Tightly Held [Werewolves of Hanson Mall 5] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read online

  * * * *

  Nolan woke early and went and took a shower. Once he was dressed he went out to the kitchen and looked in the refrigerator. There was plenty of food there, but he didn’t really know how much to cook. Should he assume they’d need two more breakfasts each, or just one?

  Georgia had a healthy appetite. Of course, she was a wolf after all, but she wasn’t one of those women who refused to eat in case she put on weight. Not that she was fat. Hell, he’d seen her body in all its perfect detail last night and it was amazing. She had rich curves at her hips and breasts, but no wobbly, flabby fat, just lush womanliness instead of angular, sharp protruding bones. He really didn’t like that on a woman. Those clothing designers could say whatever they liked, but he really didn’t think that women who looked like famine survivors were beautiful. But someone like Georgia, now, she was beautiful. Stunningly beautiful.

  His cock stretched and grew in his jeans, and he concentrated on beating eggs and chopping tomatoes, onions, and peppers, to take his mind off the wonderful woman he knew should be his mate. As he added bacon to the pan, he heard the shower turn on and wondered if it was Ethan or Georgia. He also wondered if he should wake her up if she didn’t wake by eight o’clock. Or maybe half past eight. How long would it take her to get dressed, have breakfast, and get her papers together? Eight would be safer perhaps. He wanted her to have as long as possible to sleep in, but he didn’t want her to be all stressed out through lack of proper preparation time. He needed to pay more attention to her, to learn how long it took her to do things, so next time he’d know exactly what to do.

  Still unsure how much food to prepare, he toasted everyone two slices of bread to go with the omelet and bacon, but left the loaf of bread beside the toaster in case Georgia was still hungry. He knew Ethan would instinctively follow his lead about the amount of food.

  By the time the coffee was ready and he’d put plates, cutlery, and orange juice on the table, both Ethan and Georgia arrived, showered and dressed, and Ethan got out the mugs and glassware.

  “Having you here to look after me is very addictive,” said Georgia.

  “If you’ll let us, we’d like to continue looking after you,” said Ethan.

  Nolan nodded, watching her face.

  She flashed them both assessing looks but said nothing, continuing to eat her meal. When she went to put her plate in the sink, he took it from her. “You do what you need to do to get ready for the day. We’ll take care of this. All you have to do is tell us what you expect of us today.”

  Georgia leaned back in her chair and flipped her strawberry-blonde hair back over her shoulders.

  “It’ll be exactly like the second day at the Cottlesloe pack, unless any of them have remembered any more hints of ménages. If they have, send them to me.”

  “That’s fine. We should finish here today then.”

  “Yes, and tomorrow we’ll move on to the other pack. It’s, what, two hours from here?”

  “A little over that. Maybe two ten, two fifteen,” said Ethan.

  “Good. Let’s do it.” Georgia gave him the most amazing smile. It melted his heart completely and made him long to snatch her into his arms again. But doing that didn’t feel right in the morning, and in the kitchen of a borrowed house where anyone might walk in on them. Fuck it!

  * * * *

  Ethan had really hoped they could make love to Georgia again that night, but the pack wanted to spend time with her, constantly drawing her into their conversations. By the time they returned to the little house he and Nolan needed to check their maps and directions for the next day and Georgia went straight to her room closing the door. He couldn’t complain, they were here to work and had gotten a ton of information, but his dick was disappointed. Hell, all of him was disappointed.

  The Alpha officially said farewell to them the following morning, with what seemed like half the pack watching on, and then they were on their way again. Ethan was slightly nervous about finding another new place, but a lot more confident than he’d been on their way here, and from his home to Hanson Mall originally. He and Nolan knew their way around maps, Google, and other online sources now, and the lack of a GPS no longer worried him.

