Tightly Held [Werewolves of Hanson Mall 5] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (2 page)

“Well, since the Supreme wants them on the project, maybe we need to think about some new directions we can investigate.”

Hmm. That was a valid point. Upsetting the Supreme would be a really, really bad mistake. Georgia leaned back in her chair in the genealogy office. It had started out as the guest apartment, but then the second bedroom had become their office, and now their work was spread right through the entire apartment. At least there were still two beds in the main bedroom so these men would have somewhere to sleep. The bed from the second bedroom had long gone.

“So they’ll be staying here, in the apartment? That makes sense because the Simon pack hasn’t got a lot of spare cash.”

“The Simon pack is barely scraping by. We’ll feed them as well as provide their accommodation, but they’ll have to work.”

Georgia gazed blankly at the ceiling. “Willow and Hawthorne have given us quite a few new questions and leads, so the data we collect now is much better than what we got originally. What we could do is get the new people reinterviewing the groups that were interviewed at the very start with the new questions, and also asking if they’ve thought of anything they forgot to tell us. While the new men are doing that, it’ll give us some time to decide where we should go next.”

“Hey, I’m a mated man now. I don’t want to go running all over the countryside. You can do that with the new people.”

Georgia shrugged. She actually didn’t mind traveling and meeting people. It was one of the reasons she’d signed up for this project in the first place. Besides, with two male wolves to protect her she’d have no trouble going anywhere. As long as they were polite and housebroken. She certainly wasn’t going to cook for them or clean up after them like that old man in their pack had seemed to think a woman should do.

Georgia remembered the meal she’d shared with the Simon pack. Wynn had brought all the food and their women had cooked it. But an old man, Samson, had been incredibly rude to Quintana. Fortunately Quintana had refused to lose her temper with him, answering him politely but firmly. If these Simon pack wolves were as smart as Quintana, they’d be a pleasure to work with. If they were like Samson they’d better shape up fast. She wouldn’t take any nonsense from them.

“Do you know which men we’re getting? Have you asked Quintana what they’re like?”

Wynn, along with Keelan the mall jeweler, had mated Quintana just recently.

“I don’t know their names, but Quintana left the pack so long ago likely she’d only remember them as children, which wouldn’t be much use to us anyway.”

“Fair enough. Now, what is the logical next step for this project? Which direction do you think we should investigate next?” asked Georgia.

They had to discover why werewolves weren’t breeding enough girls. The future of all shape-shifters everywhere depended on knowing the answer to that question.

* * * *

Nolan James was determined not to let down his Alpha or his pack. Ever since he could remember he’d been the “pleaser.” The person who wanted everyone around him to be happy. His own happiness had always seemed unimportant, or at least secondary to the pleasure of those around him. If they were content he didn’t care about himself. Except now, at the ripe old age of thirty, he’d seen a woman who tugged at his heart as well as at his libido. He’d never even spoken to her. He wasn’t one of the elders of the pack invited into the front room of the old farmhouse for conferences. But he’d watched her speak to the seniors, had seen her smile and laugh, and knew she was what he wanted. Just completely out of his reach.

Now he’d been offered the opportunity to work with her, and nothing on Earth would prevent him from doing his utmost to please her. Growing up on the farm, in the heart of a wolf pack, it had never occurred to Nolan that being surrounded by males was unusual. He had a mom. He had vague memories of a grandmother who’d let him sit on her rocking chair. The lack of sisters, female cousins, and girl playmates hadn’t even registered with him until he’d gone to school and seen females everywhere. Girls in class, girls on the playground, female teachers, mothers, grandmothers, and little sisters at the school bus stops.

Gradually he’d understood that the fact that there was only one female in his generation on the farm was not normal, as he’d always thought, but a huge problem. He’d accepted the situation as unable to be changed and assumed he’d never mate and never have a family of his own. Some of the other men he’d grown up with had left, going to other packs or distant towns to work, hoping to find a mate. But he was happy enough at home. Even when he’d first seen Georgia, and was hugely attracted to her, the thought that he might get to know her better never occurred to him. His place was here on the farm. Hers was in the city.

