Overwhelmingly Precious [Werewolves of Hanson Mall 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 5

  “That means it’ll have to be at night after the mall closes. Quintana will never leave the mall for more than a few minutes when it’s open and even I can’t leave Vaughan alone for too long.”

  “Sunday afternoon Hanson Mall closes at four instead of six. It’ll take us a good hour to get to the farm so I’ll make the appointment for five thirty and that should give us plenty of time to talk to the leaders and decide who we ought to interview.”

  “I think you should check with Quintana first that she’s okay to go back to the farm. Sometimes going back into the past can be very difficult,” warned Keelan.

  “Yes, I expect it’s her past that makes her so driven to succeed now. But I think the interviews will go better if she’s there to introduce me and Georgia. I always try to have a local Alpha or other person with me the first time I go to a new pack. Plus it means we get to spend more time with her.”

  “Okay then,” said Keelan.

  Wynn pulled out his cell phone and called Georgia first. He liked her. She was a wolf the same as him, and they’d worked together on the family history project for over a year now, although often leading different teams rather than being together in interviews. But he liked her only as a friend. He’d never felt the least bit attracted to her in a sexual kind of way although she was pretty with strawberry blonde hair and pale blue eyes.

  But Quintana was the woman he wanted, the one who made his heart beat faster and his dick grow longer. Quintana’s dark beauty turned him on so fast he had to restrain himself from grabbing her and kissing her until they both couldn’t breathe, every time he saw her.

  “Hey, Georgia, it’s Wynn.”

  “Hi, Wynn. How’re you doing?”

  “Yeah, I’m not bad. Listen, I was hoping to set up the interviews with the Simon pack on Sunday afternoon and evening. Does that work for you?”

  “Oh, sure, right. You just want an excuse to spend time with Quintana.”

  Wynn laughed. She knew him and his weaknesses. “Of course. So does that time work for you?”

  “Yes. Let me know when you have the details.”

  “She’s good with that so I’ll call Quintana,” he told Keelan.

  This time he set his cell phone to speakerphone so Keelan could hear the conversation.

  “Hi, Quintana, I was hoping you would come with Keelan, Georgia, and me to the farm to meet with your relatives for the first interview about the family history project.”

  “Why would you want me? I can’t tell them anything about it that you don’t know much better.”

  “I always like to have someone the pack knows and trusts with me for the first interview. Someone who can introduce me, so to speak.”

  “You do understand that my family has no respect for me at all because I’m human and my father’s daughter?”

  “But you’re family. They know you. And they accepted your mother back didn’t they?”

  Wynn waited while she took a breath and likely thought some about her answer. She’d made a success of her business. Surely that outweighed any dislike the wolves felt of her father?

  “All right. But not during business hours.”

  Wynn grinned. That was so typical of Quintana. Her business came first. “Not in business hours, no. I was thinking we could leave the mall right after it closes on Sunday, so arriving at the farm maybe five thirty?”

  “Okay. I’ll meet you in the level five parking lot about twenty-five after four. But don’t get your hopes up too high. The Simon family has a very low opinion of my branch of the family.”

  “The Simon family could be in for a shock then when we tell them just how much esteem the Hanson Mall Werewolf pack has for Quintana,” said Keelan firmly.

  “You plan to tell them?” he asked.

  “Hell yes.”

  * * * *

  Keelan sat in the backseat of the SUV with Quintana, while Georgia sat up front with Wynn and they ran through some of the questions they wanted to ask the leaders of the Simon pack.

  Keelan longed to hold her hand, to massage her tense shoulders, to stroke her thigh, but he instinctively knew she wouldn’t appreciate him touching her, even though Georgia was intent on her conversation and not watching them.

