A Mate to Share [Wolf Pack Mates 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 6

  Sard smiled. It was like dealing with children. Wave some candy before them and they’d follow him anywhere. And when these two women were eliminated, he would have first choice of the new wolf mates.

  Chapter Four

  Eve had been really worried it might rain the weekend of their first craft market. Of course, sooner or later it would rain, that was a given, but she wanted the first craft market weekend to be a success so that word got around and more people would come in future. Also, the three of them were determined to take lots and lots of photographs to put up on their websites, and sunshine would look so much better in photos than a dull gray or, worse, wet day.

  The three of them were dressed to display their crafts, all wearing Taige’s jewelry and the woven scarves Eve’d made. And their business cards were in bowls on every table, as well as in both the male and female bathrooms.

  Half an hour before they were due to open, the hot-dog van, the coffee van, and the popcorn van were all set up, the big front doors of the old schoolhouse were wide open, and all the internal doors were securely locked except for the market room.

  Ginnie settled herself behind the sales table in the foyer, a big pad of sketching paper and sticks of charcoal in different thicknesses beside her. Eve was in the market room, sitting at her smallest loom, weaving. She’d stop work as soon as people arrived, but she felt it was better to look as if she wasn’t just waiting to pounce on people as yet. Taige was to be the “gofer,” carrying sold items out to Ginnie as well as their photographer. Originally they’d planned to keep rotating the jobs, changing places every hour or so, but Ginnie’d pointed out it’d be better for her to be sitting at a desk so she could sketch people. Eve was the one most likely to need to take potential clients into the shipping room to see other examples of her work, as the hangings were too big to display many in the market room, so since both of them were better off staying in one place, they’d altered their plans accordingly.

  Ten minutes before opening time the coffee van was making its first sales and fear Eve didn’t even realize she’d felt melted away from her tense shoulder and neck muscles. Logic had told her that at the very least some of their friends would come by, but to have genuine customers before the official opening time was a bonus indeed.

  Taige shared news of what was happening from Ginnie and Eve to each other, and from around eleven until two the place was so crowded they were almost run off their feet dealing with everyone. Eve did notice Taige standing on a table to take some pictures of the crowds, though, and she was excited Taige’d remembered to do that. It would clearly show their first craft market was a success.

  The highlight for her, though, was a couple wanting to commission her to make a huge wall hanging for their new beach house. It was to be a melding of blues and greens with bright golden yellow and an abstract beach theme. Already she could picture in her mind part of what she’d sketch for their approval.

  Even the income from their small percentage of the food vans’ sales was surprisingly high, and all three owners promised to be back the next day and every weekend until the end of summer. “I’ll be bringing more hot dogs tomorrow, too. I had to ration them to one per person at the end,” said the hot-dog man with a grin.

  After the last person left, the three of them raced around madly restocking their tables. Ginnie had sold a lot of the sketches she’d done of people while they’d waited, but Taige had to raid her box of webstore bracelets as she’d sold out, and Eve brought out the pile of cell-phone covers she’d put aside as gifts for family and friends.

  “Next winter we’ll need to be intentional about stockpiling lots of things to sell, if sales continue like this,” said Taige.

  “And we’ll be taking orders for more before we know where we are,” added Eve.

  “Hell yes. Don’t sell your last one of anything, whatever you do. Keep it so you can use it for people to order more in their choice of colors,” advised Ginnie.

  Taige pulled Eve and Ginnie into her arms for a group hug. “I’m so glad we decided to do this. It was the best idea we’ve ever had.”

  “Even though we’ll likely have nothing left to sell by the end of tomorrow?” teased Ginnie.

  “Absolutely.”

  * * * *

  Morgan and Jett had discussed going to the craft market on Saturday, but decided it might be better to wait until Sunday. In the brief time they’d known Eve, they’d both gotten a clear picture of how important succeeding in this new venture was to her.

