“No way, no how,” Eileen said fervently. “I’ve seen how he is about you. When you’re not around, he’s always talking you up and bragging about you. I mean, there’s also the complaining about what a hard time you give him, but it’s an affectionate kind of complaining. He’s crazy about you.”
“So why is he suddenly being weird?”
“Whatever has made him hard and closed off like this isn’t going to heal overnight. You remember how Marcus was when I first met him. He alternated between being a sweetheart and an ass. Be patient. Give it a little time,” Eileen said. She glanced around. “While watching your back.”
“What, exactly, would I be watching for?”
“Attempts on your life.” Eileen’s brow puckered in a frown. “I could stay here with you, if you want.”
“No, your mate needs you.” Marcus was a grumpy, antisocial shifter who really depended on Eileen to keep him from going feral. Literally. He’d been well on his way to giving in to his inner beast when he met Eileen, and without her, odds were he would have been the subject of a kill order by the Council for Shifter Affairs, sooner rather than later. “And Morgan is here. I’ll be fine.”
Honoria poked her head through the doorway. “Are you guys deaf? Camden and Festus are beating each other up on the front lawn,” she called out. “Does anyone care?’
“I certainly don’t,” Eileen said. She glanced at Valerie and shrugged. “What? I’ve just met them today and I can already tell they’re a couple of big stupid asshats.”
“I’ll go get Morgan,” Honoria said, and she dashed upstairs.
“Let’s go see what the asshats are up to,” Valerie said. She went to the coat closet, grabbed her coat and headed out the front door, with Eileen following her.
Camden and Festus were in wolf form, and they were lunging and viciously tearing into each other.
Their mother stood on the front steps, watching with a small smile of satisfaction curling her lips. Hud and CoraBelle and Boothe were there as well, looking bored and sipping cocktails. One of their servants was standing next to them holding a cocktail tray.
“You should stop them. They’re bleeding,” Valerie said to Elmira with alarm.
She shrugged. “Nonsense. That’s just how wolf shifters tussle.”
“Not really,” Eileen said, shaking her head. “Speaking as a wolf shifter, that isn’t a casual play-fight. That’s pretty serious.”
Festus’ flank was dark with matted blood, and he was hanging on to his brother’s leg with vicious determination, jaws clamped shut. Drops of blood spattered red on the white snowy ground.
“Why are they fighting?” Valerie asked.
Elmira shrugged. “Not really your concern,” she said dismissively. “You don’t understand our ways.”
“Your Alpha’s mate asked you a question. Show her some respect,” Eileen snapped at Elmira. As a shifter, she was more aware of pack politics than Valerie – and Elmira knew that.
A flash of petulant anger crossed Elmira’s face, but it was instantly replaced by obsequious fawning.
“Of course,” she said in a wheedling voice. “It’s simply that Camden has been insulting Festus and saying that he could never be Alpha even if Morgan were disqualified, and I simply pointed out to Festus that a real wolf would never tolerate that kind of talk.”
Nelda walked down the steps as Elmira was speaking, accompanied by Honoria and Homer.
“You started the fight?” Valerie was shocked. Why would a mother want to see her sons bleeding? The two literally looked as if they might kill each other.
“There is no place in the pack for weaklings. This is how they stay sharp,” Elmira said. “Only the strong and worthy survive.” She shot a smug glance at Nelda, who let out a low growl of anger. Homer and Honoria blinked and looked away; Valerie could have sworn she saw tears in their eyes.
“Watch yourself,” Nelda snarled.
“I’m just being honest.” Elmira smirked and turned her attention back to her two sons.
Hud and CoraBelle exchanged glances of lofty superiority. “How common,” Hud said to CoraBelle.
“Yes, you’d never allow that kind of behavior,” she agreed, shooting a look of contempt at the battling brothers.
They were interrupted by a snarl of fury. Morgan came barreling through the door out into the snow in wolf form, big as a pony. He shot past them all, hurling himself into the fray, and knocked the two of them apart.
They went flying and lay in the snow, whimpering and snarling.
