by Cara Adams
His former home was in the opposite direction so they turned around and cut across the grass, heading back the way they’d come. The house looked cold and empty, but he hoped that one day it’d be lived in again by someone who’d care for it. He’d had a happy childhood, but even then it was obvious there were far too few girls being born to sustain the pack.
“That desk is fine. A bit of polish and it’ll look like new,” said Maitho optimistically. Gowan loved that about him. He was always positive and happy. They carried it out of the house and down the front steps, leaving it in the driveway while they collected the office chair and a box of stationery and supplies.
“I’d better go get the truck. Wait here.”
“I’ll get it. You look around and see if there’s anything else you’d like to bring with us,” said Maitho, bounding off the stoop and running across the grass. Gowan smiled at his retreating back. Maitho was caring and open hearted, a truly good man. Now, if Dera really was interested in them, maybe they would get their mate at last.
Gowan wandered through the empty house, touching things and remembering snatches of the past. He’d already bought his mom’s good lace tablecloth and their best fluffy towels to his new home, ready for their bride. Now he moved from room to room, just looking and remembering. He stopped at the bookshelf where his mom’s romance novels sat, somewhat dusty. Perhaps Dera would like to read them. Wasn’t romance the most popular genre of fiction? He snatched up a cardboard box from the garage and filled it with the books, leaving it beside the front door as he continued drifting through the house, but nothing else caught his eye. He went outside again, locking the door and adding the books to the things sitting on the desk, just as Maitho appeared with one of the community’s white pickup trucks.
They lifted the things into the tray of the pickup then he sat in the passenger seat for the short ride to their new home. “So, we take Dera to Lookout Hill and the river, then to the woods to show her where we run. Where else should we go?” asked Gowan.
“We need to drive up and down all the main roads so she gets a clear mental image of the layout of the community and learns to find her own way around.”
“That makes sense.”
“What are we going to do if she doesn’t like us?” asked Maitho.
“She must like us. She agreed to come out with us immediately, with no hesitation.”
“But what if she changes her mind?”
“We’ll just have to change it back again. We’ve waited weeks for her to demonstrate who she wants to be with and she hasn’t dated anyone. Since she hasn’t chosen any other men, it’s our chance to prove to her she belongs to us.” Gowan spoke firmly. He only wished his mind was half as certain as his mouth was.
* * * *
As a small boy, Maitho had loved to sit on the back of his mom’s chair while she talked to her friends on their landline telephone. He’d get out her box of hair gadgets and tie bows in her hair, make the longer sections into ringlets, even inexpertly braid it. She never minded because at least she knew where he was and that he wasn’t destroying her house while she talked. As he got older, he learned to paint her fingernails and toenails and added that to his ornamentation of her while she chatted to her friends.
As soon as he’d decided Dera was the woman he wanted, he’d watched carefully to see what colors she preferred, and he’d sent away for all the latest fashion shades of pinks, blues, mauves, and purples in nail polish. He would give the box of tiny bottles of color to her as a gift after their first date. He’d already picked out some perfume for her gift after the second date. He just needed to hold her in his arms to decide which scent of the three he’d purchased was exactly right for her.
Arriving back at his house, they unloaded the truck and took everything just inside the front door.
“It’s your house, so I’ll return the truck while you start sorting out the spare room,” said Gowan.
“That’s right. You get the easy job as always.” Maitho sighed and headed for the third bedroom. It’d always been a junk room because it was too small for a guest room and had never been needed as a bedroom since Maitho was an only child. Likely the room was overdue for a cleanup. He and Gowan had sorted out most of the things in the house when they’d decided to live here rather than at Gowan’s home. The deciding factor had been location. Maitho’s home was at the end of a road with empty land right behind the house, perfect for them to go running any time of the day or night. Gowan’s house was in the middle of a row of similar homes. That might have been nice for a new bride staying at home, but half of them were unoccupied since the bachelor men had paired up in preparation for choosing a mate, and most of the other homes were occupied by elderly people. This meant the house had neither the advantage of solitude, nor the advantage of friends nearby.
Maitho stood in the doorway of the spare room and sighed at the pile of boxes stacked against the wall by the door. All the stuff in these boxes had belonged to his parents and he really didn’t know what to do with it. Throwing it out seemed a bit harsh, but he had no use for it either.
Maitho went out to the garage and collected a ladder, which he leaned against the wall at the end of the hallway. There was a ceiling panel here that lifted up, allowing access into the roof space. Of course, it was too dark inside for him to see properly, so he climbed down the ladder again and went back out to the garage for a large flashlight. With the flashlight balanced on the edge of the ceiling just inside the roof space, he could see the sheet of lumber his dad had laid across the ceiling beams so he could store things up here.
He’d remembered about the storage space, but completely forgotten what was up here. He’d have to look through it all one day. Likely most of it should be thrown out as well. But not now. Now was for cleaning up the spare room and making it an inviting home office for Dera. Not that she’d agreed to mate them yet. In fact, she hadn’t even hinted that she liked them yet. But she must like them. Surely she wouldn’t have agreed to a date otherwise.
