A Mate for the Alpha and His Brothers (5 page)

Amory shook himself. He was training Favian and Brayden to take over part of the job.

No, he wasn’t. They were training themselves in the odd moments he managed to explain things to them. That was something else he’d have to change. He needed to sit them down and actually teach them some tasks that they could do to take the pressure off himself. But there was never time.

I have to make time.

I know, I know. Just not today okay?

Determinedly, Amory clicked on his e-mail and pulled up a very complicated request that needed one hundred percent of his attention. He read the first line without seeing a single word, changed screens, and hit the security footage, scrolling back to that morning and staring at the woman in the coat, watching intently as she was escorted to the reception desk and removed the coat. Damn, she was the cutest little thing he’d ever seen. And so determined to follow through her plan and return the dagger to its rightful owner, come what may.

If I had half her determination, my to-do list would be one-quarter of the size it is.

Amory clicked off the video and looked at the door of his office. It was propped over the entryway, leaning very much to one side. Brayden could damn well fix it this afternoon. He couldn’t risk it toppling over and hurting someone.

He looked down again at the difficult e-mail and forced himself to concentrate. Amory pulled a notepad across to his right hand and jotted down important points as he read through it and then reread the e-mail a second and a third time. Then, from his notes, he began formulating a response.

It was at least half an hour later when he was happy with his reply and hit send. Almost as if that was a signal, there was a knock on his door and two brawny hands appeared on the edges of it, carefully lifting it into the room. Brayden pulled a screwdriver out of his back pocket and began undoing the remaining hinge while Favian held the door upright for him. Elsie followed them into the room and handed Amory a plate with two thick salad sandwiches on it and a paper napkin. As soon as he saw the food, he realized he was damn hungry and began eating, watching his brothers as he did.

“Is there anything here I could help you with while you eat?” Elsie asked hesitantly.

“Hmrph?”

“Are there files you’ve finished with that I could put away for you, or could I perhaps make you some coffee?”

“You want to do my filing?”

“If that would help you.”

Amory ignored the filing as a waste of time. That was until he needed a file that he’d used a few months prior and he had to go through all the files sitting on top of the file cabinet looking for the one he wanted.

“You’re an absolute angel. They go by the keyword on the outside of the folder, and then by date order within that, latest one at the front. Some of the folders over there might be out of order,” he finished a little guiltily, pointing to the towering stack of unfiled paperwork on the cabinet. He kept meaning to ask someone to do it, or even to do it himself. It just hadn’t happened. He was too busy.

Elsie smiled at him and walked across to the filing cabinets with an armful of the files he’d indicted from the corner of his desk.

He looked over at the door. Brayden had both the hinges off and was comparing screw sizes with a handful from his pocket. Amory ignored them all, took a huge bite of his sandwich, and went back to work. He was vaguely aware of his brothers leaving, but by then, he was deep in yet another complicated matter. It was only a long time later when a cup of hot coffee appeared on his desk, and the empty plate disappeared, that he looked up into Elsie’s face.

“Is there anything I can do to help?” she asked.

“That filing will take you weeks,” he said, smiling back at her and looking over to the cabinets.

Everything was gone from the top of the cabinets, and it even looked as though she’d dusted them or wiped them down. They were clean. She couldn’t have possibly filed everything correctly and put the folders in date order as well. He was going to find everything all messed up. It’d take him forever to tidy it properly.

Except it already was a huge time suck because it was all out of order, so he had no grounds to complain.

“That’s amazing, thank you,” he said.

She nodded and left the room. As soon as he was sure she was gone, he raced over to the filing cabinet and pulled out a file he knew would have several entries over the past six months. Each was in order, newest at the front as he’d told her.

That must be just a fluke.
He thought a minute, checked another one, and then a third. All of them were correct.

Well, fuck. She is a miracle worker.

Or maybe I’m just too tired and slow. I’ll talk to Favian and Brayden properly and delegate entire caseloads to them tonight.

