by Cara Adams
Werewolves of Hanson Mall 2
Doubly Protected
Willow and Hawthorne Cunliffe decide it’s time to sell their parents’ house and reclaim their lives. But someone still wants to find them. How can this be happening? Bailey Hamilton is in jail.
Werewolves Maelor Powell and Dylan Upjohn are determined to protect Hawthorne until the problem is resolved and the safest place for her is in their bed. But could the trouble be connected to Bailey’s brother Jackson and his well-being center? The center does seem to be most unusual. No one ever seems to leave it, though new people constantly arrive.
Dylan and Maelor are determined to keep Hawthorne safe inside Hanson Mall, and they spend every possible moment with her, but she hates being confined and refuses to believe she should hide away indefinitely. This problem has to be solved before the men explode with repressed desire.
Note: This book contains double vaginal penetration.
Genre: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Paranormal, Vampires/Werewolves
Length: 35,424 words
DOUBLY PROTECTED
Werewolves of Hanson Mall 2
Cara Adams
MENAGE EVERLASTING
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting
DOUBLY PROTECTED
Copyright © 2014 by Cara Adams
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62741-391-6
First E-book Publication: March 2014
Cover design by Les Byerley
All art and logo copyright © 2014 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
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PUBLISHER
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
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
About the Author
DOUBLY PROTECTED
Werewolves of Hanson Mall 2
CARA ADAMS
Copyright © 2014
Chapter One
Hawthorne Cunliffe couldn’t believe how excited she was about going for a walk. A walk for fuck’s sake! Yet she showered and dressed in clean jeans and a clean shirt as if she was about to go on a date. Technically, she wasn’t even going outside. She was living in the guest apartment in the professional suites of Hanson Mall and was going to walk around the mall. Hardly the date of the century. And it wasn’t even a date exactly. Although she was going to be with possibly the yummiest and sweetest man she’d ever met.
Hawthorne giggled. Poor Maelor. The man was built like a mountain and worked as a security guard, but around her he acted more like an overgrown puppy dog trying to apologize for chewing her favorite shoe. Maelor Powell was a werewolf shape-shifter and head of security at Hanson Mall.
He’d been running down the stairs at the mall in wolf form a few weeks ago when she and the mall nurse had been walking up them. The poor man had turned tail and raced back up the stairs so fast it would have been funny if she wasn’t so angry that these people hadn’t told her there were shape-shifters here.
Hawthorne startled as Maelor knocked on her door. She opened it, tucking her swipe card in her jeans pocket as she did.
He smiled down at her, his black eyes sparkling. “I see you’ve graduated to holding your own security pass now.”
“Yes, the center manager gave it to me just a few hours ago. Now that that asshole Bailey Hamilton’s in jail, it’s like I’ve been let out of jail. Even if you are walking with me.”
“You don’t mind me accompanying you, do you?”
Hawthorne felt mean. He was so kind and she was being snarky. “I’m glad to have your company. You can explain anything to me that I don’t understand.” Oh damn. That sounded rude, too. Fuck it. Every time I open my mouth I just insert the other foot.
The elevator was right at the other end of the hallway. Maelor swiped his pass to open the door and held it for her. “Where would you like to go first?” he asked.
“Everywhere! You’ve got no idea how exciting it is to be able to go out in public again without worrying whether or not that asshole is tracking me.”
Maelor let her walk at her own speed, lengthening or shortening his own strides as she sped up or slowed down. Hawthorne wanted to see everything at once, but walking too fast just meant she missed things and had to go back to look at them again when her brain caught up to her feet. When they reached the glass-walled elevator, Hawthorne stopped. “I want to ride in this and see everything.”
Maelor stood beside her and motioned a young mom with a pram in first. “We’ll catch it next time,” he said.
Hawthorne tipped her head back and looked up at the glass dome over the center of the mall. “I love the sun shining down on us. Sunlight is so much prettier than artificial light.”
“Having the glass there makes it really expensive to heat in winter. But you’re right. The natural light it much more welcoming than fluorescent
globes everywhere. It was a smart idea of Cadfael Hanson’s to build the dome.”
“He made a few extensions here didn’t he?”
