Dangerously Attracted [Werewolves of Hanson Mall 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (2 page)

He was a damn long way from the Wind River Mountains in Wyoming where he’d been born and reared in a small werewolf pack, and going back there wasn’t an option. Oh sure, he could visit with the few people still living there, and his parents who’d moved into a nearby town, but as some famous person once said, “The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there.” It was time for him to move on and Hanson Mall was a good place to be. He’d been astonishingly lucky to meet up with Harry Harrison, a bear shape-shifter and a private investigator who’d found him after he’d escaped from the well-being center. Actually, he was fucking lucky he hadn’t been caught and sent back there again after he’d gotten out. But instead, Harry had talked to him, and most of all, believed him, and brought him here to another werewolf shape-shifter community.

Lewis looked all around himself, reassured that no one else was on the roof. He lay flat on his back on the concrete and stared at the sky. There were a few tiny clouds moving across, hiding the stars for a minute or two before the clouds moved on and the stars reappeared. The sky wasn’t as bright here as at home because of all the city lights, but up here he could almost pretend the city didn’t exist and he was alone again.

Not that he wanted to be completely alone. He hadn’t liked that much at all. His pack had been very small, and he’d never had a child his age to play with or just to talk to, but he’d never been so completely alone as when he’d left to look for a new pack and possibly even a mate.

Now he knew there was such a person as the Supreme Alpha of North America and this august person had decreed werewolves could marry humans. And not only that, but two wolves could share one human woman if all three of them agreed on it. Lewis knew he wasn’t strong enough, brave enough, or smart enough to deserve a woman all of his own. But he was prepared to share one. Especially if the human was someone like Dakota. She was smart, and brave, and kind, all the things he wasn’t. Yet she’d never yelled at him or told him he was incompetent. She’d just shown him how things were done here in the city and left him to do them. She had shoulder-length light brown hair and hazel eyes that sparkled with life and vitality, sometimes brown and at other times amber or even green.

If he was allowed to be with a woman like her he would spend all day every day working to please her, to protect her, to earn her love, and show her he’d cherish her with his every breath. Not that she’d ever look at a wolf like him. She could have any man she wanted. She’d only spent time with him because she was so very sweet and caring.

Lewis sighed.
I need to find a job. But I’m not trained for anything. I never went to college and since I was homeschooled I don’t even have a proper high school diploma. All I know is farming and this is the city where such knowledge is of no use to anyone.

Willow and Hawthorne Cunliffe, the two women he’d answered questions for about the family history project, had told him Cadfael Hanson, the managing director of the mall, planned to make a roof garden up here. Maybe he should talk to Cadfael. Building a garden was something he understood. He and plants spoke the same language. Plants grew for him. He always knew if they needed more soil, or less water, or perhaps some extra nutrients.

Lewis jumped to his feet, pacing around the roof. In his mind he could see neat borders with plants growing green and strong inside them. And perhaps, tucked away in a corner, a little shed where he could live. If he was in charge of the garden he’d need tools and bags of soil. And if they were kept in a storage shed, surely there’d be room for a camp bed in there for him as well. At night, when no one was around, he could drag his bed out onto the roof and fall asleep looking at the stars. And staying here he’d be able to see Dakota every day.

Now that would be perfect. A job, a home, the sky all to himself at night, and a woman he could get to know better. All he needed was the courage to approach Cadfael.

I will. I can do that.

* * * *

Andreas Llewelyn was doing sit-ups on one of the machines in his gym, but he wasn’t counting how many he’d done and he wasn’t aware of the sweat soaking into the bandana around his head and into the toweling cuffs around his wrists. His entire mind was on Dakota, the security guard. The very cute security guard. Everyone thought he was in love with Marbella, a sexy little wolf who took aerobics classes. The membership of his fitness center had rapidly increased in the weeks after he’d hired her, but had dropped off after many of the male wolves had discovered her idea of a fun date was an hour of high intensity aerobics or a “nice” twenty-mile run up the steepest hills in the neighborhood. Also she was married.

