A Mate for the Alpha and His Brothers (4 page)

The pack made good use of economies of scale, buying all sorts of things in bulk to take advantage of discounted prices.

Not that Naftali had mentioned anything about robbery, burglary, shape-shifters, or even what the business was that the pack ran. Elsie already knew about that from the chess club. The man who’d had his chess set returned to him had been a regular chess opponent of hers, and he was overwhelmed that it’d been found and returned to him. It was a beautiful set, quite valuable in its own way, but even more important to him than that, as it’d been given to him by his long-dead father when he was a child and had won his first tournament.

Elsie remembered winning her first chess tournament. It was an incredible feeling of exultation. She could still recollect the intense excitement she’d felt, running home clutching the small trophy in her hand to show her parents. Her father hadn’t been home, but then he seldom was, even during the weekend. He always had business to attend to. But her mom had been proud of her and had set the trophy in the center of the mantel so anyone who entered the living room would see it.

She’d won many more trophies over the years, all gone now of course. Pawned to buy drugs for her mom. But Elsie didn’t mind. There was no one who cared about chess in her life anymore anyway.

She hung her coat over the back of a chair in front of an unused computer, booted it up, and Naftali gave her a login name and password. He sat beside her, showing her the spreadsheets people filled in. It was like an online shopping system. Each family had a number, which they entered beside an item, and then how many of that item they required.

She’d been given the number 999990, which was apparently used for guests.

“This is your shopping list, Elsie. Fill it in for me,” he said, handing her a piece of paper with incredibly bad handwriting on it.

Elsie wondered if it was a test, but she soon figured out he didn’t bother writing the endings of words, trailing away with a wavy line. So tissues became tiss~~~. She filled the order, going faster as she cracked his handwriting system and became used to how many lines the spreadsheet put on a page.

Naftali showed her various other forms, and they were very like any other form a business might use. That was one distinct advantage of having worked a number of jobs over the years of her mother’s illness. She’d gotten adaptable at business computer systems. She’d never seen this particular one before, but it was clear and logical and easy to figure out.

After an hour, he smiled at her. “You’ll do. You can start work tomorrow at nine.”

Elsie grinned back at him. “Thank you very much.” She clicked back through the screens to the shopping spreadsheet and looked for tissues.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m deleting these entries I made when I was learning.”

“Oh, no. You might as well keep them. They’re everyday items you’ll need anyway.”

Elsie was about to say she couldn’t afford them and then realized maybe the people she’d be staying with wouldn’t want her just taking their things. She’d have to afford them. “Thank you.”

She logged off the computer and picked up her coat. The man who’d escorted her here, Brayden, was standing in the doorway of the office.

“Thank you, Naftali,” she repeated as she left.

“You’re welcome.”

“I’ll take you up to the apartment now, and you can leave your coat there while we have lunch.”

Elsie knew she’d have to tell him lunch wasn’t going to happen, but she’d wait until they were at the apartment to do that. There was no need to embarrass herself in front of the other workers here.

They took the elevator to the fourth floor and walked to the very end of the hallway. Brayden punched a number into the security pad there and opened the door for her. Elsie took two steps into the room and stopped. It was an apartment like her family had lived in when her father had lived with her mother and her. A big living room with huge windows to the outdoors, a proper kitchen, and a hallway with several doors off it. Likely they had a real bathroom as well.

Even more than that, she’d been promised a bedroom of her own. Her own most recent bedroom was little bigger than a shoebox. It had a twin bed and a chest of drawers, and that was all. Not that she needed more space than that. She’d sold everything that would raise any money after all. But she remembered spacious rooms like this. There was such a sense of freedom here.

Brayden took her into a room that was spotlessly clean. He flung open the closet door, and the closet was empty.

“You didn’t need to move all your things out. All I have is this coat,” she said.

“I hope that soon you’ll have a lot more things. We’ll buy you clothing and whatever you need.”

