by Cara Adams
It was Cornelian who spoke first. “Wolves, coyotes, dogs, foxes, they’re all distinct animals and there are always people who think they’re better than everyone else. Just as in the past, some people have thought blond hair and blue eyes are better than brown hair and brown eyes, so, too, various shape-shifters have considered wolves much better than foxes or coyotes. Yet foxes are very nearly as big as wolves, and speaking in generalizations, they tend to be very smart indeed. My guess is that’s why there is trouble between the species. Wolves like to be dominant and don’t like the idea of such a close species being smarter than we are.”
“So there’s no reason behind it? No ban on wolves mating with foxes?” asked Kyan, almost crossing his fingers with hope.
“Not as far as I know. Jasper has permission for females of other species to attend the party, not just humans and wolves. Let me check.”
Kyan watched as Cornelian pulled his cell phone from his pocket and tapped out a message.
“While we’re waiting for a reply, let’s put some thought into what a male wolf needs to know about a female and what a human female needs to know about men who aren’t used to having a lot of women around them,” said Taige.
* * * *
Bianca had enjoyed her day at the craft market. She’d made some good sales and the sweet sixteen order was very exciting indeed. If she had something like that every few weeks, her financial worries would disappear quite quickly. It would be enough money to pay the higher rent in a nicer neighborhood.
Of course, having to tell Kyan and Aragon she could never date them had hurt. She liked them, but it was rude and cruel to lead them on when there could never be any hope of them forming a relationship. She was destined to be single. No human man would accept a shape-shifter like her, and she’d never met a male red fox, so that was the end of any hopes of a family. But with her craft, she could support herself.
She was just about to climb into bed when her cell phone rang. Bianca was surprised to see Taige’s name come up. “Hi, Taige? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong. Eve and Ginnie and I’ve been planning a party. We heard today that you know about shape-shifters, so we’d like you to help us with the planning. We were already going to ask you to make some of the table decorations, like you did for our wedding, but now we can talk about all sorts of things. What time do you finish work during the week? Perhaps we could meet up one night.”
“Most nights I work on making things, but one night out wouldn’t hurt. I finish at five thirty. I could be at the schoolhouse by six.”
“Awesome. How about Wednesday then? Morgan is a wonderful cook. Likely Eve can get him to make some food for us and we’ll work through the mealtime. If you can craft while you talk, bring your work with you.”
“Okay, thanks.”
Bianca stared at her cell phone. Kyan or Aragon had evidently told the women she was a fox. Instead of looking down on her they were including her in their planning for some party or other. Likely that was because they were human and not yet fully committed to wolf ways of thinking. She hoped their menfolk wouldn’t be cross with them. But Taige was mated to the Alpha of the pack, so again, perhaps she could act quite freely. Bianca’d never lived with a pack, but she had heard a little from her family.
Her father had been born into a pack, but it had been very small and had disbanded when he was still a child. Her father’s childish understanding had been that that the men in the pack had argued about most things, making it unviable to do anything as a group. Her father had been comparatively old when he’d met her mother. They’d mated almost immediately, thrilled to have found another red fox. But she’d been their only child, even though foxes generally had several cubs in a litter.
Bianca’s own Internet research told her that foxes often lived in small family groups rather than packs, which could be why she’d never found any other foxes. Or maybe they were just plain rare. Jasper’s pack had a shortage of females, she knew. If there was a genetic tendency for males to predominate, that would mean packs would gradually get smaller and smaller, or at the very least, not increase in size.
It would be good to talk about shape-shifter things with the women. Bianca’d had to keep silent about that side of her for a very long time. Planning a party would be fun, but speaking freely about her secrets would be even better.
* * * *
Aragon was standing knee-deep in mud in a drainage ditch, trying to unblock the grating when his cell phone rang. Cursing madly, he dropped his shovel and wiped his right hand on the seat of his jeans. They were so muddy it didn’t help much, so, grimacing, he rubbed the hand across his shirt front, before snatching his phone out of his pocket.
“Yeah,” he said.
“How would you like to be seconded to planning and carrying out the mating party for the next few months? You’ll have to stick with the team until the event is over and everyone has been debriefed. So it’s a commitment for several months,” said Cornelian.
“Suits me. Likely it’ll take me that long to get my boots clean again after today.”
“That drain badly blocked, is it?” Aragon could hear the laugh in Cornelian’s tone.
“Yeah, yeah, very funny. I’m up to my armpits in mud here,” he exaggerated.
“The first meeting will be at Wolf Central at nine tomorrow, so I hope you’ve got a second pair of boots. A clean pair,” teased Cornelian, before clicking off the phone.
Aragon was left staring at his blank screen. “That soon?” Then what Cornelian had said sifted into his brain a bit more firmly. “Wolf Central?” Wolf Central was the name the wolves had given the headquarters of the pack which lived in town. It was a smaller pack than theirs, but very powerful. Almost all the wolves in that pack lived and worked in a big building. The first two floors were all sorts of different stores, then came floors of offices, and finally apartments. The tenth floor was tightly security coded and not even all the wolves could get there. It had an all-weather running track around the outside of the building, on a sort of balcony, a lap swimming pool, a well-equipped gym, and an obstacle course designed to keep wolves fit. It was the envy of most wolves from other packs, even though very few of them had even seen it.
