Dominating Their Mate [Wolf Pack Mates 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read online

  A team of teenagers and young adults spent their summer vacation entering data into the new system the Alpha agreed to purchase, and although there were the inevitable mistakes, overall everything sped up amazingly. By the time the old Quartermaster retired, and Zircon became the head of the department, he had instant information about everything the pack bought, used, produced, and even considered might be wanted.

  Consequently when Malachi tapped on his office door that afternoon, Zircon expected to be asked about a missing item of equipment.

  “Hey, Malachi. What do you need?”

  “I was told this afternoon that forty percent of all the chocolate and coffee in America comes from the work of child slave laborers. I’m hoping we can change suppliers so we only ever use ethical fair-trade coffee and chocolate.”

  “Well that’s interesting. We changed suppliers a couple weeks ago because Taige asked us to. Have you been talking to her as well?”

  “I was chatting with Ginnie. Tomorrow at eight we’re moving her things into the schoolhouse. I went to see how much stuff she has and whether or not I’d need to take the eighteen-wheeler.”

  Zircon clicked through several screens and saw the eighteen-wheeler was booked for the day. “I’m sorry. The big truck’s got an airport delivery tomorrow. Would you like me to schedule you in for it on Sunday instead?”

  “No, I reckon we’ll manage with just a couple pickup trucks. There’s only one thing that might overhang a bit. Are you still willing to help with the move?”

  “Yeah, sure. How many pickups will you need? There should be at least four free unless people were planning to use them for social activities.”

  “Four would be perfect. Ginnie hasn’t really got all that much stuff. She’s already brought most of her things over herself, a bit at a time.”

  Zircon made a note. “All right. So that’s you and me and who else?”

  “Cornelian said he’d come. I haven’t asked anyone else. I think Titan volunteered.”

  “No. I don’t trust him. He’s stayed in the background during all the trouble so far, although I think he went to the schoolhouse that day a whole group scared Taige, but I know he hates humans and I wouldn’t want him to build a friendship with Ginnie only to have him attack her.”

  “Hell, no. How about Kyan then? He volunteered as well,” said Malachi.

  “Yeah, ask him. Him I trust. Now, you said eight at Ginnie’s? So what, leaving here seven thirty?”

  “That’ll be fine. We can all meet at the barn where the vehicles are and you can follow me to Ginnie’s. With a bit of good luck we’ll have all her furniture off-loaded before the craft market opens at ten.”

  “There’s a craft market as well tomorrow? Those women are going to be exhausted, especially Ginnie after she’s moved house.”

  “Apparently Taige and Eve tried to get her to wait to move until Monday but she wouldn’t. She said she could do it all. She was filled with energy when I spoke to her this afternoon,” said Malachi, smiling as if he were remembering something.

  Zircon just shrugged. It’d be good to see Ginnie up close in the morning, get to know her a little. Maybe she’d be the woman for him. It’d be really good to find his Ms. Right at last.

  * * * *

  The four men hadn’t taken very long at all to carry the furniture from Ginnie’s apartment to their trucks. “I just have to go and get my security deposit back, then I’ll follow you to the old schoolhouse,” she said.

  “We’ll come with you. We’ve heard all about apartment managers refusing to give women their deposits back,” said the one with black hair, Zircon.

  “Really?”

  “Yes,” confirmed Cornelian.

  “Oh, okay then.” Neither Eve nor Taige had mentioned having problems getting their deposit back, but it sounded as though other people had, so Ginnie wasn’t going to argue. Besides, with these four men surrounding her, no one was going to argue with her. That was certain.

  Ten minutes later they were on their way, Ginnie’s little car with her single box of last-minute items sandwiched between a couple of pickup trucks. She knew where everything needed to go, so unloading the trucks shouldn’t take long and with luck she’d be ready to help sell their craftwork by the time the doors opened. Even if she wasn’t, now that Jett and Morgan insisted on coming to every market, Taige and Eve would have enough helpers for a while. Until it got very busy. If it got very busy that was.

