by Holley Trent
She shook her head slightly and rubbed her eyes. “Well, Darla did, anyway. The lady at the school wanted to do some testing with Kevin to make sure he’s in the right grade, and I guess a wolf works there?”
“Yeah. Stephanie. Teaches art.”
“She said she’d take him home when she goes. The preschool teacher saw us moving through the building, I guess, and she lured Darla into the room with a smile and a doll. Darla didn’t want to leave, so I said I’d go back to get her at two, and then Aunt Lilith said she’d get her and take her to her Bunco game.” Esther’s laugh as she raked a hand through her shining hair was a nervous titter. “She said there’d be cake and punch, and Darla can’t say no to cake.”
“Neither can I, most of the time,” Nixon said.
That didn’t seem to be the consoling remark Esther needed to hear. She blanched.
Adam gave her shoulder a squeeze and then pointed in the general direction of the mansion. “Headed over to get some human resources stuff worked out for this guy. Tag along, and you can see where some of the ladies work. I’m sure you can get back out to the bookstore before the owner needs to leave to get her monthly touchup.”
“I’d like to see the mansion.” She gripped her purse against her side, stood, and notched some of that long, dark hair behind her ear.
Taking a step closer, Nixon saw a bit of sparkle near her temples. Wasn’t tinsel, though. She’d managed to earn some gray even if her older brother hadn’t, and judging by her aunt’s still-black tresses, Nixon was guessing the premature sprouting probably wasn’t genetic.
Well, duh. I’d probably be stressed as hell, too. Being kicked out of a pack is probably easier than staying in certain ones.
He pressed a hand to her back and, turning his head to take a deep breath, got her moving. If he concentrated on breathing clean air that didn’t smell like a dead man’s bite, he wouldn’t think about the ache below his left knee.
“Did they clear you to work?” she asked, then cringed. “Never mind. I mean, I guess they did, or you wouldn’t be going to the mansion.”
“Yeah. I can work. And you can ask me anything you want. I happen to believe the vast majority of questions aren’t stupid ones.”
They stepped down the curb, crossed the street, and started across the town square.
Her gaze was mostly on the ground in front of her, but occasionally she looked up at the parked cars lining either side of Main Street, or at the sounds of loud talking and laughter coming from the sidewalks.
He was sick of seeing her act that way.
“Pick your chin up, honey. No one’s gonna get mad that you’re actually watching where you’re going.”
“I think you’re forgetting what looking at people straight-on invites.”
“I haven’t forgotten, but seeing as how I own a dick, I’m probably looking at things from a different perspective.”
“You’re right. No one’s going to rough you up for being tart or disrespectful because you happened to be looking forward.”
“No one’s gonna do that here, anyway.” Adam gestured across the street at the edge of the town square and let Esther cross in front of him. “I know that’s going to take some time for you to get used to, but I ask you to just trust me. Being treated like a human being shouldn’t be such an unusual concept. I know wolf culture, though, so I can’t really fault you for not expecting decency. Lil was a mess when we left, too.”
“I don’t remember her being rattled in the slightest bit.”
“She did a good job of holding everything together around you kids. Honestly, being expelled from the pack was a relief in some ways.”
“I know that feeling,” Esther said quietly.
Just inside the entryway of the executive mansion, the pack’s resident loner wolf—Darius—looked up from behind the security desk and waved the trio on through the metal detectors.
Naturally, they went off.
Darius shook his head, and then muttered, “Ignore them.”
“Lora around?” Adam asked.
“Yes, sir.” Darius slid a clipboard over and flipped up a page. “She should be in her office right now. I’ll call up and let her know you’re coming.”
“’Preciate it. See you at dinner.”
Adam guided Nixon and Esther toward the staircase and, flitting his gaze toward Nixon, grimaced.
“I’ll be all right,” Nixon said. He wasn’t as fast on stairs as he used to be, but nobody really expected a forty-one-year-old ex-oil rig roughneck to be light on his feet.