Morgan turned human again, standing there in the snow, fists balled. Stark naked. Valerie tried not to look at his perfect butt, but it was impossible to look away.
“You idiots!” he yelled. “This is how you behave at my house? Go back to your rooms and stay there until you heal, and I’d better not see you two fighting again. You’re packmates and brothers, and you should be standing together, not trying to kill each other. I don’t care what poisonous garbage your mother has been feeding you.”
Festus reared his shaggy head in anger at the insult to his mother, and dared to let out a low growl at Morgan. Morgan shifted again and charged at him, sending him rolling end over end. Then he reached out his mighty paw and smacked Festus on the head with it. Festus ended up lying on his back, waving his paws in the air and whimpering in submission.
Valerie saw Festus glance at his mother, who stood on the porch, shaking her head in disappointment and disgust.
Festus climbed to his feet and slunk off through the snow, head hanging low in sorrow, leaving a trail of blood behind him. Camden followed, but walked a good twenty feet away, padding through the snow and holding his head up. The fur on his back was high and ridged with anger.
“You sure you’re ready for the position of Alpha’s mate?” Nelda said, with a look of fake concern at Valerie’s pale face. “You seem a mite peaked, dear.”
Chapter Thirteen
The cell phone connection was crackly, and Valerie felt a sharp stab of loneliness as she spoke to her grandmother. She was sitting in Morgan’s enormous living room all by herself, and her grandparents were in upstate New York, a thousand miles away.
“So everything is all right?” Gam-gam asked her for the millionth time.
“Of course. Why wouldn’t it be?” Valerie lied through her teeth.
“I don’t know. You just sound kind of down.” Gam-gam’s tone became indignant. “I hope that boss of yours isn’t working you too hard. It’s Christmas, for heaven’s sake. Is he making you work too much? Do I need to come up there and give him a piece of my mind? I’ll wallop him with my rolling pin, that’s what I’ll do.” She was working herself up into a snit.
Valerie couldn’t help but smile at the thought of her four-foot-ten human grandma lighting into a wolf shifter almost two feet taller than her. She’d do it, too.
Then she glanced up toward the second floor, where Morgan was locked away in his home office, working, and her smile faded.
“No, he’s being quite reasonable,” she said.
“All right, if you say so,” her grandmother said, mollified. “I do wish we could come out there. I can’t believe we have to miss seeing you on Christmas. It’s just all this work we’re getting now…”
“No, no, I’m delighted that you have so much work coming in.”
With the infusion of cash from their new “business partner”, her grandparents had purchased a fancy new embroidery machine, and they were swamped with last-minute Christmas orders. They were putting in long hours, making bucketsful of money, and well on their way back to being financially solvent.
And besides, if they were to visit right now, she’d have to lie to them and pretend she was really mated with Morgan. Right now, they didn’t even know about this rather important, and completely fictional, development in her life.
“I’ll talk to you soon, and don’t worry about me. Everything’s perfectly quiet around here,” Valerie said to her grandmother.
S
he was telling the truth.
That was the problem.
Ever since they’d come back from their three-day jaunt, things had been painfully awkward between Valerie and Morgan.
Morgan was being annoyingly polite and formal. He and Valerie slept in different beds in his suite of rooms. The two of them went into work together early every morning and stayed late, to avoid family awkwardness – but they rode silently in the car together, and once they got to work, Morgan spent most of the day on the job site or locked in his office.
It was enough to make Valerie miss the days of shouted curses, threats of firing, and hurled pieces of furniture.
It wasn’t just Morgan who was acting strangely. The closer they got to Christmas, the further Nelda and her children retreated into themselves. Honoria and Homer were getting quiet and sad, and Nelda and Elmira looked at each other with barely concealed loathing and only communicated through their servants.
Valerie heaved a sigh. Enough wallowing in self-pity. She had an invitation from the Ladies Benevolent Society to deliver.
She went to the kitchen, where she’d seen Nelda head a few minutes earlier.
