Doubly Protected [Werewolves of Hanson Mall 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (13 page)

Harry clapped his hands together sharply. What the fuck was that for? Then Dylan noticed the door open a little wider and a fraction more. But no person was coming into the conference room and there was no breeze to make it move by himself. His brain had just connected the dots that the door had opened in response to Harry’s clap, but before he could fry his synapses trying to work out if someone had invented a gadget that could open doors in response to a specific sound, he saw the reason.

A brown wolf had stepped into the conference room and was standing just inside the door. An unknown brown wolf. He could recognize every member of their pack from one hundred paces, and this wasn’t a pack member. He was a stranger. And what’s more, he was frightened of them. He was here because Harry had told him to come, not because he’d chosen to join them of his own free will. But who the fuck was he?

He felt the tension radiating off Hawthorne, who was now leaning forward, staring at the wolf. Dylan stroked her back soothingly. He wasn’t sure why she was disturbed but she needed to know he’d never let anyone harm her. He’d give his life for hers if it ever became necessary.

Then the wolf did a very strange thing. It was almost as if he was trying to dance. He ran forward a few paces, then to the side, as he leaped into the air, all four feet off the ground at once. Not as if he was jumping over a fence, but more like he was pretending to be a helicopter, lifting off straight upward.

As soon as he did his strange leap, Hawthorne jerked out of her chair and stood up. “You’re my wolf. I saw you in the park. You jumped exactly like that. Who are you and why were you in the park? Why are you here now?”

The wolf stopped instantly, racing to stand huddled against Harry’s legs.

Willow turned to Hawthorne. “How do you know? Are you sure?”

All around the room people began talking at once. Dylan’s mind was still struggling to grasp what Hawthorne had said. From the outbursts all around him it sounded like twenty people were all talking at the tops of their voices even though he knew there were only nine of them in the room. He was too stunned to even open his mouth. All he could do was offer Hawthorne whatever support she needed.

“Sit down. You’re frightening him.” Harry’s voice cut through the room. Dylan thought if the wolf was frightened, Harry yelling at them wasn’t going to make him feel any better.

Harry took the wolf out of the room, which caused people to start talking again, but Dylan guessed the wolf was going to transform and put some clothes on, not disappear. He was right. Only a few minutes later Harry reappeared with quite a young man, wearing jeans and a blue sweater. The man had light brown hair, which meant his wolf fur color followed his hair color, as happened with many wolves, though not in his own case.

The noise in the room instantly stopped.

Dylan noticed the wolf still stood very close to Harry. It seemed as though he trusted Harry, but apparently not the rest of them.

“Okay, people. This is Lewis. Lewis, tell them your story. How did you come to be here in Ohio, and here with me today?”

“I, um…” Lewis looked up at Harry who nodded calmly to him. Dylan had to force himself not to lean forward. Hawthorne had sat down again in her chair, so he held her upper arms very lightly.

Lewis started again. “I come from a pack, a very small pack, in Wyoming. I was born and grew up in the Wind River Mountains. If you know Wyoming you’ll know there’s a whole lot of mountains there and not so many people. There are even fewer shape-shifters. There was only one other child when I was a boy, although he was five years older than me so we weren’t special friends or anything. We were homeschooled together until he argued with his dad and left when I was twelve. He wanted to look for another shape-shifter community, to meet other people. Unless we journeyed a couple of hours into town to the store we would go whole weeks without ever seeing another person. I realized later he’d wanted to find a mate. Or at least a girlfriend.”

No wonder the wolf was nervous. He evidently wasn’t used to crowds, even such a small crowd as this. Dylan had always had pack mates to play with as a child and adolescent. Now they were friends he worked with. It was hard to imagine not ever having someone the same age as himself to talk to. Five years was a big age gap to a child. It didn’t matter much once a person was grown, but the difference in a person’s interests between twelve and seventeen was huge.

He stroked his hands gently up and down Hawthorne’s arms and waited for Lewis to begin talking again.