  “I don’t want to distract her from her real customers, but I’d like to look at all her yarn work. Not that I know much about it, but she’s invested in it, so it’s important to me, because it’s important to her,” said Morgan wondering if that sounded as confused as he thought it did.

  “I understand. Some of the creations on her website are stunningly beautiful and deserve to be hung in all the best homes and offices in town,” agreed Jett.

  “I was thinking maybe we could go around noon. That way we can buy some coffee and hot dogs, and at least put some money into the coffers for her that way.”

  “That sounds fair. I’ve been trying to think of any contacts we have with businesses who would like a wall hanging for their office building. Maybe for the foyer or the conference room. But I just don’t know the right people.” Jett rubbed his hands through his hair in a frustrated sort of way and Morgan smiled. That was how he felt too. He wanted to help the women but really wasn’t in the correct kind of industry for that. The wolf pack tended to keep to itself out on its own lands, rather than mingle with CEOs and businesses in town.

  But he still wanted to be there and see her surrounded by her craftwork, and her friends, and, hopefully, lots of potential buyers.

  So as not to clutter up the parking lot, they rode one of the pack’s motorcycles and came through the back of the pack lands, avoiding the roads, and arrived at the rear of the school yard right about noon. The sun was shining brightly, and plenty of people were milling around in the parking lot, sitting at the picnic tables with popcorn, and coffee, and hot dogs, or leaning against their cars, talking.

  Morgan smiled. With so many people here, surely some of them had bought something. It had to be good news for the women. He and Jett paid the small entry fee, smiling at Ginnie, who was on duty in the foyer, sketching an old lady resting on the built-in bench there. Ginnie’d captured the look on her face perfectly. Tired, but peaceful, her eyes bright and alert among the wrinkles of her face.

  “That’s really good,” said Morgan sincerely.

  “It’s already sold, I’m afraid, but I can do another one for you in five minutes if you like,” she said without looking up.

  “I’d like to buy one of Eve, instead, please,” said Jett.

  Ginnie nodded madly, as her fingers smoothed the charcoal on her picture and she signed it with a flourish. “Here you go,” she said to the lady, handing the picture across. Morgan tried to watch both the old lady and Ginnie. The old woman’s face broke into a lovely smile showing her strong cheekbones and hinting at the beautiful woman she’d been not too many years ago. Ginnie smiled, too, but Morgan assumed that was because her work had pleased her client.

  “Now, Eve. I have a nice one of her here somewhere.” Ginnie flipped pages backward and forward in her sketchbook, then opened it to a picture of Eve staring into the distance. She held it up for Jett to see.

  “Perfect,” said Jett.

  And it was. It was an excellent rendition of Eve in a pensive moment.

  Jett paid Ginnie, who rolled the page up into a scroll for him and held it like that with a tiny red ribbon, then they walked a short distance down the hallway and into the market room.

  Morgan was conscious of music playing in the background, but overwhelmingly the sound was of people talking. The room was crowded. There was space to move around between the various tables and displays, but the crowd was two and three people deep in front of each display and people were trying on jewelry in
front of both Taige and Eve.

  For a moment Morgan wondered how on earth Taige stopped people from stealing her jewelry. It would be so easy to walk out with a pendant hanging around his neck for example. Then he noticed that Taige got out a nice little paper sack, slipped a bracelet in it, and wrote the person’s name and the price on the outside, and put it in a basket behind the table.

  Ah. Okay. So anyone walking out with unwrapped jewelry was suspect then. Purchased items were bagged. That made sense. Just like the little red ribbon on his picture. The women were smarter than he’d given them credit for.

  Jett tapped his shoulder and they moved to stand in front of a huge wall hanging. Morgan was surprised with the amount of detail in it. The hanging was huge, easily three feet wide and seven or more feet high. At first glance it was an abstract pattern of pale lilacs, lemons, and blues, but the more he looked at it, the more he realized there were tiny things woven in among the irregular bands of color. A deeper blue flower. A red bird. He must have stood staring at the hanging for five minutes or more, and he was still finding more detail in the picture, when a soft voice said, “Well what do you think?”

