Freya Wild had been swept along with the romance and only realised Arlo had not been her true mate when William ‘Billy’ Phelan joined the pack having moved from Derbyshire. They mated and married and had a further son, Rhett; and daughter, Alyssa. Darius remains a Wild although his mother, stepfather and siblings have the surname of Phelan.
After finding out the above, I sought an audience with Jett Conall, from the Hogsthorpe pack. There he confirmed my suspicions. What follows is for your information only and will not appear in my records.
Jett Conall is ALSO the son of Arlo Wild. His surname was changed in 1992 when his mother remarried.
Jett is Darius’ half-brother.
This is the reason the two factions remain so separate. Darius and Jett refuse to acknowledge each other as siblings and their mothers remain bitter enemies. Jett is Alpha of the Hogsthorpe pack, whereas Darius refuses to accept his place as Alpha, instead deferring to Edon Woodland.
Although no clear statement has ever been made, the rumour is that Jett intends to do a hostile takeover of the Withernsea pack and take what he feels is his rightful place as Alpha of the united pack, to honour his father.
There were other words in the text. Stuff about the set-up of both packs and the members but I scanned it, my eyes reading the above words repeatedly.
Oh Christ. And I’d managed to select Jett from the agency’s database and call him for a date.
There was no wonder Darius had acted like he had.
I put the document on the table and picked up the envelope to put in the recycling, but noticed another page still inside.
THE MATING OF WERE SHIFTERS - FACTS AND RULES
(Not to be reproduced. Copyright F. Love, 2018)
To ask a wolf on a date is stating your interest in becoming their mate.
To attend the date and eat with a wolf is part one of courtship. Part two is to find out if you are physically compatible through the act of sexual intercourse. Part three is to complete the mating process under the full moon and be bitten by the wolf at which time non pack members become both wolf (if not already) and pack.
Most wolves determine their mate by a scent. This scent is so intoxicating it can lead to periods of overwhelm until mates become accustomed to it.
Should a female show interest in more than one wolf then they must let the female decide. Alternatively they can take out the other wolf.
To cook for a potential mate is a demonstration of the fact you will care for that woman and her future cubs.
When I’d read that, I was ready to throw myself out of the window. I had serious reparation to do. Ebony was right. I really had started a pack war. What if Darius and Jett tried to kill each other now? I needed to do my damnedest to end it. It was just that to do so I would have to confront every demon I had inside me. But I’d do it, for Darius’ safety.
My door burst back open and the beaming smile of Lucy greeted me. It was still unnerving seeing an ex-demon happy.
“Many congratulations again, Lucy.”
“Oh thank you. But that’s not why I’m here.”
“Oh?”
“You’re one of the reasons I’ve been hanging around here too. I just had to wait for you to realise that you needed to work on your own demons and then BOOM, here I could be, to let you know I was here to help you.”
“You’re to help me?”
“Yes. To avoid a pack war and get your man. Are you ready, Kim? I might be an angel now, but it’s going to be one hell of a time.”
Chapter Eleven
Lucy
I left the office in high spirits. Life was good. I was engaged. I had a fantastic job. Finally, something was going my way.
I heard coins tinkling behind me and pivoted to find Andrew, my predecessor, a few feet behind me. He was supposed to be in heaven having been transferred after almost exposing angels to humanity (not in that way, get your head out of the gutter).
“Andrew? What are you doing here?”
He picked up the coins, putting them back in his pocket and scratched around his neckline. “Oh, I’m back down here, second chances and all that.”
“Oh, and have you got a project?”
His face flushed. “Yes, yes, I have, and I need to make sure that this time nothing goes wrong.”
I smiled at him. He stepped back a little which I thought was mean. Was my being happy THAT much of a shock to people?
“Well, anything I can do to help, just ask.”
“Thanks, Lucy. Well, see you around.” He turned and started walking in the other direction. Hmmm, he’d been coming this way before, now he was walking away from me?
Having been one of the devil’s top employees, I had a large bullshit-ometer, so I carried on walking for a few minutes and then I turned quickly, fast enough to just see the edge of Andrew’s leather jacket disappearing into a shop doorway. I stalked over to where he was pretending to look in the shop window. Unfortunately for him it was a sex shop, and he was currently looking at very large butt plugs.
“So the way I look at it, either way right now you’re screwed, Andrew. So what’s it to be, fess up, or shall I go purchase the extra-large?”
Andrew sighed deeply. “I’m so going to get fired again. I wasn’t supposed to be seen on this job.”
My mouth dropped open. “Andrew.” I tilted my head at him. “Am I your project?”
“Well, erm, yeah.” Another deep sigh escaped him. “So now I suppose you’re going to report me?”
“Hell, no.” My eyes widened. “If you have an earth angel job to do on me, then get on with it, right now. Save my life or whatever it is you’re supposed to be doing.”
“I can’t tell you what it is, but it’s not saving your life. All I can say is that a test is coming.”
