Two Wolves and a Builder's Daughter [Werewolf Castle 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read online

  There was silence and Brody guessed she was thinking it over. He was back to silently chanting, begging her to accept. At least she wasn’t giving them an automatic rejection. She was kind enough to think seriously about their offer.

  “What time does it start and where does it leave from? I expect I’ll be late into work and need to know how late as well.”

  Quickly Roman gave her the details. “I could pick you up if you like. Also, we could go out for brunch afterward as well if you want to. We’d certainly enjoy that.”

  “No. I’ve just started a new job and don’t want to push my luck. Coming in late will be enough of a change for me so soon in this new place. But thank you for inviting me. I’m really looking forward to it.”

  Brody sat staring at Roman’s cell phone. The screen had closed when she ended her call. “I wonder if she’s changed her job because she wasn’t allowed to take over from her father. She seemed quite upset about that even though she was hiding it,” he said thoughtfully.

  “Yes. I wondered if she didn’t prosecute us almost as a way of paying them back for rejecting her. Not that I’m complaining about that for a moment,” said Roman.

  “Anyway we have our date tomorrow. So that’s awesome.”

  “Well, we will in a moment when I book it.” Roman hit a few buttons on his cell phone and made the booking, reading out his credit card number for the person on the other end of the conversation.

  Brody was so excited at the thought that she’d be spending time with them doing something pleasurable together. Of course, if she went to bed with them that’d be even more pleasurable, but this first date was absolutely essential. And she could so easily have said no. Now, how to move them from a date to the bedroom? That was the next challenge for them. And they needed to talk. She knew about shape-shifters. She’d made that plain. But would she be interested in mating them. Two of them? As a ménage? That was rather a giant leap from just knowing about them.

  Before he could say anything his cell phone rang. “It’s the Alpha,” he told Roman, realizing he hadn’t told him about the people at the cathedral yet.

  “Your semester has finished just in time. The Alpha of Vojvodina is making his move to become Supreme Alpha of Europe. You’ll both be working for the Alpha of Vienna this summer. I want to know everything they know. Their Alpha has promised to keep me informed. Obviously you’re both too junior to be included in any important meetings, but make sure they understand in exchange for your labor I want copies of all papers sent to me.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Good. You know where their office is. You’re due there at nine tomorrow. Make sure you look like office workers not students. I’ll transfer some funds into your accounts so you can buy some decent pants, shirts, and shoes. Remember. You’re on loan to the Alpha of Vienna but your primary allegiance is to me.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “You, too, Roman. This is both of you.”

  “Yes, Alpha.”

  The Alpha abruptly ended the call.

  Brody stared at Roman. “Fucking hell. There goes any chance of getting to know Leonie better.”

  “Or of going home anytime soon.”

  “I’m sorry. I know you were looking forward to being in the mountains again.”

  “At least we’ll have this one date tomorrow morning. It’s just as well the balloon flight is so very early or we’d have to cancel even that. And maybe once things settle down a little we could take her out for an evening or on the weekend.”

  But Brody wasn’t convinced. He had tomorrow’s hot air balloon trip to get to know the woman he wanted to mate and then nothing for perhaps months. Shit! It could even take a year before the position of Supreme Alpha of Europe was sorted out. A year in which Leonie could find and mate another man or men. Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!

  Chapter Three

  By the time Leonie arrived at the park on the outskirts of the city, there was a crowd standing around the three balloons which were gradually being filled with hot air from a massive burner. She eyed one of the baskets, sitting on the ground attached by many ropes to the balloon. It looked sturdy enough. She anticipated there’d be a weight limit which would roughly translate to the number of people allowed on the flight.

  The whole idea of floating through the air enchanted her. She’d never even thought of doing such a thing before, but now that it’d been suggested to her, she was pleased they’d managed to plan an outing that so aptly targeted her tastes. She loved machinery. She loved doing new things. Besides, she’d been attracted to these two men from the moment she met them. They called to her in some weird way. Maybe it was the whole “bad boy” image. She’d always been such a very good girl, working her ass off for her father. And what a waste that’d turned out to be. Her father had done exactly as his Board of Directors wanted, instead of acting as the owner of the company, which he was, or even as a loving father.

  She was certain if it had been the board denying him something he’d really wanted he’d have gotten his own way despite them. But not for her. She wondered if he’d already chosen some man to succeed him. Oh, well, it could have been worse. He could have tried to marry her off to the man he’d chosen to succeed him. At least this way she was free to marry whoever she chose. If she chose.

  But marriage was a long way in the future. Right now she was ready and willing to spend an hour or two getting to know Roman and Brody better. Two wolves. And how amazing was that when she’d just started working for a wolf pack.

  Almost as if she’d conjured them out of her thoughts, Brody and Roman appeared out of the darkness beside her.

  “Good morning. I’m so glad you agreed to take this flight with us,” said Roman, his dark eyes sparkling at her and his mouth a wide, happy smile. She was surprised to see both men wearing business pants and button-down shirts. She’d assumed they’d be wearing jeans, or even the knee-length leather shorts so many German men liked so much.