  But when they arrived at what should have been the pack’s farm he started wondering if he’d done something wrong. The fence was at least fifteen feet high and topped with razor-barbed wire. The gates were securely locked, and it appeared the road went through a small river right after the gate. “Is this the right place? I’m sorry if I’ve taken a wrong turn—”

  “We haven’t been here before. The Alpha and a couple of his elders met Wynn and his team in town. I was planning to meet some senior citizens this time and do a much better interview, which is why we’re here.” Georgia jumped out of the SUV and pushed a buzzer on the gate.

  Ethan wound down his window, wondering if he should get out of the car to protect her. He looked all around but no one seemed to be anywhere nearby.

  “Yes?”

  “Hi. I’m Georgia Edwards here with a team to interview the—your managing director about the family history project. I’m expected.”

  “What is the account number quoted on your paperwork?”

  “Wait while I look at it.” Georgia walked back to the car and pulled some papers out of her briefcase. Riffling through them, she took one across to the buzzer. “Are you there?”

  “Yes.”

  She quoted the number.

  “Get back in the car and wind all the windows completely up and close all the air vents. This farm is part of the American First Seeds project and it’s very important no stray seeds or pollen enter our property. Your car will go through several baths. Do not open your windows until you arrive at the house and I greet you.”

  “Okay. Thanks.”

  Georgia climbed back into the SUV. Ethan closed his window and checked the others had done the same. It all sounded really weird to him. He sure as hell hoped he wasn’t going through poisonous gases or anything.

  When the gate began to open, he drove up to it very slowly and steered carefully into the river. The road was firm underneath his wheels, and there didn’t seem to be any tidal flow, so likely it was more of a moat than anything else, although the water wasn’t clear or fresh looking.

  He saw Nolan staring at the floor of the car, and a quick glance in his rearview mirror showed him Georgia looking out the window. He’d really have liked to talk about it, but decided he’d better keep his mind on driving. There could be hidden potholes or anything under the murky waters.

  Once they came out of the water, a sort of net thing came down over the car and a red light ahead of him flashed on. Instinctively, he stopped. Water poured over the car then brushes scrubbed it and more water poured over it again. The light, which had sat firmly in front of him while this was happening, retracted to the side of the road. He took his foot off the brake and began driving slowly once again.

  “That’s the weirdest car wash I’ve ever seen,” said Nolan.

  “They definitely take this First Seeds Project seriously,” said Georgia.

  “What’s the First Seeds Project?” asked Nolan.

  I’d like to know that, too.

  “I expect we’ll hear a lot more detail about it while we’re here, but it’s about preserving the original plants from this land. Things that may already have died out or are endangered.”

  “Oh, so that’s what you mean. I expect it’s very important they breed true, not get cross-pollinated. Okay, I get it now,” said Nolan.

  That made sense to Ethan as well, but he still concentrated strictly on his driving. Who knew what might pop out of the trees for him to deal with next? There was another river or moat or whatever it was to cross, and another car wash before he pulled up in front of what had presumably once been a huge old house, but which now had several multistory wings sticking out of each side of the central two-story section.

  “I guess everyone lives all together in this house,” sa
id Georgia.

  A man in a security guard’s uniform came out of the house with a long-handled broom wrapped in white paper, which he rubbed across the roof of the car. He inspected his broom carefully, pulled one sheet of paper off it, and balled it up, leaving another sheet of paper visible on the broom, and brushed the underside of the car, before checking the broom again. Finally he nodded, pulled the second piece of paper off the broom, and put the broom down. Only then did the Alpha—well, Ethan assumed it was the Alpha—come out of the house followed by a man with half a dozen pairs of shoe coverings like people wear in a hospital.

  Okay, this is going to be really interesting.

  Chapter Four

  Georgia was incredibly excited about being allowed to visit this pack. Until they’d arrived it hadn’t occurred to her how much trust the pack had placed in her to let her come here. Georgia, being a wolf herself, was well aware that some packs had been unfairly targeted and discriminated against by bigoted humans who didn’t understand the reality of shape-shifters. No bite from a werewolf was going to turn someone furry, mad, and howling at a full moon. Shape-shifting was a gene, passed from parent to child, much the same way she’d received the blue eye gene from her two brown-eyed parents.

