Extravagantly Loved [Werewolves of Hanson Mall 6] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read online

  “That’s interesting. Berian, what are your plans for the future?”

  Hal was glad she’d turned her attention to Berian again.

  “I’m very happy at the mall. I’ve got a good job and a lot of friends there. Growing up in a pack is special. A boy makes friends from birth among his pack mates. Because of having to keep our species hidden from society, we have a natural closeness to each other.”

  Hal was interested that Berian didn’t mention having a special friend. He knew some of the Hanson Mall wolves had formed partnerships ready to invite a mate to join them. Since the Supreme Alpha of North America had endorsed interspecies marriages and ménage marriages more and more wolves were looking at sharing a woman. As for himself, he’d pretty much given up on the idea of ever having a family. But it was surprising Berian said nothing because at the mall he had the opportunity to meet women and get to know them, both humans and wolves.

  Janet bent her head to her meal again, but Hal thought she was thinking, although what was on her mind he didn’t know. After a while she put her fork down, and picked up the letters she’d taken from her mailbox. Not wishing to pry he lowered his gaze to his plate, even though he’d finished eating.

  He jumped to his feet when Janet’s chair crashed back on the floor as she yelled, “Fucking hell. That asshole shit. How dare he dishonor our mother like that!”

  Chapter Three

  Janet paced the floor, stomping her feet and picturing her hands closing around her brother’s neck as she slowly squeezed the life out him. Finally she sighed and slumped back into her chair, which Hal had stood back up for her. Malcolm was bigger and stronger than her as he’d always been since the day she was born. She’d never succeed and he wasn’t worth spending the rest of her life in jail for anyway. It would be much better to defeat him in a court of law than in a back alley. But how?

  Both men were staring at her. She sighed. “My brother has sent a legal letter into the court saying my father is not my father. That I was some other man’s daughter and therefore I have no right to interfere with his arrangements for his father’s affairs. This is a letter from the court ordering me to stay away from his father. Dammit that’s a fucking lie! My mother adored my father. She wouldn’t have fucked around with any other man.”

  Hal asked her very hesitantly, “Have you got a photograph of your father? I mean a picture of him years ago. When he was about your age or not a lot older?”

  “I have their wedding picture but it’s in black and white, which isn’t a lot of help. My fucking brother took all my father’s possessions, so all his photographs are where my brother put them. Likely destroyed I expect. But I do look like him. He’s got this useless fine hair and he’s short and fat like me. Malcolm has the same hair as well. But there’s no way to prove anything there.”

  “The one sure way is DNA testing. What does the letter say? Are you prohibited from approaching your father? Can you ask him for a DNA sample? Is he capable of agreeing to a DNA test?” asked Berian.

  Janet stopped to think. That was a damn good idea. “I’m not allowed to approach Dad. I’m sure Sierra Bond could get approval for a DNA test but I know Malcolm will fight it all the way. But if I can’t go to ask Dad we need to think of another way.”

  “That’s easy. We’ll ask Nurse Eilidh to get it for you. Isn’t there just an inner cheek swab or something simple that can be done?”

  Janet shook her head. She didn’t know much about DNA tests at all. Except that fucking Malcolm would try to prevent it being done as it would prove that her father was her father.

  “Who is this Nurse Ay-lee?” she asked.

  “Eilidh. She’s the nurse at Hanson Mall and she’s very much a no-nonsense person. I think we should talk to her and ask her to get the sample for you. But also if you ask Sierra to get permission for it maybe that will stop your brother from thinking you are just going to do it anyway,” said Berian.

  “I like the idea of doing it first and getting permission second. I’ll ask for a DNA sample from Malcolm as well because it will prove we’re related by more than just our mother. Can you speak to your nurse now or do you need to wait until tomorrow?”

  “I’ll try now. She could go to your father’s care facility and do it first thing tomorrow morning before your brother has a chance to get his panties in a bunch.”

  Janet grinned. She liked that phrase. “Do it please. I’ll contact Sierra.”