As she walked in, she saw Nelda standing by the big eight-burner gas oven, shoulders hunched, talking on her cell phone.
“There must be some loophole. No, I don’t know if she’s infertile, but I’ve got no reason to think so, unfortunately. Well, keep looking. We’ve got to find something,” she was saying in low, urgent tones. But not low enough.
Valerie let the kitchen door shut with a bang. Nelda started, then turned to face her.
“Oh, there you are,” she said to Valerie, quickly hanging up and stuffing her cell phone in her pink quilted Coach purse.
“Yes, here I am.” Valerie favored Nelda with a pleasant smile that said that Nelda wasn’t fooling her at all. “I got a call a little while ago saying that the Ladies Benevolent Society wants to hold an appreciation dinner in your honor tomorrow. They said that you purchased a whole bunch of decorations yourself, and you sent in a rush delivery of new overcoats and winter boots to everyone in the shanty town. That was kind of you.” She looked at Nelda suspiciously. What was her angle, anyhow? It was unlikely she was trying to win the humans over. For that to be her goal, Nelda would actually have to care what they thought.
“That wasn’t kindness; it was desperation,” Nelda said indignantly. “Their decorations were hideous, and we couldn’t make enough nice ones ourselves in the time we had. And as for their clothing, they show no signs of wanting to bring in a decent tailor or cobbler, and I couldn’t bear to look at their shabbiness any longer. I have delicate sensibilities, and it was giving me a headache.”
Ah, of course.
“Well, anyway, they’ve invited you and all of your family to dinner at the rec center tomorrow.”
“The whole family?” she exclaimed in dismay. “I really don’t know that I can tolerate Elmira and her flea-bitten hoodlum offspring right now.”
What about CoraBelle and Hud? Valerie wondered.
“You can sit at separate tables, but I think that everyone should go,” Valerie said. “It would be considered a gesture of goodwill. Morgan’s hotels are located in human territory, so it doesn’t hurt to foster good relations with them.”
Nelda made a face of distaste. “Fine. I’d better be seated far away from Elmira,” she said grudgingly, pursing her lips. “And I’m taking my own silverware.” She turned and stalked off.
“Don’t forget your fingerbowl,” Valerie called out after her.
“Well, obviously,” Nelda said, pausing for long enough to flick a look of disbelief at her.
* * * * *
Valerie had to admit, Nelda had done an amazing job with the decorations. The rec center consisted of two old trailers connected by a hallway, but somehow, under Nelda’s touch, the interior had been transformed from sad and dingy into cheery and homey-looking. It was festooned with wreaths and garlands of evergreen boughs, adorned with red ornaments that looked like holly berries. Nelda had even purchased curtains, white and embroidered with holly leaves. Each table was laid out with elaborate Christmas-themed tablescapes, and pine-scented candles perfumed the air with their wintry fragrance.
“Very nice,” Valerie said, nodding approvingly as she looked around the room.
“Isn’t it lovely?” gushed Maria Lopes, the president of the Benevolent Society. She was walking around with her husband, Jesus, carrying trays of cocktails. She held one out to Nelda, who shook her head. Maria nodded, and she and her husband moved off through the crowd. There were dozens of people there, from both the Benevolent Society and the shanty town.
“Bit understated, isn’t it?” CoraBelle said to her husband.
“Dear, if we’re going by your makeup, you’d consider the Whore of Babylon understated,” Nelda said coolly. “And don’t get me started on your perfume.”
Morgan exchanged an amused glance with Valerie, who covered her mouth to hide her smile.
“Well I never,” CoraBelle snapped, eyes sparking with anger. She and her husband stalked off to their table.
“I’m going to go grab some appetizers,” Morgan said to Valerie, and he headed off into the crowd.
Great. Valerie was stuck with Nelda. Not awkward at all.
Maria set down her tray of cocktails, and her husband seized her hand. The two of them drifted through the crowd together, chatting with the partygoers and each other, looking like teenagers on their first date.
“Aren’t they adorable? Married thirty years,” Valerie said with a sigh of envy. What must it feel like to be so in love after all that time?”
