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

by Cara Adams

  She stretched her arms over her head, lengthening her spine and looking far more like a sexy cat than a wolf, before following them across to the viewpoint.

  “It is pretty. Thank you for making me stand up and look around.”

  Ethan held both her hands. “Georgia, Nolan and I would like to invite you out on a proper date with us.”

  Nolan rested his hands on her shoulders. “We remembered what you said about Girl Scouts and campfires. Will you please come with us to the Simon farm and we’ll camp for a couple of days? We’ll cook you real campfire food.”

  “We’ll take you to all our favorite places and show you the best things on the farm and all the good things about camping,” said Ethan.

  Ethan watched her gaze switch from him to Nolan and back again. She leaned forward and dropped a chaste kiss on his cheek, and another one on Nolan’s cheek. “I’d like that. I’d love to see where you both grew up and go camping with you. But not for about two weeks. First, I need to tabulate all the information from these two packs we’ve just visited, and work out who I need to interview or reinterview. After that’s done, then we’ll go away for a three-day weekend.”

  Well fuck! It was better than a “no” but not what he wanted her to say. Two more weeks. Fuck!

  * * * *

  The first few days back at Hanson Mall, Nolan was frantically busy just keeping up with Georgia. There were papers to sort, files to enter, figures to type into a database, colored sticky notes with peoples’ names on them to add to the family trees on the office wall, and a thousand other things to do. Since he wasn’t as good with computers and spreadsheets as Ethan, Nolan also did most of the cooking and shopping for the group, endlessly thankful for the ability to put all the groceries bought from the supermarket on the Hanson Mall account.

  He’d gotten to know Daffyd, the wolf who managed the supermarket, well and was starting to consider him, and some of the other Hanson Mall wolves, such as Gareth, who owned the Laundromat, as friends. Neither he nor Ethan had ventured into the fitness center. They’d talked about it, and liked the idea of working out there, but decided that they didn’t want to pay to use it themselves, and didn’t want to abuse the privilege of working for the pack by making the mall pay for them to exercise. Just walking around the mall and running up and down the stairs would have to be enough for their physical fitness for the time being.

  Willow, Hawthorne, and Wynn had completed entering and sorting the data from the first pack he, Ethan, and Georgia had visited while they were away on the second road trip. Nolan knew everyone was really eager to get these two lots of data entered as well, so they could look for new leads and get a feel for everything they’d discovered.

  On the third day, Georgia was sitting in the living room, the table there covered in papers, while Willow and Hawthorne were updating the wall charts in the office, and Wynn and Ethan were working at the office table. Nolan had just stepped into the living room to put on the coffeepot and feed everyone a snack when Georgia’s cell phone rang. He stopped what he was doing, not to overhear her conversation, but so that his noise wouldn’t distract her.

  What she said was mostly grunts, or “yes” and “no,” anyway, but he could tell something about the conversation was bothering her. She’d put down her notepad and pen, and stretched her body as she often did while resting, but she was not relaxed. Her hand was gripping the phone so tightly her knuckles were white, and there was no smile on her face, or sparkle in her eyes.

  Nolan began to worry that the caller was abusing her. But if he was, why didn’t she end the call and turn her cell phone off or to voice mail?

  When she did end the call, Georgia scooped all her papers into an untidy mess. Now that was totally unlike her. When she needed to clear a space, she often crisscrossed the piles of papers, making a tall stack, with landscape and portrait piles alternating.

  Nolan quickly started the coffeemaker, got out the mugs, and opened the refrigerator, taking out cream, bottles of water, and several bags of cookies for everyone to snack on. It was plain Georgia was about to call a meeting. And he really needed to know what was going on. What had upset her?

  But instead of the usual casual cry of “Break time, everyone,” Georgia walked into the other room and said quite softly, “We need to talk.”

  Shit! Something really bad had happened. He knew it!

