The Happily Ever After Mating Agency Presents Snövarg Island (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour ManLove)

by Jane Wallace-Knight

  As he ran along the perimeter of the island, he found himself wondering what it was like there come summertime. He bet it was beautiful, with all the wild flowers in full bloom and the woodland creatures running around. He pictured warm nights spent lying on the beach looking up at the stars.

  The air on the island was crisp and clean, not touched by the fumes of cars, as there didn’t seem to be any on the island. There was no need for them really, not when one could easily walk from one side to the other in an hour or so, depending on one's pace. He had ‘seen a few people on bikes as he ran, people who clearly lived in one of the several houses he passed that were every bit as secluded as the alpha house.

  Inevitably, after he had been running for a good half hour, his mind went back to his own family. His mom had looked so lost, so sad when he had refused to even say good-bye to her. No matter what had happened, his parents hadn’t actually wanted him to leave the warren, or if he had left, then they had wanted him to go to a warren nearby. Tyler was the one who had made the choice to cut them out of his life completely.

  The longer he ran, the stronger the feeling of guilt that grew inside him. His family hadn’t exactly mistreated him. They certainly hadn’t made him feel loved or very important, but they had never been purposefully cruel. It was funny how getting some distance from them all helped Tyler see things more clearly. He and his dad had been fighting for so long, had been locked in this destructive push and pull of theirs for so many years, that he wondered if some of the blame shouldn’t be on himself. The two of them were so different, and Tyler had spent much of his life scorning the bunny way of life. His father no doubt felt as though Tyler were attacking him and his choices. He was glad to be away from them, but he didn’t want to go into his new life with the past burdening him.

  The east side of the island was heavily forested and quiet save for the sounds of the ocean crashing on the cliff on the other side and the various animals that lived in the woods. The houses he had passed didn’t look enough to house the entire population of the island. He figured there must be more houses in town that weren’t so big or so isolated.

  By the time he ended up back on the beach, Tyler had made the decision to write a letter to his parents. Even if that was all the contact they would ever have from now on, it just didn’t feel right cutting them out of his life completely. He wondered if his mom would want him to send photos of the children he would someday have. She had a wall in her house that was covered in photos of the grandchildren she already had. Would she want Tyler’s kids up there knowing they would most likely be wolves?

  “Tyler,” a voice called to him as he slowed to a walk along the promenade. He turned toward the direction of the voice with a smile, already knowing who it was.

  Lisa was standing outside what Tyler assumed was her clothes store. She waved him over and he waved back before jogging over to her.

  “Hey,” he said in greeting. “This your place?”

  “It is,” Lisa told him proudly. “Come on in, I have coffee.”

  Tyler groaned at the offer and followed her in. “You’re my new best friend.”

  Lisa giggled and walked straight through the little store to the back room that was just behind the counter. Her short hair was clipped back from her face, letting Tyler see just how pretty she was. The Snövargs certainly were one good-looking family.

  While Lisa was making their coffee, Tyler looked around the place. It was pretty modern for an island clothes store. He wasn’t sure what he was expecting exactly. Something a bit more old fashioned perhaps. There were three sections. One was for women, one was for men, and the other was for children. Tyler went straight over to the men’s section and browsed. The place was empty except for the two of them and Tyler quickly realized that he had no idea what the time was. Looking around he found a clock on the wall, letting him know that it was only just 8am. He wondered if Eric and Finn were still in bed where he had left them, or if they had already started their days. He hoped that they hadn’t been upset to find him gone. He hadn’t thought to leave a note or anything.

  There was a theme of white and chrome through the store and the large windows at the front let in a lot of natural light. Lisa had some nice clothes in her store and Tyler mentally picked out a few things for himself as he browsed.

  “Do you take milk and sugar?” Lisa asked him as she came back through with a mug in each hand.

  “No, that’s great, thanks.” He met her by the desk and took the cup from her. He breathed in the smell before taking a sip of the hot liquid. “Mmm, perfect.”