“It’s embarrassing, is what it is. Completely undignified,” Nelda snapped. She glanced off to the right, and Valerie followed her gaze. Arthur.
Hmm. Good looking guy for his age. Pack member. Single. Seemed to spend a lot of time hovering around wherever Nelda was.
“Nelda, have you ever considered dating?” Valerie asked.
“Dating?” Nelda looked at her as if she’d asked if Nelda had ever considered street-corner prostitution.
Great. A mortally offended Nelda. “I mean, you’re stunning, you’re stylish, you’re single…why not?” Valerie said hastily. All of that was true, and a great way to take the wind out of Nelda’s sails before she could go off on a tirade.
Before Nelda could answer, Teddy walked up and began pulling sharply on her coat. “Stop that,” Nelda said, yanking her coat away.
“Where were you all week? Will you read me a story? Where’s my Christmas present?” she asked her.
Nelda looked down at her with annoyance. “Where’s my Christmas present?” she asked sharply.
Teddy looked surprised, blinked hard, and turned and walked away without a word. That was a first for Teddy.
Valerie scowled at Nelda. “You know, that is a child with actual feelings, who for some reason I absolutely do not understand looks up to you, and you were just rude to her. Sometimes you’re a lot like your son, and that isn’t a compliment at this moment,” she said, and hurried after Teddy.
Teddy headed outside the rec center, down the steps, and over to the covered pavilion, where her mother stood, drinking something steamy from a mug. Valerie could smell the alcohol fumes as she got closer to her.
Valerie quickly dug in her purse and came up with…a pen and notepad. Best she could do. She handed them to Teddy. “These are from Nelda, but she wanted it to be a surprise,” she said. “Don’t say anything to her; she’ll just be embarrassed.”
Teddy looked delighted. She hurried off toward a group of kids who were making a snowman, waving the notepad and pen. “I got a present, I got a present!” she crowed.
Liane was staring vacantly off into the distance.
Valerie tapped her on the shoulder, hard. Liane started.
“I didn’t see you there,” she said, her eyes unfocused. “Did you see me there?”
“Liane, how are things going with the springs? Are you noticin
g any improvement?” Valerie asked, trying to hide the tension in her voice.
“It’ll get there, I expect,” Liane said vaguely. She took a big sip from her mug. The smell of Liane’s body odor mingled with the alcohol, and Valerie took a step back.
“Well…good luck. You know you can call me if you need me,” Valerie said.
“Sure, sure.” Liane’s gaze swam back into focus. “What’s your name again?”
“Valerie Dickinson,” Valerie said for the dozenth time, and headed back into the rec center, wondering if she should have said Valerie Rosemont.
Probably not, she decided. It would be so easy to get used to…and too painful when she had to change it back again.
Chapter Fourteen
“We should take our own cars today,” Morgan said to Valerie as they stood by the front door putting on their overcoats. “I have to go on site for a few hours. Is there anything you need?”
“Is there anything I need?” she said, staring at him. She needed him to stop being so polite and formal. She needed to know why he was shutting her out.
“Yes. Anything at all.” He avoided her gaze.
“Nope.” She bit the word out.
“All right, well, while I’m gone, I’d like you to get in touch with the city planning department to see where we are on the septic permits, and prepare an updated vendor list for—”
“No,” she snapped.
“No?” He stopped buttoning his coat and turned to look at her, startled.
“I already know what I’m going to do today,” she said, rigid with frustration and hurt. “I went into your desk and found that list of potential mates your mother had prepared for you. I’m going to go over the list and narrow it down to the most appropriate candidates. Then I’m going to draw up the rough draft of a mating contract for you, so that you can submit it to your attorneys for review. Your family is leaving December 26th. You can start contacting these mates on December 27th.”
She glanced up at the stairwell and saw Honoria standing there watching them with a look of dismay. She let out a sigh. She’d miss Honoria and Homer. She liked them. She’d even miss sparring with Nelda. It was actually getting to be kind of amusing, most of the time.
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