  Janet picked up the letter, walked into her bedroom, and shut the door. She pulled the drapes closed and turned on the light, and then just sat on her bed for a few minutes. Half of her wanted to punch her brother in the face and the other half wanted to cry. Why had he done this to her? Didn’t he understand he was not hurting her as much as dishonoring his own mother?

  She slammed her fist into her pillow and then leaned against the headboard of the bed and scrolled through her cell phone until she came to Sierra Bond’s phone number.

  The phone only rang twice before a crisp, cool voice said, “Sierra Bond.”

  “It’s Janet Young, Ms. Bond. I’m sorry to call so late but my fu—brother has sent me a letter.”

  “Read it to me please.”

  Janet did. “Can you please get a court order for my brother and father to have DNA tests done?”

  “I certainly can and will, but I suspect your brother is just trying to slow the case down. He’ll be using the time to hide what he’s done with your father’s assets.

  “Ah fuck. I hadn’t thought of that. I’m an auditor and a forensic accountant. I’ll find the money providing he hasn’t spent it all.”

  “I’ll send the orders for the tests off tomorrow, but what say I also send some show cause letters to him. That should keep him busy wiggling out of them instead of spending your father’s money.”

  “Oh, I like that idea. Thank you.”

  “I’ll send you copies of the letters when they’re done. Good night.”

  Janet put the phone down and smiled. Damn, that woman was smart. Now she needed to check up on this nurse of Berian’s, and get some prints of her parents’ wedding picture. Dammit, all she’d wanted to do was finish the accounts she was working on tonight. That case was urgent and she needed to get it done. Now it’d be bedtime long before she’d dealt with Malcolm’s madness. And she hadn’t even had a spare moment to think about the rats that had been left on her doorstep. Didn’t Berian or Hal say they’d taken a video of them opening the gift box? Ah, fuck. This was going to take all night.

  * * * *

  Berian had wanted to ask Janet about the rats and about her brother, but first Janet was working, her brow creased with concentration, and then she’d been relaxed over the meal, and she’d been working so ferociously he hadn’t wanted to spoil her few minutes of peace and harmony. Now he still needed to talk to her about the rats. And her brother. What was driving the man? She didn’t act like she was a spoiled precious little princess. She seemed a normal hardworking kind of person to him. Was the brother actually deranged or something?

  He took out his cell phone and rang Eilidh.

  “I’m really sorry to bother you but are you able to collect a swab for a DNA test first thing tomorrow morning?”

  “I expect so. Some of them need to be done an hour or more after food. Before the person has breakfast would be ideal. Who is it for, where are they, and why are you involving me in this situation?”

  “Oh, yes, sorry, Eilidh. Cadfael assigned me to bodyguard a woman and her brother has just sent some letters to the court saying she’s not their father’s child so we need to do a DNA test to prove she is. But she’s also been banned from approaching her father who has dementia so it’s a little complicated.”

  Eilidh snorted and Berian relaxed. They agreed that Hal would meet her at Hanson Mall at six thirty in the morning and they’d go to a twenty-four-hour pharmacy to collect the tests, then to the care facility and then to Janet’s company to test her, before Hal took Eilidh back to the mall agai
n in time to start work.

  “Make sure no one eats until after I take the swab. Ideally I should take a second swab four hours later so we’ll need to ensure no one has begun eating lunch until after I’ve done it. I’ll need to get the relief nurse to be at the mall while your man Hal takes me back to do that.”

  “Thank you, Eilidh. I appreciate you letting us disrupt your day.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  Janet came back into the room then and he told her the plans. She nodded and agreed and sat down at the table. “Now, tell me about the rats.”

  Hell, yes. That was something else he needed to go through with her.

  “Here’s the video I took,” he said scrolling through his cell phone and handing it to her.

