Publicly Exhibited [Werewolves of Hanson Mall 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (2 page)

“My name’s Dakota. There’s a First Aid room upstairs and the nurse on duty is an absolute dragon. No one will get past her without your permission. Why don’t I take you there and you can nap a while?”

Willow smiled at the guard. “That would be wonderful. It’s so kind of you. Thank you.”

They picked up their backpacks and put them on, then followed Dakota out of the ladies’ room. A male security guard glanced at Dakota but she shook her head and the man fell in behind them. It made Willow feel safe. For the first time in a week she knew Bailey Hamilton wouldn’t be able to scream and shout at them or convince the mental health authorities to lock up her baby sister. For the next little while they really would be able to sleep in safety. And after a rest hopefully she could think more clearly about where to go next.

* * * *

Rhion Jones looked at the text message on his cell phone.

They’re victims not perpetrators. Taking them to First Aid.

“Well thank you, Maelor, that doesn’t tell me anything.” As Cadfael’s second-in-command, Rhion was used to jumping into situations where he had absolutely no clue what was going on, hoping someone would help him out before he made a total idiot of himself. This looked like yet another one of those days. He considered knocking on Cadfael’s door and asking for some information, then shrugged and ran down the stairs to level four. Four was the top level of the mall itself, the highest floor where customers were welcome to walk around unsupervised. Opposite the movie theater and three restaurants was a double glass door into the professional suite. Immediately inside that area was a desk where Sophie the receptionist sat, fielding phone calls and visitors.

In truth, the “professional offices” were for the management of the mall, and the general running of the pack. On higher floors several pack members had their own apartments. The list of businesses on the signboard was just for show and no floor levels were listed. The only way to use the elevator in this area was with a swipe card and to know which floor button to press. Of course, someone could steal a swipe card then press each button until one activated the elevator, but it hadn’t ever happened. Besides, the intruder would still have to break into the apartment he reached on the level he’d accessed anyway. It wasn’t a perfect system, but it was unobtrusive and reasonably secure.

Rhion smiled at Sophie, pleased he’d arrived before Maelor Powell and whoever he was with, and stepped into the office designated for the center manager, who was Dylan Upjohn. “What’s going on?”

“Fuck if I know. Cadfael saw two women running and thought they might be shoplifters. Maelor and Dakota went to investigate and Dakota’s asked the nurse to make up beds for them.”

Just then he heard Dakota speaking to Sophie, and he and Dylan walked to Dylan’s doorway. The nurse came bustling out of the First Aid room.

“Oh, you poor babies. You do look exhausted. Come with me and have a nice nap.” She ushered the two women into the room and shut the door with a snap.

Rhion felt the urge to giggle but managed not to. No one ever upset the nurse. He rather thought they’d find their balls nailed to the wall if they attempted it.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“Come into my office,” added Dylan.

Yeah. That was a better idea. An innocent customer could walk through the doors into this area at any moment, and Sophie would find out everything from the nurse sooner or later anyway.

Dylan poured them all a cup of coffee from his personal machine, but even that didn’t clear his brain much as Dakota told them what she knew.

“An abusive boyfriend. Oh well I expect Nurse Eilidh will get the story from them. Thanks, Dakota and Maelor.”

The two guards left the office and Rhion sat down to wait. He knew the nurse would be able to give them a fuller picture when the time was right. It wasn’t much more than twenty minutes later when she tiptoed into the room.

“They’re both asleep, poor mites.”

Mentally Rhion shook his head. “Babies” and “mites” didn’t really apply to the two women. They were young and tired-looking, yes, but adults not children.

“So what’s the story?” he asked.

“You might want to Google Bailey Hamilton and see what you can find out about him. He’s been abusing the younger one. She had a dream or some such that she told him about, and he’s been using that to try to have her declared mentally incompetent. It made me wonder if she’s the heir to some wealth, or some property he wants to take from her, although surely she’d have willed it to her sister, not to a mere boyfriend. Anyway he’s chased her halfway across the state. I’d like them to stay here for a few days until they get their strength back. They’re both totally exhausted.”

Rhion thought. They did have a couple of vacant apartments. They used them for when guests visited. But letting two human women stay in the heart of a mostly male wolf pack was a bit unusual. “If I let them use 7C would you be prepared to stay with them?” he asked.

“Of course. There’s nothing wrong with Hawthorne’s mental faculties. She asked me how my name was spelled and what it meant, and then Willow commented that Maelor’s name was Welsh as well.”

“So what did you say?” asked Dylan.

“What we always say. My name is spelled E-I-L-I-D-H, pronounced Aylee, and means light. And the reason for the Welsh names is that this area was settled by Welsh immigrants a couple hundred years ago and the names have stayed. I also told her that she’d likely meet more people with the last name Jones, none of whom were related to the others, here, than on the Welsh rugby team.”

The time half of the fifteen Welsh rugby players were named Jones, none of them related to any of the others, had gone down in history. Laughing, Rhion chanted, “
Adam Rhys Jones
,
Dafydd Jones
,
Ryan Jones
,
Stephen Jones
,
Mark Jones
,
Adam M. Jones
,
Alun Wyn Jones
,
and
Duncan Jones
.”

Eilidh bustled away again, and Rhion stood. “Okay put them in 7C. I’d better get back to my own job.”

Dylan waved and Rhion went across the foyer and headed up the stairs. Some days the only exercise he got was running up and down the stairs. Ah well, at least he had a job he liked and a boss and Alpha who was his best friend.

The brief image of the two women was vivid in his brain. Worldwide, far more male werewolves were born than females. Only about one third of children were girls. So recently two male wolves had been sharing a human female as their mate. Of course human women who wanted to marry a werewolf weren’t standing on every street corner either, but at least some wolves were able to find a mate now, who wouldn’t have been able to before.

