Finding Their Mate [Wolf Pack Mates 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Cara Adams

  She waved again as she let herself in her front door. He waited a few moments in case she came out again, but she didn’t, so he pulled out from the curb.

  “I think this has been the best day of my life, so far. I hate having to let her go for now.”

  “Yeah, me, too. But since we’re all working together on this project we should have lots more time to show her how much we love her. Next time I’m going to tie you both up and play a scene with you.”

  “That’s fine by me. But right now I guess we ought to think about our homework. We were told to develop a series of hurdles that the would-be attendees have to complete to show they’re genuine about wanting a mate. We’ve already said they need a reference from their Alpha, and they need photo identification to get into the conference. The other thing we talked about was this online workshop about women. They have to have done that and answered the questions. But what else should we suggest?”

  Once again Aragon was feeling a bit lost. His lack of knowledge about women was crippling his thought processes.

  “I can see it’ll be critical to have good security. The whole thing could turn into a total nightmare if a group of males tries to take over the conference or comes to steal the women.”

  “Steal the women?” Aragon’s heart lurched and he took his gaze off the road to look at Kyan for a moment.

  “Well, that’d be the obvious thing to do. Put yourself in the shoes of a group of male wolves who’ve been told they can’t attend the event. Maybe they come from a distant pack or maybe they’ve been refused admission for being too aggressive or not willing to guarantee they’ll treat the women right. So what do they do? Get hold of some weapons, wait until everyone is at a party, then attack and steal the women. I just hope the security people can figure out how to prevent it.”

  Aragon felt sick. It would be so easy, yet so terrible. The pack would be decimated, no one would ever trust Jasper again, and worst of all, Bianca might be hurt or taken. “We really need to make security a very high priority. Meanwhile, you mentioned two things that should be included as hurdles for prospective attendees—making sure they’re not too aggressive, and that they’re committed to treating the women right. But how do we test them on that?”

  * * * *

  For the next week Bianca spent most of her time at the old school house working on origami projects while her brain worried away at various details about the DADISP. She kept her laptop beside her, updating her various files as people sent messages to her new business cell phone, or called to ask her questions.

  This particular afternoon the craft was put aside as she and the other women were looking at various conference centers and hotels that had been suggested as potential venues. Each suggestion had some really good features. One hotel had a wonderful swimming pool and gymnasium area that would be a good place for all the males to exercise away some of their excess testosterone. Another one had an entire ground level suite of stores, selling souvenirs, clothing, a beauty salon, several alternative dining areas, and more. A third one was opposite a city park with a running track and gardens which would pleasurably entertain both men and women.

  “All of these are great, but none of them is quite right. Any of these facilities would be really good, the guests would love them, but these places will be almost impossible to protect against any attempt by a group of wolves to hijack the party. It’d take an enormous security team to guard all the entrances and exits, and even then the bad guys could book into the hotel as regular guests and therefore have a legitimate reason to be there. That’s not going to work,” said Bianca. She rubbed her hands through her hair then wiggled her shoulders to loosen the tension in her stiff muscles.

  “I’m beginning to think we need to opt for a much smaller venue. One where we can book out the entire conference center so we’re the only guests on the premises. All the workers will have their own photo ID and our guests will also have photo ID so it will be easy to see who doesn’t belong. Only problem is, we then have all those male wolves in a confined area with likely nothing to do,” said Taige.

  “Unless we organize things ourselves,” said Ginnie thoughtfully.

  “We’ve already talked about having some things like a shopping tour for the women, and golf or tenpin bowling for the men, and a walking tour of interesting historical buildings, or to a scenic area. We could plan those without too much difficulty, but it’s not a lot of events for a full week’s program, even if we ran some of them twice on different days, for people who weren’t available the first time,” said Bianca.

  “So what we need is a smallish conference center that has its own bar and restaurant, plus a gym, or swimming pool, or tennis courts, or even just beautiful gardens.” As usual, Eve had expressed the problem neatly and logically.

  “I’m just not too sure how to Google that,” said Bianca.

  “Of course we can do it,” said Ginnie. Taige and Eve laughed, which in turn made Bianca smile. She loved the way they took problems and made them into some kind of joint challenge.

  * * * *

  “I got a text from Bianca suggesting we concentrate on looking for a smallish conference center where we could hire the entire building for the week. She said the women thought of the idea and contacted Harry Harrison who was much happier with that suggestion from a security point of view, too. What say you and I try to find something that fits the criteria, then suggest we visit there with her?” suggested Kyan.

  “I got that text as well, and I like that idea, but I doubt I’ll be any help at all. I know nothing about hotels or conference centers or anything like that,” replied Aragon.

  “Hey, we’re both male wolves and we should be able to look at the venue from that point of view perfectly. Has it got the kind of attractions we’d be looking for? We can leave it to Bianca to take care of the women’s side.”

  “Well, all right then. So how do we start? With Dr. Google?”

  “Sort of. I was going to look at the tourist information for this general area.”

