Publicly Exhibited [Werewolves of Hanson Mall 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (11 page)

“Who’s a hot piece?” teased Rhion.

“The butt plug is exciting, but cock would be better,” she replied.

Once they had her on the bed, still wearing the dress, Cadfael held her head still and looked in her eyes. “You know we want to mate you, don’t you?”

“You said that before but I can’t make any kind of commitment until the situation with my sister and Bailey is sorted out properly. I might have to run away to protect her at any time.”

“No you won’t. We’ll look after both of you.” Rhion spoke firmly but Willow’s mouth was set into a straight line. Cadfael knew she wasn’t going to give in on that yet.

“I’ll be your woman while I’m here. I’m very attracted to both of you. But mating, and no divorce, is not a conversation I’m ready to have. I won’t consider anything permanent until Hawthorne is safe. And I won’t change my mind.”

“I know you won’t. But we’ll look after you both and we won’t change our minds either.” That was enough talking as far as Cadfael was concerned. He flipped her dress up, rolled her onto her side, removed the butt plug, and slammed his cock into her waiting ass. Rhion copied him move for move on her other side, and Cadfael had to keep a tight grip on his control as his best friend pushed his dick into her until they were both balls deep inside their woman. He undid the tie of the halter top and filled his hands with her breasts. Her nipples were hard little points, and inside, her ass was hotter than fire. Rhion placed his hands on her hips and they pulled out of her together, then slammed into her again with all they had. Cadfael breathed the sweet scent of her salty skin into his lungs. She smelled sweet yet tasted salty. He loved the dichotomy. He loved that she was multilayered, and complicated, and all woman. And his. Nothing would change that, ever.

He pinched her nipples and squeezed her breasts, his hands a little rougher than he’d ever been with her before, but she kept responding so he knew she was enjoying his touch. When she came, her ass gripped his dick so hard his eyes almost crossed, then his cock was filling her with cum that poured up and out of him like a gushing oil well. He’d never come so hard or so often with anyone else. That was just another sign that this woman was his. Their true mate. And tomorrow he’d harass everyone until they had answers for him about Bailey Hamilton so he and Rhion could mate her formally.

But when he took Willow back to Apartment 7C he found things weren’t necessarily going to happen so smoothly. The door was opened by a very angry Hawthorne.

“Just exactly when were you planning on telling us you were wolves?” she snarled at him, looking every bit as ferocious as one herself.

“Hawthorne, what’s happened?” asked Willow, surging forward to grab her sister.

Yeah, Rhion wanted to know that, too. Also why weren’t they in bed? It was almost 3:00 a.m. and he was more than ready for a few hours sleep before the working day began again. Rhion followed Willow and Cadfael into the apartment, but he was staring at Eilidh. She had a blank look on her face, not her “concerned nurse” mask, which at least meant no one was ill or in serious need of attention. But she wasn’t giving him any clues as to how to behave either.

“Both of you go over there and turn into wolves right now,” ordered Hawthorne, pointing her finger at the far side of the living room. This apartment wasn’t all that big, and with five of them in it as well as the furniture there wasn’t much empty space, but Rhion did as she said, stood behind the couch, turned his back to the room, and stripped off, then transformed into his wolf.

He padded out to the side of the couch, keeping as far away from Hawthorne as he could, not knowing whether she was frightened or not. Angry, yes. She was most definitely furious about something. But he didn’t want to scare her if she was already frightened.

“No, it wasn’t you. Come on, Cadfael. Change right now.”

Cadfael came and stood beside him. They looked quite similar, but Cadfael was just a fraction taller, longer, and stronger. But when they ran Rhion was his match. Likely he was fitter than Cadfael, both in human as well as animal form.

“Hawthorne, what the fuck is wrong?” asked Willow.

“How long have you known?”

“Known what? Oh, that they’re wolves? They just told me tonight.”

“When? When did they tell you?”

“I don’t know. I wasn’t watching the clock, but it was before we went to the movie. In the hot tub. So maybe…I don’t know. 10:00 p.m. perhaps? Ten thirty?”

