by Cara Adams
Werewolves of Hanson Mall 3
Dangerously Attracted
To prove Jackson Hamilton’s well-being center is kidnapping people, including werewolf shape-shifters, security guard Dakota Rutherford contacts him pretending her grandmother needs care and accommodation. Lewis Bowen, who escaped from the center, and Andreas Llewelyn, who loves Dakota, are horrified by her risky actions. But she refuses to listen to them or accept their protection.
Lewis is still trying to adjust to life in the city after growing up in uninhabited mountains. But Dakota means more to him than his own safety. Andreas has loved Dakota for a long time but she won’t listen to him either, and now he sees the adoration in Lewis’s eyes when he gazes at her.
Maybe together they can convince her to let them help her and between them manage to keep her safe from harm. But will she listen to them? And will Hamilton recapture Lewis anyway?
Genre: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Paranormal, Vampires/Werewolves
Length: 35,419 words
DANGEROUSLY ATTRACTED
Werewolves of Hanson Mall 3
Cara Adams
MENAGE EVERLASTING
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www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting
DANGEROUSLY ATTRACTED
Copyright © 2014 by Cara Adams
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62741-443-2
First E-book Publication: April 2014
Cover design by Les Byerley
All art and logo copyright © 2014 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
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Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
About the Author
DANGEROUSLY ATTRACTED
Werewolves of Hanson Mall 3
CARA ADAMS
Copyright © 2014
Chapter One
Dakota Rutherford, one of the security guards at Hanson Mall, had decided to contact Jackson Hamilton when she was completely alone. She knew several of the werewolves would want to listen in to the conversation, but she didn’t trust them not to comment on what she said, or even worse, try to get her to say specific things. The last thing she wanted was for Hamilton to cut the call off or realize it wasn’t kosher.
Therefore she had to do it when she was alone and where no one would overhear her. That was a problem because she shared an apartment with some of the other human women who worked at Hanson Mall, so the apartment was often noisy. And the rest of the time she was at the mall. When she looked at her life critically, Dakota had to acknowledge she didn’t actually have a life. She was either working, or living and socializing with the people she worked with. And now she was about to dig herself even deeper into that particular pit by lying to Hamilton about having a mentally incompetent relative she’d like him to lock up for her.
Dakota had just finished working the four to midnight shift. The mall was quiet. The last of the movie theater patrons had gone and the parking lot was empty except for a few vehicles belonging to those who had apartments in the professional suites of the mall. Dakota swiped herself out of the building and into the fourth-floor parking lot. She checked the door was firmly shut behind her, and then walked up the parking lot stairs to the fifth level, which was staff-only parking. First she walked the edges of the lot as if she was still on duty. There were no people anywhere around, including in the few vehicles in the lot, and there were no broken light bulbs, often a precursor to trouble.
She leaned against the back wall of the parking lot. Here there was no way anyone could approach her without her seeing and hearing them well in advance. She took out her cell phone and mentally recited the spiel she planned to leave on the well-being center message bank. She assumed they would have a voice mail facility. The business was most likely not quite legal, but it would need to take messages for the times when the receptionist was unavailable.
She took a deep breath to ensure her voice would be completely steady and normal, before tapping out the number she’d been given. As she anticipated, the phone rang through and then a man’s voice said, “You have reached the well-being center. We’re unable to take your call right now but your message is important to us. Please leave your name, number, and a short message after the beep, and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.”
A completely generic message that tells me absolutely nothing about the business at all, she thought. There was a beep and she said, “My name is Dakota Rutherford. My grandmother has dementia and needs more care than she can receive at home. A friend told me to call you.”
Hmm, and it was even true. More or less. Her grandmother did have dementia, but there was no way she’d risk letting her anywhere near Jackson Hamilton. But if he ran any Internet searches, the old lady existed and had been diagnosed with advanced dementia. And a friend did—well, not ask her to cal
l. It was more that he agreed that letting her call was a possible way to expose Hamilton if he was committing any wrongdoing.