Aragon himself had never even been inside the building before, although he had occasionally spoken to Josie, the receptionist on the phone. Well, she was far more than a receptionist. She knew everything that was happening in the shape-shifter world, and then some. The thought of actually going inside the building was both terrifying and exciting simultaneously.
Aragon put his cell phone back in his pocket and picked up his shovel. With renewed vigor he chopped viciously at the tangle of weeds blocking the grating of the drain. Finally he was able to lever the blade of his shovel under the grating and lift it up at one end. He rested the grating on the handle of his shovel, bent down and gripped the grating in both hands, then heaved. On his second try he moved it a few inches, and on the third try he was able to free it from the plants and rest it on its side out of the way. Now he could chop all the caught grasses and twigs up and clean the area. Five minutes later the water started to flow and the muddy slush around his knees had dropped to calf-level. He cleaned and replaced the grating, then stomped on it to ensure it was firmly back in place, then shouldered his shovel and climbed out of the ditch.
Now he could think about his new task. Planning the mating party. He’d never planned a party of any kind before. Some shape-shifters had twenty-first birthday parties, but he’d just gone out to dinner with a handful of his closest friends. So his party planning skills were an absolute zero. Oh well, he had plenty of muscles. He could always act as a security guard or shift furniture he supposed.
If only he and Kyan could convince Bianca to attend the party and to turn to them. Surely they could. She had to listen to those who said being a fox was no big deal. But perhaps she’d been hurt, rejected, in the past for being a fox. He hadn’t thought of that before. Well, he and Kyan could p
rove to her they’d never reject her and never intentionally hurt her either. At least with the help of the three human women he could learn more about being a good lover for her, someone who knew how to show her how important and special she was to him.
He returned the shovel to the equipment barn, then stood in his backyard and looked at his jeans and boots. Groaning at the mud starting to dry on him, he stripped and hung his jeans over the rail of his porch, leaving his boots, socks and shirt there, too. Wearing nothing but his boxers, he padded inside, still managing to leave filthy footprints on the tiles of his kitchen floor.
With luck the mud would dry and he could brush it off his clothes, which would make washing them easier. Right after he washed himself, and then his floor, then he’d better sit down and think up some intelligent questions and comments for this meeting tomorrow. He didn’t want to look like a total idiot at the meeting.
* * * *
“Kyan and Aragon, Jasper, whose idea this mating party was, has asked me to coordinate all the arrangements for it, but it’s the three human women, Taige, Eve, and Ginnie, who are vital to its success. If the event doesn’t attract women, it’s going to be a waste of time,” Cornelian said as the three of them traveled into town for the meeting.
Kyan nodded. As a paramedic he supposed he’d need to be on hand for the entire week in case some fights broke out or people twisted a foot dancing or something. He suspected he’d spend most of the time dead bored and wishing he could be devoting himself to Bianca. If they could even convince her to give them a second chance. She had to agree. She had to. She was theirs. She just didn’t know it yet.
“I think we need to make that our key priority. It’ll be much too easy to get sidetracked by the physical arrangements of room decoration, or even where we’re going to hold the event, instead of being intentional about making it a success by means of having the right people attend. I’m relying on both of you to keep the conversation focused on the essentials. We can allocate individuals set tasks to investigate all the jobs that need to be done, but our group thinking needs to focus on how we’ll find the right people to invite and keep them safe when they come.”
“Me? I’m just there to be some muscle, aren’t I? I’m not a paramedic, or Jasper’s right-hand man. I know nothing about planning parties or even about women. How can I help except by doing the manual labor?” asked Aragon.
Kyan shook his head. “Aragon, don’t run yourself down. You and I are the kind of people this party is targeted at. We want to mate a woman, beautiful Bianca, but so far we haven’t been very good at it. My guess is they need people like us to help them plan because our needs and desires will be similar to those of most other wolves.”
“Exactly.” Cornelian concentrated on threading his way through the rush-hour traffic, before pulling up at the entrance to the basement parking lot at Wolf Central.
“Head down to level three. There’s plenty of vacant spaces by the back wall.”
“Thanks.”
Kyan had been here before, but he really hadn’t appreciated how big the place was. Three levels of parking. He was glad he was with Cornelian, who would know where they were supposed to go. All he knew was how to get to reception. The elevators didn’t let visitors get out on most of the floors. A lot of the building was private. The Alpha of this pack had excellent security, possibly because they were in the center of town.
They parked against the far wall as instructed, then took the elevator up to the reception level, which was above the two levels of stores, so was technically the third floor he supposed. As soon as they stepped off the elevator Kyan’s gaze was caught by the most amazing wall hanging on the opposite wall. It was a volcano, predominantly in blacks, reds, and greens, but even as he stared at it he caught a glimpse of other things woven into the picture. A tiny blue bird up near the top, a face against the far right side.
