Ayden had been working for Brandy to go to places to see why they were losing money.Once, he’d been working as a dishwasher at a high-end restaurant, and they were losing money.Come to find out they were selling off the meat that was to be used at the restaurant and selling human flesh to the customers, the employees.Ayden had been eating at the place for over a week by then and had gotten an aversion to red meat after finding that out.Not only him, but his wolf as well, couldn’t stand to be around it or even to smell it on someone else’s plate, or he’d be sick.She felt sorry for him and was glad that the people at the restaurant had all been arrested.
By the time dessert was being served, she was full.They always had good dinners when theywent to Brandy and Lica’s home, and this was no exception.The pork chops had been braised in something peppery, and the au gratin potatoes had been her favorite.She ate a little pie but was too full to eat much more than a couple of bites of it.
“I had the strangest animal in today.Usually, I get in dogs and cats with an occasional hamster.But today I was to see an emu.I only had to make sure that they were healthy, as I don’t know exotic animals all that well, but it was odd having one in the office.”Lica said he’d never seen an emu before.“Me either, but in the zoo.But the woman who brought him in said that she raises them, and this one had been acting off.As I said, I don’t specialize in exotic animals, and she had to take him to Columbus, but it was something that I’m going to remember from now on.”
“How is your business going, Ivan?I’ve not heard that you were having any troubles.I guess you did all right by buying up old man Wiggins’ place.”He said that he was having fun and he thought that was the best part of his job.“Good.I noticed, too, that you’ve put in for a couple of shifts at the slaughterhouse.Just don’t overdo it.We have enough people working for us now that we don’t have to come in to cover anymore.Just remember that when you’re too tired.We’re doing all right now.”
“I will, but it gets me out of the house.”Lica told him that he knew how that was.“Sometimes it’s just good to see something different.I get to talk to the others, too, when I’m there.That’s a rare treat for me when everyone is so busy all the time.I usually can’t wait until we have our Thursday dinners.It’s the highlight of my weeks.”
Sen knew that the men all got together once a week, and the women in the family did as well.They never talked of business when they were out with each other, and that was good.It was their time to catch up on their daily lives and get to know what was going on.Even with the new baby in the family, there was much to talk about, and she was looking forward to her first dinner with the women.She liked them all very much.
After dinner, she and Ivan went back to her place.The more time she spent in the place, the more she could find wrong with it.While she was happy to have a house, this one wasn’t one that she wanted to make her forever home.Tomorrow, she and Ivan were going to look at a couple of houses around town and see what they could find.She also wanted to get to know him a little better.They were having so much fun just talking that she sometimes forgot that they hadn’t known each other all that long.It seemed like he’d been in her life forever.
She wondered what he’d say if she told him that she was falling in love with him.Ivan was the kindest person she’d ever met, and she loved to watch him with the animals that he worked with.Sometimes she’d just go sit in his waiting room to meet the animals that he treated.He thought she was silly, but she didn’t care.She thought it was great that animals trusted him so much when they didn’t feel well or were hurt.
Chapter 5
Debra didn’t want to meet her daughter for lunch unless she got to pick out the place.It would be someplace cheap, and she didn’t care for that when someone else was paying.She’d better have her banking information on her so that she could get into her accounts again.This was just bullshit that she was blocking her from her money when she wanted some of it.As soon as she showed up at the place, she knew two things at once.
There was a man with Sen, and the place was simply too cheap for her to even show her face at.They served things like burgers and salads.She wanted to have steak and potatoes for her lunch, and Sen knew it.She didn’t sit down but told the man that he had to leave.
“He’s the reason that I wanted to meet you today.We’re getting married.”It was a good thing there was a chair behind her, or she might have ended up on her ass.Sitting there staring at her daughter, she couldn’t believe that after all this time, she was throwing something like that at her.“Mother?Don’t you have something to say?”
“I do.I forbid you to get married.You’re too young, and I won’t have it.”Sen just laughed.It wasn’t like her to be laughing when she put down the law.“You heard what I said.Now get rid of him so that we can talk about business.And there will be no more conversations about marriage.I don’t want to be known as old enough to have a married daughter.”
“I’m almost twenty-five, Mother, and I’m well old enough to be getting married.And frankly, I don’t care what your opinion is about it; he’s asked me, and I said yes.The only reason that we’re doing this the way that we are is that I didn’t want you to be able to make a scene.”Debra looked around and decided that she was going to do just that.Make a scene so that the young man would be too embarrassed to be seen with either one of them again.“You make a scene right now, and I’ll walk out of this restaurant, and you’ll be here all alone.I don’t care what you have to say about us getting married.The only reason we’re here is so that you didn’t find out when you read it in the newspaper.”
“Like I care what people think.”She decided that she was going to scream and took in a deep breath to do so.When the man put his hand over hers, she nearly did scream when it morphed into a great paw.“What sort of monster do you think you’re marrying?He’s got a paw as a hand, Sen.What do you have to say about that?”
