“I know that.” Orion had to put up both his hands just to get his brother to shut up long enough to listen. “Would you please calm down? I’m not suggesting a change to the death certificate. I’m not thinking that at all. I’m looking at this from the perspective of a civil case.”
“Oh.”
Yes. Now Orion could see the wheels turning in his brother’s mind. All of a sudden this was not a ridiculous idea anymore. It was actually a possibility. “See? You hadn’t really thought about that before, right? But we’re talking a violation of the prenuptial agreement. It took place before the death. It gives her motive because Dad was going to divorce her. Mother would have had nothing. Nothing!”
“The will has a caveat,” Devon whispered. “Zane is the one who knows that document backwards and forwards.”
“Right. But I’m assuming that our mother honestly believes that if she was not criminally charged, then nobody can try to use that clause against her. Unfortunately for her, probate is a bit different than criminal and civil court.” Orion could not help but feel satisfied by the plan that was beginning to take shape in his mind.
“You guys are so loud!” Kami plopped down onto a barstool in the kitchen.
“Sorry, sweetheart.” Devon was immediately contrite.
In fact, the way that he acted toward this woman was so odd to Orion that for just a moment he was tempted to make an asinine comment. For a moment. Then Orion felt a pang of jealousy. He could not help but wish that he had someone in his life to be tender with.
The memory of Eleni’s hands buried in his fur the night before came absolutely unbidden into Orion’s mind. He still could not believe that he had shifted in front of her. He had to have been out of his right mind. The poor woman could have run away screaming and there would have been nothing that Orion could do about it. Yet she had seemed so incredibly fascinated by the idea of a shifter. It had seemed like a better plan to just shift and let her see for herself instead of trying to explain with paltry words.
Then she had touched him. The way that felt had been beyond anything Orion had ever imagined possible. Her fingers had been so very soft. The way she scratched his ruff and lightly stroked his face and head had made him rethink the idea of being someone’s lapdog. Sometimes he thought that his brothers were absolute idiots for all of the concessions they seemed to make for these women in their collective lives. Hell, Edward had moved to Italy, for goodness sake!
Yet Orion could not deny as he watched Devon go to Kami and wrap his arms around his much shorter wife, that the reality of having someone to love was appealing. Devon rested his chin atop Kami’s dark silky head. She sighed and leaned into his embrace. Then Devon whispered something in her ear and she giggled. Her dark eyes were sparkling and shining with love, and in that moment Orion felt utterly excluded from what was happening right in front of him.
“Ahem,” Orion said, clearing his throat. “As flattered as I am that the two of you are talking about me behind my back in front of my face, I feel like I would rather you just say it out loud.” He snapped his fingers, intending the gesture to be more funny than serious. “So come on.”
“Fine.” Kami made a face at Devon. “We were just discussing the fact that you are going to make an adorable crotchety old man. You know, the kind that runs around in adult diapers and yells at kids for walking on his lawn.”
“Nice.” Orion rolled his eyes. He was trying to be flippant, but at the same time he felt strangely hurt by their words. Was that really how his family saw him? “I can’t wait to live with Mother for the rest of my life since you guys have all moved out and left her to my care.”
“It’s your house now,” Devon pointed out. “In a manner of speaking. You can always kick her out.”
“You should send her to go live with Alaina Ariosa,” Kami muttered. “It’s not like the two of them weren’t awfully close all those years. As in close enough to share men. So why not just live like roomies?”
“So you did hear some of what went on,” Orion breathed. He was stunned to silence for just a moment and was glad to see that he wasn’t the only one.
Devon gaped at his wife. “You never thought to mention this?”
“You don’t understand.” Kami pursed her lips and looked troubled. “How am I supposed to say anything at all when a lot of it was just stuff I would hear in passing or things that I would just see evidence of.” Kami pointed at Orion. “It never occurred to me that Tisha wasn’t just another spoiled Dallas housewife until I started eavesdropping on the two of you just a few minutes ago.”
“Meaning that you either heard or saw evidence of that argument,” Orion pressed. He was still a bit angry that Kami had never mentioned this before. “What was said? What can you tell us about it?”
“About that?” Kami shrugged. “Not much really. You have to understand that your mother and Tex Johnson fought constantly. When I say they fought, I mean that the two of them went at it all the damn time! They were always yelling at each other. She would accuse him of sleeping with someone, usually Alaina. And sometimes he would tell her that he could do whatever he wanted because they weren’t married. It wasn’t like you guys didn’t know that your mother had a lover. Why would I have anything else to add to that?” Kami shrugged. “But yes. There were often huge fights that left debris all over Tex’s office. Your mother was rather fond of throwing his expensive first edition books all over the place. That really pissed him off and Tisha knows how to go for the jugular, if you know what I mean.”
Devon was staring at his wife as though he were absolutely stunned to hear this information. That made Orion feel better at least. Then he had a thought. It was probably thanks to all of his ruminating on Gemini and his mother. “Has anyone asked Gemini about this stuff? Maybe Dad said something to him or his mother about it. According to Alaina, she and our mother were having a very...”—it was disgusting to say this out loud about his mother—“let’s call it a very complicated threesome kind of relationship with Tex.”