  She smiled at him, seemingly amused by his reaction to a simple mug of coffee. “You’re up and out early.”

  “Yeah, I needed to go for a run, clear my head a little,” he confessed.

  “I understand. Your whole life is different now. Different place, different people, a different way of life perhaps.

  “Yeah,” he said to her. “Thanks for reminding me.”

  She grimaced a little and bit her lower lip. “Sorry.”

  He waved it off and took another sip of his drink. “This place is great. How does an eighteen-year-old own her own store anyway?”

  Lisa beamed at his praise and hoisted herself up onto the counter beside the cash register. “Eric already owned the building. He used to let it out to an old couple who sold clothes that haven’t been fashionable since the seventies.”

  Tyler laughed and leaned his elbows on the counter getting more comfortable. “Are we talking ABBA flares here?”

  Lisa rolled her eyes at him. “No, we’re talking brown shirts, brown corduroy, and brown pinafore dresses. Most people made their own clothes or paid other people to do it. When the old man died I begged Eric to let me take it over. I spent hours online finding the best suppliers and I get shipments of new stuff once a month. I also let the local tailors and dress makers sell their stuff through my store. I remodeled and redecorated to get rid of the mustard-colored wallpaper,” she told him, clearly very proud of herself. “Eric thought I did such a good job that he gave me the place for my eighteenth birthday.”

  Tyler smiled at her. “He seems like a good alpha, and a good brother.”

  “Yeah, Eric’s the best. That’s why everyone was so glad when you came here,” she told him. “Eric deserves to be happy and now with you here he can be.”

  Tyler looked down at the white, shiny floor and tried not to let the sadness he felt show on his face. He really was glad that he could give Eric the children he needed, and he was glad that now Eric could mate with the man he loved, but he couldn’t help wishing it was Tyler himself that was making Eric happy, and Finn.

  “I’m going to talk to them about a job later,” Tyler told her. “I want to start earning some money so I can spend it all on your clothes,” he joked.

  Lisa frowned at him and straightened up. “Don’t be silly. Eric and Finn have an account here. You can take whatever you want. Last night when Finn and I came and got your outfit he said to put whatever you bought in the future on their account.”

  Tyler knew they were just trying to be nice to him but he couldn’t help but feel like he was being turned into a kept man. It was bad enough that he already felt like he was there to be bred and nothing more. The last thing he wanted was to be bought off in the process.

  “That’s really nice of them, but I don’t feel comfortable with that. Besides, I want to work. Back at the warren the chief’s family pretty much sat back and lived off the hard work of others, and no one ever seemed to have a problem with that.”

  “That’s certainly not the way it works here. Everyone pays taxes, sure, but that just all goes to taking care of the island. The money my family has comes from generations of hard work,” Lisa told him. “So which of their businesses do you think you’d like to work for?”

  “I think I’m going to help Eric with overseeing them all. See if I can lighten his load some,” Tyler said.

  Lisa beamed at him. “Already proving yourself
to be a good alpha mate. You know, though, that if you ever wanted to start your own business, or work for someone else here, that’d be cool, too, right? I know that Eric and Finn would just want you to be happy.”

  Before Tyler could respond, the little bell above the door jingled as a slight cold chill entered the store. Tyler turned to see who had just come in but the look on Lisa’s face should have told him already.

  Milla Claesson, the mean girl, as Tyler was now thinking of her in his head, came waltzing into the store with two other women on either side of her. They were laughing about something but abruptly stopped when they spotted Tyler. Even in his own warren, where he was pretty much looked down on by everyone, he had never been the recipient of such a glare before.

  “Spending mommy’s money early today I see,” Lisa said to Tyler under her breath. Given by how quickly the glares turned toward Lisa, Tyler assumed that they had heard her perfectly well.

  “I’m picking up a dress for my mother,” Milla told her. “She ordered one through you I believe.”

