The hairdresser had been too easy to pluck information from, a hazard of the job she guessed. Her name was Marnie and she would have given Kandis an estimate of her profits for the year if she had asked. She told her she used to be a Vegas showgirl and had bought the salon ten years ago when she got too old to dance. Kandis thought there was a good chance Marnie would like to retire to the beach and maybe find herself husband number four. She offered to do her hair at a discount and Kandis said she was too busy today but maybe another time.
The kid behind the counter of the toy store was also a breeze. He was all of sixteen years old and stared at her the whole time she was asking questions. The owner lived out of town and rarely set foot in the shop. The kid worked part-time in the holidays and after school and said there was only one full-time employee who had already left for the day. He gave Kandis the owner’s phone number and she was grateful when she was able to escape. Someone was a little intense!
She took a few deep breaths of air and by the time she had visited the deli, a small ladies boutique and the ice cream parlor at the end of the row she was ready for a fat juicy hamburger and made her way across the street to the diner.
Liam wasn’t there yet so she slid into a booth in the back corner and ordered a coke while she added to her notes. There were only a handful of businesses left here, it seemed almost everyone drove the fifteen miles or so into the larger town of Grayston for the larger grocery stores or for clothing, furniture and electronics. It was a shame because the local businesses always suffered when the larger chains were accessible.
There was no denying that this place was ideal for their needs and the pack would build more cabins and Liam had said they would buy up houses and apartments in the town too as they became available to supply the needs of the pack. Why was she holding on to the idea of staying in the compound? This was just as pretty up here in the small mountain town and she knew that most of the others would love it too when they saw it, she wasn’t sure why she was so averse to change.
The door opened and Liam strode toward her with another man close behind him. He was tall and good looking but looked like he belonged on wall street rather than here in this quaint little mountain town.
The waitress called out to him and she could see the appreciation in her gaze but he seemed not to notice her and slid into the booth opposite as Liam sat down beside her.
“Kandis, this is Nate, he’s the attorney I called yesterday, Nate this is Kandis. There was no need to say who she was to him, the proprietary way he took her hand spoke volumes and Kandis stifled a smile as she realized Liam was staking his claim in front of the other wolf. She had sensed it the moment she saw the faint glow in his eyes and confirmed it when she caught his scent.
Nate shook her hand and she raised an eyebrow but kept quiet as the waitress approached the table. They ordered their food and waited until she disappeared again before she spoke softly.
“Is there another pack in the area?” she asked him.
“No, only me.” he replied with a wry smile, “I came here a couple of years ago when I needed to get away from it all and the place grew on me. It does get lonely from time to time and sometimes I will come across other shifters when I am out running but not very often. I do miss the camaraderie of the pack but I won’t go back there, when I left, I left for good.”
Liam took a drink and they changed the subject as the waitress was hovering around them, hoping for a chance to talk to Nate again. Kandis thought it funny how oblivious he was to the woman. She was so into him and he wasn’t even aware of her interest. She wondered what had happened to make him leave his pack and blunt as she was, she knew it would be crossing the line to ask him when they had only just met.
“Nate researched all of the land titles for us and has already got most of the information we need. Geoff and Maryanne were correct, Seann actually owns everything from his cabin upwards which is perfect for privacy. We have about thirty acres with the cabin we are buying and the other one coming up for sale has a bit more than that. All of the empty cabins, except one, are owned by the same person but he recently passed away after years of illness and his daughter may be willing to sell. They were used as holiday lets and she isn’t interested in keeping it going, hence the reason they need a bit of TLC.”
“That sounds very promising but also very expensive.” she said, “There were a few others that were occupied too.”
“I will get that information to you as soon as I can and I will also make inquiries into all of the viable real estate in town. It may take a while to buy it all up, years even, some folks may not want to leave at all,” Nate said.
“We will be more than generous, everyone has a price.”
“I am guessing you would want to stay, Nate,” Kandis asked and he smiled.
“It would be nice to belong to a pack again, it’s been a long time.”
It will be expensive, very expensive.” Liam got back on track, “But if we do this and move the pack out here then I had an idea that we could rent out the cabins in our existing compound. It’s next to the national park and the river is great for fishing. The compound has a huge play park for kids and it’s reasonably close to town, we would generate a lot of income from them. The other option is to sell the entire thing outright to a developer.”
“Wouldn’t we have the same scenario here after a while, when we have been here for too long and people start to notice how slowly we age.”
“No babe, that’s the beauty of this place, the entire town, businesses, schools and houses. If we can buy it all we wouldn’t ever have to move again. Everything would be owned or managed by pack members. There is also a farm on the edge of town that we could buy eventually and it’s adjacent to the acreage of Marvin and Francine’s cabin. Nate says they haven’t farmed it for some time and there is more than seventeen hundred acres of fields and woods We have many miles of potential land out there that could be pack owned. We would need to build, there aren’t enough cabins or houses in town to accommodate our growing numbers but there is plenty of vacant land, Lachlan and his crews will be busy if we go ahead with this.”
