Ten #2
Cole put his arm around my shoulders, leaned me into him, and kissed my temple. “It really is. Thank you for sharing your home with us, Mere.”
I couldn’t remember being happier.
When we got back, wonder of wonder, the dishes had been rinsed. Evan still had to wash, and Cole had to put everything away, but Ondine dried, and she had baked. There were two dozen delicious-looking oatmeal chocolate chip cookies cooling on a rack.
“Are they okay?” Cole asked me as I tried one.
After chewing and swallowing, I said, “Yes. My stomach didn’t clench at all.”
She smiled at me.
“Wait, you couldn’t tell before you tasted them?” Cole appeared concerned.
I squinted at him. “How would I know before?”
“I thought you could just tell or—you check by maybe ingesting poison?” He seemed flabbergasted over this newest development.
“Yeah, and I have to tell you, many a time Ondine, Teague, and I eat them anyway. It hurts a little, but they’re so good, you really don’t mind.”
Evan was on his second cookie when Ondine brought him a glass of oat milk. “These are amazing,” he told her.
She beamed at him.
“Don’t eat any more poison cookies,” he cautioned me, as I had another.
I gestured at Ondine.
He turned his attention to her. “Please try not to poison anything.”
She only shrugged.
The next day, I called a first-shift meeting, and amazingly, even though it was six in the morning on a Wednesday, everyone showed up.
They were all sitting there, coffee in hand—because Abbey had put that on the second she walked through the door—looking at me expectantly.
The reason being, of course, that Cole was sitting at the counter, smiling at all of them.
Never, ever had they all been that quiet for that long.
“First, I’d like you all to meet Cole Swann, who moved in with me over the weekend. His little brother, Evan, is going to live with us as well.”
The clapping was ridiculous, as was the fact that I was shouldered out of the way so they could all meet Cole and inundate him with questions. I’d warned him on our way there that he was going to be interrogated.
“I’m going to be alpha of a wolf pack,” he’d scoffed. “I can handle the people you work with.”
And he did well. For a bit. I was impressed that he gave thoughtful, concise answers, but after about twenty minutes, when he got hit with what were his intentions long term and how successful was his business and did he see kids in his future…
? It was impressive that he hung in another ten minutes, but finally his hand rose above their heads—I couldn’t even see him in the crowd—and I went over and had everyone take a step back so he could breathe.
“I promise,” he told my staff, who were also all my friends, people I cared for deeply and took care of, “I’m crazy about him. I won’t let him down. Or you.”
Lots of smiles after that.
“But listen,” he began, and even though he was speaking to humans, the alpha came out in his voice and they all gave him their attention.
“You all need to be extra careful coming and going from the restaurant for the next few days, because some people are visiting who don’t much care for me and definitely don’t like the idea that I moved in with Mere.
You all need to be hyperaware of your surroundings.
I don’t want any of you hurt because they’ve come here looking to endanger Mere. ”
I had told him I was going to give them that warning, and I appreciated him telling them instead, as they would take it more seriously, I thought, coming from him.
I always wanted my staff to be careful. I had them take self-defense classes after all, and they were so used to hearing me worry that I was concerned they tuned me out.
He was surprised, if the glance I got was any indication, when they all looked annoyed, and Abbey and Paris both scowled at him.
“If anyone thinks they can come in here and hurt Mere,” Gaia began, finger raised, clearly speaking for the group, “they have another fuckin’ thing coming.”
He glanced at me.
“God,” I groaned, and they were all looking at me then. “Are you all prepared in case something happens?”
I was shown various canisters of pepper spray, they promised to carpool or walk together, and, as always, they all had White Sulphur Springs PD on speed dial on all the cordless handsets for when drunks inevitably passed out in the courtyard.
I was actually only worried about the structure of The Bower, not my employees.
Wolves didn’t want scrutiny, and attacking humans always brought so very much of that.
But I wanted everyone to be on alert. I didn’t want anyone hurt if Tuss Haviland came back to Coille with arson on his mind.
Not that he could get close enough to get a fire started with my boundary in place, but there were the trees to consider.
It would have been more of a concern if we’d been having a dry fall, but we were in fact having a very wet one, with lots of rain that would soon be transitioning to snow.
“Don’t worry,” Abbey told me when the meeting broke up. “We’ll watch each other and you, boss.”
When Cole kissed me goodbye, there was lots of clapping. His smile with the dimples and how red his face got were, I was told at length, adorable. I ordered everyone to get to work. It was a really good start to a Wednesday.