“Brick, House, you’re here!”
Thank heavens for her baby’s timing. “Hi sweetie, how are you feeling?” She rushed past the wolves to get to her son, his arm in a sling and his hair the epitome of brown-hued bedhead.
House moved as well to crouch in front of the boy, smiling at him the smile Mel knew from experience had women fighting each other to be the one to do what he asked. “How you feelin’?”
Danny’s little chest pumped up as much as was possible for someone on pain meds. “I only cried for a minute, and then I was fine.”
“Only a minute? I would have cried for a lot longer.”
“Really?” Danny’s eyes went huge at this admission from one of his heroes. He looked up to Brick. “Would you have cried?”
“Damn straight,” said Brick, and Mel stifled the sigh which threatened. Brick didn’t talk much, but he didn’t have a filter when he did, either, not even around kids. But the words brought a smile to Danny’s face, and his little shoulders loosened as he got over whatever worry he’d been holding on what Brick or House would think, and she couldn’t be mad after that.
“We both would have,” House reaffirmed, placing his hand on Danny’s head to ruffle his hair. “I don’t see a cast, little man. I was looking forward to signing something.”
“Doctor Henry said it’s a sprain, and that I’m good as long as I’m careful for a couple weeks.” Danny lowered his voice and spoke in put-upon tones, one man complaining to another over the unfairness of women, “Mom said I can’t do my stuff for awhile and I got to stay inside where it’s boring.”
House put his hand carefully around Danny’s shoulders and lowered his own voice with conspiratorial intent. “We’ll figure things out to get you away. Let me and Brick work on your Mom and get things set up.” As Danny’s face lit up with glee, House glanced at her and gave a wink.
Damn, that man was too pretty, and she was too old to start going to pieces internally over a stupid wink.
Brick moved over to her, breaking her attention from House, and though Brick was the opposite of pretty, those thick thighs and those hands, they made her double-take just as much as House’s sharp blue eyes and broad shoulders. They both caught her interest, the kind of interest that had her biting her lips some nights at the end of shift to stop from asking them to take her home, strip her naked, hold her down, and work her body over until she passed out from pleasure.
And it was for both of them.
Which made no sense. She hadn’t ever been a threesome girl. Women didn’t do anything for her sexually, and she had never wanted more than one guy before.
Maybe it was because they were always together, and she didn’t know one without the other. Maybe it was because they were so opposite in their types of attractiveness that the combination was fascinating. Maybe those wild oats weren’t as sown as she liked to think.
Whatever it was, the truth was she if she had her way, both of them would be working her over.
“What about Danny coming to the shop? Today is payroll and you can work and watch over him.” Brick’s words broke through imaginings.
“I don’t want him holding things up.”
“He won’t.” Flat statement, no cajoling or wheedling, unlike what House would try. Brick stated and everyone followed. Brick turned to Danny. “Want to come watch us work on the cars?”
Danny’s face lit up like it was Christmas and his birthday and the first day of summer vacation all wrapped in one. “Mom, can I?”
“I’m afraid you’ll get bored-”
“I won’t!”
“Or that you’ll interrupt everyone’s work-”
“Swear Mom! I won’t! Please?”
Three men were looking at her with different levels of hope and expectation. There was no way she could say no. “If you go there,” she began, but with the way Danny began bouncing on his feet, he already knew where this was going. “You behave. It’s a workplace, not a toyroom.”
“PROMISE!” Danny yelled, grabbing House’s hand and yelling over his shoulder, “Brick, we got to get me dressed. Help me out.”
The three left with Mel able to do nothing but watch. She’d been half-relieved she wouldn’t have to go to the garage today, and she was a little off her game now that she would be faced with Brick and House in their natural environment – surrounded by metal and grease and tools, and more often than not working in an undershirt.
With a small groan for the temptations the day ahead would bring, she went to get ready.
Chapter Two
‡
THE GARAGE WAS busy, in the midst of two repairs and three restorations, and while the attitude of the place was easy-going, all of the mechanics carried an energy about them that said things were happening.
The office was separated from the work floor by a large window. The shades were up right now, so Mel had an unobstructed view of the entire floor. Danny was sitting on the side, staying in one place like he promised, talking a mile a minute to Brick as the wolf worked on an engine, quiet except for a nod or quick look at her son.
Brick and House were always so good with Danny. It had made her nervous at first, the men with her son. Wolves could be unthinkingly cruel with those outside the pack. Not physically, but there was an us-versus-them mentality that meant some wolves were dismissive or remote, even borderline nasty with anyone not of the pack. She had the occasional small experience with it, and she grew up with Iron and Steel.
But it had never happened with Danny around here. There had been one almost occasion with one of the junior mechanics, but the moment she realized it was happening, Brick grabbed the younger wolf by the scruff and drug him out of the garage while Danny was looking elsewhere. When they returned ten minutes later, the wolf had a constant submissive posture and went overboard in showing Danny attention.
They were good with her son. Danny flourished under their attention, and everything from his grades to his overall health was improving since the two wolves arrived.
