by Cara Adams
Jett hadn’t been able to stay away from Eve, and as soon as he’d suggested going to the schoolhouse Morgan had said he’d come with him. They’d decided to go late in the day and help the women clean up and ready for the next day. Once again, they went by motorcycle, driving across country to save time, and parking out the back of the building. The parking lot was still quite full, even though it was almost closing time.
Jett was surprised and rather wary when he saw several police vans also parked right at the back of the school yard, behind the bathrooms. A police officer was interviewing a woman, using his cell phone to videotape the conversation. Jett looked at the woman again. She was a bit familiar, but who could it be?
“Is that Josie? Josie from Wolf Central?” asked Morgan.
Wolf Central was the name the wolves jokingly called the headquarters of the pack that lived in town. Josie was their receptionist. “I don’t know her really to look at. I’d recognize her voice though for sure.”
“I wonder what’s going on?” said Morgan.
“Yeah. We need to check Eve’s okay.”
“Hell, yes.”
They marched around the building. Out front people were going to their cars. Many were carrying parcels, which looked good for business. The popcorn man had run out of cotton candy but was still selling popcorn. There was a line at the coffee van, too, of about half a dozen people.
In the foyer, Ginnie was busy taking money and giving people their parcels. They nodded to her and walked inside. For a moment Jett wondered if they should have paid the entry fee, but it seemed a bit silly to do that when it was just about closing time.
Both Taige and Eve were helping clients, Taige displaying sets of matched beads in all different shades of blues, Eve simply standing behind a display table while several people were still looking at goods.
Jett and Morgan waited out of the way as the last few people made their purchases and headed out of the room. Taige went with her clients, taking the jewelry they’d selected in its carry bag. Jett moved across to where Eve could see him, in case she wanted them to do anything.
Finally the room emptied out and both Jett and Morgan went to Eve. Morgan kissed her cheek gently and Jett copied him. He’d have liked to do a whole lot more than that, but even kissing her in public was a major step forward.
“We came to help,” said Jett.
“That’s wonderful. See the empty spaces on the wall where we’ve sold things today?” She sounded so happy Jett could only be happy for her. “We’ll replace my work now, and then Ginnie can tell you what she wants hung when she’s finished with the clients.”
Eve pointed out several empty hooks then told them which framed pieces were to be hung where. For the next hour Jett found himself filling baskets with bracelets and necklaces, sweeping the floor, and then hanging more of Ginnie’s paintings.
He and Morgan even volunteered to clean the toilets, but said Eve had to go out with them for dinner at a later date as payment for that.
“Not today or tomorrow, but maybe lunch Monday would be good. I have to go to town to deliver a wall hanging on Monday.”
“We’ll come with you,” said Jett instantly.
Morgan nodded. “You’ll need someone to carry it for you, presumably, anyway.”
“Actually it is a big heavy one. I’ll be glad of your help.”
“Congratulations on selling a big wall hanging.” Jett took the opportunity to kiss her again, a little more passionately this time. Morgan was right behind him for his kiss.
By the time the schoolhouse was all clean and tidied and ready for the next day’s crowds, Jett could see how tired Eve was.
“Have an early night, treasure,” he said gently.
“I will. But first I want to find out what the story was about that purse.”
“What purse?” He and Morgan spoke together.
“A woman’s floral purse full of money. It was really strange. I saw a man put it under one of the tables, and then he tried to run away and said he knew nothing about it. One of the customers caught him and stopped him and Ginnie called the police.”
“What did the police say?” asked Jett. It sounded really weird to him, but it explained why the police were here, which he’d totally forgotten while they were helping Eve.
“I have no idea. They asked me to tell them what I saw, which I did, then I had to get straight back to work. We had a big crowd again today which was wonderful, but it’s a lot of work for the three of us.”
“Why don’t we come along tomorrow to help? We could do whatever you tell us. I know you have to take the sold items down to Ginnie in the foyer. We could do that for a start,” said Jett.
“And if people are leaving their purses behind, likely we could act as security for you, too,” added Morgan.
“I think that would be awesome, but I expect you’d get very bored very quickly just standing around all day.”
“Oh, I don’t know. Security guards do it for a living, you know,” said Morgan.
“I’ll have to check with Taige and Ginnie. All decisions are communal,” warned Eve.
Jett grinned at her. He knew they’d say yes. They were run off their feet without mysterious purses magically appearing under tables. And it was another chance to get close to Eve, to love and serve her, and to help her realize they were made for each other.
* * * *
There were no strange men placing wads of money under tables, and nothing at all out of the ordinary on Sunday. But Morgan still enjoyed being close to Eve, watching her deal with customers, talk about her wall hangings, and, on two occasions, sell them.
She was so tall and straight, moving silently through the crowd, answering questions, helping people, always calm and serene, yet still passionate about her craft, and so talented he could hardly believe someone so brilliant would spend time with him.
Morgan was the most ordinary and boring of people. When the kids were picking baseball teams he was never anyone’s top pick, but he wasn’t one of the last ones either. At school and college his grades were good, but he was never top of the class. And in the pack he was one of the managers, but not Jasper’s right hand man. A solid, worthwhile kind of person, he supposed, but never a star.
