“You didn’t set up an appointment. They’re very busy.”
Dimitri leaned forward, fisting his hands at the edge of her desk, and narrowed his gaze on her. Immediately her scent changed from stuffy to incredibly nervous.
“I left several messages announcing I would bring in this paperwork. Once I spoke to a bitch on the phone, possibly you.” He raised an eyebrow and watched her shift in her chair. “The paperwork doesn’t say make an appointment. You didn’t say you would set up an appointment. It says to speak to a representative. Now, are you going to go back there and let them know I’m here or should I do that on my own?”
She wasn’t anything he would sniff after under different circumstances, and when she inhaled a sharp breath and her perfectly round breasts pressed against her nicely ironed dress, he picked up something else on her. Curiosity, possibly. It wouldn’t surprise him if the bitch could count on one hand how many Malta werewolves she’d seen in her life. A hint of silver darted over her dull eyes before she broke her gaze, diverting her attention to the items scattered on her desk.
“Once someone looks over the paperwork, they will speak with you. That’s how it works, wolf man. Leave the paperwork or take it with you. It really doesn’t matter to me.”
“I can see that.” He walked around her desk, heading for the doors, and pushed one of them open before the bitch jumped to her feet to stop him.
“You can’t just go back there. Who the hell do you think you are?”
“I think I’m the pack leader of the Malta werewolves,” he hissed at her.
“I don’t care if you’re Peter fucking Pan,” she growled, shoving her small body between him and the entrance to the back offices. “Leave your paperwork with me or take it with you. Either way, that is all you’re going to accomplish here today.”
“Like hell it is.” He didn’t spend hours answering the same question from seven different angles to simply let it drift into some pile of ignored applications. The forms he was required to turn in to the government in order to get their pack incorporated and acknowledged officially by Werewolf Affairs and the United States government gave him about as bad of a headache as this bitch was now. “I tell you what—since you say an appointment is required, set that appointment up for right now. Then turn around and go tell one of your werewolves back there to come out here and talk to me—now.”
In spite of her size, she looked like she would attack. Possibly she was accustomed to being harassed with her job. If she treated everyone who walked into this building the way she treated him, it wouldn’t surprise him in the least.
“Is there a problem here?” A tall, thin werewolf wearing a suit and looking and smelling like he possibly had never been on a good run in his entire life stepped around the partially opened door and sized Dimitri up. “What do we have here?”
“Who are you?” Dimitri asked.
“He refuses to leave his paperwork,” the bitch complained, moving out of Dimitri’s way and returning to her desk.
The male facing him stood as tall as Dimitri but with less than half the muscle tone. He stared at Dimitri for a moment, glanced at Nicolo behind him and then looked down at the packet in Dimitri’s hand. He reached for it.
“Leave everything with me and someone will contact you.”
“So suddenly an appointment is no longer needed?”
“No.” The American male offered no further explanation.
Dimitri opened the packet and pointed to his number on the first page. “You have until sundown to call me at that number. If not, I’ll be here first thing tomorrow. Consider my appointment set.”
He stuffed the papers into the male’s chest, forcing him to move quickly so they wouldn’t scatter all over the floor. Dimitri turned and stormed out of the building with Nicolo on his heels.
Forcing his fingers to relax around the steering wheel, Dimitri drove back to their pack. The smell of his outrage was nauseating, and he rolled down his window. The cold air hitting his face didn’t help much.
“Do you really think it will be any different tomorrow?” Nicolo asked when they reached the base of their mountain.
“It’s going to have to be. One way or another, the government will acknowledge us. They have no problem making us pay taxes. They will fund our pack just like they do the American werewolf packs or I’ll stuff their fucking prejudice straight down their throats.”
“That will do a lot of good.”
Dimitri glared at his littermate. “Sometimes your passivity fucking stinks.”
“And your ongoing anger smells any better?” Nicolo countered. “Do you really think if we were back in Malta our government would jump any faster to give us a damned dime?”
“We will not discuss Malta,” Dimitri hissed.
“We should. Sooner or later you have to put the past to rest.”
“What the hell does my past have to do with anything?”
Nicolo sighed and ran his fingers through his thick black hair. “You can’t go back there angry and expecting a handout. It won’t get you anywhere.”
“I’m not asking for a fucking handout. Of all people, you would know that I don’t expect anyone to give us anything without my having to claw and scratch for it.”
“And you should know that this government isn’t going to help us any faster than our old government did.”
“I just said we won’t discuss Malta.”
“It’s what has you so pissed off all the time.”
“So now you have the gift? You know what is in my head?”
“What else would have you mad?”
Dimitri didn’t answer. He was suddenly too distracted by memory of a sweat-covered, sexy body panting heavily underneath him. Remembering the other day wouldn’t help matters at the moment. His silence alerted Nicolo, who was quite possibly the only werewolf in the pack who read Dimitri a bit too well.
“There is something else?” Nicolo prodded.
“No.” Dimitri wouldn’t talk to Nicolo about Rosa.
There was nothing to say.
“It’s your story.” Nicolo tapped his window with his knuckle, getting Dimitri to glance that way. “What kind of funding are we asking for?”
