Chapter 1

Edmond kept pulling out the envelope he’d been given not ten minutes ago. He couldn’t stop counting the number of zeros on the check that had been inside. He, along with is other brothers, had been paid for working for Lica and Brandy, his brother and his wife, for the last several weeks without pay. They would have continued to do so, not worrying about getting money just for the simple pleasure of being able to help out their newest family member.

Putting it back in the envelope and then into his pocket again, he looked around at the table they’d been sitting at before the couple had left them. The five of them had been meeting for lunch weekly since, well, since their father had been murdered by their mother and she was put into prison for doing it. Lica used to join them but with all the things going on with the pack right now, mostly it was people whining about their supposed woes, he’d been entirely too busy. He loved his family.

“What’s the first thing you’re going to do with your money?” He asked Ayden what he meant. “I only wanted a newer car or truck when I asked Brandy to go with me to the bank to get a loan. Now I have enough money to get me something brand new. Hell, several brand-new cars. I’m not going to do that but it’s amazing having money, don’t you think?”

“We had money in our accounts before this, Ayden. Why didn’t you go then? What did you do about that?” He told him the same thing that he’d been thinking, that it wasn’t going to come to him without strings attached. If he had to do it over, he would have believed that Brandy was as good about her word as his brother was. “I’m still not sure that I’m comfortable with having a lot of money. I’ve noticed that Lica is the same way about spending as if he’s afraid that, I don’t know, it’s a joke or something.”

“Did you hear that they bought the Apple Estate? They’re going to be moving in this weekend. I asked him if he needed help, and he said that they were having movers come and do it. Not that he has all that much stuff anyway. But the first house they were living in had some things in it that they wanted, and they’re going to leave the rest for you. If you don’t mind me asking, did you get a good deal on the place?” He told him what kind of deal they made with him. “Christ, Edmond. If you want to sell it, that would all be profit for you.”

“I’m not selling it. Once the windows are replaced and the heating and cooling done, I’m going to make it my forever home.” Ayden asked him what he’d do if his mate didn’t like it. “I don’t know, now that you mention it. I just assumed that, like Brandy and Lica do, she’d want to talk about it before flat-out telling me no.”

“I don’t know if I want a mate like Brandy if you want the truth. She scares the shit out of me.” All of them laughed with Guy when he said that. “There are a few things that I was going to go and get tomorrow if you guys want to hang out with me. I’ve decided that I want a matching set of dishes. You guys can use them with me, but I think that…when I eat with Lica at his house, it’s kind of cool to have all the dishes matching and enough silverware to go around to everyone. Last week, when we had dinner at the house, I had to use a spoon to eat my pasta.”

They talked about the things that they were going to get. All of them, since they’d been boys, made notes on everything. Edmond still used the notepad that he’d had while in college, never tearing the pages out but just going to a different one when something else would need to be written down. He could, if he wanted, go back and tell someone about each test he’d had at the end of the semester that got him on the honor roll there.

The five of them decided that their lists were too extensive to be able to get in town. While there were a couple of places in the town over, they decided, unanimously to not be cheap on the things that they were going to use daily. Mostly, they talked about towels and washcloths but he really did want to get himself something new for his house. Edmond loved the way that sounded. His house. They were just getting up to leave, having made plans for the next morning to go into Columbus, when their big brother came into the restaurant again.

“What are you grinning about? You looked sappy, too. Has anyone ever told you that before?” Lica told him it was a good feeling being in love. “Now you’re going to make me ill. Are you going to start joining us again? I think that would be wonderful. I know the others would like it, too. So long as you’re not too sappy, that is. But each of us would understand if you were too busy. I’m guessing you and Brandy have a great deal of other things that—”

“Nothing is more important to me than my family. I’m going to come here with you guys. Brandy wants me to make sure that I get with you guys like we used to. She said that just because she’s in the family now doesn’t mean that we can’t sit around and bullshit like we usually do. Anyway, I have something for each of you.” He handed out envelopes again but didn’t leave like he had before. “Before you open them, know that Brandy told me if you don’t take this, she’s going to brain you. I think she will, too. She’s been very vocal, you might say in keeping you guys safe and happy. You’ve no idea how bad she feels about you guys not being paid from the very beginning.”

“Did you tell her that it’s all fine and dandy? I mean, we were just talking about what we’re going to get tomorrow when we go—hey, did you want to go with us? Both of you? We can have some real fun that way.” Lica said that he’d have to see what Brandy had going on, but he could go for sure. “Great. All right. What’s this about?”