“My parents are almost sixty. My dad wanted to stop having to work so hard on the farm but I didn’t want to take it over. I love the mountains but not enough to live there alone all the rest of my life. The only people left there are like my folks, getting old. Mom and Dad bought a small house down the mountain in town. He’s got a part-time job with the National Park Service. I could have worked for them, too, but decided to look for another pack of shape-shifters. Maybe find my own mate. So I came east.”

“Wyoming isn’t exactly next door to Ohio,” said Willow.

“No, ma’am, but the Greyhound Bus goes most everywhere.”

In that answer, Dylan saw a spark of the spirit the man must have had back in the safety and comfort of his mountains.

Lewis stood a little straighter, his voice a little more confident now. Dylan realized he wasn’t a small man, but was maybe five eleven in height and quite muscular looking. Likely working on a farm had built his muscles the hard way.

“I came east in stages, working a bit here and there as I traveled. I avoided the biggest cities. I don’t think I like cities, although I’m getting more used to people and noise. What I was hoping to find was other shape-shifters but I hadn’t really thought the situation through properly. How could I find a wolf when I could never be a wolf myself in human society? Anyway, I must have given myself away. A man recognized the wolf in me and invited me to his home. But it wasn’t a house. It was a jail. I was locked in a tiny room all day and all night. The only time I saw anyone was when he came to ask me endless questions. Where had I come from? Where was my family? Where were the women from my pack? I asked and asked to go home and it was only when I told him I would die if I couldn’t transform and run as a wolf that he even let me outside. At first two men led me on a chain all the time but after a few weeks they just walked beside me as I ran. And one day I figured out how to escape. I got away from them and scaled the wall as a human before changing back into my wolf to run away.”

The conference room was filled with noise as people asked questions and commented about what Lewis had said. But Dylan was silent. He held onto Hawthorne, feeling shattered by the way Lewis had been betrayed, by his loneliness and hopelessness, and by the internal strength that had enabled him to plan and engineer his own survival and escape. If Lewis wanted to join their pack, Dylan would be proud to welcome him as a member. He deserved to find peace and happiness again.

Harry held up his hand for silence and then Hawthorne spoke. “That’s when I saw you, isn’t it? You’d escaped from Jackson and were celebrating. That’s why he was chasing me, to try to get you back again.”

“Yes, ma’am. I’m sorry, ma’am. I had no idea you were watching me or that anything bad would happen to you. I’m deeply sorry for what happened to you.”

“It wasn’t your fault. I’m glad you’re free.”

Lewis bobbed his head and gave her a shy smile, and then he looked around the room. “So what happens now?”

Dylan wanted to know that, too. Would Lewis stay with them? Or was he going to live with Harry and his team? And what about Jackson Hamilton? Was this a lever to catch him out in wrongdoing?

“I’d like to spend some time with you, Lewis, and get to know you,” said Hawthorne. The last hour had been a roller coaster of emotions and discovery, but really, nothing had changed. She still couldn’t resume her regular life. However, there was a very special link between her and this wolf, and she’d like to have an hour or two just to learn more about him and his story.

“I’d like to write down your family history as well for our genetic searches,” added Willow.

“Lewis will stay with us for a few days, but Harry has to fly home tomorrow. Tonight they’ll stay in Rhion’s apartment, and tomorrow Willow and Hawthorne can spend time with Lewis. Dakota, you’ll be there, too. Any more people than that might be too many for Lewis to accept just yet,” said Cadfael.

Hawthorne was surprised he was prepared to permit her and Willow not to have one of the men to protect them, but she understood Harry had a business to run, and Cadfael, Rhion, Dylan, and Maelor all had important work to do. Tomorrow was just another working day. Likely they didn’t even need Dakota there. Hawthorne couldn’t imagine Lewis attacking them. He’d been smart enough to run away before. If there was trouble he’d probably run away again. Not hurt people. She also knew Maelor and Dylan might not see things as she saw them. Well, too bad.

She was right. Maelor argued all night that he could replace Dakota and stay with them. It didn’t matter how often she pointed out that Cadfael was the managing director of the mall as well as the Alpha of the pack and it was his decision. She also pointed out over and over again that she was sure Lewis wasn’t the type of person who would hurt her or Willow. Nothing changed Maelor’s determination to protect her. He was still arguing as she shut the door of apartment 7C in his face the next morning so he could go on shift.