  Chapter Five

  Georgia sank back down into her chair, stunned by the story Janet Young had told her. The others gathered around without the usual laughing and teasing that happened at break times. They were a strong, united team, and she supposed they sensed something was wrong. She asked, “Remember when the inappropriately named well-being center was closed down?”

  “Jackson Hamilton. I still have nightmares about Bailey trying to force me to talk to him,” Hawthorne said with a shiver. Willow leaned over and hugged her sister.

  “I just had a phone call from a woman named Janet Young. Her father, Norm, has early stage dementia and her brother arranged for him to be cared for at the well-being center.”

  She turned to Ethan and Nolan, wondering if they even knew what she was talking about. “Did anyone tell you about the well-being center, or about Bailey and Jackson Hamilton, Ethan? Nolan?”

  Willow answered. “I explained to them how Hawthorne and I arrived here, when Bailey tried to force Hawthorne to go to the center. I said how, while the seniors there appeared to be cared for properly, the same was not true of a few shape-shifters who had been locked up in a different part of the building.”

  Georgia nodded. She wanted the Simon pack men to understand what she was about to say. “When Dakota visited the well-being center, she was shown all around the area where the elderly people were staying, and they had nice surroundings and a nurse with them. The only thing she was worried about was that it was lunchtime and there was no sign of a meal being prepared. But everything else appeared okay for the old people.”

  She looked specifically at Nolan and at Ethan. They seemed to be onboard with her so far. She knew the others were just waiting for her to get to the point, but she wanted to tell Janet’s story once only, and properly.

  “As I said, Janet’s father, Norm, has early stage dementia. Alzheimer’s disease, actually. This means that caring for him can be challenging, as he still wants to do things, but can’t be trusted to be left alone. She said he’s the classic case of the person who turns on the stove, puts a pot of pasta on to cook, and then watches TV until the smoke alarm goes off and the pot is burned right through.”

  “I worked with a woman whose father had the same problem, and wouldn’t surrender his driver’s license. His car had paint scraped off every panel from all his close encounters with fences and other vehicles, but he still didn’t think anything was wrong,” said Wynn.

  “Exactly. At the time Janet was living interstate, opening a new office for the company she works with. Her brother, Malcolm, said he’d find somewhere for their father to stay and she was just relieved that Malcolm was willing to help her. She said Malcolm is both a bully, and quite selfish, so having him offer to help was wonderful and she was really grateful to him. Norm was settled at the well-being center. Janet talked to him every week and he seemed fine at first. A few months later the nurse often said he was tired and asleep when she called, and when she did speak to him on future occasions he seemed disoriented. Janet asked them to check his medications. She thought likely as he got worse they needed adjusting or something. Anyway, she’s back here in Ohio now and the first thing she did was go visit him. She was horrified to learn what had happened.”

  “Do you mean she was horrified about the shape-shifters being maltreated, or just that Jackson and Bailey were sent to jail for kidnapping and fraud?” asked Wynn.

  “Sorry, I’m trying to tell the story but I keep missing out bits. Both of those things, but mainly at the way her father was being looked after. They pretty much had been drugging him and keeping him in bed, because he’d r
eached the stage of wandering, and was going into other people’s rooms and annoying them, not understanding he wasn’t living in his own house anymore.”

  “Where is he now? Has she found a good home for him?” asked Hawthorne.

  “That’s why Janet has contacted me. Well, us. She’s moved him to a really good care facility designed for people with dementia and he’s been taken off most of the drugs. At this place the residents’ communal area is built in a ring around an internal garden, so they can walk as much as they want, and never get lost or upset other people. But the point is, now he’s off the drugs he’s started talking about werewolves.”

  “Werewolves?”

  “What?”

  “Seriously?”

  “So that’s why they drugged him. Jackson was trying to find out what he knew about them,” said Hawthorne.

  “I wondered about that, too,” said Georgia.

  “What does Janet want you, or us, to do?” asked Wynn.

  “And how did she hear about the family research project? Is she a werewolf or a human?” asked Willow.