  “Sounds good.”

  Kyan was glad to know Aragon agreed. He kept thinking everything shouldn’t be too hard, yet potential difficulties kept raising their heads all the time. It should have been so simple to get Bianca to agree to mate with them. She obviously liked them both and had happily spent time with them. They’d even finally gotten her into bed and fucked her brains out. But still she was holding back from them. He wanted—needed—her to be tightly bound to them before this party began and some other wolves tried to catch her attention. But so far, getting her to advance from liking to loving wasn’t happening.

  If they could spend more days with her, showing her they’d love and cherish her, that she’d be treasured and treated right, as well as loved, likely that should give her the reassurance she needed. He hoped. Prayed.

  Kyan settled in front of the computer and clicked through link after link, looking for a small conference center that would be worth visiting. Aragon pulled up a chair next to him, and he moved a bit to the side so Aragon could see the screen properly as well.

  “How many people do they think will come?” asked Aragon.

  “The women have suggested the number be tied to the number of women who pass through the registration stage. So men will register and be approved then be numbered in order from when they complete the registration process. Each time a woman meets the registration requirements another three men will be accepted. That way there won’t be a thousand males and a handful of women.”

  “That sounds good, but I thought someone said something about if your pack got a woman to join you could have two more men?”

  “That was Zedekiah Vukic, the Wolf Central Alpha’s son. I think that’s only where a pack specifically finds and invites a woman, not for someone dozens of people know about. Just for a completely new face. Or that’s the way I understood it anyway.”

  “That’s one hell of a scary man. I’ve never sensed such an aura of power and authority in anyone
before,” said Aragon.

  “Yeah, takes after his father for sure. I’ve never met the Alpha of that pack, but from what I’ve heard, I never want to either. They say he’s fiercely intelligent and just plain fierce with it.”

  Kyan concentrated on clicking on more links, but venue after venue was unsuitable. Some only had accommodation for around one hundred people, and Bianca had suggested they needed to work on at least twice that as a guesswork sort of figure for number of attendees. Others were too big and still others very expensive. Guests were expected to pay a premium for their privacy. All of which was fine, but not helpful to them.

  “How about these two?” Aragon pointed at the screen. One was on the fringes of the town, with cabins spread among the trees, which would give people a sense of privacy. Providing the entire property was able to be secure, of course. But that open land would also be good for the wolves to exercise in. It catered for two hundred, which they were thinking was likely to be a fairly reasonable number. Although guest numbers were highly fluid. But two hundred to two fifty was the number Bianca was working on from the interest various packs had shown in attending the event.

  “That one looks good as long as the property boundaries could be patrolled adequately. That would have to be the first thing we checked when we went to look at it,” agreed Kyan. Then he clicked the link to the other one Aragon was pointing at.

  The second place was the usual hotel setup. One building with rooms for guests on half a dozen floors, a ball room and some meeting rooms on the first floor and a rooftop swimming pool. “No mention of a gym or stores, though,” he said.

  “I know. But it’s not far from the center of town, so people could easily access any entertainment they wanted. I suppose that’s not as good as keeping them onsite,” said Aragon, chewing his lower lip.

  Kyan smiled at Aragon. His friend was always ready to doubt himself, which was crazy, as his ideas were quite sound. “Likely they’d have spare rooms available for these workshops that the women want to run during the day, though. The other place only has the two big meeting rooms so we’d have to be shifting the furniture around a fair bit.”

  “Perhaps we should keep looking for something better, though.”

  Kyan went back to the original tourist information page, and once again they clicked on all the links, even ones that were more camping sites than hotels or conference centers. Finally he said, “Right now, I think these are the only two possibilities. Let’s see if Bianca will come look at them with us tomorrow.”

  “Or the next day, if she’s already busy tomorrow. Any day suits me fine,” said Aragon.

  “Just so we can be with her. That woman is in my blood, in my soul. I hate not being with her,” muttered Kyan.

  “Yeah. I’m the same.

  Kyan pulled out his cell phone and rang Bianca’s DADISP number.

  “Hi there, Bianca. Aragon and I have been checking the web and there are two conference centers that we think are possibilities. Are you free to come out and look at them tomorrow?”

  He held his breath, waiting for her reply. Like Aragon said, the next day would be just as good, but suddenly he couldn’t wait that long to see her again. To sit beside her in the car, maybe touch her, kiss her. Hell. He wanted to fuck her again. It was no use denying it. His emotions were bound up in her luscious body.

  Chapter Four

  Aragon was so tense waiting for Bianca’s reply that his bones hurt. Kyan had hit the speaker button on his cell phone so Aragon could hear what she said, too. Kyan was always so thoughtful like that. As the Dom, and by far the most Dominant partner in their little group, he could easily have made the decisions and done things his way for himself, without including Aragon. Yet Kyan always considered him, always treated him equally, was always thoughtful and generous. Aragon was looking forward to the BDSM scene he’d been promised. He longed to be punished thoroughly and to be fulfilled completely in that release. To be punished side by side with Bianca, to watch her, to see her responses, would be pure joy to him.

