by Sable Sylvan
“I didn’t tell anyone,” said Alice. “And now that we’ve told you, we can tell our parents next.”
“Don’t get it twisted. I’m not mad at you,” said Cayenne. “I’m impressed you could keep a secret for that long, especially one that big.”
“When is the wedding?” asked Clove.
“Next year, on our one year anniversary,” said Herbert. “It’ll be right before you all go back to college. Well, except for Abby and Clove, who will have graduated.”
“Wow, so what’s next?” asked Abigail.
“Uhm, you have to move into your rooms and make it your own, obviously,” said Alice. “Herb hired movers, so all of you girls’ stuff is in your rooms.”
“Herb hired movers?” asked Addison, arms crossed. “What’s the game?”
“No game,” promised Herbert. “Addison, I know that Alice and I got off to a rocky start. I can never take that back. All I can do is, for the rest of my life, try to prove to you, and to Abigail, and to Cayenne and Savina, that I love Alice with all my heart. She’s my fated mate. I’m a polar. You know what that means?”
“No,” admitted Addison. “I don’t know much about shifters.”
“Well, that’s okay, I don’t know much about spunky American girls, but I’m sure you’ll be patient with me,” said Herbert. “Because I’m a polar, I can be icy, cold, and sometimes, well, predatory. Alice isn’t my prey. She’s my fated mate, and the only thing I want to hunt down is a future where the two of us can live out our days with the eight of you, my brothers and my new sisters, in peace and harmony. Does that sound okay with you?”
“I guess so,” said Addison.
“Not so fast,” said Abigail. “I need to be absolutely sure that you will never, ever hurt my sister again, Scoville.”
“I love your sister with all my heart,” said Herbert. “I can never ever take back what I did when I first met her. But I promise you, that if anyone ever comes close to making her feel that pain again, or anything close to it, they’ll have me and my whole polar clan to deal with. I’m not just some snot-nosed heir to a multi-billion dollar fortune. I’m from Viking stock. I’m a frikkin’ bear shifter. That means─”
“That means that no matter what, no matter where or when, if anything ever happens to your fated mate, you’ll hear the call, and answer it,” said Clove. “I don’t know the feeling yet, but at the same time, I do. It’s an integral part of the shifter identity. It’s something that drives our very core, and Abby…”
At the mention of her name, Abigail looked to Clove. Had he just called her by her nickname for the first time? And why did she feel as if the man in front of her was much more than an ordinary man?
“…I promise that the feelings my brother says he has, he actually has,” said Clove. “Inside him is the same fiery passion that drives me. That’s why I know it’s real.”
“I guess I’m gonna have to believe you, then,” Abigail said, to both Clove and Herbert. “But if you ever, ever hurt my sister again─”
“Trust me, he’ll have more than Hell to pay, he’ll have to answer to me,” said Clove. “We Scovilles take our fated mates seriously. That’s more than a promise. That’s who we are.”
“Is it?” challenged Abigail, hand on her hip.
“I guess you’ll just have to find out,” said Clove, looking over the spunky BBW. They didn’t have women like this where he was from and he found himself liking her fire.
Herbert looked at Alice while Clove and Abigail had their banter. Alice couldn’t hide her smile, and neither could Herbert. They knew exactly what was going to happen, but did Abigail and Clove? There was no way to know for sure. All anyone could guarantee was that the next few months would be a rollercoaster ride as everyone learned how to handle…The Feminine Mesquite.
Part II
Beauty And The BBQ
Prologue
October
The Quincy Sisters and the Scoville Brothers couldn’t believe it. They’d known that the eldest siblings, the curvy Alice ‘Allie’ Quincy and the heir to billions, Herbert ‘Herb’ Scoville, were dating, but they couldn’t believe that they would announce their engagement over fall break.
After all, the Quincy Sisters and the Scoville Brothers had only met a few months ago, at the end of the summer. After Elijah Quincy, grandfather of the Quincy Sisters, had passed in July, he’d left his company, The Quincy Sauce Company, to his eldest granddaughter, Alice Quincy.