He brought up the rear, concentrating on stair treads and not on Esther’s pert derriere as she ascended in front of him. At least, for the most part.
“Lora handles most of the operations business here,” Adam said. “She manages the hiring and HR issues so Queen Tess can worry about other shit.”
“What all does an Afótama queen do?” Nixon asked.
“That’s complicated. Suffice it to say that she does what needs to be done.”
“That’s some nice werewolf obfuscation.” Esther mounted the top step and got out of Nixon’s way.
He would have patted himself on the back for not having broken a sweat if Adam hadn’t already started moving again.
Not even giving me a chance to catch my breath. Asshole.
“Maybe it is,” Adam said to Esther. “The truth is, Queen Tess’s job isn’t what you’d call clear-cut. She’s got an interesting skill set. I’ve never met any other psychics quite like these folks, but the gods broke the mold when they made Queen Tess. I hear she’s a lot like her mother, but her mother was dead long before I came into initial contact with the group. Never got a chance to meet her.”
Adam led them down a long hall, their shoes squeaking against the highly polished, dark hardwood.
Esther’s gaze was on everything and nothing. The ceiling, which was painted a cool cream with pale, light blue swirls, reminiscent of ocean waves. The walls, covered with rich tapestries and paintings of former queens and their consorts. There were also the occasional Viking shields mounted on dark wood podiums.
“This place is like a museum,” Esther whispered.
Whispering was a pointless venture around other wolves. Nixon could hear her just fine.
“Knowing your history is a good thing,” Nixon said.
“They don’t know quite all of theirs,” Adam said. He poised his fist in front of a closed black door. “But they’re piecing it all back together.”
“They’re certainly further ahead than we are,” Esther said.
“You interested in wolf history?”
“Always been curious. I research when I can. Documentation is hard to come by, and it’s not like I could travel.”
“Why not?” Nixon asked.
Esther’s eyes damn near goggled right out of her head.
“Okay, maybe that was a dumb question. You gotta excuse me for being a knucklehead, sweetheart. I forget shit.”
Adam chuckled and rapped on the door. “Maybe you’ll get to do some traveling once you get settled in, Es.”
“That’d be nice. The only parts of the country I’ve seen so far have been New Jersey and whatever else was visible outside the bus’s windows as we traveled here.”
“Come on in,” came an assertive, feminine voice from the other side of the closed door.
Adam pushed the door in and waved Nixon and Esther inside with him.
Nixon had been expecting to visit a little hole-in-the wall office the size of a broom closet, but the Afótama operations manager’s office was comfortably spacious. Not only was there a kitchenette and small conference table off to the right side, but Lora’s large L-shaped desk with its hutches and filing drawers took up a substantial footprint in the back left corner.
The lady, dressed in a prim, button-up blouse and hair in a slicked back bun, stood and gestured toward the large sofa. “Who do you have for me, Mr. Carbone?”
“I’ve got Nixon Tucker. Like I told you, he’
s going to be taking over all the personnel crap on our end and make sure folks are scheduled the way they’re supposed to be.”
Adam took a load off at the far end of the sofa and patted the cushion beside him.
Esther sat and twined her fingers atop her lap.
Nixon kept sentry by the door, worried if he got too comfortable in that low chair, he’d need assistance from his alpha to get back up. He didn’t need that kind of shame in front of two ladies, and especially not one he had designs on courting.
“I’ve got his paperwork from the doc.” Lora’s fingers flew over the screen of the tablet computer she held, and then she handed the device over to Nixon.
“I’d appreciate if you could please fill out those forms at the conference table. With items seven through fifteen—” Her cheek twitched. “I ask that you be as truthful as you can. I know you wolves would prefer not to put your life stories on any official records, but I’ve got to make sure this place complies with the law as much as possible.”
“Aw, I’ve got nothin’ to hide. Except maybe my last permanent address.”
“Which is where your pack was.”