“No you won’t. I’m very, very grateful for the room here and the job. But I’ll pay my own way, thank you. I don’t need clothing, or lunch. I need to save every cent I earn so that I can bring JJ out of that neighborhood before The Fixer finds out I’ve given the dagger back. JJ’s life will be in danger once that happens. I wouldn’t have left him if I didn’t think we’d have a few weeks’ leeway. The Fixer doesn’t usually act fast. It might even take several months for him to find a new buyer. But I’ve only paid one month’s rent on the apartment, so that’s my time limit. I have one month to earn enough money to pay for JJ to go up north and to pay for his food and accommodation there while he goes to school.”

“You don’t have to do it all yourself. We’ll help,” said a voice from the hallway.

Elsie stepped to the side where she had a better view out the doorway and saw a second man quite similar to the first. But where the first one, Brayden, was serious, the second one had definite laugh lines beside his eyes. He was also a fraction taller, but probably not a full inch, and maybe a few pounds heavier. But again, not a lot. Five, no more.

Elsie laid her coat on the bed and crossed her arms over her chest. She really wanted to stay here and work, but these men had to know she was serious. “You aren’t listening to me. I will
work
for my wages. I will
not
just take things from you. I’m very grateful to be here, but if you won’t let me do things my way, I’ll have to leave. Do you understand?”

“You’re a feisty, prickly little thing, aren’t you? Come out to the kitchen, and we’ll have some lunch and talk properly.”

Elsie’s tummy rumbled at the thought of food. But it couldn’t possibly be lunchtime yet. Besides, she’d already had two wonderful cups of coffee today. She’d be fine until evening. She opened the coat and took her wallet and passport out of the pocket and slid them into her jeans pocket. She checked the cell phone, but there were no messages. She hadn’t expected there would be. No one would be offering her a job, and now she had the promise of work, anyway. She turned it off again and slid it back into its pocket. It’d taken her three days to make all these pockets, sewing everything by hand, but it was the only way she could think of to carry her luggage and still have her hands free and no backpack someone could steal while she slept.

The men were standing watching her. She sighed and walked out of the room. The one whose name she didn’t know led the way to the kitchen and put the coffee on to percolate. The aroma was incredible, such a rich, mouth-watering flavor. He took out cream from the refrigerator and set it on the table and then bent down, pulling out more and more food until the table was laden with salad vegetables, fruit, two different types of bread and butter, and packages of cold, sliced meats. Meanwhile Brayden moved around the kitchen and collected plates, knives, and mugs.

Elsie’s stomach clenched with hunger.
Okay, I’ll eat lunch now but not a meal tonight.

“Make yourself a sandwich. Favian and I will make ours and then take some to Amory as well,” said Brayden.

Elsie had no idea who Amory was but obediently pulled the bread toward her and took two slices. Carefully she layered iceberg lettuce, slices of tomato, green peppers, red onions, Swiss cheese, and ham onto the bread, making herself a thick sandwich.

The other man, the one with the laugh lines, who was apparently named Favian, quickly made two enormous sandwiches and set them aside on a plate, presumably for Amory. Did he live here with them as well?

“You’ve set this one month limit for rescuing JJ. That’s your brother, right?” he asked as he began making another sandwich, presumably for himself this time.

“Yes. My little brother. He’s only seventeen. I assume you’re Brayden’s brother?”

“Oh sorry. Yes, I’m Favian. Older than Brayden, younger than Amory.”

Well, that answered two questions. Amory was another brother. Oh, yes. The Alpha. He’d said Brayden was his brother. She’d forgotten that.

Brayden took a huge bite of his sandwich and said, “I think we should plan on getting JJ to the UP as soon as possible. Just because Lutterworth normally takes a long time to find a buyer doesn’t mean he will this time, and I agree JJ needs to be out of danger. I think we should talk to our pack up there and arrange a family he can stay with, someone with kids the same age as him to help him settle into school again.”

Elsie wasn’t even listening to the end of his sentence, even though he’d swallowed partway though and it was a lot clearer than his words when he’d started speaking.

“The Fixer is named Lutterworth? How do you know this?”