  He turned around and saw that Jett was already looking at Eve, love clear in his eyes. Yeah, that’s how he felt, too. “It’s amazing. The more I look, the more things I find hidden in it. Is that a rainbow up at the top left?”

  Her gray eyes sparkled. “Yes it is. I made it thinking that people stuck in boring meetings might look at it and think they were going crazy when they started seeing things in it.”

  He laughed and Jett said, “What a wicked woman you are.”

  He longed to talk to her some more, but an older man tapped her on the shoulder saying, “You said we could look at your workroom before we left.”

  “Of course. Follow me.”

  Morgan raised an eyebrow at Jett, and they followed behind the man and his wife standing just inside the doorway of the work room when Eve unlocked it. She showed the people her looms, and her works in progress.

  “I want to look at some of the beaded necklaces as well, please,” said the woman.

  “I’ll need to go get Taige for you,” said Eve.

  “You stay here. I’ll fetch her,” said Morgan.

  He hurried back to the market room and found Taige. “The people in the work room want to ask you about your beaded necklaces,” he said.

  Taige looked around the huge crowd in the room. “I can’t really leave here right now.”

  “I’ll stay here for you.”

  Taige gave him a piercing look, very different from her usual laid-back style. “All right. I’ll try to be quick.”

  “Send Jett back here to help me. The two of us should be fine.”

  Taige smiled. “Yes. I will.”

  Morgan moved slowly through the crowd, scanning everyone, trying to tell if there were any troublemakers among the people. Everything seemed orderly to him, but he was still pleased when Jett returned and began to circle the opposite side of the room from him.

  Only a few moments later he noticed Sard, a wolf, reaching across a table to take something. “Can I help you with that, Sard?”

  The dark wolf jumped, then laid a richly beaded collar back on the table. “I was going to ask how much this is.”

  “The price tag says forty dollars, so I’d say that answers your question.”

  Sard turned and walked away. Morgan watched him leave then replaced the necklace in its bowl.

  He moved behind the table to watch over Taige’s jewelry more carefully. Scanning the crowd, he checked, but saw no other wolves. Was that a genuine mistake or had Sard planned to steal a necklace? And why? He had no wife, mother, or sister to give it to. Was it a gift for a girlfriend perhaps? If so, why hadn’t he bought it when he was told the price? It wasn’t expensive for such a beautiful piece of work.

  Morgan decided it might be time to keep watch on Sard and on all Sard’s friends. Something did not seem quite right.

  * * * *

  Jett’s job in the pack was supervising the distribution of their goods. Mostly this meant he sat at a computer plugging tracking notes into spreadsheets, making sure the USPS delivered when and where it said it would. From time to time they changed distributors, especially on their international routes, because the entire purpose of growing special crops was the high prices they fetched, and if a distributor was even an hour late picking up a delivery that could adversely affect the freshness and quality of the food.

  But mostly any delays were unavoidable due to bad weather at airports or breakdowns on truck routes. That’s what their insurance was for. So by and large, it wasn’t a particularly stressful job, apart from maybe half a dozen times in a year, such as when that volcano blew up, closing half the world’s airports for a week.

  Which was why he was leaning back in his desk chair, staring out the window, instead of plugging data into his computer that morning. He and Morgan had talked about Sard being at the craft market and neither of them could find a reason why he would be there. If he was simply curious, or liked crafts, why would he touch an item of woman’s jewelry? Jett was convinced Sard had planned to take it, and he knew Morgan felt the same.

  But was that just a piece of petty theft, caused only by the opportunity arising, or was it a sign that some of the wolves still planned to attack the women? Jett thought there was still underlying resentment against the humans, coupled with the need for men to find a mate. What he couldn’t understand was why the wolves were targeting the women in the schoolhouse. There’d never been the slightest hint the women didn’t approve of the pack, or wanted to buy more land and encroach on the area. Added to that, they were running a craft market. If they’d been establishing a gym and might have wanted to go running on pack lands, it would be different. But it was difficult to think of anything less innocuous than craft.

