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incredibly sweet and helpful... which she thought she would find weird, but ended up just making
sense. None of them had expected to mate him and so they were happy for him that he'd
found the perfect mate.
While she obviously wouldn't be so cavalier about him if she was his ex, she could understand
why none of them were bitter about not being his mate. They wanted their own mates, not
someone else's.
Going by what Edith said (and Bethany was quickly learning that when it came to gossip,
Edith's word was gold), none of them had expected to be his mate either and they'd only ever
had the most superficial of relationships. Plus, it helped that Bethany had been perfectly nice to
them when she'd met them. Of course, she hadn't known they were Steele's exes at the time,
but she'd decided it was probably better that way. They were just part of the huge group of
people living here and she preferred that they blend into the crowd.
Besides, she had no energy to be jealous. There was too much to see and learn. Not only
were she and Bailey catching up on the news and culture that they'd missed while they were
being held captive (so many movies to watch!), but there was plenty to learn about the town as
well. Vivian, Edith and Lacy, three older ladies who were best friends and had been kind of
holding the position of alpha female collectively, had taken both Bethany and Bailey under their
wing. Now that Bethany was no longer resisting the idea of being Steele s mate, and was
willing to talk about holding a ceremony, she had no problem spending time with them them.
And they were a lot of fun.
There had been feminine pampering in the form of haircuts, manicures, pedicures, and some
painful waxing at Vivian's salon (their hair done by Vivian herself, which Edith informed them
was a rare treat, since Vivian rarely cut hair herself anymore), shopping, endless introductions
to the residents, training with Steele's squads, runs with Bailey to get her used to her shifted
form, and learning how to do all sorts of things they needed for day-to-day life. Poor Bailey
was even more behind than Bethany; she'd never had the chance to learn how to cook or do
the laundry or all sorts of day to day activities. Bethany wasn't much help since she barely
remembered how to do a lot of that either.
Kasim had really stepped up to the plate when it came to helping Bailey out while Bethany was
busy... Vivian was like a shark scenting blood when it came to pushing the two of them
together. Lacy whispered to Bethany that Vivian and her husband Arthur had never had
children so Vivian took it upon herself to mother everyone. And she considered herself the
resident matchmaker. So far neither Bailey nor Kasim seemed to be interested in doing more
than flirting, but that was okay. He wasn t the only one Bailey was flirting with either, but he
didn t seem to mind, so it wasn t like they were fated mates or anything. Besides, they would
have known right away if they were, the way Steele had known with Bethany.
Despite Vivian's pushy personality, she and Bethany got along incredibly well. It helped that
Vivian was balanced out by gossipy, flaky, friendly Edith, and shy, sweet Lacy.
Everything would be perfect... except that she knew her mate was hiding something from her.
Whenever she went to visit Mr. Too-Good-To-Be-True? at work, he would come rushing out to
meet her outside his office door - which he always closed behind him. As if he didn't want her
to even be able to look in there. Which, considering how fucking awesome Bethany was being
about meeting his ex-lovers, she was pretty ticked about. Just what was so bad that he didn't
want her to know about it?
There were also the occasional phone calls that he always took outside. Or in his home office,
which was soundproofed, much to her dismay. Not that she'd tried to listen in. Well, she hadn't
tried really hard, anyway.
Even Bailey agreed that he was being kind of sketchy, although she insisted that he would have
a perfectly logical reason for his behavior, if Bailey would just talk to him about it. But Bailey
also worshiped the ground Steele walked on, and she just didn't understand how hard it was for
Bethany to talk to Steele about this.
Anything else - hell yeah. They talked about anything and everything. He told her about his
sisters - Violet, Iris, Rose, Lily and Pansy - and the way his parents spoiled them. They talked
about how his father had taught him to be both an alpha and a wolf, and why he'd eventually
started his own pack without actually meaning to. It had just kind of happened when he'd
created the town and then his soldiers had started wanting their mates to live with them, and
they'd all needed basic services, and it had just eventually become a small town, filled with all
sorts of shifters. That was, in part, because Steele was happy to accept any kind of shifter
into his pack - which was probably why they all accepted the Bunsons so easily. There were all
sorts of shifters, from Jacqueline the honey-badger to Walt the camel to Brian the manatee
(who was, strangely enough, afraid of water). It was the only place a bear-sized bunny could
possibly hope to fit in.
Which was why she was so afraid to talk to Steele. She didn't want to lose what she and
Bailey had here... whatever he was hiding, it had to be bad. He'd told her pretty much
everything else about his life and his work, no matter how embarrassing or awful it was.
The man had even admitted that his real name was Stephanotis. Yeah, that's right, like the
flower. Just like his sisters. He'd trusted Bethany with that - after swearing her to secrecy, she
couldn't even tell Bailey - so what did he feel he had to hide from her?
She didn't think he was cheating on her or anything like that. They had sex in every position
imaginable, at all times of the day, and (if that weren't enough reassurance) she was pretty
sure he wouldn't be able to block that through the bond. And yes, he was definitely blocking
something from her, but all she was able to pick up a low level of consternation and a tiny bit of
guilt.
It was driving her fucking insane.
So really, it was nobody's fault but his that she did something a little crazy.
"Ouch."
"Shhh," Bethany hissed.
"These vents are too fucking small," Bailey mumbled.
"Shhhh!"
Bethany was regretting bringing her sister along, even though she'd wanted Bailey there for
moral support.
They were breaking into Steele's office. He thought they were at the florist's, learning about
flowers from Edith's daughter Maybelle, but Maybelle was covering for them. She was a
sweetheart, just like her mom, although much less flaky than Edith was. Of course, Edith was
retired and Maybelle was running a shop, so that might have something to do with it. It was
easy to be flaky when you didn't have any responsibilities.
Unfortunately, moving through the vents in Steele's building wasn't as easy as anticipated.
Bailey was taller and had longer limbs than Bethany did, and so she was having much more
trouble moving along.
"Ouch!"
"You should shift," Bethany whispered, poking Bailey s ankle.
"What?"
"Shift!"
"Oh... why didn't I think of that?" [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]