The envelope was heavy. At least his was. When Ayden and the others opened theirs, he watched their faces as happiness and then fear washed over their faces. He opened his own up to find it was filled with money. A great deal of it, as a matter of fact. Edmond asked Lica what was going on.

“Each of you now has enough money to pay cash for a home of your own. With the exception of you. Since you have your own home already, she gave you money to do any repairs and whatever else that you need to get done.” Each of them put the envelope full of money in front of their older brother and didn’t say anything as they left him standing there. He didn’t either. “What? What’s the matter? You like living all crunched up in one house? She’s giving you an opportunity to—”

“She’s buying us.” Lica asked him what he meant. “All right. I don’t want even the house now that I’ve had time to think about it. This seems…we didn’t earn this. At least that’s the way I feel about it.”

The others nodded and told Lica the same thing. Edmond cleared his throat and told him that they didn’t want to be bought just so they could feel better about having such poor family members. He could see the anger on Lica’s face as soon as he told him his feelings.

“She’s not doing that,” Edmond asked how he would feel if suddenly one of them had a great deal of money like he did and someone was pulling the strings on where they lived. What they wore. “We all needed a hand up. That’s all she’s doing. Take the money, damn it, before I have to pound your heads in.”

“So now you’re going to force us to be rich like you?” Edmond stood up when Lica did. His anger was palatable now. The large vein in his head was beating hard. “I’m not going to take anything from you two unless I earn it. And for whatever reason, it feels like you’ve cheapened our plans to get us new things for the house.”

The others left. One by one, they told Lica that they agreed, that they’d not earned the right to be having a new home, and whatever Brandy said, they’d take the punishment when she came after them. Edmond was still standing there when Lica looked at him.

“I’ve not moved into the house as yet because of the construction. But I’m sure once that’s done, she can get enough money for the house to—” Lica told him, actually shouted at him that they didn’t need the money. Nodding, thinking about how hurt he was that the money for Lica meant so little to him that he wanted to toss it at his brother. Edmond made his way to the ranch house. Before he pulled into the drive, he headed out of town.

Edmond was nearly to Cleveland when he pulled off the road into the parking lot of a little diner. He realized that he’d not eaten anything since lunch with his brothers and thought that he needed to eat before his wolf thought that he was neglecting him, too. He thought eating was better than to keep driving.

The place was busy when he opened the door. The little bell over the door alerted everyone that someone had come in. Once they all had a look at him, they turned back to their meals or conversation and he’d bet not give him another thought. A couple was leaving just as he decided that he didn’t want to eat at the crowded bar and sat in the place they had vacated. Edmond was stacking up the dirty dishes when an older woman came to take care of the table for him.

“We got meatloaf for the special tonight. Mashed-up taters and a side if you want it. There is soup, too. Bean soup with cornbread muffins goes with that. There is also some pulled pork, too, if there is any left after the Damon boys get their fill. They’re mighty tough to fill up now that they’re playing football again.” He laughed a little. “You might laugh harder when you see their momma. She’s a little bitty thing that don’t have an ounce of fat on her. Whatcha want to drink, feller?”

“What sort of tea do you have?” She just cocked a brow at him, and he ordered a tall glass of sweet, iced tea. “Also, if there is any left, I’ll have the pulled pork. If not, then I’ll have the meatloaf.”

“Mashed-up taters comes with it, but I can be swayed to give you some corn if you want or some just plain old, boiled taters.” He said that he’d take the corn and mashed. “Good choice. I’m thinking that you got enough to pay for this? Your truck there seems to be on its last legs, but you have on good, clean clothing.”

“I assure you that I have enough to pay.” He still had the money left over from his first and only check. Then touched his wallet in his back pocket to make sure. “Yes, I can cover the bill, I swear.”

Nodding, Thelma, the woman who told him her name, walked off. She looked like she could have been the mother of the Riley boys by the way she described their mother. As soon as he was handed a basket of warm rolls along with a crockery, just one from the grocery store that proclaimed it tasted like butter, he ate one of the rolls while he looked around the place.

The seats to the booths looked like they could use a bit of stuffing to make them softer. The tables, all of them mismatched in front of them, looked like they’d been loved well by a heavy hand, wet rag with some soap on it. Even the windows that looked out over the parking lot looked like someone had washed them recently, and he was thrilled to see that in addition to the paper napkins that were on the table when he’d gotten his table cleaned, there was a loaded roll of paper towels there to be used as well.

