alpha role of the pack over to his three sons. Jerry had become an honorary Friess Pack member from then on.

That meant that Jerry was no stranger to the idea of mating. Better still, he could fill Chevy and his brothers in on their mate.

“So, what can you tell us about Alyson Redding?”

“Not much. She’s only been working for me for two weeks, although she has been in town for around five months. She’s a feisty, confident woman and a very hard worker. She never gives me any trouble.”

“Where is she from?”

“Now, that I don’t know. I never asked her.”

“Did you ask for any references when she applied for a job?”

“What for?” Jerry asked abruptly. “Someone with half a brain could do the work.”

“What is she scared of?”

“Ah, so you picked that up, too. I have no idea, pup, and didn’t think it was my place to question her. You and your brothers are going to have your work cut out for you. Underneath that pretty, sassy exterior is a heart of gold, but I also think she has a backbone of steel.”

“Okay, well, if you find out what she’s so frightened of, you let us know. It is our right to protect our mate.” He hated the idea of Alyson being in any danger, so much so that he wished she were back in the club right now. “And make sure that there are no hiccups with our late-afternoon deliveries.”

“Hey, don’t tell me how to run my business, pup. I was working long before you were a gleam in your father’s eye.”

“No disrespect intended, Jerry. I’m just eager to see and get to know our mate.”

“You be careful with her, Chevy. She’s a sweet girl and I don’t want to see her hurt.”

“We have no intention of hurting our mate,” Chevy replied in a growly voice.

“Oh, I know that, but I also know your brothers. Rylan can be such an arrogant bastard.”

“Hey, we’re wolves, what do you expect?”

Jerry chuckled. “Take care of my girl.”

Chevy disconnected the call and went in search of his brothers. They were serving patrons at the bar, and since there were humans about he decided to speak to them using their telepathic link. He told them about his conversation with Jerry and how Alyson’s boss was protective of her even though he didn’t know her that well.

“Did you ask him if he knew what she was frightened of?”
Rylan asked.

“Yeah, he has no idea.”
Chevy joined his brothers, pulling a beer for one of their patrons.

“We are going to have to get our mate to open up with us.”
Tarkyn stood at the back of the bar, polishing glasses with a frown on his face.
“We can’t protect her if we don’t know what we’re protecting her from.”

“You’re getting ahead of yourself, Tarkyn,”
Chevy told him. He delivered the beer to their customer with a smile before continuing.
“We have to take things slow with her. We need to give Alyson time to get to know us first.”

Tarkyn glanced up from his work long enough to give Chevy an annoyed look.
“You think I don’t know that? Fuck! I just want to hold her and take her back to the den house with us. At least we know she’d be safe there.”

“You think she’s in danger?”
Chevy asked.

“I’m not sure, but something isn’t right.”

“I don’t like that she’s so far away from us,”
Rylan said as he made change and gave it to one of the humans at the bar.
“But Jerry’s right that we have bigger problems than getting her to come see us.”

Tarkyn looked alert.
“Like what?”

“Like our status in the pack. How is she going to feel that her mates aren’t even Betas?”

Chevy sighed aloud, realizing belatedly that the woman he was serving was giving him a funny look. He smiled tightly and turned away. There was no sense trying to tell Rylan that in time they would rise within the pack. They were younger than their cousins, and Jonah and the other Alphas had respected that in promoting the Domain brothers first. If they kept their noses to the grindstone and served the pack well, they’d be treated the same way.

But Rylan was, in his way, just as impatient as Tarkyn, and he felt his lower status in the pack keenly.

“She’s human, Ry,”
Tarkyn said.
“She won’t even know what an Alpha is.”

Rylan lifted his eyes to the door.
“Speaking of…”

Chevy glanced toward the door to see his Alphas and their mate come in. He nodded respectfully, rounded the end of the bar, and then followed them to the booth.

“What can I get you all to drink?” Chevy took their orders and was about to return to the bar when his queen stopped him by placing a hand on his arm. Jonah, Mikhail, and Brock growled low in their throats. Chevy hid his smile. He knew how protective they were of their woman, and now he understood why. He felt the same way about Alyson.

Michelle glared at her men but slowly withdrew her hand from his arm. “Chevy, is your mate here?”

“No, she lives in Bloomfield, but she will be here every afternoon from now on.”

“Just let me know if you need my help explaining everything to her, but make sure you get to know her first before you reveal who you are. Don’t do what these boneheads did and scare the crap out of her.”

“Thank you, my qu…Michelle. I’ll be right back with your drinks.”

Chevy filled his Alphas’ orders.
“What did they say about Alyson?”
Rylan asked.

“Nothing. Michelle wants to help.”
The look Chevy gave his brother was pointed.
“They’re not the enemy, Rylan.”

“I know that! They’re our Alphas, and they’re good men.”
Rylan’s gaze drifted to the table.
“Jonah seemed happy that we found her, but what if they don’t accept her once they meet her? I won’t choose between my mate and my pack.”

“You won’t have to,”
Chevy assured him, but he took the drinks back to the Alphas’ table in a pensive frame of mind. He found himself studying Michelle as he took their orders for dinner. Michelle was the perfect mate to their leaders. When she had first arrived in Aztec she had seemed shy and introverted, but meeting the Alphas had brought out her true nature. She was a very caring woman, but she was also very strong minded, and she stood up to them like no one else could. Just what the pack and their leaders needed.

Alyson seemed to have some of that feistiness, too, but the way she hid her past from them made Chevy worry. Neither Rylan nor Tarkyn would be patient enough to let her come to them. They’d push her, and Chevy could only hope that his brothers’ arrogant dominance didn’t scare her away.

Alyson’s stomach was doing a nervous dance. The closer she got to Aztec the worse her stomach churned. For some reason she felt drawn to the three Friess brothers who ran the Aztec Club, but she couldn’t for the life of her work out why. She’d never really been interested in men or relationships, because she had seen how women and children had suffered at the hands of so many assholes. Logically she knew she was being unfair by categorizing the Friess brothers with those evil bastards, but it wasn’t easy to ignore her experience.

Taking a deep breath, she pulled the small truck into the rear parking lot of the club and reversed as close to the cellar doors as possible. Just as she turned off the ignition and got out, the large wooden doors to the cellar burst open. Rylan walked out and over to the rear of the truck, pulling the tailgate down and extracting her hand cart from the back.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m helping you.”

“Look.” Alyson frowned and placed her hands on her hips. “I appreciate the help, but this is my job. It’s what I get paid for. I can’t expect Jerry to pay me if you do my work.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Rylan began to pull cases of beer from the truck and stack them on the cart.

Alyson sighed, and when she picked up another case of beer, warm hands settled on her hips.

“Let me take that, honey.”

Alyson glared at Tarkyn as he stepped around her and took the box from her hands. She stood back and watched with frustrated exasperation as the two arrogant men did her work.

“You can’t stay out here. Don’t you have customers to serve?”