  Georgia smiled, feeling some of the tension release from her body. “Oh, that’s a story all in itself. She’d met Ambrielle, who works at Thorne House, the shape-shifter clinic, a long time ago and finally managed to get in contact with her. Ambrielle knows about us, but wasn’t sure if she should just give her our details, so she asked the Supreme and he gave her permission. He had one of his staff check out Janet’s credentials and said we could speak freely to her. So I don’t know whether she’s a wolf or has worked with them or what. But she’s not about to harm us.”

  “Are we going to interview her or her father?” asked Ethan.

  “Both of them for sure. Janet works long hours but we’ve arranged to meet at nine on Sunday. We’ll talk to her and she’ll take us with her to visit her father. It won’t be the usual kind of interview, but I think if we’re patient we should be able to find out what their link is to the werewolf community.”

  “When you say, we, who do you mean?” asked Wynn.

  “Don’t worry, Wynn. I’m not going to rip you out of Quintana’s arms on her only part day off work. Ethan, Nolan, and I will go. If it turns out she leads us to a pack or to a group of humans who support werewolves, we’ll work out how to deal with that later.”

  * * * *

  Ethan had been really concerned about the phone call Georgia had received, but it sounded like something they could deal with. Both the bad guys were in jail. And he knew they were really bad guys. He’d heard about how they’d come to the mall and almost killed Eilidh, the nurse, and how they’d attacked and imprisoned Lewis. But they were in jail now, and Norm and Janet weren’t going to be near them. This was just the aftermath to that story. Besides, he and Nolan would be there to protect Georgia.

  By Sunday he was glad to go outside. They’d been working hard on the project, tabulating all the data, and there’d been entire days when he hadn’t even left the apartment. Even an hour’s drive across the city was something to look forward to.

  The people at the mall were the first people he’d ever known with genuine careers—apart from his teachers when he’d been at school, he supposed. The wolves in his pack who had jobs off the farm tended to do minimum wage tasks. Laboring on other farms in the busy season, driving farm equipment, stocking shelves in stores, that kind of thing. Meeting people who’d gone to college and trained for some completely different future was opening up a new world to him. As a young man, he’d been content to come home and work on the farm. He had grown up with the people there and they were his friends, his community. It was only once he was old enough to think about finding a mate that he’d understood that he had a problem. Back then, he’d accepted that he’d never have a woman of his own. Now he’d found the one woman in the world who he loved and wanted, and was ready to do everything he could to help her in her career, and to build a new life for himself and Nolan with her.

  He was driving Georgia’s SUV. He’d have been prepared to take the farm truck on such a short distance, but Georgia had led the way to her car so he was happy to use it. Driving her car was certainly better than worrying that the old truck might stop working somewhere.

  He kept flicking glances at her in the rearview mirror, but she wasn’t working, just looking thoughtful. Nevertheless he stayed silent. It was their usual pattern as they road-tripped, and he felt it was comforting somehow, just to see her there in the backseat and know she was with him and Nolan. Which didn’t mean he wasn’t really eager to take her to bed again, but it was difficult to arrange now that they were back at the mall. He and Nolan shared a twin bed room in the office of the project. She had an apartment somewhere else. He didn’t even know where she lived, only that the apartment block was owned by the Hanson Mall pack and lots of the wolves lived there.

  He pulled into the parking lot of a very nice apartment building at five before nine, and drove up to the door of the building. He stopped in the drop-off space, and Georgia pulled out her cell phone. “We’re a few minutes early. I won’t text her yet,” Georgia said.

  A short woman with a rounded body came bustling out the door of the building and over to the SUV. Nolan jumped out immediately and opened the rear passenger door. “Ms. Young?” he asked.

  “Correct. Let’s go.”

  Ms. Young started giving him directions before Nolan was sitting down again, dropping her extra-large purse at her feet, buckling her seat belt, and talking all at once.

  Ethan stopped looking at her or thinking about her and concentrated on going where she said.

  Twenty minutes later he stopped again, this time in front of a long, rambling, single-story building, with wings sticking out at angles all around a central rectangular core.