  Superstitiously Ginnie crossed her fingers on the steering wheel. God, she hoped the first few weeks weren’t an aberration, but rather, that they were a true indication people wanted to buy their crafts. Her sketches of people done on the spot were immensely popular, but at only a dollar each, she wasn’t going to get rich from them. She needed to sell some paintings and big artworks as well. Still, Eve had sold a giant yarn wall hanging she’d called Volcano, and Ginnie herself had sold two smaller paintings, so perhaps today she’d sell something big as well.

  Ginnie unlocked the back door of the schoolhouse, then unlocked the door to the shipping room. “This is where the long workbench and the easels go,” she explained, waving at her work area. This was also where the only indoor bathroom was, tucked over in a corner. When the plumber had installed it, he’d added the pipes and a drain for her washer-dryer, which was the next thing the men carried in. By then both Taige and Eve were working in the market room so the rest of her things were taken into the apartment. That room was getting a bit crowded, with her things added to Eve’s and Taige’s, but by pushing her dining table against the wall and stacking her four dining chairs, everything fit in okay.

  When everything had been unloaded, she took them across to the hot dog van and bought them each a couple chili dogs, then to the coffee van where Nadia, the barista, made each of them a gourmet fair-trade coffee, then they all sat at one of the picnic tables and had their snack. “Thank you so much for helping me. It was so fast, it’s amazing. You’re all amazing.”

  “I’m looking forward to seeing the displays when the craft market opens. Some of the other men have said you women are all very talented,” said Zircon.

  “If you like our work, be sure to pick up our business cards and tell your wives, families, and friends all about us. If you don’t like our work, please forget you ever came here,” said Ginnie.

  Malachi snorted, laughed, and put his coffee container down quickly. “I nearly spat my coffee out,” he gasped, laughing harder.

  Ginnie saw a crowd gathering near the big double front doors. “I have to go. Thank you all so much once again,” she said, before hurrying around to the back door. Someone had already locked it, but she checked all the internal doors were locked, grabbed her sketching things from the work room, then took her place in the foyer. It was her job to take the entry fee from visitors, and also to make the sales as buyers left. In the quiet times, she sketched people and often sold her sketches.

  Even though the day was overcast, there was no rain, and Ginnie was relieved to see a continual stream of visitors entering the craft market. Around midafternoon, just when Ginnie was beginning to think she’d need to make another trip out to the hot dog van because she was so hungry, a middle-aged man entered the foyer, an old lady gripping his arm tightly with one hand, and a cane with the other. He settled the old lady down on the bench that ran all around the walls of the foyer, then asked Ginnie, “Mom saw a sketch you’d drawn of a friend of hers. Can you do one of her, too, please?”

  “Of course.” Ginnie flipped to a fresh page of her sketchpad, grabbed a thick stick of charcoal and quickly drew the outlines of the old woman’s head. She had a nice head, a clean oval shape, her hair thinning now, but that only emphasized the elegant underlying bone structure of her head. Her face was wrinkled of course, but not ugly at all. Once again the pure lines of her cheekbones and jaw showed the beauty the old lady had once been.

  Ginnie concentrated on emphasizing the intelligence and vitality in the woman’s eyes, the character in he
r chin, and the wisdom in her forehead. When she finished she took the sketchpad over to the woman and showed her. Her son looked over Ginnie’s shoulder, staring from the picture to his mom and back again.

  Tears filled the old woman’s eyes. “You’re a very talented young lady.”

  “You have beautiful bones,” answered Ginnie softly.

  “Can you paint a bigger picture of her face for me?” asked the son.

  “Yes. I’ll need to take some photographs of you first,” she said, looking at the woman, “and I can show you my paintings so you can choose what size you want. But first I’ll have to get one of my friends to sit at this desk.” Ginnie picked up her cell phone but Zircon appeared out of the crowd. “Who do you want me to fetch for you? Taige or Eve?” he asked.

  “Whichever of them isn’t with a customer.”