American Elijah Quincy had met the Norwegian Morten Scoville, a billionaire polar bear, during World War II, in a POW camp, but the two friends became arch rivals, as Morten accused Elijah of stealing his sauce recipes. After Elijah’s passing, Morten sent his grandsons, the Scoville Brothers, to retrieve his recipes and litigate to stop the Quincy family from producing a single bottle of Scoville sauce, but what nobody had planned was for Alice and Herbert to fall in love…or for it to be revealed that Alice and Herbert had actually met years ago, at a New Year’s Eve masquerade party. Fate threw them a curveball, and the couple was separated until Fate brought them back together again.
They had started dating a few weeks after re-meeting. The pair had called their siblings back to Fallowedirt, Texas for a housewarming party. The couple had more to announce than their purchase of a mansion they’d renamed Mesquite Manor. The pair had announced their engagement at the party (although they had been engaged since the weekend the Quincy gals went back to college), as well as plans for the future.
“And don’t forget our offer,” said Herbert. “The email we sent you before was serious. Elijah and Morten had one thing in common. They picked their eldest grandchildren to be in charge of the trusts for the younger siblings. That means that whether or not you get your shares of the Scoville or Quincy fortunes depends on following our pretty reasonable demands. We are not about to play games with anyone. At the same time, we want to ensure that there are fortunes for you to inherit, and give you the skills to manage your shares well. That’s why we’ve come up with a plan. We’ll pay off your entire college and your student loan debts…”
“…If you work for the hot sauce company while you are in college,” said Alice. “Just over breaks, of course. Your studies must come first.”
“There’s nobody we trust more with the future of this company than you lot,” said Herbert. “So don’t make us regret trusting you. After all, we are going to be a family.”
The words that Herbert and Alice had spoken played over and over in Abigail ‘Abby’ Quincy’s head. Alice wasn’t the only one who could keep a secret. Just as Alice had talked in private with their grandfather about the future of the company, their parents had had a conversation with the four youngest Quincy gals. How they’d be able to pay for another year of college for Savina, the youngest of the Quincy daughters, and Cayenne, the second youngest, they would be unable to cover Abigail and Addison after this fall semester. Their parents had made a series of investments, and while the first set was able to pay for Alice’s entire college tuition, and for the first three years of Abigail’s schooling, the second set of investments had not fared well and they were unable to pay for the last years of college for the remaining Quincy Sisters.
The offer that Herbert and Alice were making was generous, exceedingly so. Abigail and Addison had already taken out loans for school in the preceding years but had had to apply for extra loans this year, for their second semesters. They had already been talking to Cayenne and Savina about how to apply for loans the next spring. While Herbert and Alice were offering the money as a couple, what they were actually offering was Herbert’s money. It was the same money that had paid for this massive manor and its renovations, which had been done exceedingly quickly, and were good quality to boot. After all, the Scoville Brothers had their tuitions paid by old European money, and what that meant was trust funds, big ones.
Abigail had had her doubts about Herbert. After all, he and his brothers had rolled into town, accosted her sister at their grandpa’s
lawyer’s office, demanding the recipes, and then, threatened the sisters with legal action. They’d then challenged the Quincy gals to a cook-off, which ended in a tie, so Herbert had told Alice he’d drop the suit if she agreed to go on a date with him, and the rest, well, was history.
But, the fact that Herbert was paying for everyone’s college, paying off their debts effective the next week (as there had been more details about the offer in the email), was beyond generous. Alice was Herbert’s fated mate, but the rest of the Quincy Sisters…Herbert didn’t exactly have a legal obligation to care for them. But, he was taking his place as a patriarch of their family, which made Alice their matriarch. After all, the Quincy girls’ parents had retired to their small summer cabana in Florida, which meant somebody had to keep the Quincy Sisters in line. Abigail had to admit it. Herbert was a real stand-up guy…
…But that didn’t mean the rest of the Scoville Brothers had earned her respect. Abigail looked over the room. While the Quincy Sisters were all in comfy sweatpants and hoodies, as they’d flown into Fallowedirt that afternoon and had flown coach, as usual, the brothers Scoville looked like they’d walked out of fashion catalogs. The five Scoville Brothers were the same ages as the five Quincy Sisters, or at least, around the same age. Each of the brothers was slightly older than their corresponding sister.