  Ms. Young was out of the car and slinging the oversized purse over her shoulder while Nolan was racing around to the trunk to collect Georgia’s bags. He followed the women into the building, looking back and pointing the car key at the car to lock it after Nolan had closed the trunk. They stopped at a reception desk to sign in and get passes, and then followed Ms. Young who set a brisk pace down one of the hallways.

  Once again he needed to concentrate. He also tried hard to memorize the signs at the intersections of the various wings, but wasn’t confident he could find his way back. All the wings were named after flowers, but there was no logic in it. He’d turned right out of pansy into lily of the valley, but had he turned into poppy or was that the wing going in the other direction at the junction? Hell. No wonder the dementia patients couldn’t get out. It’d be a miracle if he could find his way back and he wasn’t even senile yet.

  They stopped at the reception desk at rose, and the nurse showed them into a conference room. “They’re bringing your father up now. He’ll be here soon, Ms. Young. I’ll order some refreshments for you all as well,” she said.

  “Thank you. You’re very kind,” said Georgia.

  Ms. Young dropped her purse on the circular table in the room then walked quickly back to the doorway. She might look small and round, chubby even, but she had unlimited vitality. It made Ethan wonder if she was a wolf. She had so much energy. Yet wolves weren’t usually overweight. He’d never known a rotund one before. He shrugged. Hopefully he’d find out soon.

  It was only a few minutes later that a nurse arrived, holding an old man’s arm.

  Norm was almost bald, and short and chubby like his daughter. He smiled at her and said, “Hello, honey. It’s good to see you again. Are these the cousins you were telling me about?”

  Georgia stood and smiled at him, accepting his hug. “Whose daughter are you then? You don’t look like Patrick at all.”

  Ethan didn’t hear what Georgia replied as an assistant entered then, pushing a trolley with cups and saucers, coffee, and miniature muffins on a tray.

  Only when all the staff had left and the door was shut again did Ms. Young take her father’s hand and speak to him. Ethan noticed she kept her gaze on his, hold
ing his attention as well as his hand. That was a good technique. It grounded the old man in what he was supposed to be doing.

  “Dad, do you remember me telling you about my friend Ambrielle?”

  “Ambrielle. That’s an unusual name. Ambrielle. Why yes, I do. She was the one with an Aunt Kitty. An Aunt Kitty who was a kitty.” The old man giggled at his pun.

  Was the woman a cat shape-shifter? Or maybe a panther? He’d heard of some panther shape-shifters before, although he wasn’t aware of ever having met them.

  “These people are friends of Ambrielle’s, not our cousins.”

  “Well that explains it then. You don’t look like Patrick,” he said to Georgia once again.

  Ethan noticed she had her iPad out and was tape recording the conversation. Usually she explained to people she’d be taping the interview and offered to turn the tape off if there were things they didn’t want recorded. She must have explained what she’d do to Ms. Young, he supposed, and been told not to try to explain it to Mr. Young.

  “Dad, I want you to tell them about the werewolves you know.”

  “Are you sure? It was supposed to be a secret.”

  “But these people are friends of Ambrielle’s so it’s not a secret from them.”

  “Oh, okay. Very well then. Hmm. Yes. There’s a BDSM community, maybe two and a half hours from where I live, and from time to time they hold events. Parties with BDSM displays, that sort of thing. I used to go a couple of times a year and a few of them were werewolves. I got to know several of the men quite well, and became friends with them. I consider Kurt Urquahart my good friend. He showed me his wolf form several times. We actually visited some on the property there when I stayed over after a party.”

  Ethan relaxed back in his chair as Georgia and Ms. Young encouraged the older man to tell his story. But it wasn’t a new lead unfortunately. All the people at Carnal Connections had been interviewed already. There were panthers there as well as wolves. More panthers than wolves, actually. Likely that’s who he’d been thinking of when he knew he’d heard of cat shifters. So, not a whole new lead, but still a worthwhile interview to hear this man’s story.