  “Huh, they wouldn’t have scared me. It’d just be a nuisance catching them again after they got out of the box. However, I must get someone to find out where he got them. Perhaps the animal shelter will know. If Hal is going with Ay-lee tomorrow perhaps you can follow that up for me, Berian. Hopefully it’ll implicate Malcolm.”

  Berian was fine with that. He could always ask Harry Harrison’s security firm to do the hard work or to advise him. But he really needed to get Janet packed and out of this apartment.

  “Janet, it’s not safe for you to stay here. The letter is meant to delay the court case, but the rats are a warning. The vet said they were okay, not the kind with rabies, but the next, uh…gift you receive might not be harmless. Hell, he could even blow a poisonous gas under your door or anything. I need you to pack a bag and for us to go somewhere else for a week or two. Until everything has settled down some.”

  “Fucking hell!” Janet waved an arm at the pile of work on the table. “I’ve got an urgent project I need to be working on right now. I haven’t got time to be racing around the countryside playing fucking games with fucking Malcolm.”

  “No, ma’am. But likely you don’t have time to be sitting in the emergency room with a venomous spider bite either,” said Hal.

  Berian smiled at the man. It was a farm boy answer, but true and relevant nonetheless. “Perhaps we could pack some of the things you want to keep safe, while you pack a bag,” he suggested.

  Janet sighed and sat back down at the table. “That cabinet there has the things that matter to me in it. There’s not much. I never had the chance to collect things I cared about until after I left home. I don’t have any storage boxes but there are a couple of laundry hampers in the spare room. Use the towels in the bathroom to wrap the china. One of you can take the hampers to the storage locker and put them in my car tomorrow. But we’ll stay here tonight. I can’t believe anything will happen so soon. Malcolm probably thinks I’m curled up in bed crying my eyes out over the rats and the letter from the court. Damn that fucking man!”

  Janet pulled her work in front of her and bent her head over it. Silently he stood up and walked over to the cabinet she’d indicated. Hal left the room, returning with a laundry hamper and a couple of fluffy pale blue towels. Berian looked back at Janet’s bent head and her hand tapping a pen on the table. Malcolm has seriously underestimated her courage and strength.

  * * * *

  At six they left Janet’s apartment, carrying two laundry hampers, a suitcase, a carry-on bag, and a shopping bag full of food. Janet squeezed into the backseat with most of the luggage because the trunk was full with his and Berian’s luggage. On the way to the mall to drop him off and collect the other car, Hal memorized Janet’s directions to her father’s care facility.

  The nurse was waiting for them and Berian introduced them to each other. Hal moved the laundry hampers into the trunk of the white car so he could deliver them to the storage locker later, and then the nurse directed him to a twenty-four-hour dispensary where they collected the DNA test kits. They seemed extremely expensive to Hal, but they needed them and he still had some of Ms. Young’s money left, so it was all okay he supposed.

  He was glad he’d asked for details about where Mr. Young was being cared for because the building was huge, with wings going off in every direction, and they were all named after flowers. Pansy, Lily of the Valley, Poppy, and finally Rose, which was his destination. Immediately the quiet woman beside him changed. She held out the paperwork for the test kit and said, firmly, “I’m Nurse Brennan here to take the cheek swab for the DNA test of Mr. Young.”

  The nurse at the reception desk flicked through some charts and said, “I see. There was a phone call about that last night. Come with me.”

  A chubby man was sitting up in bed watching television in his pajamas. He did have the same sort of build as Ms. Young. Broad shoulders and a solid body. But he definitely had a beer belly, where Janet wasn’t fat, just chunky. Also he truly did have the same sort of very fine hair as her, although his was sparse and gray, not brown.

  Nurse Eilidh talked the old man through the test and when she’d finished he said, “That’s it? You don’t need to take my temperature or anything?”

  “No, but I’ll be back before lunch to do it again. About eleven or eleven thirty, okay?”

  The facility nurse grunted and made a note on the chart and they all left, Hal protecting Eilidh and working hard to remember all the twists and turns to get them back to the parking lot.

  “Now I’ll take you to Janet to do her test.”