“Oh, that’s a little too much, thank you!” Devon rubbed both hands down his face. “That’s our mother you’re talking about!”
“Yeah, well, it would seem that our father was slightly more monogamous than our mother ever managed to be.” Orion realized that hearing this from Alaina had been very liberating for him. “I used to think of Mother as a victim. You know? I felt bad for her. I kept thinking how crappy it was that she had a husband who cheated and actually had a kid with someone else, but our father had to threaten her to get her to bear him children. That was in the prenup. The kids, raising the children, being a Dallas housewife, all of it was in their marriage agreement. Our mommy dearest knew exactly what she was getting into.”
“All of it,” Devon murmured. “She had to have known. All of those lies about how Dad never told her what he was. He never told her that he was a shifter. It’s all a pack of lies. Is that what you’re suggesting?”
“Yes. It is. There is no way that he would have neglected to mention that if he was absolutely up front about his expectations.” The more Orion thought about that the more he was sure that Tisha Olivares-King had been lying to them about that important fact from the start.
“Have you actually seen this prenuptial agreement?” Devon wondered suddenly. He was tapping his fingertips on the counter as though he were almost too distracted to keep his mind on one topic. “It occurs to me that I’ve heard about the document, but we’ve been so preoccupied with the will that we haven’t really delved into the prenup.”
Kami frowned. Then she poked Devon in the chest to get his attention. “I thought you kept saying that the will referenced the prenuptial agreement. Right? So why wouldn’t you look at it?”
“I don’t know.” Orion realized that they were idiots. “Because we all just assumed that it was practically null and void thanks to the fact that Dad is dead.”
“Except that it’s time for you to get a copy of the thing from the lawyer,” Kami prompted.
“And then you need to find out what Tisha Olivares-King has been hiding from you all these years. I have a feeling that it’s pretty damned interesting reading.”
“Interesting reading,” Orion groaned. He threw up his hands and stalked over to the bank of windows offering a beautiful view of downtown Dallas. “Can we just talk about the fact that this entire thing is all bullshit? Can’t we just live our lives? The business has to keep moving. There are employees depending on it. Hell, all of us depend on it! We draw salaries and portions and we’ve put all of our lives into that company!”
“Think about what will happen to Mother if we suddenly cut her off,” Devon reminded Orion. “I think when Mother looks at Alaina Ariosa she’s afraid that she’s actually seeing what her own future is going to be like.”
“And that probably makes her willing to kill to avoid it,” Orion snorted. “Our mother is nothing if not willing to eat her young.”
Kami shook her head and pointed at Devon. The way she wrinkled her nose was kind of cute. Not that Orion was at all attracted to his brother’s wife. But he could definitely begin to see what would make Devon take a second look. The woman had enough personality to make them all seem like zombies.
“This is why we’re never having kids!” Kami reminded Devon. Then she pointed at Orion. “You would be best off doing the same. Don’t have kids! End this craziness with your generation.”
“The shifter gene?” Orion snorted and shook his head. Then he pointed at Devon. “Did you never tell your dear wife that we are not the only shifters in North America?”
Kami’s eyes got huge. “I guess I never actually thought about that. Do you guys have family reunions or anything? That would be crazy!” Her voice grew more and more thickly accented until Orion almost couldn’t understand what she was saying. “Like a whole bunch of wolves just running through the woods peeing on every single tree they can find and then trying to race each other to find the next spot just to try and get a one up on each other!”
“Nice.” Orion pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. “That’s a fantastic visual image, Kami. Thanks. I’ll just ask Zane if he has been peeing on all the trees and trashcans in our territory to make sure we’ve got a head start on that task for when the others come to visit.”
“Fire hydrants,” Kami said, keeping her face deadpan. “You’d be peeing on fire hydrants. That’s what dogs do anyway.”
“We aren’t dogs.” Orion pulled his lips back from his teeth and snapped his jaws at Kami.
“Do not make me kick your ass,” Devon growled.
Orion shook his head. “As if you could. You’ve never been the alpha.”
“Don’t you dare dis him!” Kami was the one growling now.
It occurred to Orion that these pairings that were happening in his family were actually changing the pack dynamic. It was a startling and somewhat frightening feeling to realize that he was actually no longer the alpha of the King pack. That had always been—by tradition—the eldest male. Orion wasn’t the eldest male. He was the second oldest. How was it that nobody could understand what sort of impact this had made on his life? Gemini had taken far more from Orion than anyone could possibly understand.
Except that Orion didn’t necessarily mind. Maybe it was better this way. Maybe it was time for Orion to stop worrying about everyone else. It wasn’t his damn job anyway. He was tired of being big brother and their mother’s keeper.
“You know what, Devon?” Orion clapped his brother on the shoulder. “I’m just your brother. I’m not your boss. You do what you want. Be happy. That’s all I’ll say on the topic. And, of course, let’s find that stupid prenuptial agreement and use it to put our mother back in the box. Shall we?”
Both of Devon’s eyebrows shot into the air. “Have you been drinking?”