“Something like that.”
She gestured to the table. “I’m not pulling any information from background check databases on you, so that’s no skin off my teeth. I leave all the background checks for you guys to do.”
Nixon pulled out a chair at the conference table and set the tablet down.
Lora turned her attention to the sofa.
Adam crooked his thumb toward Esther. “This is my niece, Esther. Anton’s sister.”
“Ah.” Lora raised her chin. “So, she’s the lady who had your missus in a tizzy last week.”
“Yep. She just woke up this morning. Gotta start showing her around the place. Already got the kids squared away at the school.”
“Cute kids,” Nixon said as he typed his social security number into the appropriate field. “A little traitorous, but all kids are, in my opinion.”
Esther cringed, but Lora smirked.
Ah, come on, lady. I didn’t mean nothin’ by it.
“The kids in Norseton love having newcomers in their classes,” Lora said to Esther. “They get them so rarely. I think they’re the first wolf children in the school besides Leticia, and she recently graduated.”
“They’ll be able to make friends, won’t they?” Esther asked.
“Oh, yeah. I’m not Afótama. I was adopted into the community as a child, but I integrated just fine. Making friends is easy for the children here. They’re biologically motivated to increase their networks. Makes knowing who to turn to for support easier later on in life.”
“I’m glad they won’t be isolated,” Esther said.
“They’ll have a lot of fun. I promise. So, tell me about you. Are you looking for work, or is your uncle just trotting you out to tease all the Vikings?”
Nixon had never been much of a growler, so he’d needed a few moments to realize that the deep rumbling sound in his ears was coming from him. He dragged his tongue across his fangs, cleared his throat, and cut a look toward the sofa.
Lora stared at him with one eyebrow raised.
Esther looked straight ahead with her forehead furrowed.
Adam snorted. “You gotta excuse him. He was getting poked and prodded for the past few hours and missed lunch.”
“If I made a gaffe somehow, I hope you’d correct me,” Lora said.
“Just a reflex. No sweat.” Nixon tried to focus on that damned tablet screen again. Mother’s maiden name? “No gaffe on your part.”
Although, if he were to catch any of those male Vikings trying to add Esther to their so-called networks, he’d likely be doing a little more than just growling at them.
He’d always been a pretty rational kind of guy, but he’d never tried to take a mate before. Third parties matched most wolf pairs. Natural attractions rarely had a chance to bloom, so he had no clue what was going to happen, or how his inner wolf would embarrass him by the time all was said and done.
All he could do was hope Esther wasn’t completely turned off by him. She had plenty of reasons to be already, even without knowing about his bum leg.
Lora’s shirt pocket buzzed and she slapped a hand over the vibrating phone within. “This is Lora,” she said upon answering.
Halfway to her desk, she stopped, turned on her heels, and gestured Adam toward the door.
“Everything all right?” he asked low.
She shook her head, mouthed, “Trespasser,” and Adam was on his feet in an instant.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” she said to Nixon.
He turned his hands over and shrugged. Fortunately, his afternoon had been pretty unstructured to start with, so he could wait.
Esther, however, couldn’t.
The office door clicked shut, and Nixon crossed his numbing leg over the opposite knee. “I wouldn’t want you to miss getting your bookstore browsing in today. If you want to head out, I won’t think badly of you.”
She massaged the palm of her left hand and, staring at the large abstract painting beside Lora’s desk, furrowed her brow again. “Can wait until tomorrow. I guess there are other things I need to do. Practical things.”
“Such as?”
“Figuring out where to get groceries and clothes. Those kinds of things.”
Nixon grunted and scrolled down the form on the tablet screen. “I discovered that Norseton is built on a pretty sensible grid. Most everything you need is at the center of town. A couple of the wolf ladies walk over every day and get a couple of bags worth of stuff. Some of them drive the ATVs over.”
“Walking sounds nice. Back in Jersey, I never got to go anywhere on my own.”