In one interview the Alpha had turned his entire life upside down. He was heading into town to work for the delicious strawberry-blonde-haired, blue-eyed city wolf. Nolan was half scared witless and half excited. Scared that he wouldn’t be able to live up to the trust the Alpha had placed in him, excited that he’d see and talk to Georgia every day. Then scared again that she would be disappointed in him if he couldn’t do as she asked. Or worse, that he wouldn’t even understand what was required of him. Making coffee was fine. He knew how to do that. But he wasn’t too sure if the kind of work he’d done on the farm would be transferrable into a city. Unless she had a garden. He could certainly look after that for her, and mow her grass, and wash her car.

He’d graduated high school. He’d never owned a computer but he did know about data entry and spreadsheets. As long as they weren’t too complicated. Ah, hell. He had a terrible feeling he was going to be worse than useless.

He stared at the old-fashioned suitcase sitting on his bed and the clothing spread all around it. The luggage was so old it didn’t even have wheels. It was the one his father had taken on his honeymoon thirty-five years ago.

“Sweaters first,” Nolan told himself and neatly folded four sweaters, stacking them in the suitcase. “Now jeans.” Talking to himself helped center him, and soon the suitcase was full. He zipped it up and sat it by the door of his room and lifted his mother’s suitcase onto the bed. Hers was even older than his father’s. He was pretty sure the sides of it were cardboard, not even some ancient kind of vinyl. But it would hold his things and that’s all that mattered. Some jackets, his good shoes, his athletic shoes, his spare boots, his underwear, his spare belt, a few button-down shirts and neckties, his Dopp kit, and he was done. It was just as well since both cases were full.

Nolan turned, looking around his almost empty room. A couple of model airplanes he’d made as a boy sat on the bookshelf beside a Lego toy and a baseball trophy. A few of his oldest work clothes remained in his closet. And that was pretty much it. Thirty years had disappeared inside two suitcases. Two suitcases older than he was.

I
will
make a success of this. I
will
learn whatever I need to learn. And together with Ethan I
will
win Georgia as our mate.

* * * *

“I’m still surprised the Alpha has given us this truck to use. I sort of expected someone to be sent with us to bring it back to the farm,” said Ethan.

“It just shows how important this is to him. More important that we have the use of the truck if we need it, than all the people back on the farm who’ll be complaining about having to walk places,” said Nolan.

“Huh. No pressure. Much.”

“What if we can’t do what we’re supposed to? If I don’t understand?” Nolan sounded genuinely worried.

Ethan had been thinking about this himself. “Remember Elsie said women like people to communicate with them. Men tend to keep things inside themselves and not talk about them, but women expect to be told, to be listened to, and to have complete conversations.”

“Yeah. She said grunting isn’t an answer.”

“Exactly. So if we can’t figure something out, we tell her. We might feel stupid doing it, but that’s what we need to do so we don’t make some terrible mistake.”

Ethan was pretty sure he was going to hate looking like the country cousin who didn’t know how to behave in the city, but that’s exactly what he was. He’d work damn hard to make as few mistakes as possible though.

Nolan was driving and Ethan was hoping like hell he’d memorized the route properly. Surely a mall would be big enough that they couldn’t miss seeing it. “The mall itself is only four stories high but there’s a tower at one end of it ten stories high with offices and suchlike.”

“Yeah, you said that a couple of times already. It’ll be a good ten minutes before we get there. We aren’t quite in Heidelberg yet.”

Ethan scanned the road ahead of them and out both sides of the car. There seemed to be a whole passel of tall buildings which didn’t help him locate the one he wanted. A few minutes later they were driving through an area of houses and apartment blocks, nothing too tall, and he could see one taller building to their northeast. He pointed it out to Nolan. “Maybe that’s it.”