That’s all they used at the ranch house when…he wasn’t going to think about home just now. He was going to enjoy his meal and find a cheap hotel before heading back home in the morning to face the music. He well deserved whatever Lica and Brandy did to him, with the way that they’d all disrespected their alpha and his bitch.

The little bell over the door signaled someone else joining the diners just as his food was being set in front of him. He was pleased to see that he had the pulled pork because that had been what he’d been smelling when he entered the place. His tea was topped off a few seconds later, and he was just to put a forkful of the pork when his silverware was slapped out of his hand and the food and all hit the window.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing here?” He looked at the kid, no more than about seventeen years old, he thought when he sat down across from him. “I asked you a question, moron. What do you think you’re doing here with my sister.” Thelma stood by his table, hand on her hip and a flyswatter in her hand, when she started yelling at the kid.

“Get your asses out of here, Jimmy Pendleton, or I’m calling the cops on you again. Get out of here now.” Thelma sat a fork down next to his plate just as three more men. He could tell that they were about his age now that he had a closer look. And all four of them tried to sit on the other side of the booth from him. “Jimmy, you’ve been warned not to be coming here when Mac is working. I’m not shitting you right now, so you’d better be getting out of here.”

“Miss Thelma, I think you’d better call the police, please. I’m just in the mood to teach these idiots a lesson.” Picking up his fork, Edmond turned it over and over with his fingers, then slammed it into Jimmy Pendleton’s hand and into the table. “Now, see what you made me do? I just wanted a nice meal, and you screwed me out of that.”

~*~

Mac watched the paramedics as they worked on getting her brother’s hand free from the table. She kept an eye on the man, too, who had rammed the fork so far into her brother’s hand that it had come out on the other end of the table. Finally, when they had all tried to get his hand free with no luck, someone uncuffed the large man and had him do it. That, of course, had her brother screaming bloody murder when the man simply jerked Jimmy’s hand off the fork and then removed it from the table.

Jimmy and her other three brothers were being arrested. She didn’t care so long as they didn’t expect her to be bailing them out. She wouldn’t, of course. She liked it when they were put someplace where they couldn’t cause any trouble. Thelma came to the kitchen where she was working and asked her to make the big man another plate of food.

“I don’t know if you noticed this or not, Thelma, but he’s going to be arrested, too. How do you suppose he’d going to eat anything with his hands cuffed behind his back?” Thelma said that she’d feed it to him for getting Jimmy out of here. “You know that he’s still my brother, right?”

“Oh honey, I’m sorry. But when I saw them coming in and them just getting out of jail after beating up Missy Blue, too. I was never so happy to see that man just take care of them lickty-split.” She would admit this to no one, but she had been dancing in the kitchen since it happened. “What do you think they’re going to do to the big man? I heard him telling the police that he needed to call his brother. I don’t think they know what to do with him, the police, I mean. He sure is a big fella.”

Since the police had arrived and her other brothers were sitting on the floor with the man standing over them, Thelma had said he was a big fella about ninety times. Not really but it seemed all she could focus on right now. When there were other things about the man that were much nicer looking than his height.

He had pretty blue eyes. Dark hair that made her want to run her fingers through it until—stopping those thoughts, they’d get her nowhere. She started dishing up the orders she’d been working on when the commotion going on in the dining room caught her attention.

Mac had been working in this place since she’d turned sixteen. She’d been the cashier, having had more experience with the money being changed out than Thelma and her husband. Then she became a waitress, hating every minute of dealing with people until one day, Daniel Thomas didn’t show up for his early morning shift, and she began cooking. Daniel hadn’t been to work since, even though he only lived about a mile from the diner. He’d told Thelma that he’d have enough cooking for slobs and wasn’t coming back. It suited Mac just fine.

After finishing up with the midnight diners, she started to clean up her area. Mac wasn’t a sloppy cook, but there were times when Thelma would tell her an order and then come back and tell her that she’d messed up. It was happening more and more frequently; Mac had realized just this morning. Instead of it happening once a month, Thelma would come back and have her do over an order at least twice a day.

“Mac? You back there?” She told Officer Pendleton that she was. The man knew she was here. He was her flipping uncle. Where else did he expect her to be. “Those dumbasses are saying that you’re to come down there and bail them out. If you do that, I’m going to tell your grannie. She likes having them in jail.”