He set down the tablet and turned his rolling chair around. “How’d that work out?”
For once, she was actually looking at him. So tired, still, but so pretty. He couldn’t fathom how any asshole would want to scar her up.
“You’d think assigning all the women chaperones for the smallest of outlets would be a logistical nightmare, right?” she asked.
“Sure as hell sounds like one.”
“The requirement was new, put into place after Ashley left. Rather, her father put the rule in place because she left. I guess he was afraid too many women would go looking for a way out the way she did.”
“Ah. Damn. Did you tell her about the new rule?”
Esther shook her head and placed her purse, which had been on her lap, onto the cushion beside her. “I don’t want her to feel bad. She did what she had to do, and took a huge risk in the process. She didn’t know where she’d end up, only that she’d probably only get one chance to respond.”
“You mean to a mate call.”
“Right. She didn’t know if she’d end up in a worse pack, but she had to take the risk of becoming a stranger’s bride if only to get leave from her home pack. Once an alpha gives a woman permission to transfer, her home alpha can’t refuse. Not without risking a conflict.”
“I bet her father shut down all access to the mate call listings, huh?”
“I didn’t check, but I’d say that’s a fair guess. He’d made them pretty hard to access even before she left. They’re supposed to be publicly posted, but her father didn’t like women leaving the pack. She had to go digging to find the listing. Before me, no one else had left since Ashley, and the only ones before her were boys and men her father needed to get rid of.”
“Good riddance to your home pack, then, right?”
She shrugged one narrow shoulder. “My parents are still there. The only bright spots.”
“Right.” He’d forgotten about leaving folks behind because believing all his family was dead was easiest. He didn’t have to worry about whether or not they cared if he was alive. He didn’t want to know if they didn’t.
Nixon turned back to his forms, just to get the things over and done with. He was looking forward to having a stable job and reliable income. “Too d
amn old to be on the wind all the fuckin’ time,” he muttered to himself.
“I’m sorry, what?”
“Ignore me. Just thinking about wolf shit.” He tapped in some bullshit information for his emergency contacts. He didn’t know anyone’s number anymore—hadn’t talked to his mother in fifteen years, at least, and that time was only because she’d thought to give him a try from a payphone she’d happened upon while gassing up his father’s truck. She’d told Nixon not to try to get in touch again.
“Where are you from?”
“North Florida, originally. Haven’t been home in forever, though.”
“I’ve never been to Florida. Obviously.”
He chuckled. “Nice place to be for a few minutes at a time, if you can endure the stifling humidity.”
“New Jersey is plenty humid, especially during the summer. The steam coming off the sidewalks can be unbearable.”
“Right. Did you ever get into the city? New York, I mean.” He tried not to show any particular reaction when Esther pulled out the seat beside his and sat primly at the edge.
His belly was doing the flip-flops of a teenaged kid with a crush, and already, his throat was constricting with its biological imperative to keep himself from hurling.
Gonna have to do something about that damned scent. Could try a nasal numbing agent, like that Vulcan in Star Trek…
He scoffed at himself and went back to data entry.
A wolf with a dud nose. That’d be even worse. Mind over matter, asshole.
“No, I never did,” she said in that soft way of hers. “That wasn’t one of our sanctioned field trips. If we wanted culture, we had to make our own.”
“That’s a damn shame. Hopefully you and the kids’ll get out more now that you’re here. Hey, you’ve got a whole country to explore. You could take road trips and whatnot.”
“I can’t drive.”
Oh. “Well, I’ll teach you to, if you want. The only hard parts are backing up and parallel parking.”
“You’d really let me drive your truck?”
He shrugged. “Sure. It’s paid off, so I’m probably not as uptight about that kind of shit as I was five years ago.”
“My mother doesn’t even have a license anymore. She let it expire, or rather was made to sometime after Aunt Lillian and Uncle Adam left. She wanted to go with them. My father agreed, but Ashley’s father thought splitting everyone up was the better choice.”