There was Savina Quincy, the youngest and the fieriest. She was a freshman in college that year, and of course, Alice and Abigail both worried that their firebrand of a sister would get herself into too much trouble, that things would be too hot for her to handle. After all, she was a Quincy, and that meant her curves would attract attention…but sometimes, attention wasn’t good.
Savina’s Scoville counterpart was the youngest Scoville brother, Mason Scoville, who went by ‘Mace’ for short. Mason, like the rest of the Scoville Brothers, was being educated in Europe, at Bonimolean University, the premier academy for the children of the international rich and famous, human and shifter alike. He was wearing dark designer jeans, sneakers that probably cost more than Abigail’s books for the semester, and a black t-shirt that didn’t leave much to the imagination. He had on a spiked belt that glistened. Of course. He had real frikkin’ diamonds in his belt. Real classy! His hair, like that of his brothers, was blond, but his had been dyed pale icy blue. Had he even had to bleach it before dying it? He must’ve, as it wasn’t at all greenish.
Next was Cayenne ‘Kai’ Quincy. She was studying hospitality, and while she was also dressed in comfy clothes, her clothes were more formal than her sisters’ outfits. While Savina was wearing sweats with cartoon characters on them, Kai was wearing stretch jegging material sweats (a miracle of engineering), which showed off all her curves. She had on a hoodie blazer, which was quite chic. While Abby wanted to worry about Kai, she knew she probably had nothing to worry about. Kai was wise beyond her years and was very focused. Even if she hadn’t had a guaranteed job at ‘The Feminine Mesquite’ (the new name that Alice and Herbert had come up with for the sauce company), she would’ve been able to find work easily. She was charismatic and confident. Only time would tell if she could keep that attitude when, like Abby, she was busy working on a thesis.
Kai’s match was Basil. Basil, unlike Kai, was brash. He was wearing a tailored suit with flashy accessories. He also had on a bright pocket square and tie that didn’t match, but somehow, still looked (frustratingly) good together. He was arrogant to the point that he reminded Abby of the first time the Quincy gals had met Herb. The way Basil moved just pissed Abby off, as did his bragging about his study abroad program in Brazil. As a Scoville, he could afford to take any opportunities he wanted to, and Basil was going to go to Brazil that spring for a study abroad program. Neither Alice nor Abby had experienced anything like that…but with Herb’s generosity, maybe Addy, Savina, and Kai would be able to do things Allie and Abby hadn’t even dreamed of doing.
Of course, Addison was there. Quiet, bookish, she was listening to Savina and Kai gush about college. Addy was a junior, and she sure wasn’t going to do a study abroad program. There was no way they could afford it. Abby’s heart broke a little as she wondered how Addy was taking it, listening to the Scovilles talk about Bonimolean U when that was the college she had wanted to go to since, well, they were kids. Majoring in English literature, going to Bonimolean, which was located in the English countryside, would’ve been a dream come true for her. Addy was wearing normal sweats and a big comfy gray cardigan, nursing her tea while she listened to the stories that her sisters told…but when would Addy get to tell her story?
Addy’s counterpart couldn’t be any more unlike her. Sage didn’t exactly come off as a font of sage wisdom. He was what Addy would call a rake, a rapscallion, a hellion, and he was every bit the bad boy. There was no way that this guy would come off as a billionaire if it weren’t for the fact that his reputation as a Scoville preceded him. He was always the loudest person in the room, and his clothes looked like he’d fallen out of bed in them, rather than meticulously selected them out of a curated closet.