Cadfael and Rhion Jones were partnered with her sister Willow. She liked both men and was pleased for Willow, who deserved to be happy. But Maelor was much more to her taste. As was the center manager, Dylan Upjohn. Of course, she had no idea whether the two men even liked each other, but Willow had told her that the werewolves tended to share a woman as women were so scarce. Nowhere near enough female babies were being born into shifter families for their men to have one wife each.
“Cadfael added two more levels of parking to the parking lot as well as the dome, plus a few other innovations. Like the adult store and—”
Hawthorne shivered with excitement. “I’ve never been inside an adult store. It’s on the third level. Let’s go there next.”
The glass elevator dinged and they stepped inside. Maelor pressed the button for level three and Hawthorne turned to look out at the people and shops gradually moving below her. The mall was popular and well patronized. Lots of customers were hurrying from store to store, and the tables and chairs on the ground floor were well filled with people drinking coffee and eating snacks, although it wasn’t lunchtime yet. Hawthorne appreciated so many of the restaurants and food bars on that level. She and Willow had chosen many meals from them in the past few weeks, but nothing was quite the same as walking around and looking at everything herself.
Maelor led her toward the adult store and she stopped and looked at the window. It was painted pink with the words “Adult Store” across it in big black letters. Instead of having an automatic door there was a door handle almost at head height, and when Maelor turned it, a bell rang.
“To guard against children accidently coming inside?” she asked.
“Hanson Mall takes its Duty of Care seriously,” said Maelor.
“I guess that’s why it’s up here on level three with furniture stores and the like, not down lower near a toy store or kids’ clothing store.”
Inside the store, Hawthorne wandered up and down the aisles, moving slowly past rows of scented oils, lube, and candles. From there she looked at a stand of costumes for such roles as nurse, schoolgirl, and teacher. There were whips, paddles, canes, and floggers, as well as shelves of condoms. Hawthorne stopped and stared. She’d sort of assumed condoms came in sizes small, medium, and large. Well, maybe not small. Likely no guy would ever buy a small. Maybe medium, large, and extra large then. But the rack here had ninety-five different sizes according to length and girth. My goodness. How does anyone ever manage to choose the correct size?
There was a shelf full of erotic romance novels, and an even bigger shelf of erotic movies. Next were blindfolds, gags, including ball gags, and handcuffs. She rather liked the fluffy ones. On the end of the rack were some latex onesies. Hawthorne giggled. Would anyone really dress up as a condom to go to a party? Well, maybe for Halloween someone might, she supposed.
The range of dildos and butt plugs was fascinating. Although she was pretty sure she would never want to try a glass one. What if it broke? Ouch!
“See anything you like?” asked Maelor walking down the aisle toward her.
“Hell yes. But first I need a proper income before I come here on a buying spree.”
She was staring at a box of edible chocolate condoms when he asked, “Are you ready for lunch?”
“Chocolate is always good,” she replied. Then she blushed hoping he wouldn’t understand, but by the look he gave her he’d seen where she was gazing. Oh, well too bad.
They walked to the escalator and rode down to the lowest level, which was the food court.
“Dylan was hoping to join us for lunch. Are you okay with that?” Maelor asked.
Hawthorne nodded, but it made her think. How had Maelor known she liked Dylan as well? He was a security guard after all, so likely very observant. Had he seen her looking at the other man? Although she didn’t think she’d been at all obvious. Hell, it wasn’t like she’d even seen Dylan very often. As center manager he was always very busy and his office was usually the scene of endless people coming and going.
Maelor sent off a text message on his cell phone, and then let her lead the way once again. Hawthorne walked very slowly from snack bar to snack bar, looking at the menus, smelling all the wonderful food, and finally choosing a place to sit down in the center of the area, under the glass dome so very far overhead. Being in the light and sunshine was lovely, even though she was still inside.
Dylan joined them and there was a brief conversation about meal choices.
“Hawthorne, you stay here with Dylan. I’ll line up for the food.”
“Thank you.” At first she was surprised, and then she wondered if it was Maelor being so very considerate again. Dylan had been working while she and Maelor had looked around the mall. Was this Maelor ensuring Dylan had a little space alone with her?
He was very thoughtful, but she had no idea whether this part of the day was planned or happenstance.