“Right, I need you to be with me at all times then to get this done. The sooner you’re finished, the sooner you can pass your earth angel exam and the sooner I can get back to my life, because…” I beamed again. “I am about to get married.”
“Cool.” Andrew said, but his face didn’t look happy, which made the hairs on my neck stand up.
“Come on, let’s go to mine.” I told him. “We have a spare room.”
* * *
Frankie got up a little later than usual due to his having been up in the daytime. He wandered into the living room and saw me sitting beside another man and his eyes flashed red.
“What’s going on?”
“Oh, Frankie, darling. Andrew is coming to live with us for a while.”
“He’s what?” The next moment Andrew was pinned to the wall while a vampire with exposed fangs got up in his business. My fiancé turned to me. “I’m not into sharing.”
“Put him down, Frankie. It’s not like that. He’s an earth angel like me, and apparently he’s doing me.”
Frankie hissed. “Doing you?”
“As in I’m his project. He’s saving me in some way. We’re not romantically involved for God’s sake. Put the poor man down before he urinates down his own legs.”
Frankie dropped him and returned to his usual look and held out a hand to Andrew. “Nice to meet you, pal. Thought about getting a Chinese for tea. You fancy it?”
Andrew went and sat in the furthest corner of the sofa. I heard a clatter at the back door and then a black cat sauntered into the room, walking over to Andrew and jumping up on his knee where she curled up on his lap and started treading his groin area. His surprise at that coupled with an almighty sneeze meant that Maisie was thrown a foot away onto the floor. She landed on her paws, upper back arched, turned around and hissed at him.
I walked over to her with a pet friendly wipe. She hated water but could tolerate a wipe. Then she shifted into her beautiful brunette self.
Andrew’s eyes went wide. “You’re the cat?”
“I am.” She said. “And now I’m wondering how I’m going to inflict punishment on you for throwing me on the floor and coating me in your nose juice. Do you like to be whipped?
” She asked him.
“Andrew is an earth angel, Maisie. There’ll be no whipping or punishments with him.”
She sat at the side of him, far too close, invading his personal space. “Do you earth angels have to be all celibate?”
He swallowed hard. “Well, no, but it’s frowned upon if it would distract me from my job and this is my last chance, so all my attention needs to be on Lucy.”
Maisie rolled her eyes. “Huh. It’s always all about Lucy. Everyone loves Lucy. They even made a stupid TV show about her.”
“I love Lucy is not about me.” I told her.
“She has red hair. You should totally sue the company, they obviously copied you.”
“That programme came out in 1951.”
“So is it you that’s completely unoriginal then? Hah.”
Andrew’s nose started twitching again.
“I think Andrew here is allergic to cats.” I told her, just as she dived across the room, landing on my lap, before another huge sneeze rocked him.
“Ugh. Get off me.” I pushed her up.
“Oh well, never mind. I’m in a menage with the couple next door anyway.” Maisie smoothed down her hair.
“Being their pet cat is not classed as being part of a menage.”
“For an angel you are always so goddamn mean. Cut me some slack here; my love life is seriously lacking, and you bring a hottie here, and he’s allergic to me. All-er-gic. And my paws tell me he’s packing so I’m really depressed right now.” She pouted. “Have you got some of that nice salmon?”
“Oh for heaven’s sake. Let me get you some dinner. I’ll be back in a moment, gentlemen, please try to not kill each other while I’m gone. I’ll fetch you an antihistamine, Andrew, to stop the irritation, although she’s following me so it should go off.”
Maisie followed me out into the kitchen where I took out some fresh salmon. I put the kettle on ready to poach it, just as she liked it.
“He’s hot. It’s so not fair.”
“Can you behave? He’s staying here for a while, hopefully not too long though. Apparently he has an earth angel job to do for me.”
“For you? So is shit about to go down in your life?”
“There’s no need to look happy about that potential fact.”
She leaned against the side. “I’m sorry. You know how it is. When your life is crappy, it hurts even more when you see people getting along with theirs.”
I patted her arm, and she started purring and pushing into my hand. It was really off-putting when she did that in human form.
I took my hand away and she eye-rolled. “You’re so uptight and missing out. You’ve seen my tongue, right?” She licked my hand.
“Ewwww.”
“Feel how raspy that is? Imagine it there.” She nodded at my crotch.
“Maisie. For the umpteenth time, I do not fancy women. I am very happily engaged to a MAN.”
Her eyes narrowed, and she hissed. “What’s that? I’m sure you just said engaged.” She grabbed my recently licked hand. “No ring. Explain yourself.”
I put the salmon in a pan of boiling water which distracted her for a few seconds.
“Frankie proposed this morning, in my office. It wasn’t the most romantic of proposals but he did it all the same. We’ve not had chance to talk about details or a ring or anything yet, because of Andrew.” I nodded in the direction of the living room. “So I don’t know anything else other than I said yes.”
“Can I be a bridesmaid?”
“If you promise to stay in human form. Only I don’t fancy untangling cat claws from my wedding dress.”