  In her case, her eyes were blue because she’d been given the recessive blue eye gene from both parents. There was a one in four chance of that happening and she’d beaten the odds and ended up with blue eyes. If a human married a werewolf, their children would have a fifty-fifty chance of being a shape-shifter. Part of the family history project’s work was to track whether human offspring of werewolf-human matings who later mated a werewolf had a three in four chance of having a shape-shifter child, or if it stayed as fifty-fifty. Finding that out would be a huge help to the project.

  The car doors were opened and everyone was handed protective coverings to put over their shoes before the Alpha escorted them inside. “We’re grateful you came back to talk to us again. We’re hoping to add more information to your study. I’ll explain everything inside,” he said.

  There must have been about twenty people sitting in a large open plan dining room when Georgia walked in. The Alpha’s mate took her immediately to a table of seniors and sat her down. Small sandwiches, cupcakes, and coffee were served. The older people introduced themselves and she asked them about the First Seeds Project. For a start, she was genuinely interested in it, but also she wanted them relaxed around her before the formal interviewing began.

  They remained at the table as more people joined in, until the chairs were squashed together even though a second table had been added to the first one. Ethan must have gone out to the car because he returned with her briefcase and laptop, and the discussions began. Women brought out more sandwiches, and mugs of soup, and still people kept talking about their ancestors, the stories flowing fast.

  Only when the food was all gone and the stories finally trickled to a halt, did she ask if they’d ever heard the rhyme.

  When two are in the garden,

  A son will soon make three.

  When three are in the garden

  You’ll be blessed with a family.

  Several people spoke at once, saying they didn’t know it, but finally one old man said, “Wait.”

  Everyone turned to look at him and he said, “Think about the words of that poem. Don’t just look at the surface.”

  Georgia hid her smile and quoted it again. Had the senior worked out the ménage theory? Did he know of a ménage relationship? Was the pattern of ménages not really something new at all, but a strategy that had been used in the past? Or was the poem not really about ménages? Was a modern generation putting a modern interpretation on an innocent old rhyme?

  “Oh my goodness! Great-Aunt Daisy and William and Thaddeus.”

  “Who?”

  “Old Tad. Remember Old Tad?”

  As unobtrusively as possible, Georgia wrote down the names mentioned, and those of the old man who’d first queried the rhyme and the old woman who’d remembered Great-Aunt Daisy. Certainly it sounded like a woman with two men, but possibly it was quite chaste. Brothers and a sister even. But Georgia found herself crossing her fingers under the table, hoping she’d found a new lead to solve the shape-shifter mystery.

  When more food was served around the table, Georgia’s first thought was that she’d done nothing but eat since she’d arrived, but as she bit into spicy vegetable samosa she realized she was hungry again and several hours had passed while they’d all been talking.

  “Many people will be tired after their long day. Will beginning at ten tomorrow be all right with you?” the Alpha asked Georgia.

  “Of course. I’m very grateful for the time everyone has given me today. I hadn’t realized how late it had gotten,” she said.

  “The cooks didn’t want to bring out the food earlier in case it distracted people.”

  “They timed it perfectly. The conversation had wound down, and I’ll talk to people separately tomorrow, as well as together.”

  “Excellent.” The Alpha lifted his arm in the air and clicked his fingers.

  Half a dozen teenagers, who must have been waiting out in the hallway, arrived and started helping people to their homes. Or rooms, she supposed.

  “Does everyone live in this building?” she asked the Alpha.

  “Yes. When we joined the First Seeds Project it became really important not to track dirt from one area of the property to other areas, so it was much easier if everyone lived in the one place and this house was the obvious building for us all to use. Besides, there were plenty of vacant rooms to turn into bedrooms and apartments. If you want to run there’s a specific area set aside for that. Just tell someone and they’ll escort you.”