To have found the woman who would be his mate was the best thing that had ever happened to him. It still seemed almost unbelievable. And the fact that Jett was so cooperative and fair about sharing made it all the more amazing. Cleaning a few bathrooms seemed a small price to pay to have her smile at him. Of course, he still had to get her to say yes to commit to them, and there was the hurdle of their shape-shifter status still to jump, but just knowing she existed and liked them both was wonderful.
There was also the mystery of the man and the purse. What was the story about that? It made no sense at all. Why leave money behind? If he wanted to give them money why not just hand it over? And if it was payment for drugs or something illegal, doing it in the middle of a busy craft market was insane.
Eve had to pack the wall hanging for transport and said she planned to sleep in on Monday morning, so he and Jett had arranged to borrow one of the pickup trucks and collect her a little before noon. They’d deliver the wall hanging and then take her out to lunch. They needed to both tell her and show her they loved her. Hopefully helping her was the start of showing her. Likely they’d need to do more as well as say the words, though.
Consequently, he wore a button-down shirt with his good jeans, although he still wore boots not wanting to risk anything heavy landing on his foot. Breaking a toe was not part of his plan. But he did take the time to polish his boots until they shone.
Jett had booked them a booth at Ted’s for one o’clock. It was the best choice they could come up with. Being in a booth meant their conversation would be a little more private, and Ted’s had a lot of choice menu items. Hopefully there’d be food Eve liked, and good conversation, and they could manage to do and say something romantic. The romantic part was hard. Morgan had
a sinking feeling he was a bit too ordinary to make romantic work. But he’d do his best. And maybe Jett would pull it off for them both.
When Eve answered the door at the old schoolhouse, Morgan almost swallowed his tongue. She was wearing a fitted dress that was dark green at the throat and the tops of the sleeves, then gradually the green faded lighter until the hemline was a sunburst of whites, yellows, and oranges. It was eye-catching and unique.
“That dress is amazing.”
“It’s my ‘visiting a wealthy client’ outfit.”
“I can see why.” Jett’s voice was as hoarse as his felt.
“The hanging is in the shipping room,” she said, leading them to the door and pointing out the well-padded parcel. It was taller than him and wider as well. Suddenly he smiled. “What would you have done if we didn’t offer to help you deliver this?” he asked.
“Asked you, of course.” Eve laughed, and so did he and Jett. Jett picked up one end of the heavy frame and he took the other, and they walked out to the pickup and slid the parcel in the back.
He noted that Eve locked the shipping-room door behind her and then locked the back door, and was again reminded they hadn’t started work on the internal bathroom yet. He needed to check up on that. The sooner it was completed the better, and it’d never be completed if it didn’t get started.
But today was all about romance, not business, he reminded himself.
As they pulled out onto the secondary road that would take them into town, Morgan asked, “When you’re not involved in your craft, what do you like to do?”
“What do I actually do, or what would I do in an ideal world?”
“Both,” said Jett.
Good answer. It’ll tell us a lot about her.
“Mostly, if I’m not working on my craft in some shape or form I’m doing chores or asleep. My whole life for the last two, three years, has been focused on making my business a success. If I’m not working at one of my looms, I’m sketching designs, or updating my website, or reading blogs about my work. Last week we all were in such a fever to make more goods to sell we only added a couple of pictures to our websites about the craft market. Today we went through the dozens of pictures we’d taken—well, it was mostly Taige who took them—and chose different ones, each showcasing our own work as well as demonstrating the good crowds we had come.”
Morgan thought that really explained her to him so well. She loved her work and enjoyed doing every aspect of it as well as was damn good at it. Besides, she must take her job very seriously to be constantly updating her website and reading blogs about craft, as well as constantly designing new pieces.
“And what would you like to do?” asked Jett.
“Oh, that’s easy. I’d travel. It was so funny. Dad hated having to go to Africa for his work. You’d have thought the company was torturing him instead of sending him around the world business class, staying in five-star hotels, to meet with his counterparts in other countries. He spent half the plane ride there saying to me over and over, ‘I don’t understand why I can’t do this on Skype.’”
Morgan hadn’t thought much about traveling. He supposed it might be interesting to see Machu Picchu though, and the pyramids in Egypt. “Where else would you like to go?” he asked.
“Oh pretty much anywhere, really. Disneyland, the Grand Canyon, the Norwegian Fjords, Europe.”
“So was Africa on your list of must-see places, or was it just where your father was sent?” asked Jett.
“Both. It was high up on my to-do list, but the only reason I went there was because Dad was sent and he was allowed to take his personal assistant with him, but she has a young child and didn’t want to go. So I jumped at the chance. The hardest part about working for him was stopping him from saying a dozen times a day that he wanted to go home.”
“Seriously?”
“Just about.”
“Where in town are we going? The first exit is coming up in a couple of miles,” asked Jett.
Eve rattled off the address.
“What?” Morgan heard what she said, but it was taking him a moment or two to assimilate it.