Orion only laughed. He needed to end this charming interview and leave anyway. It was time to go get ready for his date. The date he wanted to get ready for. The one he wanted to go on with a person he actually wanted to spend time with.
Yes. His brother was probably right to ask if he’d been drinking. This was probably a total first for Orion King. But it sure felt damn good!
Chapter Fourteen
The only thought on Eleni’s mind as she walked into the Addison Elementary School gym hanging onto the arm of Orion King was that this was probably the worst idea that she’d ever had. If she had wanted to keep a low profile or something along those lines, she had picked the worst date possible. Or at least that was pretty much what she figured to be true by the time the gym doors clicked shut behind her.
“Wow, they went all out with the decorations, hmm?” Orion ducked down to whisper into Eleni’s ear as the two of them stopped just inside the entrance.
Eleni swallowed. “I suppose it looks that way, but this is what the gym looked like before Christmas break started because of the holiday performances.”
“Oh. Right.” Orion started chuckling beneath his breath. “Do you remember all of those Christmas pageants at school when we were kids?”
“Don’t remind me.” Eleni almost couldn’t stop herself from giving a very unladylike snort. “I swear those things were an exercise in trying to get the King brothers to behave.”
“What else would you expect when there were five of us in that school at once?” Orion sighed as though he were having a very fond memory. “Man, by the time Jason entered kindergarten and I was in sixth grade we were running that place!”
“I will certainly not argue with that,” Eleni said primly. She was steering the two of them around the gym toward the food table because that was where she spotted teachers from the lower grades.
The gym was indeed decorated for the holidays. There was crepe paper hung all around in huge red and green scallop shaped sheets. The kids had layered silver and gold over the top of that. The lights were dim and only the stage lights were on with their red and green filters. The effect was actually a bit disconcerting considering the freaky lighting made the food table look less than appetizing.
“Was this catered or pot luck?” Orion wondered out loud as though he had followed her gaze directly to the table covered in a white cloth and cast in a distinctly green glow.
“Catered, I think. At least we all chipped in for that.” Eleni had learned a long time ago that sometimes catered meant the school lunch ladies took the money and cooked in the school kitchen while trying to do it as cheaply as possible. “There’s no telling really. But the dessert area is always good. I would stay away from the cold cuts.”
He started sniffing and Eleni elbowed him. “Are you telling me you have wolf-like senses going on right now? Like you can tell where that meat has been?”
“Yep.” He grinned down at her looking very much like a wicked little boy. “And let’s just say that one of your lunch ladies likes to cook with a whole lot of onions.”
“Fran,” Eleni said with a sigh. “The kids will tell you all about her if you ask. They call her Cottonhead.”
“She must be the one with the very upright white hair,” Orion observed.
The two of them were still whispering with their heads close together. Somewhere in the background there was holiday music playing. Of course it had to be stuff about Santa and Elves or someone losing someone’s love on Christmas. Any actual carols were banned thanks to the mere suggestion of a non-politically correct and absolutely religious-neutral holiday. But at least that meant everyone got to be represented for the holidays. At some point they were probably going to hear the dreidel song too.
“Why is nobody talking to you?” Orion finally asked. He stopped walking and pointed to a gaggle of teachers. “They’re staring at me.”
“Yeah. I didn’t actually think this through before I asked you to come with me.” Eleni felt kind of bad. “See that guy right there in the middle of the group?”
“Let me guess. Gym teacher man?”
“Yes. His name is Mateo Canjillon.”
“Hmm. And those p
eople are your coworkers?”
“Lower grades, yes. We have three teachers for each grade kindergarten through third. I teach second grade.” Eleni could see her fellow second grade staffers and the two aides that floated throughout the lower grades all whispering to each other. She got a few waves from her coworkers, but mostly they were staring at Orion as though they were super confused as to why he was there with Eleni. “See, they know I’m single. And they’ve also probably been told by Mateo that the two of us were coming to this party together.”
“Why would he tell them that?” Orion sounded incensed. He suddenly took her hands. In the background, someone was playing a song about Santa Baby. Orion twirled Eleni around in a little circle. “You can come to a party with anyone you want to. And pardon me for being rude, but that guy doesn’t look like the guy for you.”
“Why is that?”
She should have stopped him from dancing right there in middle of the gym with everyone watching, but you didn’t really argue with Orion King. It just wasn’t done. And besides, it wasn’t like Orion danced very often these days. When they were in school, sure. He was one of the most sought-after boys in their grade. But not now.
“He has no neck.”
Eleni tried to hang onto the laugh threatening to burst right out of her throat, but it was impossible. The sound exploded from her lungs and echoed throughout the room. She barely managed to choke it off with a giggle. And then she pretty much realized that Orion was laughing and smiling too and that the two of them probably looked like complete weirdos as they danced and spun around like kids.
“No neck?” Eleni smiled at Orion. “And do you have a neck? Because I seem to recall you being pretty darned muscular in school. Maybe that guy is just in better shape than you are. You’re spending all that time working out with a pencil and a keyboard, you know?”
Billion Dollar Wolves: Boxset Bks 1-5 Page 105