He piled the boxes from the spare room at the foot of the ladder so Gowan could pass them up to him when he got back, then returned to the spare room. The window blinds needed a good wash and the floor rug was dusty, but the room was actually less cluttered than he’d imagined it. By the time he’d stacked some of the extraneous bits and pieces inside the closet, Gowan was back.
“Hey, that looks better already.”
“Only because all the boxes of junk are waiting for you to help me put them in the ceiling.”
“In the ceiling?” Gowan’s voice was halfway been confused and teasing.
“Yep. Come and help me.”
With Gowan to hand him the boxes, it didn’t take long to push them along the sheet of lumber, leaving the entry space above the ceiling panel free so anyone could climb up inside if they wanted to.
An hour later, the room was dusted, swept, and sparkling clean, with the new desk set up where Dera could look out the window.
He stood with his hands on his hips and felt satisfaction flow through him. It wasn’t perfect, but it was okay. “Now all we need to do is plan where we’ll take her tomorrow. And organize some food. And—oh shit, what if someone else has already booked the quad bikes?”
“Never fear, that was the first thing I checked when I took the pickup truck back. We’ve booked two of them and only one other was booked so it’s all good.”
“Thanks, Gowan.” Maitho relaxed and smiled at his friend. Gowan was a good man. Plus he was a Dom as well, which would make the sexual games with Dera even better. As long as she agreed to spend time with them. Oh, fuck, he’d die if she didn’t want to be with them. She had to give them the opportunity to prove to her how well they’d look after her, care for her, love her, and satisfy her every need.
* * * *
Dera was very excited to be going on her first date with Gowan and Maitho. First, because she’d wanted to get to know these men better for several weeks now. And second, because she’d en
joyed the ride on the quad bikes with Esther, and was sure it’d be even more fun with the men.
She wondered if she was completely selfish, or at the very least much too self-centered, but this was about her future and she needed to make a good decision. There was no such thing as divorce under shape-shifter law. That had been clearly explained to all the mail-order brides. So when she picked her pair of bachelors, she had to be absolutely certain she liked them. Loving them would be even better. The boss of Cooper’s Farm was Roderick Cooper, who was simply called Cooper because everyone born on the farm took the last name Cooper in deference to their ancestors who’d settled the community. Cooper had told the brides that spousal abuse of them would not be tolerated. But there were degrees of abuse. Dera knew that if she turned up bruised, the men would be in trouble. But what if she just felt unhappy? That was a lot harder to explain and not necessarily something a husband could do anything about. So she’d checked out the available twelve pairs of bachelors carefully. Some were delicious to look at. Others seemed to be really nice people. Some were shy and others were definitely Doms. Dera thought a little ass spanking might add to her enjoyment of sex, but she wanted to be sure she liked the man who’d spank her first. All of which brought her to the point of wanting Maitho, with his quirky desire to wrap a woman in the color pink, and Gowan.
She wasn’t going to fuck them on a first date, but she was open to some kissing and touching, so she wore her pretty lingerie underneath her jeans and pink T-shirt as she dressed for their date. The T-shirt was for Maitho. Her favorite one was a screaming fluorescent orange, but she knew Maitho would like to see her in pink. One day she’d ask him what it was with him and pink. Probably not today, though. She needed to spend today getting an understanding of their characters and personalities. She’d watched them around the community, but that really didn’t tell her much about their real inner selves.
Dera wondered how punctual they’d be. She was ready at ten to ten so she decided to go outside and see if they were early, on time, or even late, although she didn’t think they’d be late. If one of them was delayed the other would likely be there to tell her. But when she left the women’s barracks, which had formerly been the community’s hall, they were already waiting, leaning against two of the big red bikes with huge tires.
“You’re very early,” she said.
“You took the words right out of my mouth,” replied Gowan.
“We’re really excited about spending time with you today,” added Maitho.
I am, too. Today I’ll find out if I still like you after spending the day alone with you. I really, really hope you’re both as nice as you appear to be.
Maitho came and stood beside her. “You said you’d ridden a quad bike before. I expect you remember that you rest your feet on the little step here, and hold on to the padded area of the bar here,” he said, pointing to a higher step on the main step of the bike, then to a metal bar that ran along both sides of the back of the passenger’s seat.
Dera nodded and climbed on the back of his bike, then said, “So where are we going first?”
Maitho easily swung his body onto the quad bike in front of her, while Gowan said, “We’ll show you along the main roads of the community first. The first settlers were very logical. They camped in the center of the village and laid out their houses along four roads, north, south, east, and west. Later, cross streets were added connecting them in a sort of squarish ring about a quarter mile from the heart of the community.”
The quad bikes had a top speed of only about fifteen miles an hour, but that was a suitable speed for driving through the center of the farm community. It allowed her to see everything without taking so long to travel it would seem like she was staring at people or their homes. From there, they drove down to the river and followed it for quite a long time before heading up to Lookout Hill. Esther had taken her here because it provided an excellent view out over the farm and its fields of cabbages, onions, and rich green grass.