  “I thought I’d be the only one wearing work clothes,” she said.

  “Semester has finished. Our…boss…has found us a job for the vacation and we start work at nine today,” said Roman.

  “I suppose you’re looking forward to working. Is it something that will help you find a position after you graduate?”

  “It’s for the same company which supported us while we were studying, but the actual work we’ll end up doing will be different,” said Brody.

  Leonie stared at them. That was the perfect example of someone answering the question without answering the question. She wondered what they weren’t telling her. Was it something to do with being shape-shifters? She supposed they had to keep all sorts of things hidden from the real world so their people weren’t persecuted. That would be a really interesting conversation, although not for now. Now was for a fun outing.

  The guide called them over to the balloon and started explaining about the flight in German. He said exactly the same thing again in English, then in French, Italian, and Austro-Bavarian. Finally he spoke in an Asian language. She glanced around and saw a small group of Japanese tourists. Ah right, he was likely speaking Japanese.

  They were allocated to their various balloons and told where to stand and what to hold onto. Then more hot air was added, the crew ran around untying ropes, and finally the balloons lifted off and floated gently up into the sky. Every now and then the engineer onboard added blasts of heat from the gas cylinder under the balloon and used the ropes attached to the balloon to turn them this way and that.

  In only a very few minutes they were much higher than she’d imaged, the city a tiny toy town below them. Apart from a few whispered words now and then from the other people in the basket with her, Brody, and Roman, and the occasional blast of fire to direct their flight, it was totally silent. They floated through the air into the rising sun, leaving no trail behind them, making no noise, just watching the world pass silently beneath them.

  “This is amazing. It’s so peaceful and perfect up here,
” she whispered.

  The tranquility was totally restful. From up here she could believe that the world was a harmonious place where everyone was happy. She let the quietness and sense of order wash through her as she stared at the world below, then at the sky as it lightened gradually around her and the sun rose. For the first time since her father had rejected her, she felt totally relaxed and at peace.

  She also hid a smile as Brody and Roman hovered by her side. They turned and looked all around as she did, but they maintained positions very close to her, on either side of her, or just behind her. It made her think of a dog guarding its bone which nearly made her giggle at the thought they were wolves and she was the bone. But it was also rather cute that they thought of her like that, and that they wanted to protect her and look after her.

  Well, she was certainly interested in seeing more of them. They were friendly, entertaining, and good-looking. What woman could ask for more from a casual date? Once she got to know them a little better everything might change of course. If they really were lawbreakers she would be ending the friendship straight away. But she didn’t think they were. She was quite a good judge of character and they seemed honest at core to her.

  Gradually the three balloons lost height, and Leonie watched the engineer turn the ropes this way and that, add bursts of hot air, then open the vent to let air out of the balloon, and finally they were dropping down, down, down, into a park on the opposite side of the city from where they’d begun.

  “Hold on tightly,” the engineer yelled.

  No one needed that instruction translated as everyone turned to hold onto the basket with both hands. There was a bump, a bounce, and they were on the ground being dragged a short way by the balloon.

  Theirs was the second one to land and they were encouraged to climb out fast as the teams had to pack everything up as quickly as they could. Roman jumped out first and held her upper arm as she hoisted herself over the chest-high side of the basket. Brody gave her feet a bit of a push then followed her over the side. By the time she’d crossed the grass to stand by the parking lot as instructed, the crew was arriving with trailers to collect the equipment, and a bus to take the passengers back to their own vehicles.

  “It’s pretty full-on for the crew, isn’t it? While we’re flying they have to pack up all the burners and everything at the start point, then get here to collect us. They work quite hard,” she said.

  “I agree. They must start hellishly early in the morning to have it all ready for us before dawn as well,” added Brody.

  The third balloon had landed and they were all told to board the bus. Roman guided them to the backseat so they could sit together, and once again Leonie hid a grin. She was happy to have one of them on each side of her, and she enjoyed their light conversation all the way back across the city to the start point. The bus was filled with the noise of everyone talking about the flight in half a dozen different languages. But Leonie was used to that. Austria was not a large country geographically, only five hundred eighty kilometers wide and two hundred ninety-five kilometers from north to south. Besides, it bordered eight different countries—Germany, the Czech Republic, Italy, Slovenia, Hungary, Switzerland, Slovakia, and Liechtenstein, so there were always many tourists here.

  “Do you have weekends off work?” Brody asked her.

  “Sometimes. Why?” Although she wasn’t expected to work weekends, Leonie had found herself quickly slipping into the habits of a lifetime. There was such a huge amount of papers to be digitized, and she had no hobbies as her life had always been focused on her father’s company, so she tended to gravitate back to the office and the mountains of work waiting for her there.

  “We’re just starting our job today and don’t know what our hours will be, but we’d like to take you out again, maybe for dinner or something like that,” said Roman.