  Jett was determined to keep his woman safe, which meant keeping all three of them safe. He closed his eyes and pictured the schoolhouse with its solid, old, pale lemon limestone walls and sturdy gray stone floors. The roof was tiled, also a solid piece of construction. The doors were heavy wood with modern locks on them, and Jett knew the women were careful about locking up during the day as well as at night.

  Really, the only point of vulnerability that he could see was the fact the bathrooms were external. That was a function of the age of the building—over two hundred years old—and the fact it had been a school. Of course, the women kept the bathrooms locked when they weren’t using them, too, but simply having to go outside to shower and use the facilities was a weak place in their defenses. They needed a shower and toilet inside.

  Jett had the vague idea Eve had said something about them planning to install an indoor bathroom before winter, but winter was a long way ahead. It wasn’t even full summer yet. No. They needed that bathroom now. Well, as soon as possible. He and Morgan needed to pay the women a visit and expedite their plans for it, even if it meant doing some of the physical work themselves.

  Ugh. Crawling under an old building digging up pipes was not what he wanted to be doing. But still, to keep Eve safe, he’d do it. And then he’d plan another dungeon scene. One that ended up with him and Morgan doubly penetrating Eve. Oh, she’d liked it when they touched her in the shower. She’d be sure to agree to the real thing. Especially if they got her all hot and bothered in the dungeon first.

  * * * *

  The meeting to talk about installing a new bathroom had grown and grown. At first Eve was surprised to hear Morgan and Jett wanted to be involved. “We might be able to help do some of the labor for you,” Jett had said.

  Well that would be great. The floors in the schoolhouse were stone, so Eve wasn’t at all sure how installation would go. It wasn’t like just ripping up some floorboards or something in a regular apartment.

  Then Taige appeared with Jasper and Cornelian, who had asked to be there, too.

  “I can see I’m going to have to find me two men as well or y’all wil
l outnumber me,” said Ginnie.

  “Would you like me to bring a few more of my managers along? I’m pretty sure someone will volunteer to come,” suggested Jasper.

  “Do you have any plumbers working for you?” asked Ginnie, making them all laugh.

  Eve set her laptop on the table, bringing up the pictures they’d found of all-in-one showers. “That will save us having to do tiling and so on. It’s a prefabricated unit,” she said.

  Then she sat back and let the others argue about the details.

  Jasper made some phone calls and so did Jett and before she knew it, everything was arranged for a plumber and building contractor to come out the next day to quote for the bathroom.

  “You just have to show him the room you want it installed in, and they’ll do the rest,” said Jasper.

  Which was good, Eve thought, reflecting on her day later that afternoon, because she was desperate to get making more items to sell before the next weekend’s market. Fortunately, the little impulse buys didn’t require any extra designing. She could almost make them with her eyes shut. It was simply a matter of pulling out a bag of leftover yarn from her major projects, choosing some colors that would look good together, then blending them into a finished product. While she made them she kept a notebook beside her to sketch ideas for the big projects that had been commissioned.

  It was actually quite fascinating that while her fingers were busy with one thing, her mind was free to roam with the next project.

  She really needed to get finished with the iPad covers, because tonight the men were taking her out again. They’d argued hard to take her to dinner and possibly a movie, but she’d refused.

  “These craft markets are very important to me. It’s the start of our new business and we want all the word-of-mouth reports to be positive. They aren’t going to be positive if there’s hardly anything available for people to buy. Right now I have to work as much as I possibly can. I’ll go out to dinner with you somewhere we’ll be served fairly fast, say at eight o’clock. I’ll be ready to stop working then for the day. But I need to be home around midnight so I can start again the next morning at a sensible time,” she warned them.