On the top of the hill, Dera shivered, wishing she’d thought to bring a sweater or even a jacket. When they’d left, the sun had been shining brightly, and she’d expected today to be another warm sunny summer’s day. But the sky was gray and cloudy now, and the wind had freshened and gotten colder.
Gowan pulled his own sweater off and handed it to her. “Here, it’ll be too big, but it should keep you warm.”
“Thanks, but what about you?”
“Wolves are physically tougher than humans. I’m less likely to catch a cold than you are.”
Hmm. That didn’t sound nearly as romantic as his actions were. Nevertheless, she pulled his sweater down over her head, sniffing the man-smell and enjoying his body warmth as well as the heat from the woolen fabric.
“We’d planned to have a picnic lunch up here, but it’s a bit windy. We were going to take you to the wild area where the wolves like to run and play next. That’s more sheltered and would be a better place for our picnic, I think,” said Gowan.
“That’s fine by me.”
Dera was happy to leave all the arrangements in their hands. They knew the area and she didn’t. Esther had taken her around a bit, but really she only knew the small area near the community hall where the women were staying. There was a general store opposite, and the office building where all the work of the farm was organized. Truly, the management of the farm had provided almost everything the women needed in their own building. Apart from taking a blanket out to the central grassed area and sitting in the sun with some of the other human women sometimes, Dera had felt no urge to wander. Although she knew if this was to be her home, she had to learn to find her own way around.
She climbed back on the quad bike and said, “Will you teach me how to drive it, later?”
“Of course.” Maitho pointed out various knobs to her, but then his voice was swallowed up by a loud clap of thunder, followed immediately by a torrential downpour. It was almost like standing in a shower. Rain just poured out of the sky as if someone up there had opened a floodgate.
The two men yelled at each other but the only words she could understand were “Hold on tight!”
Her hands were so wet and slippery, she didn’t feel safe holding the bar, so she leaned forward, tucked her body against Maitho’s, and grabbed his belt with both hands. Even huddled against his back, spray was getting in her face, so she shut her eyes and used his burly body as shelter. The bike was moving faster now as they raced downhill and back toward the community. That was fine by her. The expedition was at an end and her plan for the immediate future was a hot shower and dry clothes. She opened her eyes when the tires hit the paved road again, but they weren’t near the community hall so she shut them again, only to be surprised as the bike bounced under shelter and the rain was drumming on a roof instead of pounding against her body.
Dera opened her mouth to demand to be taken home instead of waiting the rain out under shelter and getting even colder, but then she realized perhaps the men were struggling to drive the bikes in the bad weather. It wasn’t safe if they couldn’t see properly and after all, no one had bought swimming goggles with them!
But no. Gowan was racing up half a dozen steps onto a porch and Maitho was pulling her sleeve. “Let’s go.”
“Is this your house?” she asked as he hustled her onto the stoop.
“Mine and Gowan’s.”
The two men manhandled her into a family bathroom.
Gowan dumped a pile of thick, fluffy towels on the sink, and Maitho said, “I’ll find you some dry clothes to wear while you have a shower. I’ll leave them just outside the bathroom door, okay?”
Her entire body was shaking with cold, but it still didn’t seem totally fair to occupy their bathroom, leaving them soaking wet. “What about you?”
“We’ll use the other bathroom. Half-bathroom. Get in the shower quickly before you catch a chill,” said Gowan, shutting the door.
Dera staggered across to the shower and turned the hot tap
on full blast, then struggled to pull her wet clothing off. It was heavy and cold, sticking to her skin in a horrible clammy mess. Not wanting to leave any more puddles on the floor than were already there, she dumped the pile of clothing at the far end of the tub and climbed in, reveling in the heat from the shower. It was actually too hot for her chilled skin, so she added some cold until she warmed up a little, then turned the hot up higher again.
Dera couldn’t help smiling at the strawberry-scented shampoo and conditioner and the lurid pink body wash, but obediently she used them and they did smell quite nice. She stepped out of the tub and grabbed one of the towels, which was a delicate primrose yellow, not pink, and wrapped it around her body, using a second primrose towel to rub her short black curls dry. “Thank God for short hair!”
She turned back to the tub, picking up each item of clothing, and wrung it out before dropping it in the sink. She pulled her cell phone out of the pocket of her jeans and swiped it unlocked but nothing happened. Several more tries gave her the same failed response.
Ah, fuck! The last thing she could afford right now was a new cell phone. Not until she got a job anyway. She rubbed it dry and tried again, but it was dead. Well that was a fucking nuisance.
Dera finished cleaning up the bathroom, then opened the door a few inches to see if the clothing was there. It appeared that Maitho had done his very best. There was a pair of tighty-whities with a giant safety pin to help her keep them around her waist, a long-sleeved T-shirt, and a pair of men’s knee-length shorts with an elastic waist, plus a belt on top of the pile beside a pair of wool socks.
The socks came halfway up her calves, almost meeting the long shorts, and the T-shirt hung down over the top, hiding the fact the belt was wrapped around her waist to keep both the underpants and the shorts on her. The men had done well. She was warm and dry again, unlike her poor cell phone which was still dead.