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

by Jane Wallace-Knight

  “Is everyone all right?” he asked. He walked over to them and took Katja’s chin in his hand, lifting her face and making her look at him. “What happened?”

  Katja looked ashamed of herself and forcibly pulled her face out of Finn’s grasp before running over to the stairs and up to her room. They all waited until they heard the door slam shut.

  With a heavy sigh, Elsa grabbed the dish of cooling tarts from the counter and put them down on the table. “Get his hand cleaned up, and make him eat one of those. I’ll see to Kat.”

  Finn felt better now that he had been told what to do. His grandma was good like that, at making people feel as though there was something they could actually do to make things better. He remembered the night that Eric’s father and brother died, how Elsa had talked him out of his own fears and told him how to be there for Eric and the girls.

  “Here,” Finn finally said, pulling himself out of it. “Tyler, sit down. I’ll get the first aid kit.”

  Tyler did as he was told. Eric stood behind his chair, almost like he was standing guard. He had his head tilted as though he were trying to listen to what Elsa was saying to Katja upstairs.

  “Here were are,” Finn said, bringing the clear plastic box over that they kept under the sink. It had various things in it that had come in hand over the years. “Well, the good news is, Katja doesn’t have rabies.”

  Tyler smiled at Finn’s attempt at humor, and even the corners of Eric’s mouth turned up. Sitting down beside Tyler, Finn pulled out some antiseptic cream, some gauze, some tape, and some cotton balls.

  “Eric, can you get me a bowl of warm water?” Finn asked, forcing Eric to stop eavesdropping. Finn took Tyler’s injured hand in his own and studied it. It looked like it was already beginning to heal itself. If he had been human then Tyler would have certainly needed stitches. As it was, it would take Tyler a day or two to fully heal. As a bunny shifter, from what Finn and Eric had learned once they found out they would be mating with one, their healing power wasn’t quite as effective or quick as a wolf shifter’s.

  “So, is one of you going to tell me what happened?” he asked when Eric placed the bowl down in front of him. He dipped a couple of cotton balls into the water, squeezed them, and began cleaning Tyler’s bite wound. The bunny shifter hissed and winced at the contact.

  “I was at Lisa’s place and this woman came in, yelling about how Katja was fighting with someone. We ran over to the beach and saw her and this other girl fighting in their wolf forms,” Tyler told him. The young man had his head turned away from what Finn was doing to him but couldn’t resist the urge to keep looking back to check how it was going every so often.

  “And Tyler thought it was a good idea to try and separate them,” Eric threw in. He didn’t sound angry over it, but Finn could imagine how it had frightened Eric to see Tyler in danger like that. They might just be young girls, but once shifted they were still wolves.

  “Yeah, well, I couldn’t just stand back and watch them hurt each other,” Tyler said with a shrug.

  Once the wound was clean, Finn gently rubbed in some antiseptic cream and bandaged it in gauze. “You’re going to need to keep it dry. Oh and eat one of those, because grandma said to and we all know better than to ever disagree with her.”

  Both Tyler and Eric smirked at that and Eric leaned on the back of Finn’s chair to kiss him on the top of his head. “This is the second time Kat and Kristen Claesson have fought, but this was the first time as wolves.”

  “So she’s Milla’s sister?” Tyler asked. He reached for a tart with his good hand and took a big bite.

  “Yes. Last time they wrestled more than anything and neither of them were really hurt,” Eric said, looking dejected. “I just feel like I can’t get through to her.”

  “Can I try talking to her?” Tyler asked, quickly trying to swallow his mouthful. “I mean, I know she’s your niece, and that you clearly love her, but sometimes it’s harder to talk to people who are close to you than it is to people you just met.”

  Eric seemed to consider the offer carefully. His eyes locked onto Tyler’s, before slowly nodding his head. “Maybe you’re right.”

  “You know I actually feel bad for Kristen. She’s clearly picking up on her mother’s and sister’s anger over what happened,” Finn said.