She’d spent a long time talking to Willow and Hawthorne Cunliffe, and the one time Hawthorne had met Jackson, when she was at a party with Bailey, was the perfect occasion to pretend Dakota had been there as well. It had been a fund-raising event for a children’s charity and there’d been several hundred guests. It would be difficult to prove she hadn’t been there as someone’s guest and had met and talked to Bailey there. Besides, Jackson had been there as well and should remember the occasion. Dakota could easily say she’d decided to think more about the suggestion instead of talking to him straightaway.
Anyway, it was done. She needed to go home and sleep. It’d be time to get ready for her next shift all too soon. She hurried across the parking lot and slid into her small car before making her way across town to the apartment she shared with Helena, the mall beautician, and Quintana, who owned and managed both the clothing boutiques in the mall. At this hour of the night the journey took less than ten minutes. At rush hour it was more like half an hour. Fortunately none of the three of them regularly traveled at rush hour. Quintana was incredibly focused on making money. She worked very long hours doing many jobs herself that other people in her position would delegate to employees or outsource. But Quintana was determined to succeed on her own merits. As far as Dakota could tell, she was already doing so. Both stores were popular and profitable. One concentrated on dresses and special occasion outfits, the other on everyday women’s wear.
Helena was just as dedicated to her job, but she was more likely to arrive early to coach one of her juniors to help them pass their beautician school tests, or remain back late to fit in an extra couple of clients who couldn’t make it to the salon during business hours. Both of them were very different from each other and from her, but they all got along well once they’d established a few simple guidelines about chores. Now each had a “zone” to keep clean and they almost never argued. Dakota was usually able to do her chores when she was on a shift that meant the others were out of the apartment and she could make as much mess and noise as she liked while she worked. They were both very considerate of her shift work hours and she did her best to return the favor.
Dakota shook her head. Here she was mulling useless things over all the way home and avoiding the elephant in the room. Well, the elephant that should be on her mind at least. What the fuck was going on at the well-being center? Something smelled really bad about it. But was Jackson Hamilton evil? Kidnapping the innocent, harmless werewolf Lewis certainly seemed to imply Jackson was a nasty character indeed, but could it possibly all be a great big misunderstanding? Was there a chance that Lewis, in his naïvety and fear, had totally misunderstood what was going on? Well, that was her job. Dakota wasn’t a trained security guard for nothing. She should be able to decide if the business was legitimate or not.
Dakota was convinced Jackson Hamilton was the bad guy in the situation. Hawthorne and Willow had to run away to avoid Hawthorne’s being forced into the clinic. There was nothing wrong with Hawthorne. She was as smart as anyone else and smarter than plenty of people. And Lewis was shy and nervous but there was nothing wrong with his brain either. He’d been able to explain the family histories of people in his pack going back a passel of generations. No. It was Jackson who was the bad guy here. All Dakota needed to do was collect the evidence to prove it.
* * * *
Lewis Bowen was up on the roof of Hanson Mall again. It was after midnight and he should have been asleep in his bed, but once again he was standing on the roof, his head tipped right back and his gaze focused on the sky far above. Anyone looking at him would have been certain he was crazy, but he missed the mountains and only by filling his mind and heart with the emptiness of the sky could he relax.
He was a damn long way from the Wind River Mountains in Wyoming where he’d been born and reared in a small werewolf pack, and going back there wasn’t an option. Oh sure, he could visit with the few people still living there, and his parents who’d moved into a nearby town, but as some famous person once said, “The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there.” It was time for him to move on and Hanson Mall was a good place to be. He’d been astonishingly lucky to meet up with Harry Harrison, a bear shape-shifter and a private investigator who’d found him after he’d escaped from the well-being center. Actually, he was fucking lucky he hadn’t been caught and sent back there again after he’d gotten out. But instead, Harry had talked to him, and most of all, believed him, and brought him here to another werewolf shape-shifter community.
Lewis looked all around himself, reassured that no one else was on the roof. He lay flat on his back on the concrete and stared at the sky. There were a few tiny clouds moving across, hiding the stars for a minute or two before the clouds moved on and the stars reappeared. The sky wasn’t as bright here as at home because of all the city lights, but up here he could almost pretend the city didn’t exist and he was alone again.
Not that he wanted to be completely alone. He hadn’t liked that much at all. His pack had been very small, and he’d never had a child his age to play with or just to talk to, but he’d never been so completely alone as when he’d left to look for a new pack and possibly even a mate.