  “That makes sense.” Zircon hurried up the hallway, and Ginnie, took some entry fees from people who’d been waiting patiently, watching her sketch, then snapped some photographs of the woman with her cell phone.

  Taige came rushing back with Zircon, her long dark hair flying around her face, despite a gold beaded tiara she was wearing. Ginnie guessed she’d been modeling it for someone and had forgotten she was wearing it.

  Most of Ginnie’s paintings were in the hallway and the man quickly chose what size picture he wanted and agreed on the price. Ginnie told him when it would be ready, then got his address and credit card details, while she walked through the market room with them. She left them there and went back to the front desk, noting the information, before returning to them. She was quickly involved in selling some jewelry for Taige and it was at least ten minutes before she could return to her own task and relieve Taige. By then three people were waiting for sketches and another person wanted to buy a painting.

  The afternoon raced by, the last visitors not leaving until half an hour after the official closing time. But it didn’t matter because tonight she didn’t have to return to an apartment in town. All she had to do was climb into her own bed right here. Well, after she’d made it. The men had assembled it for her, but she still had to unpack her bedding and find clean sheets and pillowcases. But that would be far quicker than driving back to town.

  Besides, she would be spending the evening with her friends. They could talk and talk about their crafts without worrying about how late it was getting, as long as they were ready to open the market at ten again tomorrow. She was so excited. And hungry. But mostly excited.

  Finally the parking lot was empty, the doors were all locked, and Ginnie walked back into their apartment. The most delicious smell filled the room. “Oh yum. I’m starving. What’s that?”

  “Morgan cooked for us,” said Eve, pointing to a big pot wrapped in several bath towels.

  “Well that explains why you like him. Has he got any unattached friends?”

  Eve giggled and pointed. Ginnie turned around and looked where Eve’s finger indicated.

  “Holy hell.”

  Chapter Two

  Malachi could see how hard Ginnie was working, and one look at her sketch of the old lady had proven how incredibly talented she was. Anyone else would have drawn the woman’s wrinkles, or perhaps the way her arthritic fingers gripped her son and her cane. But not Ginnie. Ginnie had seen beneath the age and frailty to the real woman in all her underlying beauty.

  She was going to be absolutely exhausted after this and her bed was not made and she had no food in her refrigerator. Likely she hadn’t even eaten since the hot dogs they’d all had before the day began officially.

  Kyan had gone home long ago, and Cornelian was helping Taige, so Malachi turned to Zircon. “I’d like to help Ginnie. She’s going to be so tired. Do you think we could buy her dinner and bring it here, or make her bed for her, or do some other things to help?”

  “We could attach the taps for her washing machine and bolt the drain hose into the drain. That would be helpful. Making her bed would be fun, but she might think that’s a bit too personal.”

  “Let’s ask Cornelian what he thinks.”

  Cornelian in turn asked Taige, and Taige, with a wicked grin, told them to go ahead.

  The two of them together didn’t take very long to set up Ginnie’s washer and dryer, and they’d placed the box with her blankets in it right beside the bed, so they soon had fresh sheets and pillowcases on her bed and the blankets pulled up. But to Malachi, it looked bare, unfinished.

  In classy hotels the maids always turned the bedding down for guests, and put chocolates on the pillow. Turning the sheet down was easy enough, but chocolate, not so much.

  Zircon must have been thinking the same sort of things because he said, “A vase of flowers on her nightstand would look pretty.”

  “Good thought. And maybe a chocolate to put on her pillow.”

  “Why stop at chocolate. We already said we might cook her dinner. Why not do that as well?” suggested Zircon.

  Once again they asked Taige, but this time she shook her head. “Morgan’s making dinner for us, but I’m sure Ginnie would appreciate a chocolate. It’s a long way to the store just to get one though.”

  “We might pick up a few other things while we’re there,” said Malachi, some ideas sparking inside his brain.

  “My thoughts exactly,” added Zircon.