Likely she was building it all up into something it wasn’t meant to be. Just a couple of friends who needed to eat lunch, not some kind of plan to get to know her better. Just because she was interested in them didn’t mean they had even the slightest bit of interest in her. Nor did it mean that they even liked each other, or, more especially, were prepared to join together and share a woman. Dammit!
* * * *
Some days Dylan Upjohn felt way older than his twenty-seven years. He’d been center manager of the Hanson Mall now for three years, and it was still as demanding and all-consuming a job as it was when he’d taken over after the retirement of the previous Alpha. The old Alpha had insisted his key leaders also retire when he did, paving the way for the new Alpha, Cadfael Hanson, to introduce the changes he wanted to without having to fight endlessly against the old guard and the way things used to be done. It was just another example of how astute the previous Alpha had been. It had been he who’d moved the pack off the farm and had caused the mall to be built in the first place, ensuring the pack had a viable income and plenty of worthwhile work to do. The good thing about a mall, much like a farm, was that there was a great variety of employment opportunities inside it, so that most people could find something they enjoyed doing and were capable of achieving success in.
Dylan had a degree in business management, a masters in business administration, and a never-ending headache from trying to keep the staff, both human and werewolf, happy and focused on the task of running the mall. Not to mention the needs of the customers, suppliers, buyers…the number of people he had to deal with was about the same as the number of people in the county. He’d also had a permanent hard-on ever since Hawthorne and her older sister had fled to the mall, trying to escape Hawthorne’s abusive ex-boyfriend, who was now in jail on tax fraud, of all things.
“How’s your day been?” he asked Hawthorne, taking a seat beside her at the small table.
“I’m really loving being out of the apartment and walking around in the mall. It seems much longer than just a month since I could go wherever I wanted to. It’s an amazing feeling to know Bailey can’t come after me anymore.”
Dylan smiled at Hawthorne as she waved her hands with every word she spoke. He liked that she was so animated and happy. Her gray eyes sparkled and her hair, dyed brown to make her less conspicuous when she’d first taken refuge at the mall, already had the underlying red starting to shine through once again in the sunlight from the dome.
She was pretty now. Once she washed the brown dye out of her hair she’d be truly stunning again. Her form was slender but with an underlying fitness and strength. He also thought it very likely she burned up a lot of calories because she seemed to be constantly moving around, tapping her fingers and toes, waving her hands, looking everywhere at once. But she wasn’t haunted and tense like before. Her movements now were relaxed and graceful. Dylan knew this was the real Hawthorne Cunliffe, and he was thrilled t
o be spending a small amount of time with her.
Maelor arrived back with their meals, including a thick slice of chocolate cheesecake, which he placed in front of Hawthorne.
“That looks amazing but I didn’t ask for a dessert.”
“I saw the way you were staring at the chocolate condoms in the adult store. I thought this was a more family-friendly way to get a chocolate fix. Although both Dylan and I will be happy for you to test-drive the other method at any time.”
Dylan tried hard not to laugh at the delightful way her face flamed red, and she waved her hands around before gasping and looking down at the table. Taking pity on her he pushed her soda over toward her so she could take a sip. Then he looked at Maelor, who gave him a thumbs-up sign. Okay so she really had been interested in chocolate-flavored condoms. He must remember to buy a box before the adult store closed for the night.
They talked intermittently about the food as they ate, then Hawthorne surprised him by asking, “How long have you both known each other? Are you friends like Cadfael and Rhion?”
It was obvious she wanted to know if they’d agreed to share a woman, but the answer wasn’t nearly as simple as the question. Since Maelor knew her better than him he raised his eyebrow at Maelor, hoping he’d answer.
“I have heard of at least one other…uh, community, where the men are required to form into partnerships and have a home and everything organized before they locate the woman they want to…uh, marry. But no. It’s only recently that our…uh, Cadfael’s manager, told everyone that such partnerships were not only possible but also welcomed. Our arrangements are much looser than that. Cadfael and Rhion have been best friends for some time and work very closely together and so understand each other very well. There’s no surprises there for them. Others of us are a more loose-knit pair that has agreed if we’re lucky enough to find someone who likes us both. Then we’re willing to work together. Dylan and I both hope that you’re prepared to get to know us better and then see if you could be happy with us.”