“Damn!”

Hawthorne sank down onto the couch, Willow beside her. Rhion was starting to feel like he’d walked onto the stage in the middle of a play, and had no idea who he was or what his role should be. Fortunately, right then Cadfael put on his managing director’s voice and demanded sternly, “Hawthorne Cunliffe, for fuck’s sake tell us what the fuck is the problem?”

Both Willow and Hawthorne turned startled faces toward Cadfael, but he stayed over by the wall, where they’d both transformed. Rhion had pulled his jeans back on and now Cadfael got dressed as well.

“Oh, I was bored and asked Eilidh if we could go to the gym. I’m used to going walking most days. She said people would still be there but suggested we could walk up the stairs or even run up some of them. It wasn’t exactly what I had in mind but it was exercise and out of the apartment so we ran together down to the fifth level, then back up to the seventh.”

That all sounded fair enough to Rhion. “So what’s the problem?” he asked.

“I decided to walk right up to the top of the building and a damn huge wolf came running down the stairs toward me. I thought he was going to fucking bite me. Eilidh pushed me behind her and shouted at him and he ran back up the stairs. Eilidh dragged me into the elevator and back here and that’s when I realized she wasn’t surprised or anything. Finally she told me some of the people here are wolves which is why you’d believed my story and had hidden Willow and me. But why the fuck didn’t you tell me? Do you know how often I’ve wondered if I could possibly have been wrong? If I was going mad? If I truly was insane?” Hawthorne broke into sobs and Willow pulled her sister into her arms to hug her. Eilidh went across to the refrigerator, poured a glass of water, picked up a box of tissues, and brought them back for Hawthorne.

“It’s not my secret to tell,” said Cadfael gently.

Rhion was impressed by the way his friend had changed from the boss demanding an answer to sympathetic listener in a heartbeat. But Cadfael truly cared, Rhion knew that. Just as he cared. These two women had been subject to a lot of trauma and dealt with it very capably. He really shouldn’t be surprised that Hawthorne’s nerves were stretched tight.

“Yeah. That’s what Ay-lee said.” Hawthorne sniffed and used the tissues, then took a drink of water.

Rhion hid his smile at the way both women reverted to pronouncing Eilidh’s name how they’d first learned it when they were stressed. To him, it was a perfectly simple, normal name. But he guessed to someone without Celtic heritage it might seem a little weird. He wondered if either woman realized Rhion wasn’t spelled Ryan.

“Who was it on the staircase?” Cadfael asked Eilidh.

“Maelor. He’s texted me twice asking if he can come around and apologize. He also said he goes for a run up and down the stairs most nights about eleven and he’s never so much as heard a door slam in the past, far less seen anyone. He also said you two are the only people he knows who regularly use the stairs instead of the elevators, apart from himself.”

“You knew who it was?” asked Hawthorne.

“But it wasn’t my secret to share,” said Eilidh.

Hawthorne looked down apparently accepting Eilidh’s reiterated response. Poor Maelor. He was attracted to Hawthorne and now he’d scared her witless. That was going to upset him, almost as much as it’d upset her.

“What happens now?” asked Willow.

Yeah. Good question.

Cadfael rubbed his hands over his face. “Tomorrow, well today that is, Rhion and I will pull out all the stops to get answers to our questions about Bailey Hamilton. Until we know what is driving him, or who’s behind him, you women won’t be safe. We asked for answers long enough ago we can push for responses now. Also I’ll ask Georgia and Wynn who are leading our family research team to come talk to you both in the afternoon. I think you two women could make a real difference in our studies and help us move on to collating the data and finding some answers. Or at least knowing better ways of looking for answers,” said Cadfael.

It was time for them to go. Everyone was much too tired and his alarm was going to ring before he’d even gotten to bed, the way things were going.

Cadfael must have been thinking the same thing because he said to Eilidh, “Call in a substitute nurse for tomorrow and sleep as long as you need.”

Rhion walked across to Willow and kissed her. “Thank you for tonight. You’re very special to me.”

“And to me.” Cadfael kissed her, too, and then they left.