And of course, there was her. Abigail. She caught sight of herself in one of the many mirrors in the parlor. Abby did not look good. While her curves weren’t affected by lack of sleep, her eyes were. She had big bags under her eyes. She’d been up late working on her thesis proposal, putting off sleep because she expected to be able to sleep on the airplane. Turbulence and a particularly cranky nine-year old who loved to kick seats had made sure that hadn’t happened. She’d been up for over twenty-four hours, and once it wouldn’t be considered rude, she would go upstairs to retire to her new room. The great thing about the house was that she’d have a huge room all to herself, well, nearly all to herself…
That’s when Abby remembered what Herb and Alice had said. The Quincy Sisters and the Scoville Brothers argued about what the sauce company should be called, the Quincy gals insisting ladies go first so it should be ‘The Quincy-Scoville Hot Sauce Company.’ The Scoville Brothers insisted on ‘The Scoville-Quincy Hot Sauce Company,’ and finally, the couple had revealed that they had settled on ‘The Feminine Mesquite’ to avoid any such argument. Nobody but the couple liked the name, and then, they’d talked about rooming arrangements.
“See, exactly, y’all can’t go a minute without fighting,” said Herbert. “That’s why…we’ve divided up the rooms ourselves.”
“We thought about putting Quincy girls in one section, Scoville polars in another,” said Alice. “But, one-half of the manor has larger rooms than the other, and we knew that you would find reasons to fight over that.”
“That’s true,” admitted Basil.
“We realized that placing you all next to one another will hopefully ease the tension,” said Herbert. “That’s why we’re doing co-ed rooming arrangements, as the Americans do.”
“Excuse me?” said Mason. “You expect us to share rooms?”
“Nobody said anything about sharing rooms,” said Alice. “When we had the manor renovated, we pretty much gutted it and put it back together again. Now, each pair of rooms has two bedrooms that are the same size. Each pair is organized into a suite. Each suite has a pair of private bathrooms, with one shared room you are free to use for whatever you wish. Turn them into studies, libraries, walk-in closets, it’s up to each of you…or rather, each pair of you.”
“That’s right,” said Herbert. “You’re all going to need to learn to get along. So, Alice and I, we’re going to be as hands off as we can possibly be. Come to us if there is a conflict you really can’t solve between yourselves, but otherwise…it’s time for everyone to get a grip. We want this hot sauce company to do well, and every cog in this machine must fit together, or else the entire operation will come to a grinding halt.”
“So how are we being paired off?” asked Cayenne. “Are we drawing straws?”
“We’re organizing you in pairs based on age,” said Alice. “The biggest rooms are going to the eldest. The youngest are getting the smallest rooms. That means it’
s Abby and Clove, Addy and Sage, Kai and Basil, Savina and Mace. Your rooms have already been marked with your names on plaques. You’re welcome.”
That’s right. Abby was going to have to room with that bastard, Clove. Clove was the worst of the Scovilles, always poking his nose in where it didn’t belong. Abby had still had a grudge against Herb based on his behavior during the summer, but Clove had insisted that he knew his brother better than Abby did, because, after all, Clove and Herb were both polar shifters. Who the heck was he to dismiss her concerns?
The only thing more frustrating than Clove’s attitude, that of a haughty know-it-all…was the fact that she couldn’t stop herself from blushing whenever she looked at him.
He wasn’t even that cute.
All he had was that chiseled face. His features only happened to look like they were carved out of marble, but not the kind of cheap fake marble one gets at a mass-produced furniture store. They looked like they belonged on one of Bernini’s sculptures, kept in a billionaire’s private collection or put on display for the masses at a museum older than the USA, one or the other, not something in between. Of course, there was no way Clove would make the cut as a model for Bernini, no way, no how…after all, he wasn’t classically good looking like that bad boy, Sage. No. He looked like one of his Viking ancestors, with blond hair with dirty streaks, which hung against his shoulders. Those streaks made him look like he had just gotten finished wrestling another polar, even when he was freshly showered. His thick shoulders and arms, framing his barrel chest, supported by those strong thighs, completed the look. He was too masculine to be a model for an Italian sculptor. Any statue of him would elicit a primal reaction from every woman within a three-mile radius and cause her to become spontaneously pregnant with his cubs.