  “I’d love to run and perhaps my assistants would, too. Can we do that after we finish tomorrow, perhaps? Unless it’s too late.”

  “Of course. I’ll arrange it myself.”

  “Thank you. You’ve been extremely helpful.”

  He nodded and a teenager said, “Follow me.”

  Ethan and Nolan had been waiting for her and they followed her up the stairs to the top floor when they were shown to three adjacent rooms. Hers was the corner one with a huge window out over the property. It was pitch dark now, but she knew that in the morning there’d be an amazing view.

  “We’ll go get the luggage,” said Nolan.

  Georgia hid a smile. They’d be back and she was looking forward to another night in their arms. Her body still tingled with the memories from two days ago. She’d been disappointed they couldn’t sleep together last night, but the work was much more important than sex. However, tonight would be perfect for sex, especially with a late start tomorrow morning.

  * * * *

  Ethan wasn’t surprised to see a man waiting down by the front door when he and Nolan approached. “Do you need help with your luggage?” he asked.

  “No thank you. We’ll be fine.” Ethan hoped that was true. They hadn’t brought flashlights, but the SUV was white and there was a light in the trunk so they should be all right.

  The guard flicked on a porch light, which gave plenty of illumination, and they had no trouble walking to the car and collecting their suitcase and Georgia’s two bags. He’d brought her laptop bag and briefcase in for her before they’d begun the interviews because he knew she’d want to record the session. They’d only been traveling with her for a few short days, but already both he and Nolan knew which bags had her papers and work in them, and which one had her clothing. One roll-on bag looked much like any other roll-on bag to him, but so far she’d always used the one with the blue zipper for papers and the other one for clothing, so that system worked for him.

  It was difficult to climb the stairs because his dick was so hard. Ethan was sure Georgia would let them make love to her tonight. Well, almost sure. Their work had to come first, but the Alpha had been clear that the seniors would be tired and the day couldn’t start until ten, which gave them plenty of time
to make love tonight and for Georgia still to get enough sleep. He knew she had to be highly mentally alert to look for clues as to whom she ought to interview and the questions she should ask, and he’d never try to hinder her from doing her best work. But hell, it wasn’t even midnight yet so there was plenty of time left for him and Nolan to love her thoroughly.

  And this time he’d packed condoms and lube. On the day they’d had between the road trips he’d paid a visit to the adult store. It was full of absolutely amazing things, and he’d promised himself to go back there one day and spend a lot of time looking all around. In particular, he wanted to get Georgia some nipple clips. Her breasts were beautiful, and deserved to be decorated by some pretty jewelry. However, all he’d purchased was condoms and lube, which would be enough for tonight. With people sleeping in rooms all around them he wanted her to have several not-too-loud climaxes. Maybe he could give her one where she screamed her lungs out when they took her to the farm as Nolan had suggested for their date.

  On their way home he and Nolan needed to ask her about that. Maybe they would find a scenic lookout and kiss her there as well. Or perhaps kiss her first and then ask her out. That might be better.

  Ethan knocked on Georgia’s door instead of suggesting Nolan take the suitcase to another room. Besides, whose room would they leave it in, his or Nolan’s? All their clothing was together. They’d figure out what to do about their luggage only if Georgia didn’t want them to stay the night with her. But hopefully she’d want what he and Nolan wanted. All of them in bed together once again.

  Georgia opened the door and silently stepped back inside, letting them in. Ethan looked around but there was no obvious place to leave her carry-on case. It wasn’t like a hotel room with a counter or a rack where guests were meant to leave their cases, so he just put it on the floor against the wall where he hoped none of them would trip over it. He noticed her briefcase and laptop were sitting on a chair. So she wasn’t working on the interviews. He was glad about that. Ethan really, really hoped that meant she was ready to spend time with them.