by Cara Adams
“What do you know about Lev?” asked Evan, changing the conversation and surprising him as they finished eating.
“Nothing much. He’s one of the mountain wolves, not a Werewolf Castle wolf. Anastasia’s brothers likely know more about him than I do. Why?” He looked from Evan to Anastasia, wondering what the hell was going on here.
Evan frowned. “It’s just that he seems to be hanging around the kitchen a lot. Not inside—”
“I saw him inside once trying to talk to Kiril and Magnus,” interrupted Anastasia.
“Okay. Mostly not inside, but just around, and yeah either watching me or Anastasia, or talking to Kiril or Magnus, neither of whom seems to want to talk to him.”
“I see. Us asking Kiril and Magnus about Lev might just worry them or make them angry. I can go run a few computer searches right now, but why doesn’t Anastasia phone her brothers and ask them about Lev?” Ion went into Evan’s office to use his computer, so Anastasia went and got her own cell phone, and sat in the kitchen to phone her family. Through the big glass window into the kitchen, Ion saw Evan take out one of the huge inventory lists and started checking supplies. They certainly got through mountainous piles of foodstuffs. Ion had seen the truckloads of potatoes, onions, carrots, cabbages, and turnips arrive, and flour in fifty-pound bags. He shook his head. He preferred working with computers to carrots, that was for sure.
Checking the computer records for Lev was quite revealing. Thoughtfully he looked up Sergei as well. They seemed to be good friends, often seen together. Sergei’s records matched Lev’s. He wondered what Anastasia’s brothers knew.
When he got back into the kitchen, Evan was still on his hands and knees in the storeroom counting things, and Anastasia was making coffee.
“Come and sit down, Evan, and let’s share our information,” he said.
Anastasia handed them each a mug of coffee and sat down herself.
Ion looked at her and said, “What did you learn, Anastasia?”
“The first thing I learned is that Dominik either doesn’t like Lev or else doesn’t trust him. He refused to tell me anything so I said, ‘Fine, be like that,’ and rang Stefan. Stefan called out something to Dominik which is when I realized they were together so I closed off the call and rang Uwe. Uwe suggested Dominik would know more than him and it was only when I threatened to tell Mom who really broke her—Um. Yes, well, that is, Uwe told me that Lev came from much higher up the mountains where they weren’t even a true pack, more just a loose group of wolves who helped each other from time to time. He also said he doubted if they had any morals or sense of honor but that might have just been a big brother overprotecting his little sister.”
“That fits pretty much with what I found out, too.” Dominik was her oldest brother, a wolf. Stefan, the second brother, was also a wolf. But Uwe, the third brother, and Anastasia were both humans.
“What did you learn? So far it just seems that the pack wolves don’t like the wild wolves. That’s not exactly news,” said Evan.
“Yes, but they were not recommended here by any Alpha. That’s unusual. Even the humans who come here to work, like Damask, Anastasia, Tatiana, and Kady, all come with the recommendations of a werewolf Alpha who knows them or their family personally. Lev hasn’t. Which indicates the mountain Alpha doesn’t know Lev well enough to vouch for him.”
Anastasia looked thoughtful. “The Alpha’s well connected on the mountains. He hasn’t got a heap of technology but he does have an awful lot of people who tell him everything that’s going on. I’m surprised he didn’t know Lev will enough to vouch for him. He spoke for Damask, and her parents practically locked her in the house and never let her go anywhere, they were so frightened she’d get ill or hurt.”
Ion grinned. Damask had been an only child and her parents had definitely raised “overprotective” to a whole new level. But it was telling the mountain Alpha didn’t consider he knew Lev on a personal level.
“What else did you find out, Ion?” asked Evan.