“Could be. If we are going to be doing a lot of driving around here we’ll need to buy a GPS.”

“Are they very expensive?”

“I don’t know, but if we need it we need it.”

That was just one more thing to worry about. The Hanson Mall pack was going to give them a place to stay and meals—or some meals anyway. But was the Supreme Alpha going to give them some kind of allowance? Their own Alpha wouldn’t be paying them anymore since they weren’t working for the pack, and the Simon pack had very limited money anyway. But if they weren’t getting any income how would they buy things they needed? Not rubbish and junk, but genuine necessities. Like food and a GPS. He had a small amount of savings and he expected Nolan did, too. But it wouldn’t last long if he was buying his own meals and gas all the time.

And how could they romance Georgia with no money? Assuming she didn’t nail their balls to the wall for even speaking to her.

Fortunately, before he could worry himself sick, he saw the turnoff to the mall.

“Take a right up here, Nolan. I see the sign to Hanson Mall.”

“Got it.”

They drove into the parking lot and up to the fourth level as Georgia had told them to do, finding a parking space toward the back of the lot.

“Double glass doors to the professional suites,” he muttered as they entered the mall. He’d have liked to walk around and just look at the mall, but work had to come first.

Nolan led the way forward confidently, and Ethan tried to mimic his friend’s long, lazy strides.

Inside the professional suites, a pretty young woman sat behind a desk. Ethan followed Nolan across to greet her, both of them standing a little back from the counter until she looked up at them.

“Can I help you?”

“We’re Ethan Simon and Nolan James. Georgia Edwards and Wynn Evans are expecting us. We were told to come here.” Nolan was doing the talking, which suited Ethan just fine. The woman was pretty, although he had no idea whether she was a human or a wolf. But she didn’t make his cock stand up the way Georgia did. Still, she was smiling at them and answered them kindly, so it was all good so far.

“I’ll tell them you’re here.”

“Thank you, ma’am.” Ethan stepped back from the counter and looked around the foyer area. Several doors led to what he guessed were offices. There was an elevator and a door to the stairs and that was about it. If he’d been at the farm he’d have leaned against the wall, but he was pretty sure that wouldn’t be polite in a public building, so he simply stood and waited. It wasn’t long until the elevator dinged and Wynn arrived. He recognized him from his visit to the farm. Not that they’d been introduced or anything back then.

“Nolan?”

Nolan stepped forward and Wynn shook his hand.

“And you must be Ethan.”

Ethan smiled and shook hands then obediently followed Wynn back into the elevator.

“The security guards will bring you a key card. You have to swipe it to open the elevator door, and again before you press the button, but they’ll explain all that.” Wynn was swiping and pressing as he talked and Ethan tried to look at what he did, but the buttons weren’t numbered. How the hell was he supposed to press the correct one?

When they left the elevator he looked all around but the floor wasn’t numbered either and none of the office doors were labeled. At least the room they entered was easy to remember because it was right at the end of the hallway.

As they entered the room he caught sight of Georgia. She was sitting at a table, her head bent over a computer screen, and a pile of papers were beside her. She looked up, her pale blue eyes sparkling and a wide smile lighting up her face.

In that second he fell in love.

While Wynn went down to collect their two recruits, Georgia logged off the work she’d been doing and closed down the files she’d had open. It wouldn’t be fair to expect them to do any work today. They’d need to get unpacked and settled in. She or Wynn would have to take them shopping for some groceries as well.

Wynn introduced them to her and Georgia had to press her lips together so she didn’t say something unladylike. But fucking hell. She’d never seen two such stunningly handsome men side by side before in her life. Nolan had dark-brown hair and eyes to match, with the broadest shoulders she’d seen on man in a long time. His skin was tanned, likely from being outside on the farm in all weathers, and his muscular arms and legs were a clear statement that he was used to hard work.