The waitress brought their food and lingered a little too long as she put Nate’s plate in front of him. He mumbled his thanks without looking up and she gave up with a sigh and went back into the kitchen.
Kandis glanced at Liam who shrugged and bit into his burger. Nate couldn’t have made it any clearer that he wasn’t interested in the woman but Kandis felt a pang of pity for her anyway.
“It would be nice to have a permanent home but I would miss the compound. I have never lived anywhere else.” Kandis popped a French fry in her mouth.
“I think the mountain property will be a breeze to acquire but the houses in town may prove a little more difficult. Same with the businesses, some will sell to you and some will not. You may need to be patient, it could take a generation to buy everything.” Nate said.
“We have all the time in the world. We won’t try and force people to sell to us but we will entice them. We also need a few larger buildings for pack businesses, Imogen and India’s for one, our construction and catering businesses and a few smaller ones.”
“The farm would be perfect,” Nate said as he wiped his mouth with his napkin and pushed his empty plate away from him. You should take a look around out there, the original farmhouse needs a bit of work on it but it would make a good Den and there is a newer two-story house built on the land about ten years ago for the farmer's son, but he is rarely there. He works in the city and only uses it as a weekender. The best part is that you would have direct access to the mountain from the farm without going through the town.”
“Seann and Imogen would likely live there with Garrett and India in the newer house.” Liam was thinking out loud, “We would need to build more cabins, on the mountain and maybe on the land between there and the farm, close to the river. How strict are the building regulations here?” he asked Nate.
“Not very stric
t and I have friends on the planning committee, there are also several farm buildings that could be converted for businesses or even homes if you didn’t plan on farming the land.” he smiled and Kandis thought how much it changed his face when he did.
He didn’t smile very often and she knew the look in his eyes only too well, he had been hurt badly in the past and she grieved for him. Whatever it was she knew what pain was and she hated to see anyone else suffer.”
“I doubt we would farm it although who knows someone might turn their hand to market gardening,” Liam teased.
“We do get a lot of visitors in the summer from the holiday lets way on the other side of town so you would need to fence and patrol the entrance to the mountain but they spend a lot of money here that could keep the small businesses afloat. The village has a swimming pool, a play park for the kids, a small lake with boating activities and a nine-hole golf course as well as the chalets they let. Most of the vacation homes are self-catering so they come into town to eat and buy basic groceries etc. The owner keeps trying for a license to build his own stores in the resort but we keep turning them down, it would ruin the livelihood of a lot of people here if we allowed that.” Nate tapped his fingers on the table.
Kandis thought there was a bit of a warning in that last statement and Liam obviously thought so too.
“If Seann, Garrett and the council agree to all of this I can promise that we will never hurt anyone in the process, it’s not who we are at all. We would love to see pack members buying into some of these businesses or managing them and I hope in time we own everything, so I agree that it wouldn’t be in our interests either to allow the resort to be completely self-sufficient. We would welcome visitors, we just prefer they don’t live here, privacy is paramount to the pack.”
“Would you welcome other wolves that are not from your pack if they wanted to settle here too,” Nate asked.
“We would welcome you to stay and others if they followed basic pack rules, you know it’s important that we stay hidden from the public.”
Nate nodded his agreement.
“How long will you be staying here?” he asked, “I will gather as much information for you as I can.
“We need to go home tomorrow, I have to get back to work, Seann and Garrett are snowed under and I need to help,” Liam said and Kandis felt her heart drop.
“Back to reality.” she smiled but she was sad. This time with him was the best of her life and although it would be nice to start their life together, they wouldn’t have this much alone time again for a while.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Liam
He packed up most of his clothes as Kandis made dinner. He knew she was disappointed but he hoped she would cheer up when she saw what her father had done to his cabin. Lachlan had sent him a text earlier saying he had finished painting the house and Imogen and India had been in and added some finishing touches. Lachlan had no doubt pulled out all the stops for his little girl and Liam hoped she liked it. They could be living there for a while yet and he wanted her to feel like it was her home.
Something smelled amazing and she called out for him to come and eat. She had made sweet and sour chicken with rice and Liam’s mouth was watering before he even took a bite. It was fairly spicy and tasted delicious. He scooped up another mouthful and closed his eyes as he savored the taste.
“This is really good, babe.”
“I only know how to cook half a dozen dishes, this is one of them.” she grinned, “So if you were hoping for Martha Stewart, you are going to be very disappointed.”
“I don’t mind cooking and we can share the other stuff,” he said as he refilled his plate.
“I’ll clean, you cook, I will give you a break every now and then with a curry or a stir fry.” she offered.
“Deal. We can also beg for food at the Den, Roisin is always happy to have company.”