  Just looking at Quintana made him positive her relatives would have to respect her. The clothing she wore was clearly expensive, the fabrics of high quality, and the colors suited her perfectly. Her pants were bottle green and her shirt just a couple of shades lighter. Her shiny brown hair was in an intricate braid, the same one she’d worn when they went to the movies together. Her shoes were black and had low heels. He supposed that was because she had to stand and walk around for a good part of her working day, whereas he tended to sit mostly. He was either on a stool in the back room working on jewelry repairs, or sitting behind the counter doing bookwork. Vaughan did most of the customer service, only referring to him if it was a difficult question. Keelan was really going to miss him once he started school and was only working part-time.

  Quintana jumped out of the car when they reached the farm gate, opening it for them and closing it again behind them. The SUV bounced up a rutted track around the side of a hill and behind a stand of trees to a large, somewhat dilapidated farmhouse, a mass of outbuildings, and a small lake to the side of the property.

  It sure doesn’t look like a prosperous farm, but looks can be deceiving.

  Keelan got out of the car and stretched, using the opportunity to look around some more, but he could see neither crops nor animals. Oh well, it wasn’t his business. He was simply here as a support for Quintana and Wynn.

  A couple of middle-school-aged boys came out of one of the barns and stared at them. Keelan stood back and let the others do the talking, but it was Quintana who spoke first. “Good heavens. Are you Jordan’s son? You look just like I remember him.”

  “Jordan’s my dad. Who are you?” said one of the boys rather rudely, Keelan thought.

  “Quintana Simon. We’re here to meet with the elders. Are they in the front room?”

  “The Alpha is,” answered the other boy.

  “Thank you.” Quintana turned and marched into the house, Wynn and Georgia on her heels, and Keelan followed them.

  There were maybe a dozen people in the front room. Keelan assumed the Alpha was the one with thinning gray hair sitting in a big armchair. Quintana went straight across to an older woman and gave her a hug. “Hi, Mom.”

  Quintana’s mom was shorter than her daughter and looked thin and frail. In fact, all the people in the room seemed underweight to Keelan. Not that he expected them to be obese or anything, but wolves were naturally muscular with large appetites because they expended a lot of energy in their daily lives. Everyone in this room looked as if they’d been on a diet for too long and were overdue for a decent meal.

  Keelan brushed his thoughts aside. It was none of his business what these people ate. He was here to support Quintana.

  “Quintana,” said the Alpha.

  Quintana went over to him and shook his hand, then turned and said, “Alpha, may I introduce Wynn Evans, Georgia Edwards, and Keelan Griffith from the Hanson Mall pack.”

  “Tell me about the genealogical project,” ordered the Alpha.

  Keelan tuned out as Wynn explained about what he and Georgia were doing. Keelan thought it was strange that the Alpha hadn’t given them his own name, or the names of anyone else in the room. Of course, many Alphas were simply called “Alpha,” but that wasn’t an excuse for not introducing anyone else. It’d be very interesting to see if the Alpha permitted his people to participate in the project.

  “Will you pay us to give you this information?”

  Keelan had to force himself not to show surprise at the question, but Wynn answered smoothly. “No, sir, no one has been paid to be interviewed, but we are careful to talk to people out of work hours so they aren’t losing any income by helping us.”

  “If we aren’t getting any money out of this, why should we help?”
>
  This time it was Georgia who answered. “Werewolves will disappear within a couple of generations at the present rate of lack of females. It’s in every werewolf’s interest to find out if there is a solution to the problem.”

  “That’s just nonsense. Some of my men have found a mate in another pack. Just because my pack has very few females, and apparently yours does as well, that doesn’t mean wolves will die out. There’ll be werewolf women somewhere else to mate.”

  “No, sir, there aren’t. There’s a worldwide shortage of werewolf females. Actually all shape-shifters are breeding fewer females unless they mate with a human. The only solution that has been found so far is for male wolves to mate human females. They then seem to give birth to some girls once more,” said Wynn.

  Keelan found himself glancing at Quintana. Her face was bland but her shoulders were tense. Of course, both her parents were human, but she was descended from wolves as well.