“He’s a shifter wolf.”When the man came to take their order, she was too mesmerized by the paw to make any kind of order in her head.Someone must have ordered for her because when the paw disappeared into a hand, the waiter was gone.She looked at Sen.“Your mouth is hanging open.People are beginning to stare at you.”
Snapping her mouth closed, she looked around the room.People were indeed staring, and she hated that.If the attention was going to be on her, she wanted to be the one in control of it.And she wanted to be the one who had started it.Picking up her napkin, she noticed that she had a small cut on her hand.Licking the blood off, she heard the man laugh.
“I have a connection with you now.”She didn’t know if that meant anything to her, but she was suddenly afraid.Shifters were all monsters, and she didn’t want anything to do with them.This man was a wolf, and she knew that he was more than likely some kind of dog monster.“You might want to know, too, that I can read your mind.There isn’t much in there, but enough for me to know that you might want to be looking for yourself another home.”
“Why?What do you know?”It was Sen who answered her, and she didn’t like that any better.“What do you know of you turning twenty-five?You stay out of my business.You’d better not be talking to your father.So help me, I’ll kill you if you have been.”
“As a matter of fact, I have been.You told me nothing about him, so I thought I’d look and seewhat I could find out on my own.”She slapped her hand down on the table and told her to stop that right now.“I’m afraid it’s too late.I’ve dinner plans with him tonight, and we’re going to get to know one another.”
“I forbid it.”Sen laughed again.“I don’t think this is the least bit funny, Sen.The man wanted nothing to do with you, and my word should be enough.I demand that you stop this nonsense right now and forget about seeing him.He’s nothing to you.”
“But my father.Right?I mean, you put it right there on my birth certificate, what his name is.All I had to do was request a copy of it to get married, and there it was.He was easy enough to find, too.It wasn’t as if he was trying to hide from me.And once I spoke to him, he told me all kinds of things that I didn’t know before.Like you blackmailed him to stay out of my life.I might not have believed it, but he has the contract that you signed when you had him staying away.”Debra was dizzy with anger, and she might well have slapped her daughter but for the man sitting next to her.He was looking at her as if he knew what she was planning.
“You touch her, and I’ll kill you by ripping your throat out right here at this table.I’m not messing around with you today.You so much as pull your hand back to do her harm, and that will be the end of you.”She shivered, knowing on some level that he wasn’t kidding about what he’d do to her either.“Here comes your food.Eat it and keep your mouth shut.Or I will shut it for you.As I said, I’m in no mood to mess with you.”
“Do you hear the way that he’s talking to me?Have you no say in what he’s threatening to do to me?”Sen said that she was on the same page as he was.“You’re going to side with him after everything I’ve done for you?”
“What is it that you’ve done for me, Mother?Nothing if you’re going to be thinking on that.You’ve done nothing but keep me from a father that I’m looking forward to being around.A good deal more so than I want to be around you.”She picked up her burger and bit down into it.“This is really good.You should enjoy it before we leave.”
“Where do you think you’re going?”Before she could think about what she was doing, Debra picked up her sandwich and took a bite of it.It was her favorite, ham and Swiss cheese.Just the way that she liked it.With the crunchy toast and the slices of ham so thin that she could read through them.But she’d never tell Sen that.Or the man next to her.But she had a feeling that he knew.He seemed to know everything that was going on.“I asked you a question.Where is it that you think you’re going?We’re not finished with this conversation yet.You’ll not be seeing your father, and you’ll not be getting married.That’s final.What I say goes with you, Sen, or so help me I’ll kill you when I find out where you’re meeting him.Him too for being a bastard all my life.”
“You mean providing you with a house and car?Money each month when you needed it?Is that what you consider treating you poorly?If only I had known that you had money at your disposal, I wouldn’t have taken you out to lunch at all, with you telling me you nearly broke me when I needed the money more than you did.”She took another bite of her burger and smiled at her.“But I’m not worried about you any longer.When I get married, which is going to happen and soon, I’ll be living a grand life with Ivan here, and we’ll not think of you at all.I wish there were a reason I could send you off to prison, that would just make my day.But I can’t, so I guess I’ll have to put up with you the old-fashioned way and avoid you at all costs.Which won’t be hard, I don’t think.You won’t have any place to live once I meet with my dad tonight.That was the stipulation, right?Once I met him on my terms, your contract with him is null and void.”
“Why are you treating me this way?I’ve done nothing wrong to you.You’ve lived a good life thanks to me.”She asked her if she meant being sent to a boarding school.“I made that happen for you.”
“By beating me because I asked about my father?Yes, I remember that.You nearly killed me when I asked you where he was.”She said she got to live, didn’t she?“Yes, no thanks to you.I was rushed away from you and spent some wonderful years with my aunt and uncle.I know, he’s your brother.But he loved me.You?I’m not so sure.”
“Howard was a monster.Did he tell you that he was a pedophile?I bet that never came up when he was telling you all about himself.”She said that it didn’t because it wasn’t true.“So you believe him over me?”