  Milla was wearing a long, white lacy dress with a pink cardigan over her shoulders. She didn’t have a hair out of place, while Tyler was pretty sure he had mud splattered up the backs of his legs. The sweat from his run was starting to cool on his body, making his skin a little itchy and uncomfortable.

  “Yes, let me just get it for you,” Lisa said with a forced polite smile before going into the back room. Tyler picked up his coffee mug and attempted to hide behind it but Milla and her groupies walked right up to the counter.

  He looked up to find her cool gaze fixed on him. “I can’t decide if you’re very brave or very stupid.”

  Tyler’s eyebrows rose at how blunt she was being in talking to him like that. “Well, most people would say I’m a little of both.”

  “It must take a certain kind of courage for a man to agree to be an alpha’s bitch,” Milla said as she pretended to study him with a cold smile on her perfectly made-up face. “I mean, to emasculate yourself in such a way, that must take a special kind of confidence.”

  Tyler calmly smiled back at her. He actually pitied her more than anything. He had heard far worse from people he actually gave a damn about, so there was nothing this woman could say to him that could really hurt him.

  “Yeah, you’re right,” he said casually. “You know, last night when I was in bed with them both, when Eric was practically out of his mind with the need to be inside me, I did feel pretty confident.”

  The look of shock on Milla and her friends’ faces was nothing compared to the look on Lisa’s as she exited the back room with the dress for Milla’s mother. All four women gaped at him like they couldn’t believe he had said such a thing. Tyler leaned back on the counter and took another sip of his coffee.

  Before anyone had a chance to get over what Tyler had said, the front door to the store flew open, causing the bell to jingle loudly, and an old woman came rushing in. “Lisa, it’s Katja. She’s fighting with that Claesson girl again.”

  Lisa and Milla shared a horrified and worried look before they both ran for the door. Not really knowing what was going on, Tyler quickly jogged after them. Once outside it was easy to spot the girls as they were over on the beach, surrounded by a small group of other children and one very frightened-looking teacher.

  “Katja, stop it,” Lisa shouted at her niece as she broke through the crowd. Tyler followed close behind her and once he could see what was going on he gasped. The two girls had shifted into their wolf forms. Both of them were covered in snow-white fur that was specked with blood from where they were going at each other so viciously.

  Behind him Milla screamed at the other girl in Swedish. Not knowing why no one else was trying to break them apart, and unable to stand by while Katja was being hurt, Tyler ran to them and got between them as best he could. He grabbed a handful of scruff on each of them and yanked them apart, getting a quick bite to the hand from Katja for his trouble.

  He yelped in pain, letting go of the girls, which made them go straight for each other again.

  “That’s enough.” Eric’s booming voice suddenly cut through the crowd. He shouted with such an authoritative force that everyone there whined and turned their heads, bearing their throats to him in submission. Tyler fell to the ground, his knees hitting the soft sand, and clutched his injured hand to his chest. Beside him he saw that the alpha’s command had forced the girls to shift back into their human states and straight away Milla and Lisa were moving in and covering them both with their cardigans and sweaters.

  “Is she okay?” he asked Lisa, who was busy glaring at the little girl who looked swamped in her auntie’s sweater.

  Lisa looked over at him and nodded once. “Are you?”

  Before he could answer her, Eric was beside him, his large arms going around him as he helped him to stand.

  “Show me,” the alpha demanded as he took hold of Tyler’s bleeding hand. Tyler winced at the pain and felt his stomach roll when he saw how deep the bite was. He had tried to pull his hand away while the teeth were still in his hand, so the wound was torn open.

  “Oh god, is it bad?” he asked, turning his head away from the gruesome sight. Tyler had always hated the sight of blood. “It looks bad.”

  “What were you thinking getting between two fighting wolves?” Eric asked, his voice softer now that he was no longer afraid for Tyler’s safety.

  “Katja was covered in blood. I thought they were going to kill each other,” he said, defending his actions.