  “I call bullshit on that. I expect you’re all really working for the CIA, or the IRS, or some government agency wanting to pry into our lives. Well it’s not going to happen. You can go right back where you came from,” said the Alpha.

  “We have nothing to do with the government. We work only for the werewolf community. You’re welcome to check with the Supreme Alpha of North America. He has given his support to this project,” said Wynn.

  “As if he’d listen to me,” scoffed the Alpha.

  “I can assure you Mr. Vukic will take your call.” Georgia pulled her business card out of her pocket and wrote on the back of it. “My number is on the front of the card and the Supreme’s is on the back. Thank you for allowing us to visit you today.”

  Keelan followed Wynn, Georgia, and Quintana out of the house and back to the car. This time, when they got to the gate, he climbed out to open and close it. Only when they were several miles down the road did he turn to Quintana and ask, “What the fuck is biting the Alpha? And why is everyone so thin?”

  Chapter Four

  “Yeah, I’d like to know that as well,” said Georgia.

  Quintana sighed and turned side-on in her seat so she could look at Keelan beside her and Wynn and Georgia in the front seat of the SUV.

  “You need to remember I left the farm when I was a teenager, and of course a kid sees things differently from an adult. But my feeling has been for a long time that there are far too many people living there for the farm to support them all. I don’t believe they’ve tried to find new crops or specialty crops that will bring in a higher income. I think they’re wedded to tradition and the old ways of doing things and it’s not working for them.”

  “Why did the Alpha think the Supreme wouldn’t take his call?” asked Keelan.

  “The Alpha wouldn’t break his oath to the Supreme, so it wouldn’t be out of guilt. Maybe it’s just the whole tradition thing. He thinks the Supreme is too important to bother with him. I’m sure he ignores requests from people in the pack he considers unimportant.”

  “Like your parents?”

  “Hell yes.” Quintana had to stop and center herself before she spoke again. And she needed to remember Georgia was listening, too. “My father was the youngest of five brothers and he was human as well. So he was very much the runt of the litter. For years I’ve been trying to get my mother to let me put money in her bank account but she refuses. She says she couldn’t buy things for herself when others don’t have money. So I pay for her cell phone and she can use that as much as she wants without it annoying other members of the pack. I’d like to do more for her but that’s all she’ll permit me to give her.”

  “They all need a damn good meal,” said Keelan.

  “Fuck, yes. They all look like they’re on one of those weight loss program advertisements,” said Georgia.

  “No. What they really need is proper advice on how to make a living for themselves. Years ago the Hanson Mall pack Alpha took the radically different approach of selling the pack’s land and building the mall. What this Alpha needs to do is work out a pathway forward that will bring new life and health into his pack,” said Wynn.

  Quintana gasped. He was absolutely correct. Wynn was obviously not young and immature. He’d clearly put his finger on exactly what her old pack needed to do to survive and thrive.

  “Do you think he’ll contact the Supreme?” asked Keelan.

  “I don’t know. I’ve been gone too long to guess at how he’ll react to things. In the past I would have said no, but he must have noticed his pack’s problems and I suspect he knows he can’t solve them alone. It’d be a question of pride though, not to admit to anyone else there even is a problem. Wolves are very proud.”

  “But they’re also very protective. It must pain him a lot that he can’t provide properly for his pack,” said Keelan.

  “I don’t know if he’d have the will or the skills to do something new. Your old Alpha was a man of vision as well as strong enough to enthuse his pack and get them behind him. He was a true leader, having both the ability to see what needed to be done, and also the charisma to enthuse the pack to follow him down that road.”

  “Is the Alpha the same man who was Alpha when you were with the pack?” asked Georgia.

  “Yes. There was another Alpha when I was a baby, but this Alpha is the only one I’ve ever known.”

  “In that case, he must have the respect of the pack or he wouldn’t still be in charge. Wynn, we need to work out how to get them to agree to answer our questions. Then we can build relationships with the pack and then they’ll trust us when we ask them to get help to solve their problems,” said Georgia.