Now he knew there was such a person as the Supreme Alpha of North America and this august person had decreed werewolves could marry humans. And not only that, but two wolves could share one human woman if all three of them agreed on it. Lewis knew he wasn’t strong enough, brave enough, or smart enough to deserve a woman all of his own. But he was prepared to share one. Especially if the human was someone like Dakota. She was smart, and brave, and kind, all the things he wasn’t. Yet she’d never yelled at him or told him he was incompetent. She’d just shown him how things were done here in the city and left him to do them. She had shoulder-length light brown hair and hazel eyes that sparkled with life and vitality, sometimes brown and at other times amber or even green.
If he was allowed to be with a woman like her he would spend all day every day working to please her, to protect her, to earn her love, and show her he’d cherish her with his every breath. Not that she’d ever look at a wolf like him. She could have any man she wanted. She’d only spent time with him because she was so very sweet and caring.
Lewis sighed. I need to find a job. But I’m not trained for anything. I never went to college and since I was homeschooled I don’t even have a proper high school diploma. All I know is farming and this is the city where such knowledge is of no use to anyone.
Willow and Hawthorne Cunliffe, the two women he’d answered questions for about the family history project, had told him Cadfael Hanson, the managing director of the mall, planned to make a roof garden up here. Maybe he should talk to Cadfael. Building a garden was something he understood. He and plants spoke the same language. Plants grew for him. He always knew if they needed more soil, or less water, or perhaps some extra nutrients.
Lewis jumped to his feet, pacing around the roof. In his mind he could see neat borders with plants growing green and strong inside them. And perhaps, tucked away in a corner, a little shed where he could live. If he was in charge of the garden he’d need tools and bags of soil. And if they were kept in a storage shed, surely there’d be room for a camp bed in there for him as well. At night, when no one was around, he could drag his bed out onto the roof and fall asleep looking at the stars. And staying here he’d be able to see Dakota every day.
Now that would be perfect. A job, a home, the sky all to himself at night, and a woman he could get to know better. All he needed was the courage to approach Cadfael.
I will. I can do that.
* * * *
Andreas Llewelyn was doing sit-ups on one of the machines in his gym, but he wasn’t counting how many he’d done and he wasn’t aware of the sweat soaking into the bandana around his head and into the toweling cuffs around his wrists. His entire mind w
as on Dakota, the security guard. The very cute security guard. Everyone thought he was in love with Marbella, a sexy little wolf who took aerobics classes. The membership of his fitness center had rapidly increased in the weeks after he’d hired her, but had dropped off after many of the male wolves had discovered her idea of a fun date was an hour of high intensity aerobics or a “nice” twenty-mile run up the steepest hills in the neighborhood. Also she was married.
So now most people thought that he was sad at not winning Marbella’s love. But he’d known she was married when he hired her, and although she was incredibly sexy, she wasn’t what he was looking for in a mate. Dakota, on the other hand, was exactly what he wanted. Dakota was damn fit, but she had many other interests as well. Talking to her was always a workout for his brain. Her conversation ranged over anything and everything and some days he felt like he had just done an hour on the machines after a conversation with her. But he liked that about her. She was also genuinely concerned for everyone who came into the mall—staff, customers, visitors, clients—everyone was special and important to Dakota.
But she’d been working at the mall for over a year now and he still didn’t really know her very well and he had no idea how to leap the chasm from someone she spoke to casually when she was making her rounds of the businesses, to someone she might consider dating.
Plus, now there was Lewis, the rescued wolf. He was a quiet, unobtrusive sort of man who only ever came in when the fitness center was almost empty, usually late at night, close to closing. Which was great from a business point of view, and had enabled him to get to know the man a bit. What he knew of Lewis he liked. The man was diffident, but Andreas sensed a strong character underneath, held in check because Lewis was in new and unknown territory. Besides, if he hadn’t been courageous he’d never have escaped from Hamilton’s so-called clinic. But the main problem was the adoration for Dakota that shone in the man’s eyes whenever he saw her or spoke of her. It was clear he idolized her and would never suggest mating her, but Andreas just couldn’t forge ahead with his own plans to get to know Dakota when it was so obvious Lewis wanted her as well.