  Eric leaned down over the hand he was holding and placed a tender kiss beside the wound. “Let’s get you home and clean this up.”

  Tyler swallowed around a lump of emotion at the tender gesture. He felt like he was falling for the two men more and more, falling down an endless pit and not even trying to stop it, and it was only his second day there. Perhaps it was a testament to how little affection he had received from the only other guy he had messed around with.

  “Milla, take your sister home,” Eric said. “Tell your mother I’ll talk with her later. Katja, you’re coming with me,” he told her in a tone that let everyone there know how much trouble she was in. “Miss Dahl, please get the rest of your class to school.”

  “Yes, alpha,” they all replied, nodding their heads to him before hurrying to do as he said.

  The walk home was made in complete silence. Katja had Lisa’s sweater pulled down around her knees and she walked a few paces in front of them with her head down. The whole way there Eric had his arm around Tyler’s shoulder while Tyler held his injured hand up a little to stop the bleeding. It wasn’t too bad, not for a shifter. Though bunny shifters healed much slower than wolves, they were still quicker than humans. He wondered what Milla’s little sister had said to Katja to get her so angry that she would shift and start fighting like that. Despite what had happened, he couldn’t help but hope that Eric wasn’t too hard on her. He felt for the little girl that had lost so much.

  Chapter Eight

  Finn was going over his schedule for his woodwork business at the kitchen table when he heard his alpha shout. It wasn’t like regular shouting, which was something he heard Eric do often, usually when he stubbed a toe or dropped something. This time he had shouted with his alpha voice. It was like a roar that traveled over the entire island. The only time Eric ever busted out that shout was when he was really angry.

  At the kitchen sink Finn’s grandma Elsa stopped what she was doing and turned to look at him with her eyebrows raised in question.

  “I don’t know. I’m here with you,” he pointed out to her. “How would I know why he roared?”

  Elsa quickly dried her hands on a dishcloth and turned to face her grandson. “Because the two of you have been joined at the hip since you were children. I’m surprised you can’t communicate telepathically.”

  Finn smirked at her. “Funny. He was probably just breaking up a fight.”

  She smirked back at him and tilted her head in a way that
said, “Told you so.”

  Elsa came over and sat down opposite him at the table. She had been baking since early that morning. Elsa was a typical early bird. She was one of those women who liked to always be doing something. The only time she would ever sit down was to eat. The kitchen smelled heavenly with the sweet, almond scent of freshly baked Tosca tarts.

  Finn closed his laptop, knowing that he wasn’t likely to get any work done for a while if his grandma was sitting down and giving him all her attention. He looked over at her with a patient smile.

  “How do you think Tyler is settling in?” she asked, her fingers picking at the dried-on pastry around her nails that the soapy water hadn’t quite gotten off.

  “I don’t know, he’s been here less than a day,” he told her.

  “I like him,” she said with a fond smile on her aged face. “I have a good feeling about him.”

  Finn smiled at the old lady and nodded in agreement. “Me, too, grandma, me, too.”

  “So where was he going so early this morning? He snuck out of here like he was trying to avoid a morning-after talk with a one-night stand,” she said.

  Finn snorted at his grandma’s choice of words. “I don’t know where he was going. But, if it was me in his situation, I would probably be freaking out right about now.”

  “You don’t sound too concerned about that,” she pointed out. “You don’t think you should be out looking for him?”

  “Well, it’s an island, so unless he’s secretly a dolphin shifter, I don’t think he can leave without telling us,” Finn countered. “And besides, I think it’s best to just give him his space if that’s what he needs.”

  Before either of them could say another word, they both caught the scent of blood in the air before the sound of the front door opening. Straight away they were both on their feet, trying to work out who was hurt and how bad it was. Eric, Tyler, and Katja came in and made a beeline for the kitchen. Seeing that Tyler’s hand was injured, and seeing how dejected Katja looked, Finn was torn over who to go to first.