“That Kiril and Magnus had to leave Vienna where they were working for our Alpha after Brody and Roman returned home, because the people there who want the Alpha of Turkey to become the new Supreme Alpha of Europe had discovered they came from our pack, and they want our Alpha to support them with his vote. Of course, our Alpha is not part of the association and intends to stay clear of the whole mess. But since Magnus and Kiril have returned, Lev, and also Sergei, have been hanging around them a lot. I’m wondering if they want to try to lock in our Alpha’s vote. There could be plenty of money flying around if that’s the way the Alpha of Turkey operates. Mind you, I don’t know anything. I’m just guessing here.” Ion didn’t want to make it sound as if the Alpha of Turkey planned to bribe people or anything, but all politics could get dirty fairly easily. Politicians were very good at making promises. Just less good at keeping them.
Ion sighed and pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. Most likely their Alpha would still be in his office working, and they really needed to tell him their thoughts. It was possible he already knew everything they did, but Ion had to be sure. He tapped in the numbers of Odette Vulf’s cell phone. The Alpha’s mate was also his personal assistant and knew everything that was happening in the pack.
“Hi, Ion.”
“Good evening, Odette. Anastasia, Evan, and I have some information. It’s possible the Alpha knows it already but can we tell him anyway, please?”
“Sure. Come up now.”
* * * *
As a human working in the kitchen, Anastasia had no reason to be in the east wing so almost never came here. Tatiana, as a costume maker, worked behind the security doors all the time, so she’d brought Anastasia in a few times to see various things, but Anastasia herself was happy enough to stay in the kitchen and its surrounding storerooms, and seldom entered the main castle buildings, although she was hoping to visit the wolves’ private dungeons again soon.
Her heart beat faster at the thoughts of the delights in the dungeon. There was a spanking stool she’d seen. She could imagine kneeling over that and being spanked, or Ion sitting on the stool with her lying on his lap so he could spank her. Either would work just fine to her mind. But right now she needed to think pure thoughts and keep her mind clear in case the Alpha asked her any questions. He was a very clever man and scarily so. Her brothers said he could always tell if a person was lying or not telling the entire story. She’d never seen him angry but believed her brothers implicitly and had no intention of ever upsetting him.
Odette waved them through into the Alpha’s office and he in turn pointed to three wooden, straight-backed chairs and told them to sit.
“You wanted to see me?” he asked.
Ion looked at Evan, and Evan said, “Lev seems to be hanging around the kitchens a lot. He’s only come inside once, we think, when Anastasia saw him try to speak to Kiril and Magnus. But we’ve seen him waiting around outside quite a lot, including quite late at night, ten or after. Yet neither Magnus nor Kiril seems to want to speak to him.”
“Bearing in mind the situation in Europe at the moment, with no Supreme Alpha appointed as yet, we thought you should know about this,” added Ion.
“I suppose as one of our IT specialists you’ve already used your administrator privileges to peek into Lev’s files,” said the Alpha, looking at Ion. Anastasia was glad she was sitting down. The Alpha’s eyes were black and very piercing. If he’d looked at her like that she’d have been terrified, but Ion didn’t blink.
“Yes, sir. Also Sergei’s records, which are surprisingly similar to Lev’s.”
“Exactly. Refresh my memory. What work are they doing at the moment?”
“Mostly shifts on the jumping castle and the maze, sir.”
“Which doesn’t place them in the kitchens, does it?”
“No, sir.” Both Anastasia and Evan answered as well, this time. The kitchens were in the inner courtyard, as were the jumping castle and the maze, all places the tourists f
locked to. But none of them required access into the castle itself. However, there was no reason for Lev to be anywhere near the staff entry to the kitchens, either. The kitchens opened right into the courtyard, so guests could eat in the dining area or carry their food outside and eat at the long benches in the sunshine. The staff access was around back, near a narrow pathway to a “Staff Only” door which led to more storerooms and on into the castle itself. The main entry to the castle was from the inner courtyard and into the great hall, which was where tourists and non-kitchen staff were supposed to go.
Anastasia looked up. The Alpha was nodding at them all. “Thank you for bringing it to my attention,” he said.
Anastasia stood. That seemed like good-bye to her.
Evan and Ion walked back with her to the priests’ house and Ion said, “If I book a dungeon for eight tomorrow night, would that be suitable for you both?”