The two young women who’d come into his foyer were clearly tired and worn out. But also beautiful. Unfortunately the chance of them believing in werewolves was likely right around zero. And the abusive boyfriend would need to be circumvented too. Well that was something he could do. Find out all about Bailey Hamilton. What was his problem? Were the women wealthy heiresses? Or was he just an angry asshole?

Willow woke up with a start. Her heart pounding with fear, she rolled off the bed and jumped to her feet, looking all around the room for the noise that had disturbed her. But her sister still slept soundly in the narrow twin bed on the other side of the room, the door was shut tight, and there was no sign of Bailey Hamilton or anyone else. She sank back down on the bed with a sigh, holding her hand to her chest, trying to still her racing heartbeat. Only when she could breathe freely again did she notice how very thirsty she was.

And hungry. She tried to remember the last time she’d eaten a proper meal but couldn’t. Not since Bailey had threatened to have Hawthorne locked away in a psychiatric institution. She and Hawthorne had wished a million times over that Hawthorne had never spoken about her—what? Dream? Genuine sighting? But it was too late. Hawthorne had told Bailey and he’d immediately started trying to force her to see his friend, the psychiatrist.

No. She wasn’t going to think about it anymore. She would get a drink of water. She pulled her cell phone from her jeans pocket and checked the time. Only four. Maybe she could even sleep some more. She’d ask the nurse what time the mall closed.

Willow tiptoed out of the room, shutting the door oh-so-very slowly so it didn’t wake Hawthorne.

The nurse was sitting at her desk, glasses perched on the end of her nose, looking through them down at the keyboard, and over the top of them when she raised her head and noticed Willow standing there.

“You’ve had a nice nap, dear. How do you feel now?”

“I’m very thirsty. Is there a water cooler here, please?”

“I have water.” The nurse bustled across the room and opened a small refrigerator Willow hadn’t even noticed, pulling a bottle of water from it. “Here you go, dear. Sit down and drink.”

She shouldn’t have still felt tired after sleeping for more than an hour, but she did, so sat as directed and twisted the cap of the bottle to take a long drink. “Thank you.” Then remembering the nurse’s name, said carefully, “Thank you, Nurse Ay-lee.”

“Eilidh. It’s a difficult name, but traditional Gaelic. And your name is Willow, you said?”

“Yes. Willow Cunliffe and my sister is Hawthorne.”

“Very pretty names. You still look tired. Have you been on the move for long?”

Willow sighed. She sipped from the water bottle again. “Not really. Only a week but it seems like forever. I never really liked Bailey, but I never expected him to try to have Hawthorne put in an institution. There’s nothing wrong with her mind. She’s as smart as anyone else. And she’s never done drugs. I don’t understand what set him off. He’s fixated on her. He’s been following us, trying to force Hawthorne to see his friend, the psychiatrist. He’s been totally single-minded about it, as if it’s incredibly important to him.”

“Does he own joint property with your sister? Is he perhaps hoping to gain complete control of something that matters to him?”

“I’ve asked Hawthorne about this, but she said she certainly hadn’t written a will or anything like that. And we don’t own much anyway. We each have a half share of our parents’ house, which is where we live. But it’s a very ordinary house on a smallish block of land and it isn’t worth all this much trouble. Besides, even if he locks up Hawthorne there’s still me.”

The nurse nodded. “It’s a mystery then.”

“What time does the mall close? I don’t want us to be some of the last to go. We need to leave in a big group. I was thinking we could catch a bus to the next town and stop there for the night. I really need to make some proper plans for our future. We can’t keep living the way we are now.”

Willow felt the small amount of energy having a nap had given her drain away. They were safe now but only for the next hour. Then it’d be back to running and trying to hide with Bailey right behind them. And two young women with large backpacks were so easy to trace. Maybe they should find an airport and fly somewhere. They didn’t have their passports with them but they could at least skip over a few states. Enough to make it harder for him to find them maybe.

“The manager has said you can stay in one of the guest apartments here for a few days. Long enough to sleep properly and recruit your strength. I’ll stay with you to look after you.”

“We can stay? Would it be expensive? We can pay our way but—”

“The manager would never overcharge you. The price will be reasonable.”

“That would be great, thank you.” Willow relaxed. A safe place to sleep would be wonderful. The past few nights they’d stayed in nondescript motels, trying to be invisible. But without a car, getting around was harder than it seemed. Especially when they didn’t know the public transportation around here.

“This afternoon we jumped on a bus and just went where it took us. I’m glad it brought us here. You’ve been so kind,” she said.

“I’m a nurse. Looking after people is what I do. Now why don’t you look through the mall’s website and choose what you and your sister would like for your meal tonight. The restaurant manager can bring it up here just before they close for the night.”

“Food. Oh that sounds good.”

She sat in front of Eilidh’s computer and clicked on the links on the mall’s website, which the nurse had brought up onto the screen for her. “So many choices.”

“And all of them delicious,” said the nurse. It was the first time Willow had seen her smile and she smiled back.

Hawthorne woke up just after five and Willow had scarcely finished explaining everything to her before a young man in a Hanson Mall uniform arrived with their meal and another parcel for Eilidh. Immediately she locked her office and the First Aid room and collected a swipe card from Sophie, the receptionist.

They stepped over to the elevator and Eilidh swiped the card. “When you’re upstairs, to leave, all you have to do is press the button for the lowest level. But to make the elevator go up, the keycard has to be swiped as well as the floor button being pressed.”

Willow watched as the doors opened, and then Eilidh swiped the card again and the lift went up three floors.