The moment they were both in the hallway with the apartment door shut behind them, Cadfael said, “Right, come on up to my office. We need to get a plan of action organized for chasing down the information we need on Bailey. Bring your list of who you’ve already spoken to.”

“Now?” All Rhion wanted to do was sleep.

“Of course now. We need to be organized by six at the latest so we can wake them up and get them all moving.” Cadfael opened the stair door. “Come on. A bit of exercise will get those blood cells moving in your brain.”

“What brain? It turned into mush about three hours ago.” Nevertheless, Rhion followed Cadfael up the stairs.
Fucking hell.

* * * *

By ten o’clock Cadfael was exhausted and the adrenaline that had been keeping him going, along with a hell of a lot of Rhion’s top quality black coffee, had lost its magical power. The days when he could fuck all night and work all day were obviously long gone. “Thirty-five isn’t the new twenty-five no matter what anyone says,” he said to Rhion, standing up and stretching his aching back.

“No kidding. I feel like shit,” said Rhion.

Cadfael looked at his best friend and second-in-command. His hair was a mess, he badly needed a shave, and his eyes had big black patches underneath them. “You look like shit, too.”

“Thank you for that kind word. Try looking in a mirror.”

Cadfael rubbed his hand over his jaw. “A shave would be good.”

“Eight hours sleep would be better.”

“Yeah, yeah, so what have we got?”

“A vast number of people who’ve promised us answers by close of business today. But I reckon our best bet would be asking Hawthorne and Willow to go through Bailey’s Facebook friends list again, only this time they track everyone down. Not just to read what they say in their profile, but to Google them and see if the women can find out about the psychiatrist that way. It’s a long shot, but it’s the only unexplored path we have right now. And remember the psychiatrist might be female.”

Cadfael looked at Rhion. The man might look like hell but his brain cells weren’t quite dead yet. “That’s a smart idea. I like it. Do it, then we can both go to bed. Set your alarm for four though so we can go through the answers we’ll have gotten back by then.”

“Almost six hours’ sleep. That sounds delightful.”

Of course it wasn’t six hours’ sleep by the time he showered, shaved, and checked to make sure no urgent e-mails had come in while he was preoccupied with chasing Hamilton, but it was still delightful. Very delightful. Fuck, he was tired. And way, way, way too old to be pulling all nighters.

Back in his office he started checking the responses he’d received, most of them with “Sorry it took a while” apologies attached. “Yeah, if I hadn’t squealed, I’d still be waiting for a reply.” But that’s the way the world worked. There was always something more important to do. Well, this was the most important thing in his life right now.

About ten minutes later Rhion tapped on his office door, his laptop under his arm. He was clean shaven, his eyes were sparkling again although they still had a hint of shadow under them, and his hair was still wet from his shower.

“You look much better,” said Cadfael.

“I feel a whole heap better as well. Do we have many answers?”

“Quite a few. I’m working through them now.”

Rhion sat down beside him and they both worked in silence for another half hour. When Cadfael leaned back in his chair, stretching his spine and rotating his shoulders, Rhion was already staring into the distance with a thoughtful look on his face.

“What?” he asked.

“It doesn’t seem like anyone is trying to appropriate their house. There’s no interest by developers or realtors, and no sign that area is going to be purchased for any reason. Also the neighbors report no one appearing to peek at the property. They said to reassure Willow and Hawthorne their house is being looked after.”

“I guess that’s one avenue we can cross off the list,” said Cadfael. It was a good thing to eliminate possibilities, but he would rather have had a clear answer instead.

“What have you learned?”

Cadfael sighed and rubbed his face. Dammit, five and a bit hours’ sleep didn’t feel as refreshing as it used to anymore. “None of the business associations have heard of him and he’s not listed in the business ‘Who’s Who.’ Of course that doesn’t prove he’s not a business owner, but most people do join up just for the potential benefits of networking. Even being listed on their annual calendar and the like is free advertising. Since Hawthorne said he’s proud of being a businessman it’s strange he isn’t a member of any of the organizations.”