  That all sounded good to Quintana but she had absolutely no idea how they’d do it.

  * * * *

  Georgia had an apartment in the Hanson pack’s apartment block, so Wynn dropped her off there. Keelan was almost certain he wouldn’t take Quintana to her apartment but would take her back to the mall. At least he really hoped so. He longed to hold her again. To kiss her and make love to her. Besides, they hadn’t eaten yet and he was hungry.

  Wynn stopped at a burger store. “I’m hungry. Does anyone mind if we eat here?”

  “I’m hungry, too,” said Keelan, but his gaze was on Quintana. What would she say?

  “I wish I could get my mother to accept some money. I’m sure she doesn’t eat enough.”

  Keelan helped Quintana out of the car and tucked her against his side as they walked into the store. “Could you get her food she could share with other people? Would that work?” he asked.

  Quintana frowned and looked thoughtful. It was a long time before she answered. “I guess not. I suppose that’s why she’s only accepted the cell phone from me. She can make calls and texts, take pictures, and check her e-mail, or play games on the Internet, so it amuses her and keeps her in touch with the real world. I’m not sure the pack is completely grounded in the outside world and she lived outside the pack for a while.”

  Keelan picked up her hand and held it. “Yet your mom chose to return to the farm.”

  “Yes she did, and she always says she’s happy there. She has friends and it’s been her family, too, for so many years that it’s home to her.”

  Keelan wanted her to smile and relax, but she needed to keep talking about the farm until whatever was worrying her was out of her system. It was just that he didn’t really know what to say to her to help. So he held her hand, stroking her fingers until their burgers were served. He handed her the soda she’d asked for and teased her, “What, not one of those green things again?”

  “A green lantern is only for special occasions.”

  But she was smiling at them, so he was pleased about that.

  “What we need to do is what Georgia said. Work out how to get them to agree to join in the genealogy project,” said Wynn.

  “That’s dead easy. Offer them money. It’s obvious the Alpha will jump at it,” answered Quintana.

  “But how can you do that? Is there funding for the project? I mean it’s the
Hanson pack which pays for your airfare and so on isn’t it?” asked Keelan. It wasn’t something he’d ever discussed with Wynn before. He’d just assumed as a Hanson pack member the pack covered his expenses.

  “It’s a little more complicated than that. There is a budget which pays for things like airfare. When Georgia or I travel to other packs they provide our meals and accommodation and anything else we need. Basically the host pack covers our expenses. But the Supreme gives us a budget for more general expenses like the time I flew to Europe.”

  “Yet this would be the exact opposite. Instead of the pack covering your expenses, the pack would be asking for payment. I don’t know that it’s possible,” said Keelan. He wanted the Simon pack to be involved and he could clearly see they needed help, but he wasn’t at all sure the other packs would contribute to funding for them.

  Keelan stared at Quintana. She was eating her fries thoughtfully, stabbing each one separately and chewing it slowly. She was so lovely. She was everything he wanted and needed but he could tell her old pack was going to come between them unless something could be done to help them move forward in a healthy way. “Can we think of any other way to get them to help us?” he asked.

  For the rest of the meal they talked about the project, but really, it was completely voluntary. It was just that up until now, there’d always been someone willing to help, usually an older person who knew much of the pack’s history.

  “Your mother has that cell phone. Would she be willing to be interviewed, do you think?” asked Wynn.

  Keelan smiled. He hadn’t thought of that as a solution.

  “Maybe. When she’s alone. I think she spends most of her days with the other women, but is alone at night.”

  “Would you ask her for us please? She wouldn’t even need to tell anyone what she was doing. All she has to do is tell us if she knows of other humans and where they fit in the family tree,” said Wynn.

  “Okay.” Quintana put down her fork and took out her cell phone, her fingers flying over the face of it as she texted her mother. The phone beeped almost immediately with the reply.