“If you want to know the truth, Uncle Tim, I do as well.” He asked her again if she was going to bail them out. “I’m not. I told them that I’m finished with their asses. How long were they out this time before you had to come here? Ten minutes? Fifteen? Grannie will tell you the same thing, they’re hooligans, and neither one of us is going to put up with their shit.”

“You don’t need you to be blowing a gasket. I only asked.” She glanced at the doorway when the bell rang. She knew immediately that it was blue eyes family. His brother looked like they’d been popped from the same people. When he asked if his brother could talk to him, her uncle said he was going to release him. “I know you told me where you were from, Mr. Frazier but I don’t remember right now. I’m going to need you to show up in court when they are set to be tried. I believe if there was any other judge in the courtroom they’d have been sent away by now. But Ms. Anden, she’s sweet on Liam because he mows her lawn. I’m not saying that she’s corrupt or anything, but she sure is turning her head when it comes to those nephews of mine.”

The two men sat in the same booth that blue eyes had been sitting in before Jimmy had arrived. The pretty woman that came with the brother and sat down on the side blue eyes was on. Thelma asked what was left over that she could dish up quick and she told her that the grill was clean but still on. Whatever they wanted.

She made eight cheeseburgers with all the trimmings and three orders of fries as well as made them all the Friday special of peach shakes while she was at it. It was that, or she was going to have to take it out to the trash. There was nothing wrong with the peaches. It was just that the place wasn’t open on Sunday or Monday, and it wouldn’t last that long. Cleaning the grill off, she turned just as the pretty lady was about to touch her.

“Don’t.” Nodding, she backed away. “I don’t mean to be rude, but I’m sunburnt to hell and back, and if you touch me, like I think you were, then I’d be sobbing like a five-year-old.”

“My name is Brandy Fraizer. The man in the blue blazer is my husband, and the man across from him is his brother.” She asked her why she thought that she’d care. “I don’t suppose that you would, but I just…I pissed the others off. All five of them. I guess I was going to come back here, and…Christ, I don’t know. I do know that I was in the wrong. My husband doesn’t think so, but I know that I was thoughtless in my actions.”

“And?” Brandy looked at her when she was wondering what that had to do with her. “And so you fucked up. Goody for you. You did…let me guess…you have bucks, I’d say a great deal of them, too. So you…you gave them a bunch of money to bring them up to what you considered to be equally moneyed. No, you’d not give that much but enough that they’d be beholden to you.”

“How did you…did Edmond tell you that?” She said she didn’t know who that was. “Well, you’re good at guessing, is all I can say. But I hadn’t meant to make them feel they’d be beholden to me. I wouldn’t…Okay, I might have thought that I’d like for them to be well dressed when we were all…how did you know all that?”

“Your brother-in-law has on new clothes but his truck looks like it’s about his age. And he bought and paid for it by working hard. His clothes, as I said, are new, but his boots are worn down and cleaned of mud. He even wiped his feet when he came in, I didn’t know that part, but Thelma told me. When he got in here tonight, Thelma asked him if he had the money to pay with, and he assured her that he did. I think she asked him several times, at least four more, before my brother showed up. He never got short with her, never told her that she’d asked him that several times, but assured her, even going so far as to show her his wallet each time.” Brandy asked what she meant by Thelma asking several times. “It has only just occurred to me that she might be losing her grip on things. Her husband, he died several years ago, tried his best to keep her focused on what she was doing, but she’s slipping away with each day, I think.”

“I’m so sorry.” Shrugging, she asked Brandy if she wanted a cup of tea. “I would love one. While we’re waiting on the water, can you tell me, you seemingly knowing that I hurt their feelings, what you would have done to make them have a safe house with better furniture?”

“Did you tell them that? Or did you just flop down some cash in an envelope and expect them to be praising you for thinking of them?” She told her that she had flopped. “I thought so. You’re used to having money. And you don’t care who knows you have it either.”

“How on earth did you come up with that?” She told her. Brandy looked around the room while she went into the little office to get out the tea cups that she had only ever shared with one person. Thelma’s husband, Grant. “You’re absolutely right. I never thought of how I project myself when I’m out and about. And you were correct in assuming that my husband has on a blazer that he more than likely wouldn’t have worn had I not suggested it. He wants to make me happy so I believe he’s been doing what I say to him to do so. What else have you observed? I’m not being a bitch, I can be, but I’m not. However, I’m sure that you have a great many other things that you’ve noticed, too.”