  It was almost an hour later by the time they returned but there was a vase of pretty pink flowers for the nightstand, a handful of Hershey’s Kisses for the pillow, and two toy dogs, one labeled Zircon and the other Malachi, holding a sign saying, “Think of us while you sleep. We wish we could stay with you tonight and every night.”

  “You don’t think it’s too much? That it’ll upset her?” worried Malachi.

  “Remember how she teased us and laughed today? I think she has a very keen sense of humor and also that she’s a strong woman emotionally. She’ll see it the way we mean it.”

  Malachi hoped Zircon was right. He thought she probably would, but it was still a bit risky. He was starting to think it was very important not to upset Ginnie, that she might be the woman he’d been looking for all his life.

  * * * *

  Zircon’s job was an important and demanding one. Although any of the pack members could see the basic spreadsheet of community equipment, enabling them to plan when they’d borrow the items they needed, only he could update it. It was up to him to weigh up any competing needs and make the decisions about whether it was more important for the community as a whole to allocate something to person A or to person B. It was also up to him to decide if they really needed to buy more equipment if there were constant clashes or lines of people waiting for items. All of which meant he couldn’t be away from his computer for long, as people were trying to plan their own tasks and needed to know if they were going to have the machinery they needed to do it or not.

  That, in turn, meant he couldn’t spend as much time as he wanted to watching Ginnie and sharing in her life. What he needed to do was talk to Malachi. If Malachi was serious about pursuing Ginnie, he needed to know Zircon was thinking about having her, too. Zircon hadn’t decided yet, but she appealed to him a lot. She was smart and funny. He loved the way she teased and played with them. Yet she also had hidden depths. The way she’d seen straight though the outer shell of the old lady and into her heart said a lot to Zircon about Ginnie’s heart. It was genuine, true, worthy.

  It was much too soon for him to be making decisions about the rest of his life, but he liked Ginnie and wanted to get to know her better. Having to share a woman was a fact of life. Malachi was a good man, a hard worker, and a cooperative person. There would be far worse potential partners than him. Zircon could cope with him as a life partner sharing Ginnie. Well, as far as he knew right now. That would all become clearer as he got to know Ginnie better.

  So the first step toward getting to know Ginnie better was to be upfront with Malachi and to spend time with him. Time where he could have his laptop nearby and keep checking his e-mails every ho
ur or so in the interests of community harmony. Which pretty much meant staying on the pack lands.

  Zircon texted Malachi. Dinner? My place 7 p.m.?

  Almost immediately the reply came back. Sure. I’ll bring the beer.

  Being the Quartermaster for the pack had some advantages and one of them was the various suppliers sending him new lines to see if he wanted to order them. Often he’d simply send an e-mail around saying, “Anyone want to try…” listing the new items. But sometimes he kept something for himself, and consequently, sitting in his refrigerator at the moment was a big bag of pre-packed salad. He’d seen it as instant lunch and supper for the next few days. But now it would go well with a couple of steaks and be perfect for a meal with Malachi, making him look like an expert chef instead of an expert packet-opener.

  One of the advantages of being so busy was that time passed quickly, and before he knew it, he was dropping a couple of steaks onto his grill and tipping the pre-packed salad into a big bowl.

  Malachi arrived with a six-pack of longnecks and they sipped beer together as he turned the steaks on the grill. They talked easily about their day, the weather, and pack business as they ate then Malachi handed them each another beer and said, “This is about Ginnie, isn’t it?”

  Zircon had been wondering how to introduce the topic and was relieved Malachi had worked everything out for himself. “Yes. I like her and want to get to know her better, but my job means I’m tied to my computer whenever I’m awake. I hate to be away from it for more than an hour or two at a time.” Explaining himself was likely unnecessary since he’d already checked his e-mails twice while they were eating.

  Malachi’s green gaze rested on his face. “I more than like her. I’m almost certain she’s the woman for me. Obviously she doesn’t know that yet and I’ve got a long way to go in getting to know her properly and letting her learn about me. But just so you know, I don’t think. I know.”