House stepped before the window and blocked her view, raising that damned eyebrow of his that, when combined with that smirk, had her wanting to smack him and kiss him senseless.
He opened the door, and a wave of sound came from the outside. “How’s it going in here?”
“I’m fine. I hope Danny isn’t talking Brick’s ear off.”
“Brick can deal with a little conversation.”
So could House. In quiet moments, the man projected a loneliness so intense, it could knock her over. Brick wore his as armor, using it to knock away any thoughts of sympathy. House hid his behind smirks and man-buns and scruff and gorgeous blue eyes. “How did you and Brick meet?”
The shocked look on his face had to mirror the look on hers. She’d never asked anything personal. She didn’t…she didn’t want the responsibility of knowing about them. They were so alone, and she had enough of people depending on her. She didn’t want two more.
But a year of them protecting her and her son, and she couldn’t turn away from them anymore. They had more than proven themselves to her, and her continuing to take from them without giving back was nothing more than cowardice.
A muscle ticked in House’s jaw, but his voice was clear and even when he answered. “We grew up together. We were both orphans and being raised by the alpha, so we spent a lot of time together.”
“Why did you leave that pack?” Mel braced herself. This was the most intimate question she could ask. Wolves rarely left their pack. Even if they travelled, they would eventually come home to the pack, and any reason she could think of to cause a break final enough that the wolves would search out another pack was horrifying.
Even with all the warning signs in her head radiating danger and flashing don’t ask, she still asked. There was this all-consuming need to know them, a need which had been slow in growing, so slow she hadn’t known it existed, until the thought crystallized all at once, striking at her with such intensity she couldn’t spend another mome
nt not knowing these men – what shaped them, what drove them, what they wanted now. They were tangled within her life and she needed to know their edges and their landscape so she could begin to navigate.
“Which one of us are you interested in knowing about?” His eyes were laser focused on her, as if the question he asked was the most important she would ever answer.
Would mentioning Brick now shut House down if he did have any interest in talking? Did it matter? She didn’t play games, and it had become very clear in her head that her interest was centered on both of them… what exactly that interest entailed, well, that she was still sorting out. “Both. I know you guys have tension sometimes, but you’re both my friends and important to me.”
If anything, her answer focused the intensity of his gaze even further, and sweat formed underneath her shirt on the back of her neck. It was disconcerting how impossible to read he was at this moment.
House stepped closer to her with purpose, had her rising from her seat behind the desk, but before he could take more than a step towards her, Sparky opened the office door. Sparky was the same age as her dad and had originally worked for Old Man Tyler – was, in fact, the only wolf Brick and House hadn’t been able to run off when they bought the place, even if he wasn’t officially employed. He’d known her since she was a kid, and Sparky was now looking at House, though he was speaking to her. “Mel, you got a unwanted guest in front.”
Whatever signals Sparky was sending out had House bristling, and looking out the office window, even Brick seemed to catch on to something, his gaze locked on her from the shop.
Whoever Sparky meant, she wouldn’t want them here and she needed to get this cleared up with a minimum of fuss and without House or Brick or Danny getting involved. “Excuse me, let me see what’s happening.”
She walked out, and thank heavens neither wolf followed her. She wasn’t quite as thankful when the door opened up and outside was John, scum of the known universe and Danny’s father. “What the hell are you doing here?”
She hadn’t seen him in five years and hadn’t gotten a dime in support from him at all during Danny’s life. Her whole policy was to leave him alone, because he was a vindictive bastard, and she wanted nothing more than to be free of him and not start worrying if he would start making noises about taking Danny. So why had he decided to show up now?
He smiled at her, that same smile that had weaseled him into whatever he wanted in life, including into her pants and into her pussy without a condom. I’ll pull out baby, I swear. God, she had been such an idiot. There was no denying he was good-looking in a smooth way, very different from the rough strokes that categorized the wolves she had grown up with. Even House, as Hollywood-like as his looks were, had an animalistic quality that was undeniable.
That smoothness had appealed to her when she had been about rebelling, about getting away from everything familiar, people and attitudes and values. She’d been too young to realize how important pack and familiarity was, and it wasn’t until she had to return with a baby in her belly and no money in her pockets, when the only people who cared what happened to her were the very ones she’d been running from, that she broke down and wept over the pointless rebellion.
“We share a son. Can’t I come and say hi?”
“No, you can’t.” Mel had to shut this down quick. What if Danny came out? What if John tried to go in to get Danny? Panic rose in her throat, panic she beat back and swallowed hard against. “Now, what do you want? You shouldn’t be showing up here.”
How had he found out she was here anyway? Probably sweet-talked one of the girls around here asking about her, giving those dark, longing looks which had fooled her so long ago.
“Do you have a break? Come and talk to me. I want to catch up a bit.” He tilted his head and gave it a small jerk, combining it with his smile, knowing it made him look approachable and earnest and all those things young girls craved.
Mel didn’t want to head anywhere with him, but she also didn’t want to have any kind of discussion where Brick and House could overhear and realize what a stupid kid she’d been, to be caught up with someone like this. Without a word she began to walk to a small area on the side of the building, used for smoke breaks, but no one would be there now.