  “I truly enjoyed this morning and I’d be happy to spend more time with you. When you know your hours call me and we’ll find a mutually agreeable time,” she replied. Leonie couldn’t help her heart doing a little flutter in her chest. She had loved this morning, and she was attracted to the men. Getting to know them better seemed to be a logical next step. It’d been so long since she’d dated anyone at all. Not in the past year when the only people she met worked for her father and she wasn’t prepared to date anyone in the company.

  The men stood beside her car back in the parking lot and watched her leave. All the way to work she was smiling and happy. She liked them both very much. Of course, two men was rather unusual, but she wasn’t silly and knew the new Alpha of the Vienna Pack was partnered to both a man and a woman. He was the big powerful man from the funeral and his partners were the blond man, Steve, who interviewed her and the woman, Josie. She’d recognized them instantly when she’d applied for this job and she spent some time with them both each day in the course of her work. She hadn’t actually spoken to the CEO, as she still thought of him, but then she didn’t expect to, either.

  If a ménage worked for him there was no reason she couldn’t date two men simultaneously. It wasn’t like she was cheating on them. They both knew about each other.

  She went into work smiling, relaxed, and happy. She’d loved her balloon-ride start to the day. She was excited at the thought of seeing more of Brody and Roman. Her life was looking pretty good right now. So what if both her job and her romance were strictly for summer? There was no reason why she couldn’t have some summer fun right now.

  * * * *

  Roman and Brody had decided to share a motorcycle to the werewolf headquarters, with Brody riding behind Roman. Normally they would probably take public transportation, or each ride their own motorcycle, but since they were in a hurry this morning and had no idea of what would be required of them, it was easier to come together.

  “If we both need our own machine I’ll take you home to get yours,” said Roman.

  “It’s more likely we’ll be sitting in a room somewhere watching old surveillance tapes, hoping for a clue as to what’s going on,” sighed Brody.

  Brody was surprised when they were directed to a distant part of the basement parking lot, nowhere near the elevator, and were met there by the Alpha himself.

  He handed them each a keycard to use for access to the building, and said, “Inevitably people will come to recognize you, but I’d like to keep the fact of which pack you belong to as secret as possible for as long as I can. The Alpha of Vojvodina is making his move to become Supreme Alpha of Europe. I have yet to be convinced he’s the best man for the job. Our young men and other university students are busy transferring all our old paper files onto the new database so our information is up-to-date and much more easily accessible than it has been previously. Anyone who asks you, that’s what you are doing, too. But the only files you’ll be given are ones that relate to Vojvodina and the various contenders for the position of Supreme Alpha. I want you to build me as in-depth a picture of that land and its people, and the would-be Supremes as you can. Understand?”

  “Yes, sir.” Brody liked the idea of this job. It was useful, and something he was sure he could do. He’d been a little worried he’d have some spy-type role assigned to him and he wasn’t at all convinced he could do that kind of work.

  “Email me copies of your reports each evening.” The Alpha handed each of them a card with his email address on it. Then he focused his piercing black gaze on them. Brody felt a trickle of sweat run down his spine. It wasn’t from heat. It was fear. This man was powerful and no one could be unaware of his strength of character.

  “I know your allegiance is to your Alpha, and I expect you to update him regularly on the situation with Vojvodina. He needs to know about it just as I do. But should I ever learn of you sharing Vienna Pack secrets unrelated to your own pack’s survival the consequences will be immediate and severe. Do I make myself clear?”

  “Yes, sir. I won’t betray your trust,” said Roman.

  Brody hoped his own voice was as steady as Ro
man’s. “I give you my promise I will tell no one of your private business.”

  “Good. I’m grateful to your Alpha for lending you to me. Now go up to the third floor and the receptionist will assign you desks and work. Do your best to blend in with the other students.”

  The Alpha disappeared into the stairwell and Brody sagged against a nearby concrete pillar. His heart was beating way too fast, his palms were sweaty, and he felt almost as sick as he had been after they’d stolen the construction vehicle.

  “Sitting at a desk entering data is about my level of ability. All this secret stuff is going to kill me with a heart attack before I’m twenty-five,” he said.

  “Yeah. That man exudes more power in a single sentence than most leaders of a country can manage in an entire speech.”

  Brody straightened up, took a deep breath, and said, “Okay. I’m ready now. Let’s go get our computers and start work. Thank goodness all the excitement for the day is over now.”

  They were taken to a large room which looked like it had originally been a conference room. Now, power cables hung in bunches from the ceiling, and the conference table had twenty computers on it, each with a person of about their age sitting there, entering data. At one end of the room was a trolley labeled “Entered” with a small pile of files on it, and at the other end were two trolleys, one labeled “English” and the other “German.”

  At the back of the room were four other computer terminals, only one of which had a person sitting at it. The young man escorting them spoke Alemannic to the man sitting there, and he smiled and nodded at them both.

  “Your ID is your full name and your password is the language you’ll be working in. The supervisor will bring you some files very soon. She’ll answer any of your questions as well. She sits there.” The man waved a hand to the head of the room where there was another desk and computer terminal.

  “Thank you,” said Roman. Brody echoed him.