As she poured them both a cup of tea, she also got out the chocolate chip cookies that she’d made last night. They were still gooey, just the way she liked them, and offered her the tin. When she took out two, Mac told her not to be stupid and to take what she wanted.

“I want them all.” In answer, Mac got up and pulled down a large container with about ten dozen cookies in it. Brandy laughed and told her that she liked her. “I so love this kind of good cookie. My grannie used to make them when I was a child. But I want you to tell me what else you’ve seen.”

She didn’t want to get into this game with the woman. A false move, and she’d be hurt. Knowing what she did about the woman, even things that she might not know herself, would get her labeled again, ridiculed, and most of all chased away. Sitting across from her with the large batch of cookies between them, she thought fuck it. She needed a better job anyway.

“You’re the alpha bitch to your husband’s Alpha. Neither of you are full-blooded, but the child you carry will be. Simply because you’re alphas. You’re also carrying a male child. You do have a great deal of money, in the billions, I’d say. You still go to your father and mother when you need advice, and for the most part, they’re honest with you. However, what you don’t know, or perhaps—Again, I don’t know, you might not care. Your father is dying. He has recently found out that he has an inoperable tumor on his brain. When he dies, and he will if something isn’t done soon, your mother plans on joining him, killing herself so that she won’t have to face the world without him.” Mac picked up her tea, dumping the contents of her cup in the sink, careful with the delicate thing. “There is a man in your past who has been harassing you about what he thinks he deserves for having to be around you. His name is Jasper Williams. What would you like to—”

“You’ve made your point.” She looked at the man standing in the doorway and nodded in his direction. When Brandy stood up, she made her way to her and nearly touched her again. But blue eyes wasn’t having it. “Brandy, she’s hurt you enough. Stay away from her.”

“She’s done nothing wrong but what I asked of her.” Filling the sink up with the hot water, she looked at Brandy when she said her name. “You said you were sunburnt. Is that true?”

“No.” Nodding, she asked her what was wrong with her back. Pulling her shirt up over her back about half way, she heard the hiss of breath as the two of them saw what no one else had ever seen, not even herself fully. “I’m not sure where this came from. But just this morning, it started to appear on my back and legs. It doesn’t hurt, not at all but I don’t know what it will do if someone touches it. When I tried to wash it off, it grabbed…no, it attached itself to my hand and ran up my arm to my back again. Like it was…I could feel that it was having fun teasing me.” Mac looked at Blue eyes. “I knew that you were coming here. I also knew that you’d have an altercation with my brothers. I can’t read you. I can’t even breach this…I’m not sure what it would be called, but I can’t help but feel that if you were to touch me that, this thing, this vine, will engulf us both until there will be nothing left of either of us.”

Mac turned her back on the two people when they left through the same door that they’d come in here to see her in. While she was putting on the five burgers that she knew that Thelma was going to need, she put onions to grill and mushrooms as well for one of the burgers. Today had been the only day that she’d ever been able to keep up with Thelma and the sickness that was spreading through her body. Dementia.

She noticed that the couple and the man were sitting in the dining area. It was nearly six in the morning now, and she was going to be free soon to go home. What she’d do there, she had no idea. The thought of some of the things that had happened when she’d left home yesterday morning still scared her shitless.

Cleaning up her area, she was gathering up the trash when she realized that Thelma was gone. She did that sometimes, but today, she could tell that she’d gone to the cemetery to talk to her husband, Grant. Pulling the three large, heavy trash bags toward the doors, she nearly fell over when the weight of them knocked back when she was just no longer holding them. The man, she still didn’t know his name, was helping her.

They put the bags in the dumpster, her only able to carry one to his two, she turned and headed back to the diner. There were things that she still had to do and it wouldn’t get done if he were to start asking her questions that she wouldn’t have answers to. Not that she knew the answers, but simply knew that she’d not have them. As soon as the banking was finished, the doors, including the walk-in, were locked up. She headed out of the diner once again so that she could go home and see if she could figure shit out. However, she wasn’t the least bit surprised when he asked her…well, he actually ordered her into his truck. Mac kept moving, and when he pulled in front of her, she stopped the truck from hurting her by stopping it with her hand. That was a huge mistake.