So now most people thought that he was sad at not winning Marbella’s love. But he’d known she was married when he hired her, and although she was incredibly sexy, she wasn’t what he was looking for in a mate. Dakota, on the other hand, was exactly what he wanted. Dakota was damn fit, but she had many other interests as well. Talking to her was always a workout for his brain. Her conversation ranged over anything and everything and some days he felt like he had just done an hour on the machines after a conversation with her. But he liked that about her. She was also genuinely concerned for everyone who came into the mall—staff, customers, visitors, clients—everyone was special and important to Dakota.

But she’d been working at the mall for over a year now and he still didn’t really know her very well and he had no idea how to leap the chasm from someone she spoke to casually when she was making her rounds of the businesses, to someone she might consider dating.

Plus, now there was Lewis, the rescued wolf. He was a quiet, unobtrusive sort of man who only ever came in when the fitness center was almost empty, usually late at night, close to closing. Which was great from a business point of view, and had enabled him to get to know the man a bit. What he knew of Lewis he liked. The man was diffident, but Andreas sensed a strong character underneath, held in check because Lewis was in new and unknown territory. Besides, if he hadn’t been courageous he’d never have escaped from Hamilton’s so-called clinic. But the main problem was the adoration for Dakota that shone in the man’s eyes whenever he saw her or spoke of her. It was clear he idolized her and would never suggest mating her, but Andreas just couldn’t forge ahead with his own plans to get to know Dakota when it was so obvious Lewis wanted her as well.

“It’s just as fucking well wolves are supposed to share a woman. If I have to share her I couldn’t have a better partner than Lewis, but it’s still a goddamn fucking shame he wants her. And if I don’t get a move on, someone else will likely come on in and rip her away from both of us.”

Andreas stopped the machine and got off, stretching his body carefully before heading into the showers. The fitness center opened at six so the wolves who lived in the professional suites could exercise before starting their working day. It’d originally been built to give the wolves somewhere socially acceptable to exercise and use up some of their excess testosterone. Well, he knew where he’d like to put his testosterone, but that wasn’t going to happen just yet so he needed to get to bed so he’d be able to open the center up again in the morning.

But he was still no closer to a solution. Unless he just asked her outright what she wanted. But what if she said no? At least at the moment he had hope and time to think of a plan. Yes, it would be better to get some kind of a plan together before he spoke to her.

* * * *

It was only the next morning after Lewis was showered, dressed, and had carefully thought through what he wanted to say to Cadfael Hanson about the roof garden, that he realized he didn’t know how to make an appointment with him. Up until now he had been the one being summoned. He was staying in a vacant apartment in the professional suites, and people had come and gotten him and taken him wherever he was wanted. Now he had his own swipe card, which let him get into his apartment and also up to the roof. The only place the elevator would go simply by pressing a button was to the fourth-floor foyer area, where the professional suites began. His card had been programmed as if he was a regular office worker but instead of accessing one of the other floors, his card accessed the roof.

If he walked out of the professional suites’ double glass doors he was in the mall itself, which extended from the fourth floor, down through the other levels. The supermarket and food court were on the lowest level. He’d explored all over the mall, mostly in the evenings after it was closed. He was still a bit hesitant of crowds, although when he bought his groceries he had to go during store hours of course.

He’d spoken a bit to Sophie, the receptionist. She’d been kind and patient with him, explaining where the various stores were and other things he needed to know. She’d be able to tell him how to make an appointment with Mr. Hanson. He’d ask her.

Feeling energized, Lewis ran down the stairs from his eighth-floor apartment to the lobby area on the fourth floor. As with the elevator, the stairwell door would open on the fourth floor with any swipe card. But again like the elevator, that was only to get out. To get in the stairwell, or to make the elevator work, the correct swipe card had to be used and the relevant buttons pushed. Lewis liked the tight security here. It’d prevented Jackson Hamilton from accessing the apartments on one occasion he knew. That gave him a feeling of safety and security as well. He never wanted to see that man again even though he was no longer alone and friendless.