“The same way we knew about the dagger. He’s gotten a bit of a name for not being completely open and fair with people,” said Favian.

“I wonder if that’s why the person who originally asked for the dagger changed their mind,” she said slowly.

“Maybe. Are you happy if we find someone for JJ to stay with?”

“A family would be nice. Life has been so hard for him. He was only twelve when Mom became ill, and he hated losing her and changing schools and living in the neighborhood where the apartment is. But how much will it cost? How much will I earn? Are there other ways I can earn money here as well? Do you need cleaners, or cooks, or dishwashers?” Elsie clamped her mouth shut. She was
not
going to sound desperate. She wasn’t their problem. They’d already been enormously helpful to her.

“You could clean this apartment. Amory’s too busy to do anything, and we ought to be helping him, not scrubbing the floors,” said Brayden.

“We wouldn’t have to scrub them if you didn’t make such a mess,” said Favian.

She sat silently waiting for them to answer her question properly. It was Favian who realized what she wanted first.

“Amory is the one who sets the value on each project. Naftali would know what your work for him is worth. Housecleaning likely has a fixed wage as well. I can easily look that up and make sure the credit goes into your bank account. But it would be a lot of easier if we just said any housework you do for us negates any debt you might feel for staying with us. That way all your work for Naftali will go toward paying for JJ. But getting back to him, I think we need to arrange someone for him to stay with and get him away as soon as we can. Besides, he’ll be missing school.”

“He’s missed quite a lot of school. He might even have to stay back a year.” Elsie felt a moment’s guilt for that. But if they hadn’t moved to the cheaper apartment, they’d have been completely homeless.

“Since he’s moving to another state, any areas he’s behind in at school he can blame on the different school systems. If he’s half as smart as you, he’ll catch up quickly anyway,” said Brayden.

That made her feel better. JJ had always been a bright, intelligent little boy. Once he was in a good school, he’d catch up. She believed that.

They talked some more, and she finished her sandwich. It filled her up, and she realized it had been a hell of a long time since she’d had a full stomach after a meal. Likely her stomach had shrunk a bit. That was a good thing. Being thin was trendy.
See, I’m not going without. I’m doing what most women do, losing weight.

Although she wouldn’t lose any more weight if she ate meals like this too often. She’d be putting it on instead. Fortunately, she’d had to take her jeans in twice already. She could always let them out again without having to stop eating or to find the money to buy new clothing.

“Do you want another sandwich?” asked Favian.

“No thank you. It was huge.”

“Come on. Let’s take Amory his lunch,” said Brayden.

Her? She was supposed to go as well? “Me?”

“Of course. We need to talk to him about JJ.”

Brayden picked up the plate with the Alpha’s lunch on it and led the way out of the apartment.

Suddenly Elsie felt nervous. The Alpha was an honest and fair man. But would he agree to let her manage what happened to JJ? Now that she’d agreed to stay here, did that make her one of his pack who had to obey him in all things?
Ah fuck! I didn’t think of that!

Amory couldn’t concentrate. As usual, his desk was piled high with paperwork that absolutely, positively, had to be dealt with right now. But the difference was that, for the first time in years, his mind was elsewhere. His fingers itched to turn on the security footage and view again the cute little blonde who’d erupted into his life.

“Erupted and gone again,” he told himself firmly. He had no time for fond imaginings of evenings sitting on the sofa, a mate snuggled into his side as they sipped wine from the same glass or fed each other bites of chocolate while watching a movie.

A few of his pack members had found their mates recently, but no woman would be satisfied with seeing him for the ten seconds between when he crawled into bed, usually around two in the morning, and when he fell asleep, or in the brief moments between when the alarm clock woke him at six thirty and he showered, shaved, dressed, and ran down the stairs to his office by seven a.m. He supposed if he tried he could talk to her while he showered, but he wasn’t usually very lucid then. The endless round of never enough sleep was gradually wearing him down. In fact, his brain was telling him if he didn’t take a day off work soon and just rest he was liable to become ill.