  “The mall opens at eight and I need to be back there by then, but we’re doing fine so far.”

  Hal’s day was one long race from place to place. He supposed it was an excellent way of teaching him to find his way around town, but he was sweating by the time he finally returned to Janet’s company building, for the third time that day, in the midafternoon.

  The DNA kits had been shipped off to be tested with the results to be sent to the nurse so Janet’s name wasn’t on any paperwork in case Malcolm had some kind of alert set up. Her possessions were safely in storage, with her car, and that was all under Berian’s name as he’d hired the locker. Again, that should keep them safe from anyone checking for Janet.

  The one thing he hadn’t done was think of anywhere safe to take her tonight. The obvious answer was to go to a hotel, but they’d need a large suite for the three of them, and everything seemed to be costing her a lot of money. It could take weeks to get the whole situation sorted out and that could be horrendously expensive.

  Hal thought of his parents’ house on the farm. They’d be safe there, protected on the pack lands. He didn’t think Malcolm would ever find her there. If Malcolm knew of her association with shape-shifters it would be the Hanson Mall pack, not the Simon pack. Of course the house was old, but it was not dirty or tumbledown, and it had plenty of rooms. His uncle’s room even had a desk in it where she could work if she wanted to.

  When he returned to her office a second desk had been set up in the corner, and Berian was entering data into a spreadsheet. Hal was relieved Berian had gotten that job. Although he supposed tomorrow it might be him. He entered the room and stood quietly by the door.

  It was peaceful standing there, watching Berian and Janet. Janet’s face was very mobile and she was constantly moving her body as well. She’d frown, run her fingers through her hair, tap her pen against the desk, wiggle in her chair, cross and uncross her legs, and flip the pages of the report with one hand while reading the papers on another pile. How could her brother hate her so much? Admittedly he’d only known her for two days, but she’d behaved perfectly reasonably the entire time in circumstances that could easily have made her lose her poise.

  She was by no means beautiful, but her power, energy, and intelligence were attractive. She appealed to a man’s mind first, and his dick second, instead of just to his dick.

  Berian had been more than fair to him. Hal knew he was the country cousin, and Berian had indicated that, too, but he’d never been rude to him in front of the client, treating him always with equality and civility. That was a big ask when Hal knew he had no special training to offer, just his big body and his hands to do any work h
e was asked to do.

  He and Berian had worked together really well. Sharing the care of Janet with Berian was just like working with one of the men from his pack on the farm. They’d been a team, sharing the job, moving together, working side by side with whatever needed to be done, as if they’d known each other from birth.

  Of course he wasn’t trying to kid himself that now they were Best Friends Forever, but they did seem to instinctively understand each other. Even at the veterinarian’s they’d both instantly known how to arrange their bodies to be in the right place at the right time to care for those damn rats.

  He was incredibly relieved that they were fast becoming friends and colleagues, partners in the protection of Janet. In a task like this, where they were basically going to be with each other twenty-four-seven for the next few weeks or even months, knowing Berian had his back, as he had Berian’s, was an enormous boost to his confidence. Hal was starting to believe that together, as a team, maybe they really could keep Janet safe despite Malcom’s craziness.

  It was after eight when Janet finally sat up and stretched her body. “It’s done,” she said, and Hal could hear the relief in her voice. Of course. This would be the big project she’d wanted to work on last night.

  Briskly she tidied her desk, locking papers into a file cabinet and feeding others through a shredding machine on a counter at the side of the room. She collected the pile of papers Berian had been using, and put them away, and then picked up her in-tray and slid the entire thing into her purse. Hal had been intrigued by the enormous size of her purse, and now he knew why she’d chosen it. He’d never have thought a woman would do that before.

  “Let’s get some food,” suggested Berian.

  Janet stared at him. “I’m going to be as fat as a pig if I keep eating whenever you do. I understand you burn up a lot of calories, but I don’t need that. There should be some bananas left. I’ll have two of them.”