Before exiting from the stairwell, Lewis opened the door a few inches and peeked around at Sophie’s desk. He didn’t want to interrupt her if she had customers waiting or if maybe there was a line of people to see the center manager whose office was right here as well. But she was alone, typing something into her computer. Of course, she was working and he’d be interrupting her, but not just for idle chatter. He had a genuine question to ask her.

He left the stairwell and walked across to her desk.

She looked up and smiled at him. “Hi, Lewis.”

“Hi, Sophie. I’m sorry to bother you but I don’t know who I ought to ask this question to.”

“It’s not a bother. Everyone asks the receptionist because we always know everything.”

She was teasing him, he understood that since her lips were curling slightly at the corners and her eyes sparkled.

“Mr. Hanson has spoken about establishing a roof garden and I’d like to build it for him. I was brought up on a farm and I understand growing things and constructing garden beds and retaining walls and such things. But I don’t know how to go about making an appointment with him to talk about it. Or even if he’s already arranged to begin the work. If he has, maybe I could be one of the laborers on the project.” Lewis stopped, not wanting to bore Sophie with all of his thoughts. Then he realized he hadn’t asked the question he was here to ask yet. “So can you tell me how to contact his secretary or whoever I need to speak to for an appointment please?”

“If you ring Rhion, he’ll arrange a time for you.”

“What’s his number, please, Sophie?”

She recited it and he repeated it in his head several times.

“Aren’t you going to put it in your contacts?”

“My contacts? Oh you mean in a cell phone. I don’t have one. There was no sense having one in the mountains as reception was very patchy and I haven’t gotten one yet.” And until he could find paid employment he wouldn’t be buying one either. It was bad enough feeling like he was living on charity here, even though he’d spent hours helping on the genetics project. He had no intention of using the credit card he’d been given for anything but the most basic necessities.

“If you don’t have a cell phone for him to ring you back, that’s going to make it harder for him to contact you with an appointment. You can’t stay in your apartment maybe for days on end waiting for him to phone you. Let me call him now.”

“It’s not urgent. I don’t want to be a nuisance.” But she’d already punched some numbers into her phone and was ignoring him.

“Hi, Rhion, it’s Sophie. Lewis is here and would like to talk to Cadfael about the roof garden. He hasn’t got a cell phone. I’ll ask him to wait here until you call back.” Lewis stared at Sophie and she burst out laughing. He could feel his cheeks color slightly, certain Rhion had made a joke about him. Surely they wouldn’t be angry with him for wanting to be useful? Oh, shit! The last thing he needed to do was upset the people who’d provided him with a home. A home he wanted to stay in even if it wasn’t the mountains.

Sophie looked at the double glass doors into the professional suites then said, “Rhion wanted to know if you were a dinosaur or a wolf.” She laughed again. Lewis was puzzled and then got the joke. “Oh, a dinosaur because I don’t have a cell phone? I understand now. Whatever would he think if I told him there wasn’t even Internet in the mountains until I was a teenager?”

“No Internet? But didn’t you tell me you were homeschooled? How did that work then?”

“There was one other boy in the pack. He was five years older than me. I used the same books he’d studied from. We wrote our answers in notebooks instead of in the study book, and his mom, who taught us, kept the answer pages to mark our work. I suspect we didn’t learn as much as kids in a regular school because when we had to write stories or design projects we had very few resources to use to gather the information. Mostly I wrote about things on the mountain.”

“You miss the mountains don’t you?”

Lewis answered as honestly as he could. “I miss the trees and the hills, the huge empty sky, the utter silence and complete darkness at night. But there was no future there. My future is here.”

“You are welcome here among us, Lewis,” Sophie said.

Lewis nodded. He liked Sophie. If he wasn’t so in love with Dakota he thought he could become fond of Sophie. She was perceptive and sweet. But Dakota was more than that. It was Dakota who stirred his heart and his cock. It was Dakota he wanted to kiss—and do even more than that. But he appreciated Sophie’s kind thoughts and words.