Outside, at the base of their mountain, several dens sold and bartered merchandise they bought wholesale or made by their own hands. There were three trucks parked in a row, and a den or two stood casually talking around them.
“Probably be a good idea to stop.” Dimitri turned the wheel and pulled his truck in alongside the others.
Their pack had grown enough over the winter that shops offering bare essentials would benefit everyone. Sure, any of the pack could head into Valle, but Malta werewolves understood that meant supporting the American werewolf business owners. Not that any of them had it out for the Americans. But Malta werewolves needed to work for Malta werewolves. It was the only way they would grow in strength and gain the respect of this great, enterprising country around them, who bragged loudly that such a thing was possible to all who lived here and paid taxes.
Well they sure as hell paid taxes.
“Dimitri.” Perry Zammit stepped away from the group first, grinning, with his hand extended in greeting. “And Nicolo. Good to see you here at our small shopping center.”
Claudette, Perry’s mate, giggled at his joke. “We’re honored that you stopped.” She supported her growing belly with her hand and looked up at Nicolo. “And I hear from the howling that your mate will have a cub soon too.”
“So much for late night runs,” Perry said, still grinning, and slapped Nicolo on the back.
Claudette punched her mate in the arm and he feigned pain. She looked far from irritated with her mate though. Dimitri couldn’t remember the last time he smelled anything but sincere happiness on the couple.
“I’ve been busy making some adorable cub clothing.” She pointed at a stack of items on the back of the truck. “Maria has helped me, and taught me so much. We’re selling them for a very
reasonable price. Of course, Perry insists we also work with trade.”
“For Nicolo, you make sure they are sold at cost,” Perry told his mate.
She nodded solemnly.
“Appreciate it,” Nicolo told them. “And I’ll be sure and let Heidi know. Maybe we could work a trade. Already she wants another room added onto the den.”
“I hear you.” Perry used his thumb to point at Claudette, who simply beamed at him. “She wants additions added on as well. I could use the help.”
“Same here.”
Dimitri let the two males talk about their growing dens. It translated easily into meaning the pack would be larger a year from now. All the more reason to fight for funding for better roads, permits to zone so they could build stores—all of which meant getting Werewolf Affairs to work with him.
“I thought the word was that you didn’t have the gift.” Maria Anthony sat in a lawn chair set between two of the pickup trucks and fiddled with what looked like a ball of yarn in her lap.
“I don’t.” He held out his hand and helped her stand.
The old bitch huffed and scratched him before letting go and walking around him to the edge of the truck. “You got some good tricks if I can smell you so easily in my den but not see you.”
Dimitri glanced around quickly, silently grateful that no one seemed to overhear her snide comment. “How are sales going for you?” he asked, having no intention of commenting on her remark that Rosa carried his scent.
“Build me a shop and they will go much better.” She picked up a small, fat jar covered with a checkered cloth that was secured with an elastic tie. “The Cajun spiced jerky sold the quickest. But I think you’ll find this deer jerky seasoned to your liking.”
Dimitri dug his wallet out and handed her a bill. She stuffed it in to her dress pocket and handed him the jar.
“Rosa makes the best jerky on the mountain.”
“Where is she?” He’d returned her to her den two days ago and hadn’t seen her since. Not that he sought her out. Although more than once, the urge almost overcame him to do so.
“I’m sure I don’t know.” Maria gave him a condemning look. “It’s not like she has a keeper. My daughter can do whatever she wants. Any male who howls after her has a chance unless one of them speaks out for her.”
“There are males howling after her?”
“Do you think a bitch as beautiful as my daughter would be ignored by the single males of this pack? She is smart, very pretty and blessed with more of the gift than any other member of this pack has in one paw,” she hissed and then stabbed her bony finger into his chest. “And just because a male uses her and then ignores her… She will get over it eventually and see how many others are begging for the right to run by her side.”
“No one has used her.” It didn’t sit well thinking that he might have hurt her. But damn it, she begged for months for what he gave her.
“No?” Maria sniffed the air, then glanced around at the other pack members who weren’t paying any attention to them. “My daughter has honor. You steal that away from her and I swear I’ll haunt you from the grave. I don’t care if you are pack leader—not even you are good enough for the likes of Rosa Anthony.”
“I wouldn’t argue with you on that one,” he told her honestly. Then blowing out a sigh, he stared past her at the rough road that disappeared on a curve up into the mountain.
Dimitri hadn’t dishonored Rosa. No matter what he said to the older bitch, she wouldn’t understand that. He got her meaning though. Maybe a visit to her den would appease Maria. It wasn’t required that he please her. But old bitches could gossip worse than anything. Right now, the last thing he needed were false rumors about him growing out of proportion.
“Nicolo tells me you two were just over at Werewolf Affairs.” Perry nodded to Maria and then stood next to her, facing Dimitri. “You’re going to kick ass as pack leader when you get them to give us funding to get this mountain cranking.”
Others overheard Perry and quickly surrounded them. Every one of them there was a merchant, aching for the chance to get their own business going and no longer sell their items out of the backs of their trucks.