  Tyler frowned at him. “What do you mean? I know that Milla wanted to be Eric’s other mate, but it’s kind of stupid to hold a grudge over something like that, right? They just assumed that, you didn’t actually ever say it, did you?”

  “No,” Eric said with certainty. “Never. How do you know all this anyway?”

  “Lisa told me. Milla was glaring at me last night so Lisa filled me in. Then she made her dislike of me very clear this morning at the store,” Tyler said.

  “Did she say something to you?” Eric demanded, his tone no longer soft and caring. He was back in alpha mode. “If she said anything to upset you then you need to tell me.”

  Tyler looked up at him with a mixture of astonishment and amusement in his brown eyes. “What, so you can go tell her to stop being mean to me? No offense, Eric, but I think I can handle a couple of bitchy girls.”

  Eric seemed to sag and Finn felt for him. It must be hard for him, as an overprotective alpha, having a bunny shifter for a mate, someone who was physically weaker than everyone else on the island.

  “You’re right,” Eric admitted. “I’m sorry.”

  Tyler smiled at him and reached out to take his larger hand. “Don’t be. It’s actually really nice to feel cared about.”

  The two of them shared a soft look and Finn found himself smiling at them. “You know what we need?”

  They both turned, giving him their full attention.

  “A date night,” Finn said. “The three of us need to spend an evening together alone.”

  Eric grinned at him. “That sounds perfect. I’ll ask Elsa if she minds watching the girls.”

  “Which she won’t,” Finn said with a snort. His grandma loved the girls as though they were her own grandchildren.

  “Okay then,” Tyler said as he stood from the table. He was practically beaming at them both. “This’ll be fun. I’ve never been on a date before.”

  Right then Finn knew he was going to have to do something special, something that was dripping with romance, to make sure that Tyler’s first date was a good one.

  “Okay, well I need to get to work,” Eric said, leaning in to kiss Finn as he always did when leaving for work. He hesitated for just a moment before kissing Tyler, too, still a little unsure and awkward as they all found their feet in their new relationship.

  “I have some things to do at my studio,” Finn told Eric. “So I’ll walk with you.”

  He cupped the back of Tyler’s head and pulled him in for a quick kiss, smiling at the pleased look it left on the younger man’s face.

  “Good luck with Kat,” Eric said before they left. “If she won’t talk to you, don’t take it personally. Sometimes she just needs time to cool off before she’ll apologize.”

  Tyler nodded, looking a little nervous, before shoving the rest of the tart into his mouth.

  * * * *

  Tyler had waited downstairs until Elsa came back down, not wanting to overcrowd Katja. The old woman just shook her head at him when she entered the kitchen, indicating that she hadn’t had any luck.

  Steeling himself, Tyler got up from the table and made his way upstairs. He brought his uninjured hand up and knocked on the door of the bedroom that Katja and Inga shared. He might not have quite as delicate a nose as a wolf shifter but Tyler’s was sensitive enough to know that he really needed to take a long, hot shower. His clothes were still slightly damp with sweat from his run and he wrinkled his nose as he caught a whiff of the odor. After thirty seconds without an answer Tyler slowly opened the door, letting himself in.

  “Katja?” he called softly as he walked into the large bedroom. It was clear that both girls had their own interests and likes. I
nga’s side of the room was filled with teddy bears, dolls, and ballet paraphernalia. The walls were a neutral cream color, but while Inga’s bedspread was all pinks hearts and stars, Katja’s was a dark purple with lilac and black stripes. The older girl’s side of the room had a lot of books, as well as some art supplies and an easel with a half-finished painting on it that looked way too emo for a nine-year-old.

  Katja was lying on her bed looking up at the ceiling, the morning sun shining on her face.

  “What do you want?” she asked, her voice raw from crying and completely void of emotion. Tyler wanted to go over to her and give her a hug but he didn’t think she was the type of kid who would appreciate that, especially with the way he was smelling.

  “I wanted to see how you are,” Tyler told her as he slowly moved further into the room. The girl turned her head to look at him, her eyes zeroing in on his bandaged hand.