When Willow arrived, only a few minutes later, she said, “Oh my goodness. Rhion really didn’t want us to talk to Lewis without him here. These wolves are so overprotective.”

“Maelor was exactly the same. But I don’t think we really need Dakota. I’m sure we’ll be fine.”

“Me, too. Still she can join in. She might have some good ideas about questions we can ask him. She’ll have more knowledge about the wolf packs and security than either of us.”

Dakota arrived with Lewis at eight, and it was blindingly obvious to Hawthorne that the poor man was terrified of the three women. “Why don’t I make us all some coffee?” she said, walking over to the coffeepot and setting it going.

But Lewis shook his head no when she served the coffees. “Would you like a different drink? I have orange juice, or beer, or water. Or I could make you some tea.”

“Just water would be nice, thank you.”

His voice was barely above a whisper. This was going to be harder than she’d expected. Well, food usually worked to relax men. Hawthorne opened the refrigerator and pulled out a pile of salad vegetables, chopping them into bite-size chunks, and piling the pieces onto a plate. She added a tub of tzatziki dip and put that in the center of the table.

The four of them sat around the table, sipping their drinks and nibbling on the vegetables, until Willow said, “Lewis, we’re trying to discover why the werewolf packs have so few baby girls. We’ve been writing down family histories as far back as people remember. We’d like to do that with your family and any families from your pack. Is that okay?”

“I know there aren’t enough girls. But why does it matter so much? I mean, obviously there aren’t brides for the men. But what’s the point of writing it down? How will that change anything?”

Hawthorne smiled. Her sister was smart. Intrigue him with the problem and he might want to help them. “We know that when wolves mate with human women they have girl babies and boy babies in equal numbers. What we’re trying to do is discover if this has always been the case, or if it’s something new. Has something changed? If so we might be able to change it back. Or did werewolf men always marry human women and maybe it was kept secret?”

“Oh. I see.” Lewis sat forward on his chair and began counting back on his fingers. It turned out he had an excellent memory and not only recounted generations of his own family, with side detours into various cousins and their families, but he also knew most of the family history of the people he’d homeschooled with as well.

“I didn’t know there was a Werewolf Association or a Supreme Alpha though. When Harry told me about them I was surprised. I’d always assumed we were alone and isolated. That each pack was independent.”

“Likely that was because your pack
was
isolated up in the mountains,” said Hawthorne.

“Yes, but we had radio and later television. Not Internet though. My parents were very excited to get cable when they moved into the town.”

It was Dakota who managed to get Lewis talking about the well-being center and Jackson Hamilton. Being alone hadn’t been the torture for him it might have been for another person used to being surrounded by people all the time, but it was still unnecessarily cruel. “All the time I was there I never saw anyone except the two guards and Hamilton himself. The room doors were always closed and locked. Occasionally I heard people crying or yelling, but mostly any noises were too soft to understand any words. It was just a sense that someone was behind the door and he wasn’t happy. I know Jackson has other people locked up in there, but whether they’re werewolf shape-shifters or not, I don’t know. All I know is that some of them at least don’t want to be there,” said Lewis.

“We plan on making sure anyone who wants to leave is set free,” said Willow.

That’s what Hawthorne thought, too. She didn’t think they were ax murderers or mentally impaired people who couldn’t look after themselves. Judging by Lewis they were unlucky people who had trusted Jackson to be something he clearly wasn’t. A nice person.

* * * *

Maelor was the fourth-floor guard on duty again all day, and he had to force himself to focus on protecting the mall and all the people in it, when he’d really have much preferred to be up in the apartment with Hawthorne interviewing Lewis. The man seemed genuine, and Maelor trusted Harry Harrison, but still, he was in a small apartment with Maelor’s woman and Maelor wasn’t there to care for her. He knew Dylan would be feeling just as unsettled as he was but Hawthorne had been very adamant. The woman had a backbone of steel. Which was good. He doubted whether he would have been so very much in love with a wishy-washy woman who couldn’t make and hold onto a decision. But in this case he’d have preferred one just a little less determined. One who would have permitted him to stay in the apartment to keep watch over her.