“You know Josie, don’t you? Do you know the company she works for? Do you know why her boss let her choose the wall hanging without even looking at it?”
“Not know exactly. More know of,” Morgan hedged.
Eve poked him in the ribs. “Spit it out. Who and what are Vukic Industries Ltd.?”
“The company owns that entire multistory building. I suppose it’s an integrated company in many ways. Shops, businesses, offices, and apartments. I guess there’ll be signs up in the foyer saying what services are provided by the various sectors of the company,” he answered.
Eve stared at him. “That’s not exactly a helpful answer. I now know he’s well able to afford the hanging if he owns the entire building. But I still have no clue as to what the company does.”
“It’s predominantly a communications business, I think. IT and so on,” said Jett.
“Thank you.”
Eve smiled at Jett and Morgan heaved a sigh of relief. Thank all the fates that Jett had been able to think of a true and relevant answer that didn’t give away any secrets. Mr. Vukic was the Supreme Alpha of North America. Wolf Central was the home of his pack. All the shops, businesses, offices, and apartments in the building were run by his werewolf shape-shifters and not only provided them with a living, but also networked their wolf pack with all the others across the nation. That was essential for the Supreme to keep in touch with everything to do with wolves throughout the nation. No matter what happened or where it happened, if it involved wolves, it was important that the Supreme knew about it. Morgan had never seen the Supreme and hoped he never did. The man was said to be almost supernaturally intelligent, with an aura of power ordinary wolves could feel. Morgan might be boring and ordinary, but he preferred that to risking antagonizing anyone as important as the Supreme.
However, it was very interesting indeed to know the Supreme had sent Josie to purchase a wall hanging from the craft market. Jasper had said the Supreme had approved his mating with Taige. Did that mean the Supreme would also approve Morgan’s mating with Eve? To have the Supreme’s approval would be the most wonderful blessing on their mating he could ever imagine. It was natural the Supreme would take an interest in all the Alphas under his control. But for him to give an additional blessing to other pack members was amazing indeed.
The security guard at the gate to the basement parking lot was expecting them and had reserved a parking space for them right next door to the elevators. So Eve held the elevator door open while he and Jett manhandled the huge parcel into the elevator. They went directly up to the level above the stores where Josie had her desk.
Josie took her headset off and waved for another woman to take over for her at the reception desk when they arrived. “Hi, Eve. What a beautiful dress. Did you design it yourself?”
Morgan almost slapped himself upside the head. Of course she would have designed the dress herself. It was exactly the kind of inspired artwork she displayed in her wall hangings. Why didn’t he think of that?
He and Jett stood to the side, still holding the parcel as Josie and Eve chatted for a few minutes, then Eve said, “I want to see where it will hang. The colors are so important I need to be able to visualize it in its new home.”
“That’s easy. It’s going to be hung right here, opposite the main staircase from the lower levels so everyone will see it as soon as they arrive.”
Eve turned and walked across to the stairs as if she’d just walked up them. Morgan watched as she tilted her head back, her tidy blonde braid sliding down her spine as her head lifted higher.
The wall Josie had pointed out was quite bare and was the ideal place for an enormous piece of art. And the colors would be perfect. The boring beige expanse would be lit up with the strong reds, blacks, and greens of the wall hanging. Besides, now that he thought about it, those colors were just right for a man
with as much power and influence as the Supreme. Black for anyone who opposed him or displayed evil, red for his energy and vitality, and green for his integrity. Josie had chosen something absolutely ideal.
A man in jeans, with a tool belt slung low on his hips, exited one of the elevators and walked across to Josie. “Eve, tell Alex what he needs to know about installing your artwork.”
Josie left Alex and Eve together and walked across to Morgan and Jett where they stood with the parcel between them. “I’ve told Jasper, but I’m telling you, too. The police will be explaining to the women about the purse and the stolen money. But the wolf who tried to plant the money at the craft market is not important. What’s important is that Sard Varg has told a group of wolves from your pack that if they get rid of Eve and Ginnie he’ll provide them with female wolves from a pack somewhere else. He seems to think there are packs around with an abundance of females, which, I expect you know, is not true, but the wolves believe him and are following him to get mates. Jasper is going to have his hands full dealing with that. Meanwhile you need to protect your own mate.”
“Thanks for letting us know. What the fuck is Sard thinking? Spare female wolves? Where does he think he’s going to find them?”
“The Supreme is in constant contact with the Supremes of all the other continents. We know for an absolute indisputable fact that there is no pack anywhere with more females than males. There is not even any pack with an equal number of males and females.” Josie broke off and turned around.
“Just leave the artwork resting against that wall over there for now. Alex will deal with it.”
Morgan blinked at the change of topic then guessed Eve was on her way back to them. And now they’d be going out to lunch. It was time to bind Eve to him and Jett with love. But protecting her was going to be the issue that occupied his mind after lunch. How was he going to do that?
* * * *
Once again Eve was certain there was something going on that was being hidden from her. Again and again she got an itchy feeling between her shoulder blades that there was some really important piece of information that she didn’t know. Something to do with the men. Something she absolutely had to know and deal with if she was going to stay with them.