  “I’m sorry I bit you, I didn’t mean to,” she finally said. She had dressed herself in a pair of jeans with a dark blue and light-blue striped sweater. “Is Eric really mad?”

  Figuring that she wasn’t going to bite his head off, Tyler went over and sat on the end of her bed. Katja sat up, making room for him, and pulled her legs up under her.

  “He’s not mad, he’s just upset that we both got hurt,” Tyler told her. “He said that it’s not the first time this has happened. Do you want to tell me why?”

  Katja looked down at the bedspread and began playing with a piece of loose cotton. “Kristen is always mean to me. She makes fun of my clothes and my hair,” Katja told him.

  Frowning, Tyler looked the little girl over. “There’s nothing wrong with your clothes, or your hair. You have pretty hair.”

  She smiled at him hesitantly and shrugged. “She just likes being mean. I don’t care though, it doesn’t bother me. Sometimes she talks about how it’s weird that I’m being raised by two men, and that some people think I should have a new mom. But today she was talking about you. She said that her sister told her you weren’t a real man because you can have babies and that you were just a…well, I’m not supposed to say bad words.”

  Tyler felt his good hand ball into a fist where it rested on his knee. She didn’t need to finish the sentence because he was sure it was more of the same of what Milla had said to him in the store earlier that day. It was nothing new to him. It wasn’t as though he hadn’t heard it all before. Although he was considered rare and blessed by many for his extraordinary ability, there had always been those who used it to mock him for being different. Often when he had tried to play football with other boys as a teenager they had turned on him and told him to go sit and watch with the women. The fact that Milla had said such things to a nine-year-old girl was what riled him the most, though, that she had been spreading her hatred to a child.

  He looked over at Katja and saw that she was watching him carefully, as though waiting to see how he would react to the news. He smiled at her gently and reached out to stroke his hand over her glossy, black hair.

  “Kat, I don’t want you ever fighting because of me, okay? I’m used to bullies. I’ve been dealing with them my whole life. Even though it makes me happy to know you care about me, I hate that you got hurt today,” he said. “Are you hurt bad? You look okay.”

  Katja nodded once. “I’m okay. I shifted a couple of times when we got home. It wasn’t bad anyway. Maybe you should shift to make yourself heal.”

  “It doesn’t really work that way with us bunny shifters. If anything, we actually heal slower in our shifted forms,” he told her. “We aren’t quite as tough as you wolves.”

  “Did you used to get in fights?” she asked him as she inched a little closer to him. “With the bullies, I mean?

  “Me?” he asked with a laugh. “No. I was one of the smallest kids in my class, I wouldn’t have stood a chance. No, I got a little more creative with my retaliation.”

  “Like the pranks you told me about last night?” she asked, suddenly perking up at the prospect of hearing more about them. “What was the best one you ever did?”

  Tyler hesitated for a moment. On the one hand he really didn’t want to be a bad influence on her, but on the other hand surely pranking the bullies rather than physically fighting with them was a better option.

  Taking a breath and steeling himself to the fact that he was probably going to make Eric very mad sometime in the near future, Tyler thought back over all the pranks he had played.

  “Okay, I’ll tell you,” he said, leaning in conspiratorially and feeling pleased when Katja smiled even more. “There was this boy at school who wanted to date one of my sisters. He was a total jerk to me in secret but nice as pie in front of everyone else.”

  “So what did you do?” she asked impatiently.

  Tyler smirked at the little girl’s enthusiasm. Both Katja and Inga were quickly worming their ways into his heart. “He was really blond, right, and he had this perfect, floppy hair. So I put bright pink hair dye in his shampoo bottle. That was probably my favourite because of how much I hated the guy.”

  Katja laughed and seemed to relax even further. “I bet he was really mad.”

  “Oh yeah.” Tyler still remembered the hand around his throat. “Anyway, I really need to shower, and you should go down to the kitchen and eat some of the tarts that Elsa made, because they’re amazing.”

