Shifter Chronicles - Theo and Lucinda (6 page)

“Oh honey. We Harts love a good party,” Amanda replied. She could see the lost little girl in Lucy's eyes. She smiled to herself—a lost little girl and a big bad wolf looking to protect. Lucy and Theo would make a quite interesting pair.

Lucy stilled. “You're Amanda Hart. Theo's sister-in-law?”

“Yes,” Amanda replied. She watched the indecision in the woman's eyes. Was she reconsidering a position here? Was she not staying in Hart? Did she not feel the mating pull? Amanda had felt it with Trevor almost instantly. She hadn’t known why but she knew Trevor would never hurt her in any way, shape, or form—her or her girls.

“You gave me the clothes for myself and Anastasia.”

“Yes,” she said with a smile. “My Aviva is growing so fast and I’m getting smaller,” for a while at least, “I had no one to give anything to until you came along. I hope the clothing fit. I’m a little bigger than you.”

Lucy stared at her mouth, aghast. The woman wore a size twelve, if she was to take a guess. Her stomach was slightly rounded but there was nothing on this woman which spoke she wore anything but smaller clothing. Not like the size eighteen Lucy wore when she wasn’t pregnant.

“Oh honey I’ve lost weight. I weighed almost three hundred pounds before Aviva was conceived. I had shed fifty pounds when I conceived my baby girl, then the weight seemed to want to stay at that number until I delivered. Once I did, I lost another sixty pounds. Plus, Trevor keeps me pretty busy,” she finished with a wink.

Lucy blushed. If Trevor Hart was as handsome as his brother she could see why Amanda Hart kept losing weight. She would love to have Theo keeping her that busy. After they had gone to bed the other night she had just laid there staring at the beautiful man lying above the covers. Sleeping so soundly—making her nightmares seem like they were a thing of the past. Lucy swallowed as she watched him sleep. She imagined of all the delicious things he could do to her. All the places he could put his hands, his mouth his…“I—”

“—am hired,” Amanda said. She liked the young girl and if she didn’t hire her then Lucy would go somewhere else to find a job and would not have the protection of the pack—something which was not going to happen. “When are you due?”

“Two and a half weeks. I can work until then, I promise.”

“You can work the register and when Ms. Mary comes back you can help her in the kitchen with some of the desserts.”

“Ms. Mary?”

Theo had a lot to explain to his mate. Their family was large and the men in the family protected to the highest extent, which Amanda had to get used to. When Trevor wasn’t hovering over her, her brothers-in-law were, and her uncle and father-in-law hovered over all of them, especially Taylor. Her daughter was seen as the future of the Hart pack. With Patty mated and living with her mate's pack in South Carolina, Taylor was the only mateable girl in the Hart wolf pack in the last twenty-some-odd years—making her daughter a target to some and a nuisance to others. “Yes, she's our pastry chef,” and your new mother-in-law, if Theo would just get off his ass and take the plunge. What was the man waiting for?

“Ok. Do you think she will mind me being in her kitchen? Most—”

Amanda waved away the concern. “Mary will love it. I’m not a baker so when she asks me to help her I am all thumbs.” She tilted her head to the side. “Do you bake?”

Lucy moved her hair from her face and placed it behind her ear.

Amanda sucked in a breath when she saw the fading bruise on the woman's cheek. Now she knew why Theo was waiting. The woman had been abused. Knowing the Harts the way she did, the fact this woman's face looked like that did not sit right with Theo, and he wanted to end any threat that came this woman's way before he mated her.

“Sorry if my face…” Lucy said at Amanda's audible gasp. She moved her hair back in place, covering her bruise. Her bruises were fading but there were still some that were visible. When she and Theo had been at the store she’d seen people staring at her. Some whispered, probably thinking Theo had harmed her. That was the furthest from the truth. The man may be big and menacing but he would not hurt her or her baby.

“Has Theo seen that?”

Lucy looked at her. “Yes.”

“And did he say anything about it?”
Lucy shook her head. “No, he just held my hand and—”

“Good,” Amanda smiled. “Now, we open at seven but you can come in at ten. I don’t want you on your feet much. Not in your condition. Theo would kill me if something happened to you.”

“Theo—”

“Have you talked to him about working here? I don’t want there to be any conflict with you working at the diner and Theo wanting you home. Trust me, when the Hart men lay down the law they expect us to follow, no matter the fact that we have minds and jobs of our own which do not consist of just being married to them.”

Lucy stilled when the last part of Amanda's statement came to her. She thought Theo was going to marry her? She had only known the man three days. Granted, these had been some of the safest three days of her life, but she was not going to marry Theodore Hart. “Why would I need to talk to Theo about me working here?”

“Like I said, he may not want you to work,” Amanda finished. she wanted to see how this woman would react to her statement.

“Theo cannot dictate what I can and cannot do. I’ve been in that situation before. I won’t be there again.”

That got Amanda's attention. “Want to—”

“No,” Lucy shook her head. She had said too much and now Theo's sister-in-law would tell him and he would demand answers. Lucy stood. She needed to get out of here. “Thank you for the job offer but I have to go.”

Amanda stood. “Lucy wait.”

She shook her head turned and bolted from the diner.

Amanda picked up her phone and dialed Theo. He needed to get to Lucy before she bolted completely.

                                                                                   
EA

“She had no right to be there. This was a pack event she is not a part of this pack,” Martin Moore said as he sat in Atlas' office. When his son had come to him, fuming because he had lost out on some competition while on the pack camping trip, he had been ready to tell his child that these things happen and he should get over them. But then his son had told him who had won the competition—the half-breeds’ human daughter; a child Atlas and Bill had pranced around town like she was the second coming. Yes, she was the first female in the pack in almost twenty years, but she was human. She could not hold a position in this pack no matter what Atlas said.