To make sure he didn’t break his promise, he texted Favian.
I’ll be there 4 dinner @ 7 + we’ll discuss you taking over all the vehicle bookings and room bookings.

The reply came back.
About fucking time.

Amory grinned. Yep, that was his brother in action.

* * * *

Two weeks later, Brayden opened the apartment door to smell the most amazing aroma of chilies, spices, and beef sizzling. Damn, that woman could sure as hell cook. She ordered all their foodstuffs now, and the meals she made them were amazing. The first few times they’d been begging for seconds, but she’d increased the quantities she made, and now their plates were piled high every meal, and his belly was always full. Not overfull, but just right.

He was fast coming to believe that she herself was also just right. He and Favian knew Amory wanted her, even though he’d never made a move on her, which was insane. Sooner or later, someone else would. There was a worldwide shortage of shape-shifter women, and a woman as sweet and talented as Elsie, living in a panther pack headquarters, wasn’t going to stay single long. If Amory didn’t grab her, he and Favian would. But he didn’t want to do that to his brother and his Alpha. That is, he sure as hell liked her, but Amory needed a mate to help him run the pack. He and Favian just wanted one. More specifically, they wanted her. She was perfect. Smart, fun, and ready to fight for what she believed in.

Brayden was starting to think his idiot brother needed a slap upside the head before he lost what was sitting in his living room night after night.

“Supper will be ready at seven as usual, will it?” he asked.

“Yes. I can hold it back for ten minutes if you want to take a shower first, or something?”

“No, I’m good.” Brayden walked into the bedroom he shared with Favian and shut the door before pulling out his cell phone.

“It’s been two weeks since you joined us for a meal. Supper’s ready. Come on up.”

“I’m busy.”

Amory’s voice was grumpy, but Brayden ignored the tone and answered as gently as he could. “Brother, you’re always busy. Likely you’ll be busy the day you die. Come and join us for once, please.”

“Is something wrong?”

Now Amory sounded worried. Brayden hadn’t meant to worry him, just to get him to join them once in a while.

“Nothing’s wrong, but we’re supposed to be a family. Let’s have a family meal time.”

Amory sighed, and Brayden heard the clacking of a keyboard.

“Okay. I’ll be there in a minute.”

Brayden seriously doubted the estimated timeframe, but he hoped Amory would make it before the meal was ruined. Like within the ten-minute window Elsie had mentioned.

By the time he washed his hands and returned to the kitchen, Favian was setting the table.

“Amory’s joining us.”

“Really? Does he need us for a project?”

“No, I twisted his arm and told him it was time we acted like a family.”

Favian gave him a serious look, but Brayden kept his face neutral.

Brayden enjoyed their mealtime. Two weeks before they’d eaten together, talking about the pack and life in general. After that meal, Elsie had gone into her room while Amory had explained details about the booking processes for the pack-owned vehicles, such as the minivan and a couple of very ordinary-looking cars they used when on jobs, and also for the communal-use rooms such as the dungeons.

Of course Brayden and Favian already knew the system to some extent as they’d booked the rooms and the cars themselves as required. Each family had a number, and each person within the family had a different final digit, which was their personal number. That number was typed into spreadsheets for the use of communal property. Where Amory himself was needed was if there were competing needs for something.

Sometimes it was self-evident who had priority. A pack member who didn’t have their own car might have booked the minivan to go shopping, but the van was needed for a job. Any other vehicle would do for the shopping expedition. But other times needs were very similar, and Amory had a set process he followed to ensure decision-making was fair.

Favian and Brayden had now taken over management of that system, following the guidelines, making decisions as necessary. Amory would still be involved in case of a dispute they couldn’t resolve, but Brayden was certain almost every clash could be decided by logical and fair means.

After they’d eaten, Brayden said, “Amory, Favian and I have the booking system licked. It’s time for you to off-load onto us another aspect of your work where your expertise is rarely needed.”