“Is that one of Eve’s wall hangings? It’s brilliant.” Forgetting where he was, Kyan crossed the foyer and stood at the foot of the picture, staring. “The more I look at it, the more I can see in it.”
“Brilliant is exactly the correct word. I’ve never known such an incredibly talented weaver as Eve.”
Kyan almost jumped at the voice so close beside him, when he hadn’t noticed footsteps. He looked up and saw an attractive woman with long, curly brown hair, dark brown eyes, and a determined chin. He knew she was a very strong person, a woman who could terrify big, tough wolves, so he bowed his head and said, “Good morning, Josie,” in his most polite voice.
“Kyan, isn’t it? You’re a paramedic. We’ve met before.”
So not just a strong personality, but also a mighty sharp brain. He’d only ever been here twice before and neither time was particularly recent.
“Hey there, Cornelian. And you must be Aragon. Nice to meet you. We’re on the fourth floor in the large meeting room. Come on.”
Josie led the way up the stairs and Kyan followed her along with Cornelian and Aragon. He wondered who else would be there. Representatives from the several other packs involved he supposed.
The meeting room had a long oval table in it, with bottled water, a notepad, and a pen in front of each of the twenty chairs. Josie took the one at the head of the table. Kyan would have been happier lower down the big, polished wood expanse, but Cornelian sat on Josie’s right so he sat beside Cornelian and Aragon took the chair next to him. He supposed it made sense. Their Alpha was the one who’d thought of the idea. Jasper deserved honor and recognition for that. It was just that personally, he’d have preferred to be less conspicuous. Oh well, hopefully everyone would be watching the women once they arrived, not him anyway.
Half a dozen men arrived and moved toward the bottom of the table. They were followed by two more groups of men who filled the sides. When Taige led the women into the room, Kyan nearly fell off his chair. Bianca was with them. But Bianca had a day job. She was a data entry operator and should have been at her work getting ready to spend the day at her keyboard. Had she taken a vacation day just to attend this meeting? Or, a dreadful thought, had her employer terminated her? How would she look after herself if she had no day job? The money she made from her craft wasn’t anywhere near enough to live on.
He was more than happy to support her, and he knew Aragon would be, too, but they weren’t in a position to offer. She’d refused even to share a meal with them. They had a long, long way to go before he had any hope she’d rely on him to help her. Which wasn’t to say he didn’t dream of her in his bed, her red hair spread out on his pillows, her skin all flushed pink from her orgasms, and a smile on her face from satiated happiness. But at this stage it was all a dream. He needed help—they needed help—to know how to convince her to give them a chance to show her their love and devotion.
A tall, dark-haired man with an aura of power entered the room and sat in the only empty chair. Josie gave him a piercing look, then said, “Good morning and welcome, everyone. I’m Josie Smith and I’m the administrator of this pack. I’ll be the contact person for any problems you have. Bianca Phillips has been hired by Jasper Lyall, whose idea this mating party was. She is the person you’ll be contacting when you have questions about the event itself or need to refer suppliers to a contact person. So for anything about the event, you contact Bianca.”
Bianca looked around the table and smiled. Kyan’s dick hardened and grew impossibly long. If only that smile had been for him alone. Or for him and Aragon. She melted his heart when she smiled. At least she wasn’t unemployed. Working for Jasper had to be way better than working on minimum wage for some other place. So that was a relief.
“Today’s meeting will be to set some frameworks in place. You’ll each be given various assignments or ideas to follow up and report back to the next meeting. Time is tight, so if you won’t be able to do what you’re assigned you need to tell Bianca so she can reassign that task.”
Josie looked around the table and Kyan could see steel and ice in her gaze. He might
be a Dom and a male, but there was no way in hell he’d tell Josie he’d failed at any task she set him. He’d do whatever it was or die trying.
“Date, place, guests, program. The dates might vary slightly if we can’t get the venue we want for that precise week, but let’s start. It needs to be before there’s any chance of snow. We don’t want half our expected guests stuck in a blizzard somewhere. State your name before you speak the first time.”
Kyan kept silent as various dates were suggested with mid-September being the most popular. That seemed workable to him. It should give them time to get everything organized and still be before the weather turned really cold. But once people started talking about venues he decided to speak.
“Kyan Marrok. Paramedic from Jasper’s pack. Wherever we hold it, we need to pay close attention to security. There’s no sense in us vetting all the attendees carefully if the hotel or convention center security isn’t top notch, as anyone could come into the party one evening and we’d never know. We need to book out an entire floor of a hotel or at least have sole use of the convention floor, so we can station our security staff at the elevators and the stairs to prevent anyone else accessing our floor.”
“Zedekiah Vukic. Ambassador from this pack. I agree. The packs I’ve been speaking with around the country are very concerned there’ll be a large number of wolves from many packs, very few females, and the women will be frightened and overwhelmed by all the attention. We need to restrict distant packs to sending no more than about four wolves, with perhaps an allowance of extra ones for each female they recommend who completes the registration process and commits to attending. Then we have to police that, with our own security service. I presume we’ll be hiring Harry Harrison’s company? Is there any way we can hire an entire hotel or is that beyond our budget?”