She shook her head, Roisin had a soft spot for Liam and thankfully she was warming up to Kandis too. She knew it was her own fault that people didn’t like her much, she had behaved like a spoiled brat but it was just a defense mechanism. She had made some good friends in the last few months and she liked the feeling of not being completely alone. Imogen was tougher than she looked but she was a sweetheart who was very warm and kind to Kandis, considering she had attacked her not so very long ago and India was always blunt and brutally honest with her. Even the twins, Hope and Bree, were friendly towards her and she knew she was lucky to belong to this pack and especially lucky to have found her soulmate in Liam. The icing on the cake would be to have a baby with him.
She smoothed her hand over her toned stomach and wondered if there was already a tiny spark of life inside her, shifters were notoriously fertile.
Liam sent her off to pack as he cleared away their dishes and he double-checked that they had everything. Hopefully, the next time they came up here they would be in their own cabin down the hill. Even if Seann vetoed the idea of the pack being out here permanently it would be a perfect getaway for them.
They spent the evening on the porch under a blanket watching the stars. He was happier at this moment than he could ever remember in his whole life. Kandis was warm and wrapped up in his arms and he could have easily closed his eyes and stayed out here all night with her but he wanted to make love to her tonight, slowly and savor every moment and even though they were fairly spread out, he didn’t want to risk giving the neighbors a peep show.
He scooped her up in his arms and carried her to bed and she stretched out sleepily as he undressed her and discarded his own clothes. She was stretched out naked and beckoned him to come to her and his heart took off like a freight train. With one little crook of her finger, she had him eating out of the palm of her hand.
His heart hammered in his chest as she boldly explored him and he closed his eyes and thanked the gods for bringing Kandis to him. Who would have thought that they would be fated mates? A few years ago, he would never have believed it, but holding her here in his arms he wondered how he had ever doubted it.
They made love several times and each time was like a first. She was strong and liked to challenge him and it excited the hell out of him when she was rough but he also loved her soft and pliant in his arms, as she was right at this moment. Her teeth found their mark and he howled with pleasure and bit down on her flesh as she called out his name.
They slept sated and happy until dawn and when Liam woke first, he slipped out of bed, pulled on his shorts and padded through to the kitchen to make them breakfast. He made pancakes and the smell enticed her out of her slumber. He smiled at her mussed hair and she was wearing his t-shirt that came right down to her thighs.
He put a stack in front of her and she covered them in hot maple syrup and munched her way through them in no time. He put another stack on the table and took a plate of bacon from under the grill and put them on the table too.
“I wish we didn’t have to go home today, darlin, but Seann needs me,” he said as he poured them both a large mug of coffee.
“I know, it was so nice while it lasted but I have responsibilities too that I need to get back to.” she smiled. Apart from being Liam’s right hand, she had started training classes for pack members in Krav Maga and self-defense. She tried to get all of the women and young girls to join because in the pack they often left their safety to the male wolves and Kandis knew that had to change. She was proof that women could be as effective as men in defending themselves, they just had to fight smarter than their naturally stronger counterparts.
She showered while Liam cleared everything away and thought about her newest class. There were seven girls aged from eight to twelve and Kandis was determined to recruit more. It was never too young to start and the exercise alone was good for them. Liam did a lot of training with the men and one of the older teens. One of them, a kid called Tyler had started a class to train the younger boys. This pack would be street fight ready if Kandis had anything to do with it. Most packs relied on their
naturally superior strength but for her that wasn’t nearly enough.
She dressed in white shorts and a pale blue cotton blouse for traveling and packed up the last of her belongings. She went out onto the porch to wait for Liam and she could see that the cabin that would soon belong to them was now empty. The car was gone and the porch light was out.
She had ideas already for decorating it and surprised herself with the thought. She had never cared much what her home looked like. Her own cabin was clean and functional and her father had painted it. Her Mom had added all the cute pillows and pictures to make it more homely but Kandis had never cared about any of that stuff, at least until now.
Liam came out carrying their bags and put them in the trunk. They went back inside and had a last look around and he keyed the door and they got into the car for the journey home.
“I think Geoff and Maryanne have gone already, the cabin looks empty,” she said as they got closer to the empty cabin.
He pulled up in front and took a key from his pocket.
“Geoff gave me this, we can have a proper look around now that it’s practically ours.” he smiled.
They got out and he opened the heavy wooden door and went inside. The older couple had emptied the house of all furniture apart from the large wooden table and chairs in the breakfast room and a set of heavy wooden bunks in the smallest bedroom. All the rooms were a decent size and was similar in style to Seann’s cabin without the mezzanine.
“We should be the new owners by the end of next week. I have given Nate power of attorney over the sale and wired the money to him this morning, he can take it from there and hold the extra keys for us until we come back again.”
“That’s quick,” she smiled knowing that even if it didn’t work out for the pack to be here permanently that they could come back here any time they wanted for some much-needed privacy or just a break from their increasing pack responsibilities.
“You can do anything you want with it, buy whatever furniture you like and decorate it to suit you. I have never been big on that sort of thing and your cabin back in the compound is bright and airy so whatever you do is fine by me.”
Children of the Moon: Book Three Page 8