Amory sighed and ran his hands through his hair. “I know. I have to delegate more, but it’s not easy to decide. Mostly I’m so busy I don’t even know what’s next. Everyone needs me.”

Brayden was about to say something, telling Amory to man up and make a decision, when Elsie walked over to the counter and took the notepad she used for cooking menus and shopping lists. She flipped it upside down and opened to the back page.

“We can help you. What do you spend your time doing?”

“Huh?”

“What do you do each day?”

“What do you mean what do I do? I run a business. I manage staff and deal with clients and so on.”

Elsie shook her head at him. “You need to be a lot more specific. We can help you highlight areas in your daily tasks where your expertise is not needed. Areas that one of your brothers could take from you. Now, tell me step by step what your day looks like.”

Brayden hid a grin as Amory spoke and Elsie made notes. Ten minutes later, she’d filled the page and Amory had stopped taking.

“Look at this. After businesses call you, you update spreadsheets about people’s needs from your notes. The same after dealing with e-mails, after reading messages from your department leaders, from all over the place. It’s always you updating these spreadsheets. Unless it’s something very secret, that’s a total waste of your time. When your managers don’t need your approval to buy things or to do things, they should be updating those spreadsheets themselves,” said Elsie.

“She’s right,” said Favian.

“Most of those messages from department heads are just a courtesy. You don’t need to know all the details. You already meet with the department heads each week. Anything you should know they can tell you then. If something’s urgent, they tell you in person anyway.” Brayden leaned back in his chair. Elsie had absolutely put her finger on an important way they could reduce Amory’s workload every single day.

He looked at Amory, whose forehead was creased in a frown. Brayden remained silent. Amory would work it out.

Finally he nodded. “You’re right. Most of what is said in the department meetings is stuff I already know. It’s more a matter of each department head reporting to each other than to me. Each one of them maintaining their own spreadsheets would work, and we’d all learn at the same time in the meetings, which would save everyone’s time.”

“With the notes you make from phone calls and e-mails, you could put them aside, and Brayden or I could update the spreadsheets with those things once a day. Maybe you could leave them here in the kitchen each night when you come home, and we could do them first thing in the morning,” said Favian.

Brayden nodded. “Or even whoever is babysitting you late at night could do it then. It might help keep us awake.”

“We can do better than that. Those secretive government agencies won’t talk to anyone except you, but most of the shape-shifters who call us, either Brayden or I could deal with them and only pass the calls to you if they really are private,” added Favian.

While they’d been talking, Elsie had been reading through her notes. “Do you trust your heads of department? I mean, trust their judgment absolutely?”

Brayden stared at her. What was she going to suggest now?

“Yes, I do. Why do you ask?”

“I agree that you need to be the contact person for everything to do with your reclamation business, but for buying toilet paper or whatever, why not let the department heads deal with that? You don’t need to be good friends with the man who sells you apples. Your housekeeping team should take on that role. They’re the ones who decide which brand of toilet paper or which type of apples to buy after all.”

“Dammit, she’s right,” said Favian.

Brayden stared at her. Fuck, she was bright. He’d known about Amory’s methodology for five years or more. She came in and saw it was a waste of Amory’s precious time in five minutes.

“Of course you don’t need to do that. She’s right,” he said.

Brayden watched as Amory’s face smoothed out, the worry lines faded from his forehead, and his gaze rested on Elsie.

He loves her and wants her. We need to move forward on that a.s.a.p.

Brayden shifted his gaze to Elsie. She was smiling gently at the Alpha, not gloating or filled with pride at having made an important discovery, but rather just quietly pleased that she was able to help.

The more Brayden looked at her, the more he decided she liked Amory as well. And the more he knew he wanted her, too.

Well fuck. I’ll only get to know her as my sister-in-law. Better get that into my thick head straight away. But damn. I’d like to plunge my other thick head deep inside her. I bet she’d be hot, wet, and extremely passionate.