All the breath left her body. Hell yes! Suddenly she didn’t care about Lev or the lack of a Supreme Alpha in Europe or any of the things she’d been thinking about for the last hour. All she could think about was being with these men, being spanked and then fucked. Tomorrow night. How could she wait that long?
* * * *
After Ion, Evan, and Anastasia had left, Odette logged out of her computer and walked into Yerik’s office, pulling up a chair and sitting, then staring at him. She loved this man with all her heart and had enjoyed working at his side to lead their pack for almost thirty years now. They’d been years of enormous change. The Alpha before Yerik had begun to understand the need for change and had started the modernization of the castle, but it had been Yerik who’d brought in all the most important and meaningful alterations. If not for Yerik there would be no future for the pack, and very likely no pack left at all now, either.
Selling the paintings and possessions collected by dozens of Alphas over hundreds of years could have kept them in food and electricity for perhaps five years. Eight if they’d been very frugal. But only by establishing a profitable business had the entire pack not only survived, but thrived. Every summer was a hell of a lot of work. They had four months, four and a half maximum, to earn enough money to support the entire pack for the rest of the year. Although they opened weekends and holidays all year round, they didn’t make a lot of profit then. All the pack had to work those days so every attraction was open, but instead of thousands of tourists passing through the castle in a day, the numbers dropped down to the hundreds. However, if they didn’t open at all, the tour companies would go elsewhere and likely not come back in summer, so the castle had to remain open.
The website was helping them make money, though. Although not a huge seller, the candy and gifts they made had steady sales to various specialist stores. Odette was confident the children’s dress-up medieval costumes, which Tatiana and a few other women had started making, would also sell to busy moms needing a gift and looking online for something a bit different.
The work just recently begun to turn the west tower into a bed and breakfast facility, offering an evening medieval banquet and then a morning tour of the castle, Leonie’s idea, also had the potential to bring more guests to the castle every weekend as well. The promise of a Saturday night banquet and then sleeping in a genuine medieval castle should bring them more guests year-round.
She smiled at the man who still had the power to make her heart beat faster even after all their years together. “Trouble?” she asked.
“Very likely. Every time I think I’ve sidestepped the train wreck of appointing a new Supreme Alpha of Europe it raises its head somewhere else. It’s like that Hydra thing in mythology. Whenever someone cuts off one head it grows two new ones.”
Odette smiled at him. “And are you Hercules, tasked with killing it?” she asked.
“Fuck no. I just want it to go away before people locate us. But it’s beginning to seem like an impossible task. We always knew we’d be tracked down eventually, but I’d hoped eventually wouldn’t be for a while yet. Unfortunately it’s more likely that eventually is in the immediate future.”
Damn! Odette forced herself to answer softly and calmly. “So who’s found us?”
“Whoever is paying Lev, but likely it’s the Alpha of Turkey.”
Yerik had stopped talking and was looking thoughtful. Odette had a dozen questions she wanted to ask, but she knew she’d find out more answers if she sat here quietly and waited for Yerik to tell her in his own time. She wouldn’t have minded a nice cup of tea to drink while she waited, or even some coffee, but getting up and making a drink would only disturb Yerik and likely derail his thoughts. So she sat and waited. She’d gotten very good at waiting silently over the past years and it always paid off in the end.
“I thought the Alpha of Vojvodina would be the one I needed to watch out for, but he appears to have stopped angling for votes at the moment, anyway. Whereas the Alpha of Turkey is actively canvassing for support.”
Odette nodded. She knew the Alpha of Turkey was meeting with all his supporters in Izmir in a few weeks. What she didn’t know was what Ion, Evan, and Anastasia had just told Yerik that had him thinking their own pack’s security was compromised. Or what Lev had to do with it. Lev wasn’t a Werewolf Castle pack wolf. He was one of the wild mountain wolves, as was Sergei, his friend.