  But right now all he could think about was the possibility of spending another day with Bianca. Okay, so they had work to do, but simply being beside her, able to watch her beautiful face, to see how her eyes sparkled when she was happy and how her forehead creased with little lines across it when she was thinking, would be pure joy for him.

  “Thanks for doing that research. It’s a great help. Give me the contact names and numbers and I’ll call and see if we can meet with the relevant person and be shown around tomorrow. I’ll text you with the answers when I have them.”

  I hadn’t thought of that. Of course it’ll depend on the conference center manager being available. I know so little about this kind of thing. I’m totally useless here.

  While Kyan recited the details to Bianca, Aragon again wondered what he could usefully do on this planning committee. Seriously, he knew nothing about conferences, or about women. The best he could offer was his strong arms to carry things, and his physical presence as support for Bianca in her meetings. Certainly he’d protect her. No one would be mean to her while he had breath in his body, he’d make sure of that. But as for intellectual input or ideas being generated, he was not likely to be of help at all.

  “I don’t understand why Jasper asked me to work on this committee. I feel like there’s nothing useful I can do.”

  “You put yourself down unnecessarily. They have to please male wolves and that’s us. But also Jasper is a hell of a smart man. I reckon he sent us along to look after Bianca. He knows we want her and this proves that he agrees with us loving her.”

  “Do you really think so? That he wants us to win her love?”

  “Absolutely. No question of it.”

  Aragon drew in a deep breath. His Alpha supported him in his love. His Alpha wanted Bianca to choose Kyan and him. His Alpha had rearranged the work schedules so they could be with Bianca. “Wow. That’s wonderful. With Jasper’s support how can we not win her love, especially with Taige, Eve, and Ginnie to teach us about women?”

  “And we’ll make very sure we’re the first men to do that ‘Women 101’ training session as well. We’ll road test it before the women send it out to wolves who want to register. That way even if we have to do the test a couple of times we’ll still be right at the head of the line.”

  “We’re all supposed to be listing ways of finding women used to shape-shifters as well. The more women we find, the more successful the event will be. But here I’m back with my same old problem. I don’t really know very many women,” said Aragon.

  “I don’t either. But we don’t need to know them personally, just how to locate them. I expect the shape-shifter clinic would have contact with many shape-shifter groups. Likely they’d be the best ones to know of human or other species of women interested in finding a mate.”

  Aragon nodded. That made sense. Bianca was already in contact with the clinic, though. “The young people at the pack-owned apartment, the ones studying at college, might also know some younger, non-wolf women. They might be underage of course, but it’s a possible avenue to check I guess.”

  “Hey, that’s a good idea. I hadn’t thought of that. Well done. Make sure you tell Bianca about them.”

  Just then Kyan’s cell phone rang. Aragon watched while Kyan hit speaker as he answered it. It was Bianca and he couldn’t help but smile as soon as he heard her voice.

  “That’s all good. We’re booked to see the manager of Harringway Hotel at ten, and then the owner of Konference Kabins at twelve.”

  “Good. We’ll pick you up at nine thirty then, shall we?”

  “Thanks. That sounds good.”

  Aragon forced himself to speak. “And afterward we’ll take you out for lunch. We can check out some more conference possibilities if you like, or just go somewhere and relax and eat.”

  “Lunch sounds lovely, thanks. I’ll check all my lists and let you know where we need to go, tomorrow. See you then.”

  “Bye,”
he said as Kyan also said good-bye. Aragon couldn’t wait. He knew Kyan wanted to plan a BDSM scene but there was no way of knowing if she’d agree to that. But never mind. He was going to see her again. To spend time with her. Maybe even be of use to her, to demonstrate his love for her in some practical way. Aragon determined to memorize every detail of these two venues to be as helpful as he could possibly be for the woman he loved. The beautiful, talented, and sexy Bianca.

  * * * *

  No matter how much she told herself nothing could become of her friendship with two wolves, that it simply couldn’t last, that they’d get tired of, or repulsed by a fox, Bianca couldn’t prevent the shivers of happiness that tingled up and down her spine at the thought of spending the morning with Aragon and Kyan.

  Of course they’d be working. Finding a venue was becoming increasingly important. No plans could be finalized about anything at all until the venue was booked. But they’d still be spending time together, and being surrounded by hot, hard males, especially two who were so sweet and caring, could never be bad.

  Bianca had Googled both places and liked the look of them. But there was the problem of what people would do when they weren’t attending workshops or parties. “I need some more ideas about daytime activities. Something both males and females will enjoy doing and that they can do in groups. Or perhaps teams. Teams. Hmm.”

  What if each person attending the conference had to include in their registration one unusual fact about themselves? Something they couldn’t just guess, like where they lived being guessed from their accent. But something that might be a conversation starter. Then anyone who played the game had to collect these unusual facts. This would encourage people to meet each other and start talking.