Trent halts in front of me, hugging me.
“What can I do? Did you know you have paint everywhere? Again!”
He laughs,
“Yeah, I was getting cabin seven finished, find Miles and find out what furniture we have on-site for it and get it inside, please.Then we can sign it off and move the focus to another.” He nods and bounds off.
Liam and Nate both give me hugs when they reach us, the quad gives the females dirty looks and then heads off to do their jobs. Again, this is all on purpose. I’m just hoping Amelia understands.
As Nate introduces the women, Esmeralda tries to control the situation by not letting Amelia have a voice. Timber’s Grandfather, Trunk, is helping to restore some of the items inside and manages to distract her for me.
“We would appreciate your view on the housekeeper's quarters, Alma, the TripleMoon housekeeper offered, but it’s a much larger pack, and she hasn’t yet found the time, but as you are here…” She follows him through the kitchen, and Bas and I share a smile.
Amelia relaxes a little, but I need her to relax more.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
AMELIA
Mother isn’t happy that Miss Ember is only seventeen and is in scruffy clothes when she is meant to be the Pack's Luna and the master's goddaughter.
“Thank you, Trunk”, Miss Ember mumbles, then directs me outside and away from Mother. She takes a deep breath when we are away from the main building.
“I’m going to be honest, we are not a traditional pack and probably never will be, the Alpha, one of my mates, is aiming for an MMA career, one of his Betas, my twin, is his trainer, the other Beta plans to be an author, in short, most of the pack has careers already or have plans for them, some plan to do college when high school is over, some are already working, being a few years older than us.” She looks at me to see if I’m following what she’s saying, and I give her a nod.
“I’m an artist and author. I will need someone to remind me to eat when I’m lost in a creative project, as a house, we need someone to cook most meals and oversee the household. Alma, my uncle's housekeeper, has trained the boys into a pretty good routine, and we all agreed we would stick to it and adapt slightly to your way. I’m not saying your training is wrong, but it would probably be easier for you to train a slightly different way than to train ten plus guys to do it another way.
Alma has offered to let you shadow her for a week or so, and she will always be just through the trees if you need her help.” Again, I give her a nod as it all makes sense.
“To start it will just be us, Me and my ten mates in the mainhouse, that cabin will have my twin and his three mates, that cabin will have four single guys, there are three cabins on the other side of the lake, one will not be in use till next year and the other will house the quad as they are setting up a sister business with my older brother.” She gauges my reactions, but she won’t find much, as I know how to conceal things from my mother; we carry on walking.
“Jake asked me to give you this.” She hands me an envelope, and I quickly tuck it into my pocket, forcing myself not to snatch it from her, smoothing the fabric again.
“Eventually we will get extra help for cleaning the house and cabins, and I will ask you to sort the rota for the extras, but for now we plan to do our own laundry and general cleaning, on top of meals we would ask you to do a deep clean of the bedrooms and bathrooms once a month, even if you spilt the rooms over the month and keeping the main rooms downstairs tidy, your spare time is that, and yours for what you wish. If you want to curl up in our library and read, you can,” I stare at her in shock, but she isn’t focused on me right now.
“This cabin is to be yours, well, yours and Jake's if YOU choose to seal the bond, the contract you sign with us will take you from Liam's employ and your Mother's rule.” We are standing in front of a cabin,
“Jake has decided to stay with the Quad until you are ready, but he is to be taken on as our groundskeeper,” I notice Jacob not too far away, near what looks like a collapsed cabin. I crave to run into his arms.
Over the last five years, we have had a few stolen kisses and soft touches; there has to be a catch to all this.
“As you won’t be entertaining like a normal pack, what else do you expect of me?” she plops down on the porch step, and I follow her down, tucking my feet under my bottom, making sure the skirt of my dress covers everything.
“As long as the housework and cooking are done and you throw food at me throughout the day, for all we care, you can pose for nude photos, just nothing illegal. Alma sews and sells her quilts in her spare time, she also donates cakes to local fairs butthat time is up to you, I’ve said the same to Jake and will when we take extra cleaners on but with them, the cleaning will be in exchange for a roof over their head whereas you and Jake will be paid as well as a roof over your heads. I’m not saying we will never entertain like a normal pack, as those things will probably happen at some point,” she gives a shrug, and we both watch the guys near Jacob for a little bit.
Realising I can speak freely with her, I decided to test the waters a little,
“Is topless a rule, or am I allowed to wear t-shirts?” I hear a thud, and then Jacob is staring at me red-faced, Ember bursts out laughing, and I join her in the merriment.
“I would prefer no nudity outside your own cabin in case we do have visitors, and it also may cause problems if your mate keeps killing people for looking at your tits and ass,” Ember chuckles out, and I hum in agreement.
“You also won’t be expected to wear the uniform, this is smart for me, I’m normally in scruffs, covered more in paint than not when I'm in my studio, the guys are similar, again something more formal if we have visitors, but you do you.”
We chat a little longer, I want to look around what will be my cabin, but it makes things too real, and I’m scared. She tells me about the rest of the people in the pack, for a time and about being at school with the Quad.
“Miss, Jake needs your opinion on a few things” Miss Ember hops up, and we follow the guy over. She mumbles,
“This looks more than a compost heap”, which of course, with Shifter hearing the guys, all hear,