Yerik sat up straighter and looked at her, his black eyes serious and unblinking. “Lev has been harassing Kiril and Magnus. Waiting for them at night, haunting the kitchen precinct, even entering the kitchen on at least one occasion. It seems Kiril and Magnus have remained faithful to the pack, and not told Lev or Sergei anything despite their pressure, but since I had to bring them out of Vienna after they’d been discovered by Gustav Weber, who’s working for the Alpha of Turkey, my guess is that he’s the one paying Lev. Or, if not paying him precisely, he’s offered some inducement that Lev finds irresistible.”
Odette nodded. That all made sense to her. But what to do next was going to be a major problem. They could move Kiril and Magnus out of the kitchen and give them some other job behind the security doors where Lev and Sergei couldn’t go, but that would mean finding two new kitchen hands. The kitchens were very busy right now and could not go short-staffed. However, both Kiril and Magnus had worked in construction with the Alpha of Germany before moving to Vienna, so could be quite useful with the renovation project for the west tower. There were other strong wolves who could be taught the kitchen tasks.
“That Chinese philosopher said something wise and I need to think about it. Not Confucius or Lao Tzu, the other one.”
In spite of herself Odette laughed. “I’m pretty sure there’ve been more than three Chinese philosophers. What did he say?”
Yerik grinned. “It was Sun-Tzu. He said, ‘Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.’ I could tell Sergei and Lev they must leave the castle, but it’d be a devil of a job to prevent them from coming back as tourists, and they could camp out in the outer courtyard anyway and grab Magnus or Kiril any time they tried to leave the castle. So likely it’d be better not to send Lev and Sergei away. But I’m not sure how I can keep a close watch on them. Everyone is already very busy. It’s the height of the tourist season after all, and we have these other projects we’re trying to get underway as well.”
“You need to talk to the Alpha of the Mountains about Lev and Sergei. Why don’t you do that and I’ll look through the work schedules and the wolves we have available, and see if I can find out anything helpful. Give me a call when you’re done and we’ll talk again.”
Odette stood up to leave, but Yerik reached over his desk and pulled her to him. “I love you, Odette. No man could have a better mate than you.” He kissed her hard, thrusting his tongue deep into her mouth, and she had to grab his shoulders to maintain her balance. Wow! Thirty years together and he could still blow her mind with a single, searing kiss.
She staggered backward. “You haven’t lost your touch. Much more of that and no work will get done tonight.”
&n
bsp; “It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve fucked you on my desk.” His eyes were black pools of fire, and her blood heated a few more degrees.
“Yes, but a bed is so much more comfortable for my old bones,” she replied, leaving his office and shutting his door. Although, if he kissed her like that too often, she’d be naked on his desk and saying yes before her brain could remind her of her age! Sighing, she logged back onto her computer and started scrolling through the staff lists. Right near the top was Anastasia. She had a passel of brothers, and what’s more, Odette was sure they’d offered to come here and work at the castle at some stage. She scrolled through the lists and did some searches, noting their names and applications.
Ah yes, that’s right, Anastasia hadn’t wanted them here. She was the chef and wanted her freedom, and they had plenty of unskilled male wolves to do the laboring-type tasks. But now, that could be useful. Being mountain wolves themselves, they’d know both Lev and Sergei and could watch them quite effectively, using their friendship, or at least acquaintanceship, as an excuse.
Odette made some notes and was looking for other possibilities when she remembered Yerik’s comment about the Chinese philosophers. She Googled his quotation and found that it wasn’t Sun-Tzu, a Chinese general, at all, but rather Machiavelli, who’d said it.
“Ha, Yerik. Wait until you tease me about fucking on your desk. I’ve got you now!”
* * * *
Ion spent a lot of time planning their dungeon scene. He wanted something to push Evan and Anastasia’s boundaries, to move them on to the next stage. He was very hopeful that their relationship would work as a mated triad, but there were things they needed to experience first that could make or break a relationship. A little spanking wasn’t the same as a full-on intense BDSM scene. And if Anastasia wasn’t prepared to have the two men double fuck her, one in her cunt and the other in her ass, Ion couldn’t see the relationship working long-term. Oral sex was wonderful indeed, but unless both men were inside her together, it wouldn’t be a true union, in his mind.