Atlas shook his head. He was tired of this. He had lived through this with Joe Gil and now he was living through this with Martin Moore. Martin and Joe had been friends and Atlas should have expected this, but for once he wanted someone not to attack his family. “Taylor has been taking the same classes your son has at the rec center, Martin. Classes in which she and Garret have been excelling at—if the reports I have been receiving are any indication. So she had every right to be there.”

“Garret was tracking that animal, Alpha. He was ready to strike and she took it from him. If she was a shifter, she would have smelled Garret in the area and backed off. Instead she did what all humans do—take what they want and damn the consequences.”

“Martin, you forget I was there. I watched the whole event take place. Taylor waited for the others to shift. Garret took longer to shed his clothing than the others. All were hunting prey and Taylor happened to take what Garret was taking too long to take down.”

“He was lulling the animal into a sense of calm,” Martin replied. He was not going to lose this argument. “Once he had, she struck. That was unfair.”

Atlas wanted to laugh. He had watched from the sidelines as Taylor mirrored the animal that she was tracking. She had been light on her feet, making sure not to make any sudden moves which would frighten the animal, causing it to bolt. When the buck had thought it smelled Taylor she had climbed a tree and taken the animal out once it was calm again. Garret had been half a mile away from the animal. His niece had tracked fair and square. “Martin—”

“I want her punished for an unfair kill.”

“Taylor—”

“—is not pack. She never will be. You think because she was brought into this pack after girls have not been born to many of us, that she is granted some special treatment.”

“Watch your tone,” Trevor said as he stood behind Atlas' desk. He had listened to the exchange, watching to see if there was any reason to step up but until now there wasn’t—until Martin had spat out his last sentence.

Martin looked at Trevor. “What are you going to do—beat me like you beat Joe?”

Trevor stood straighter. “I believe this conversation is over.”

“It’s not, because you will defend your children. You will fight for them but the rest of us aren’t supposed to because you are the next Alpha. So your children are given a free pass.”

“You think Tyson did not pay for his crimes?” Trevor protested.

“He is still in this pack. Still walking around this town like nothing happened.”

Trevor wanted to laugh at the man. He really wanted to believe Tyson had not come out unscathed from his altercation with Joe Gil? Tyson hadn’t really left the house in months, and if it wasn’t for Taylor going on this camping trip he would still be in his room, thinking he was the reason for all that had happened. “You know nothing of my son and how this has affected him.”

“Obviously he wasn’t affected too much, because none of us were made aware of the boy's punishment.” Martin replied. Trevor was not the Alpha yet—Tyson's punishment should have been made known to the pack.

“Why should you have been?” Atlas questioned. He was Alpha and the only ones who needed to know of Tyson's punishment were his parents. Amanda and Trevor had been in the room when he had disciplined his nephew. Each had agreed with the punishment, and Tyson had followed the punishment to the tee and was now slowly becoming the man Trevor and Atlas wanted him to be. “Martin, I have made my decision in regards to Taylor and Tyson.”

Martin seethed. “They—”

“—are not your concern, they are mine, because they are a part of my pack and I am Alpha. If you want to challenge me you know where to find me.” On that, Atlas rounded his desk and walked out of the room.

“Uncle?”

Atlas walked over to Taylor. She and Garret had been asked to wait outside the office until the meeting was over. “Why don’t you head over to the diner and help your Mom out for the day?”

Taylor looked at him in confusion.

“Go ahead,” he said with a sad smile.

Taylor nodded turned and headed out of city hall.

“Garret.”

Both turned at the sound of Martin's voice. Garret walked over to his father. “Have—”

“Let’s go,” Martin said. He was not in the mood to deal with his son's questions at the moment. He had some decisions to make—decisions that could change his family and the pack.

                                                                                   
EA

Lucy wiped at her tears as she pulled into the rest stop. She killed the engine as she leaned her head back on the head rest. She’d run out of the diner like the hounds of hell were after her—all because Amanda Hart had questioned her about her past. She sniffled. The woman had tried to apologize, and all she had done was leave. She sat up and shook her head. Amanda hadn’t done anything wrong. She had just been concerned, like Theo had been concerned. The man had taken such good care of her and hadn’t asked about her injuries. All he had done was take care of her and her daughter. And here she was thinking about leaving him but for what reason? If Duncan wanted to find her he would. The man's reach extended through the whole state.

Heck, the last time she had run he had found her within twenty-four hours, but not now. Now she'd been safe for days and she was willing to give it up—for what reason? Could she possibly stay in Hart and have a life where Duncan couldn't hurt her or her daughter? The only way she would find out was if she went back to Hart, apologized to Amanda, and stopped questioning all the things Theo did for her. Lucy opened the door to the car and headed for the rest stop bathroom. She would clean her face then head back to Hart to start her apology tour. She was reaching for the bathroom door when a hand came over her mouth. Lucy struggled against the hand over her mouth and the one gripping her upper arm.

“Well well. Look what I have found. Duncan has been looking for you everywhere.”

Lucy stopped struggling. She swallowed. Charlie was Duncan's best friend. He was just as deranged and dangerous as Duncan. “Please,” came her muffled plea.

“Please what? Let you go? Sure, once I have you back with Duncan.” Charlie released her mouth, turned her, and pushed her body up against the bathroom door. “Did you really think you could get away? That there was a place where you could hide?” Charlie shook his head. “Duncan's reach is far and wide. He would have found you sooner or later.” He placed a hand on her stomach. “He would have found this and taken it. What kind of mother would leave a good home and take her child on the run?” He shook his head. “A judge will take this baby from you and give it to Duncan.”