After arriving she faced him, arms crossed over her chest and her best no-nonsense look plastered over her face, the one that had Danny spilling his misdeeds in seconds. “Please tell me what you came for without any bullshit. I can’t risk losing this job and I need to get back to work.”
He snorted, pulling his head back, the smarmy charm disappearing from his face and cold craftiness replacing it. “Since I’m sure your job involves you opening your legs for the bosses in there, I don’t think you’ll be losing it by taking an extra break.” His eyes raked over her body, and she refused to move and inch and let him know he made her want to shower with that little display. “You look good for someone with a rugrat. Still nice and tight.”
“What do you want?”
“I need money. Ten grand.”
Mel’s mouth fell open before she could stop the reaction. He was actually coming to her…for money? After abandoning her while she was pregnant? After years of no child support? “You got to be kidding me.”
He shrugged, looking supremely unconcerned about her shock. “I need money. The people I owe do not fool around.”
“Sorry, you’re going to have to deal with it. I don’t have it, and even if I did, I wouldn’t be giving it to you.”
She moved to walk away but he grabbed her arm, his grip strong enough that she couldn’t break it by twisting in his grasp. “You will find a way to get it to me, or those guys I owe money to? I’ll mention how I don’t want them to hurt my son, and how I still care so much for his mommy.”
Black terror rose through her as she stared into those cold brown eyes, those lips she once kissed now turned up into an ugly, vicious sneer. “Don’t you dare say anything about Danny.”
He lowered his head and lowered his voice, pure evil in both actions. “I’ll be giving them your parents address if you don’t get me the money by this time next week.”
And then he was gone, out of her space, and it took a few blinks to readjust her eyes, to see House a few feet back, John dangling from his grip and, in House’s eyes, a massacre ready to be unleashed upon John, the pure hatred making her take a step back from the wolf for the first time in her life.
“Mel.” House’s voice was low and steady, devoid of the teasing undertone she’d all but assumed was permanent. “Get back to the shop. Go to Brick.”
“He–”
“Mel, go now.” That voice booked no refusal, and Mel found herself halfway to the shop before it occurred to her that she never took orders from anyone, not like that, not when it involved her life.
Brick waited inside the door and grabbed her up, as if he feared she might decide to go back out again. He took her to Danny, still sitting on the bench beside the car restoration, and Mel’s arms went around her son, mindful of his injury, unable to let him go.
Brick worked as he always did, with Danny talking off his ear and Brick giving his occasional one or two word answers. Though she had forced herself to let her son go after some squirming and some sighing from Danny, she wasn’t able to move away to get back to the office and finish her job. Instead, she stayed by her son, watching Brick as he worked on the engine, grease layering him in ever darker streaks, clinging to him like a tattoo.
It was quitting time, and still no House. Brick cleaned up and drove her and Danny to her parents, who had already agreed to take Danny tonight since she had wanted to get back to the bar, Iron’s words be damned. With the mating season in full effect and with Danny in better shape than they originally thought, he didn’t need to be the only one working right now.
Of course, she was second-guessing that now, John’s words ricocheting around her head. How someone could sink that low was beyond her – threatening his son? Yeah, her he
didn’t give a damn over, but to put Danny in danger like that…it was beyond her.
They ate, Mom and Dad welcoming Brick into the House. They’d already met him and House. In fact, it was Brick’s and House’s reactions to her parents and Danny that convinced her to accept the job with them. Mom and Dad had come into the bar one day with Danny to pick her up while the two wolves were there. The stood up in respect, called her parents sir and ma’am, and they shook Danny’s hand, telling him how impressed they were with his science fair wins and asked him if one day, could he teach them chess? In their world, where academic achievements for boys so often took a back seat to sports, it was the first time Danny was acknowledged for his gifts. The look of astonishment and pride on her son’s face was one she still treasured.
Danny was settled watching cartoons with Mom and Dad, and Mel went out into the back yard with Brick, not wanting her parents to know about the afternoon’s meeting quite yet. “What’s House doing?”
“Making sure you and Danny are safe. He’ll be back when that happens.”
“He didn’t…” She wasn’t sure how to finish that. There were so many possible avenues, and even after all this time living with wolves, they were a mystery to her sometimes.
They weren’t human. Most of the time she forgot that, but every once in a while something happened that slapped her hard and reminded her, they weren’t human. They didn’t think like humans, they didn’t perceive moral issues the same way as humans, and how they handled those issues wasn’t like most humans.
Here and now, how House would react and what he would do was a mystery.
Brick reached out one hand, the thick fingers trembling as they touched her cheek. “He’ll be back when you and Danny are safe. Don’t worry about the rest.”
Brick was not a good-looking man, but here and now, there was no face she wanted to stare out, no eyes she wanted to gaze into more, save one pair. “I’m surprised you didn’t go with him.”
Brick House: Blue Collar Wolves #2 (Mating Season Collection) Page 2