  Katja seemed to get shy as she got off the bed. “I’m not going back to school today, so maybe after you shower we could hang out and you could tell me some more?”

  Tyler grinned at her and quickly swooped in for a hug. “I would love that.”

  He smiled as he watched the girl run off downstairs in search of treats and made his way to his own room in search of that shower.

  Chapter Nine

  It had been a pretty great day, hanging out with Katja, learning a little Swedish from the girl, and telling her about some more of the pranks he had pulled while they both gorged themselves on tarts. He was trying to think of a prank she could play on the Claesson girl the next time she got mad that wouldn’t get anyone hurt or in too much trouble, but he had told her he would get back to her on it. Eric came home a little after lunchtime and sat with them in the living room for a while, pulling Katja into a hug after she told him how sorry she was and keeping her there the entire time. After lunch Eric had shut himself away in his office, which was a small room next to the kitchen, so that he could finish up some paperwork. When Finn had gotten home, a few hours later, he and Eric had whispered about something for a while, making Tyler highly suspicious, before telling him to meet them out on the deck in an hour.

  When the sun began to set, Tyler made his way out of the house and round to the cliff edge as instructed. As Tyler made his way over to the decking area at the back of the house, he could see that the fire pit had been lit and that there was also a string of fairy lights wound around the railing. Eric and Finn both stood by a small round table that appeared to have a couple of covered dishes on it as well as an ice bucket with a bottle of champagne chilling inside. They were both dressed smartly, but not overly so. They each wore a pair of dark denim jeans with a nice shirt. Finn’s shirt was black, which made his loose blond hair stand out even more than usual, while Eric’s shirt was plain white. They both looked gorgeous and suddenly all Tyler could think about was the things they had all done to each other the night before.

  “What’s all this?” Tyler asked as he drew closer. He stepped up onto the deck and saw that there was a thick, cream, fleecy blanket that had been laid down on the hard wood. Not that Tyler had any firsthand knowledge of romance, but he had seen enough rom-coms over the years to know that was what the two wolf shifters were going for here.

  “This is a nighttime picnic overlooking the ocean,” Eric said with a shrug. “It was Finn’s idea. We wanted to let you know how happy we are that you chose us, and to make sure you know that you’re appreciated.”

  Finn rolled his eyes at Eric’s awkward, literal explanation. “
Sure, what he said, but way more romantic.”

  Tyler laughed and copied both the wolves when they sat down on the large blanket. He was quickly handed a glass of champagne and he took a small sip. He wasn’t a big lover of champagne, but as they had gone to the effort he probably would have drunk carrot juice in order to make them happy, and he really did hate carrots.

  The setting sun behind them was throwing vibrant oranges and luminescent pinks across the sky. There were no buildings in the way of the view and the light show reflected in the ocean, turning it into a pool of shining molten lava. It was beautiful.

  Finn put a few of the food dishes down between them. They had a bunch of snack foods including sandwiches, chocolates, pastries, and cakes.

  “Oooo cake,” Tyler said excitedly, reaching for one of the chocolate ones and eating it whole. He barely chewed it before he was swallowing and licking the frosting off his fingers. Looking up from what he was doing he saw that they were both smiling as they watched him.

  “Wow, my mom would have looked horrified at my terrible table manners,” he said with a sad smile. He didn’t really want to think about the family he had left behind, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself.

  “Well, luckily we’re not at a table. Apparently, romance means getting rid of the perfectly good chairs we had out here so we can all sit on the floor,” Eric told him as he held out his own champagne flute for Tyler to toast with him.

  Again, Finn rolled his eyes at his partner. “Because if we were on chairs then it wouldn’t be a picnic.”

  “And picnics are somehow more romantic than regular dinners with comfortable chairs?” Eric asked. It was clear by the way his eyes were smiling that he was just teasing Finn. It was actually the most relaxed Tyler had seen him so far.

  “Yes,” Finn shouted before giving him a playful shove. “I swear you don’t have a single romantic bone in your body.”