“Lace feels so good in my paws.” Maisie went into a daydream. “I used to be able to swing off peoples net curtains when they were in fashion. Now everyone’s windows are bare. Bare is in fashion, windows and pussies. It's about time net curtains and rugs were all the rage again.”
I was beginning to feel the onset of a tension headache and rubbed at my right temple.
“A few minutes and then your salmon will be ready. So are you happy next door?”
Maisie had popped around there a lot while living with Frankie and they’d taken her in when Frankie was ill (in reality he’d been changing into a vampire). They’d asked if they could keep her as they’d got used to her and Frankie had said yes; but they were human and had no idea that in reality they’d moved a third person into their home. Maisie was under strict instructions not to reveal herself, especially when the husband next door looked like Jason Momoa.
I went into the cupboard and got a couple of antihistamines out and filled a glass with water. “Just wait a second while I take these through.” I told her. “Make sure the pan doesn’t overboil.”
Voices quietened as I got near the room and as I entered I had that feeling that they’d been talking about me. I guessed Andrew might have been instructing my fiance on something earth angel related. I passed Andrew the antihistamines and water.
“Thank you.”
“I’ll be back in a moment. I’m just feeding Maisie. Would you like a hot drink, Andrew?”
“I’m okay with this water, thanks.”
I returned to the kitchen to find an empty pan and an empty room. “That bloody cat.” I should have known better to leave a cat unattended in a kitchen with fish. She must have eaten it half-raw.
I threw the pan in the sink and began tiptoeing back towards the living room. Now I know they say eavesdroppers never hear anything good about themselves but well, I did used to be evil, and I wanted to get a heads up about why Andrew was here. I would have to be beyond stealthy as my hubby had vampire super-hearing. I went back and put the radio on in the kitchen. That would interfere with his hearing and put him off long enough for me to get to the room door.
“So what was I saying? That bloody radio. Oh yeah, so basically I’ve told Kim, that she’s to keep it secret because if Lucy finds out, I’m a dead man.”
“I’m sure she’d forgive you.”
“Forgive me? Are you joking? Can’t you tell me what to do to make things right?”
“I can’t. I’m here for Lucy, but it sounds like talking it over with Kim was a good idea. You’re sure she won’t say anything?”
“Lucy would kill her too. It’s not cool to deceive a friend like that is it?”
“And Kim’s your ex, so that wouldn’t go down well either, you two being together like that.”
“Exactly. So I don’t know what to do right now. I need time to think. To hatch a plan.”
* * *
I stood in the doorway feeling like I’d been hit by a thunderbolt. What was he saying? Had he cheated on me, with Kim? Is that why the proposal had appeared to come out of nowhere?
I went into the room, both men looking startled. “I’m not feeling so good, so I’m going to go up to bed, okay?”
“Alright, darling. You need anything, just shout down. I’ll hear you.”
I nodded and went up the stairs to my room. Then I laid on my bed and burst into tears. History was repeating itself. I was losing my man to another woman.
I didn’t think I could go through it all again. Look at what had happened last time. Sheer hell.
Chapter Twelve
Darius
“Bro, can you stop thumping around the place? Some of us are studying you know?”
My sister sat at the dining room table, her school books in front of her. I kicked a chair away and sat down on it. “You’re a female. Explain something to me.”
Alyssa sighed and sat back. “It must be bad if you’re actually going to listen to anything I have to say.”
I pulled out my tongue. If there was such a thing as a mature male I certainly wasn’t feeling it today.
“So the date went well then?”
“There wasn’t a date.”
“She cancelled?”
“No.” I sighed. “I did.”
“Are you out of your freaking mind?” Alyssa’s voice could have been heard in Australia. “Is
this something to do with the emergency you rushed out on?”
“Yes, it meant I had to cancel.”
“Oh well, that couldn’t be helped, just rearrange.”
“I went to see her at her house—after I’d dealt with the emergency—and well…”
“Spit it out, brother.”
“I saw her with another man. They kissed.”
She was out of her seat. “The bitch. I will go kick her arse.”
“Alyssa, sit down.”
“Do you want me to drag her here by the hair? I can do that you know. They’ve accidentally left that paragraph in the Shifter Handbook.”
I rubbed a hand over my brow. “No, Alyssa. I want you to sit down and shut up for a moment so I can TALK. TO. YOU.”
“Spoilsport.” She flopped back down into her chair. “Okay, I’m listening.”
“This was a different male. Not the shifter scum, but a human who works at the coffee shop. I don’t know why she’s doing this. Our connection. It was strong. She’s my mate, I know it.”
“Have you heard anything from the mutt?”
“No. If he sets foot near here, or near her, I will tear him limb from limb.”
Alyssa sighed. “Look, Darius. Have you tried talking to her? She’s a human, she probably doesn’t understand any of this.”
“I want to talk to her but I need her to ask me out again. They are the rules. She has to do the instigating. I can’t see it happening. Especially if she’s started dating one of her own kind.”
The Complete Collection: Supernatural Dating Agency Books 1-6 Page 32