“I know many of you work out of your dens right now.” Something had to be said to follow up on Perry’s comment. The smells of anticipation and hope couldn’t be extinguished, and telling him exactly what happened today would do just that. “And I don’t have to tell you that nothing happens overnight. But we’re howling as loud as we can. The government here is slower even than on Malta.”
A few groans, followed up by some lighthearted American jokes kept the air free of hostility. His pack craved becoming a prosperous town as badly as he did.
“But I’ve completed the paperwork to start zoning. Once we get that through, then we can put a few of you into stores.”
“How will you decide who gets a store first?” Perry asked.
The others in the group seconded the question and Dimitri searched the group, noting who asked, and the products they sold. Beyond the group, Nicolo stood next to Dimitri’s truck. At some point, Juan Anthony had shown up. He stood talking to Nicolo. Erin, Juan’s mate and Dimitri’s youngest littermate, watched Dimitri and smiled when he met her gaze.
“I’ll base that on supply and demand. It will be a decision I won’t make lightly, or without discussing it with many of you.”
Dimitri inhaled the excitement of everyone around him. The werewolves down at WA barely let him in the door, yet his pack was so convinced he would turn them into a great community. He listened as they rambled around him, talking over each other while tossing out possibilities of what their first store would be.
Hell. He didn’t even have funding to improve their roads.
And he would be damned surprised if that skinny werewolf even glanced at all the forms he had struggled to complete.
Keeping his expression in check and making sure he didn’t smell of any of the frustration he felt, Dimitri worked his way around the merchants toward Nicolo and the others.
“I want to talk to you,” Erin told him without ceremony as soon as he reached her, Juan and Nicolo.
She tugged at his coat sleeve and dragged him to the other side of his truck. Erin smelled angry. He really wasn’t in the mood to hear his youngest littermate bitch.
“What?” he demanded when she crossed her arms and glared at him.
“I would be the first to defend you if anyone accused you of being cold-hearted. But how could you?”
“How could I be cold-hearted?” He glared at her fiery expression. “When annoying little bitches make no sense and get in my face, it’s pretty damned easy.”
She punched him in the chest. “She cried all day yesterday,” Erin hissed, glancing around her and beyond him toward her mate and Nicolo. She then continued to bless him with her cold glare. “You’re an asshole, Dimitri. Do you know that?”
“So I’ve been told a time or two.” He started getting an idea what she was talking about. What made no sense whatsoever was why Rosa would be crying.
And he wasn’t cold-hearted. He wished he were. But just thinking that Rosa might be crying, whatever the reason, made his blood boil.
Erin squeezed his arm. “You’ll go talk to Rosa, right?”
He stared into his youngest littermate’s imploring dark eyes. Just then Juan joined them, giving him an odd look and then focusing on his mate.
“Are you ready?” Juan’s voice was gentle.
She nodded and let go of Dimitri, but kept her gaze on him as she walked away.
“What’s going on?” Nicolo asked.
“Nothing.” He headed over to his truck.
Erin tried to manipulate his actions. And no bitch, not even his littermate, would trap him into doing something.
Sure he’d pondered ways to see Rosa over the past day or two. But what would be the point? He didn’t want a relationship. And definitely not with a bitch who knew his mind better than he did. But damn it. R
osa was in his thoughts even when she wasn’t around to climb inside them.
The last thing he wanted her to know was how much he ached to see her again.
Chapter Five
Her mother would be home in the next hour or so. More than anything, Rosa wished she could have the den to herself for the day. Lately having her mother hovering around her got on Rosa’s nerves.
Which wasn’t her mother’s fault.
“Maybe you should get out and do something too.” She stared at herself in the bathroom mirror.
Her long hair hung heavily, looking stringy and lifeless. “A shower wouldn’t hurt either.”
She had to stink worse than road kill.
“What if he showed up and saw you looking like this?”
Now that was a good joke. Rosa made a face at herself in the mirror and turned around to stare at the pale pink flower pattern on their shower curtain. If only she had more energy.
She needed an agenda, a list of things to do, something that would give her life purpose and make it worth stepping into that shower. Her cell phone rang and she jumped, then in spite of herself hurried into her bedroom and grabbed it.
Then she sucked in a breath. “Oh shit.” She stared at the name on the small screen while her phone continued chirping and vibrating in her hand.
“Dimitri.” She whispered his name as if that would answer the call.
Why the hell was he calling her?
Clearing her throat and hurrying back into the bathroom, she pushed the button to accept the call.
“Hello.”
“Rosa.” His deep baritone reminded her of their last time together, of how hard he had fucked her.
Her heart started beating faster and she touched her dirty, unbrushed hair and stared at herself as she spoke.
“Hello, Dimitri.”
“Your mother and my littermate both inform me that I’m a waste of werewolf flesh.”
Her cheeks seemed tight when she grinned. “Oh really? Is this something they tell you often?”
“Do you like this pack?”
She stiffened and then turned quickly from her mirror and shed her clothes. “Don’t call and threaten me, wolf man.”
'Til Death Page 5