Page 12 of Help Wanted, Vampires Inquire Within (Ours Evermore #6)

Mason

Jack showed up a little early for their meeting. All three spots in front of the bar were open so he could easily pull up to the curb and park without having to do any tricky maneuvering. When he walked around the car, Mason saw he had bags in both hands.

Mason admired him as he walked to Joy’s entrance. He was wearing dark jeans and a black Henley that showed off his sleek body. The moment he saw Mason and Skyler standing in the open doorway of Joy, he smiled broadly.

“I have gifts,” he announced, holding up the bags.

Mason could feel the tension radiating off Skyler even as she tried to smile. “You didn’t need to bring anything.”

Several of the vampires they’d interviewed brought gifts. Usually, it was expensive jewelry for Skyler and nothing for Mason. It would be interesting to see what Jack brought.

“I don’t have to do anything,” Jack retorted. “But giving gifts is one of my favorite things!”

He slid past them and inside. Rissa and Zan were behind the bar, going over a list and very obviously ignoring the three of them. It was sweet how much effort Rissa and Zan were putting into not looking at them.

Jack set everything down on a table and stepped back with a sweep of his arms. “Please open them! I can’t wait any longer!”

Skyler hesitated, but Mason took her hand and drew her to the table. “Let’s see what he got you.”

“The smaller bag is for you, Mason,” Jack said.

“You got Mason a gift?” Skyler asked with the hint of a real smile.

Jack looked confused. “Of course I did. Why would I leave Mason out?”

“I might not be as cute as you, but I still deserve gifts,” Mason teased.

Skyler blushed. “Of course you do. You’re the best!”

Jack made an impatient sound. “You’re killing me here. Someone open something!”

Chuckling, Mason dipped his hand into the bag and found a box. Flipping it open, he found a simple copper disk on a chain. “Um, this is nice.”

Jack laughed. “It’s a shifting charm. When you’re wearing it, your clothes shift with you. I’ve bought one for every member of Clover Pack over the years, but they never remember to carry them around. I thought it might be easier for you if I put it on a chain.”

Mason was touched by Jack’s thoughtfulness. “I had one but lost it after the first fight with the durmin. I wanted to get another one, but I’ve been busy.”

When he noticed Skyler trying to hide her frown, he was quick to reassure her. “I lost it because I wasn’t paying attention. Nothing to do with you or the durmin.”

Jack looked thrilled. “Feel free to lose this one. That means I get to buy you another gift!”

Mason chuckled and opened his arms. Jack didn’t hesitate to press himself against Mason’s body. After a sleepless night, he finally felt relaxed now that Jack was touching him. It would be better if he could hold both Skyler and Jack in his arms, but at least Skyler was close by.

He reluctantly ended the hug and turned Jack to face the nymph. “Skyler, what’s in your bag?”

She didn’t look enthusiastic, but opened the bag anyway. Then her eyes went wide and she pulled out a massive pastry box. The word Aurora LA was stamped on the top with a Los Angeles address underneath.

“Oh, is it cake?” Mason asked. “If it’s cake, you have to share.”

“You can have whatever I don’t eat,” Skyler said, pretending to shield the box with her body.

“Then I guess I get nothing,” Mason retorted. “For someone so small, you can eat a lot of cake!”

She laughed. “Don’t be jealous.”

“It’s not cake, exactly,” Jack said.

Obviously intrigued, Skyler opened the box to reveal some of the fanciest pastries Mason had ever seen. One of them even looked like a real peach!

“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Skyler breathed, leaning her face in close to examine the small works of food art.

“Gail said you’d love them,” Jack said. “She and Miller drove all the way up to LA and back today to get them for you.”

“Gail and Miller?” Skyler asked. Before Jack could answer, motion outside drew Mason’s attention.

He looked over Jack’s head to see a dozen people peering in through Joy’s front windows.

They were all watching the three of them with intense expressions.

At first, Mason was deeply disturbed, but then he recognized several faces from the previous night.

This was the Clover Pack. Or at least a good portion of it.

Jack sighed ruefully when he followed Mason’s gaze. “I told them I could do this on my own. Being able to parallel park a car is not indicative of my dating skills!”

“Maybe there's a correlation between parking and dating that none of us are aware of yet,” Skyler commented, deadpan. “We might need to study it.”

After a brief silence, both he and Jack burst into laughter.

It was a very good sign that Skyler was making jokes.

“You guys might need these,” Rissa said, stopping by their table and dropping several forks and napkins next to the empty bags. She hurried away and rushed behind the bar to whisper to Zan. Both of them were beaming at the trio. It seemed everyone was Team Menage!

At Jack’s urging, they sat down and tried bites of each pastry. Mason liked the purple plum flavored miniature cake the best. Skyler was enthusiastic about all of them.

By the time they’d tried half the sweets, all the wolves who’d been watching from the outside had made their way inside and were taking up half the space in the small bar. A few ordered drinks but most of them were whispering to each other and trying not to be too obvious about watching them.

Mason sighed. He was well aware of how packs worked. He considered himself a friend to the Lobos Gris Pack. This type of intrusive behavior was common.

If this worked out, he was going to have to learn to live with a pack.

Skyler didn’t seem to mind. “Do you think we should share with the Clover Pack?” she asked, nibbling a chocolate square she’d plucked from the top of one of the pastries.

“No!”

Skyler jumped at the exclamation, and Mason glared at the wolf who shouted.

“Remy!” Jack admonished. “I can’t stop you from being here, but keep your damn voice down.”

The wolf gave Jack a sheepish look. “Sorry, but Gail was adamant that no one was allowed to touch those pastries except Mason and Skyler.”

“Yeah!” another wolf said. She was a tall woman, with light brown hair and fierce, dark brown eyes. “I had to put up with country music for half the drive. I’m not making that kind of sacrifice for anyone else but Jack’s flock.”

She glared at a wolf sitting at the next table. “You have horrible taste in music.”

She had to be Gail and the male she was annoyed with had to be Miller.

Miller shrugged, unconcerned with Gail’s ire. “Driver gets to pick the tunes. If you didn’t want country, you should’ve asked Jonas or Kayla to share driving duties.”

“Like Kayla’s choices are any better,” someone else grumbled. That led to most of the pack getting involved in a heated discussion about music genres. Mason looked at Skyler, worried that she’d be overwhelmed by this very typical pack interaction.

To his surprise, she looked amused.

“Wolves!” Jack said, getting everyone's attention. “This is my date. My date. Could you all kindly fuck off?”

“Nope,” an older woman said, drawing out the “o” sound and popping the “p” at the end.

“Adelle,” Jack whined. “Come on.”

“We can’t afford to have you mess this up,” Adelle said.

Getting up, Skyler carried one of the pastries she’d cut into quarters to Adelle. “You have to try this!”

Not a single wolf said anything as Adelle took the offered fork and tried a bite. That made it clear that Adelle was well respected within the pack because not even Gail objected to Skyler sharing with her.

“Isn’t that a lovely flavor,” Adelle said with a kind smile. “Do you want to join us?”

Skyler nodded and the wolves were quick to rearrange everything. The next thing Mason knew, the three of them were sitting at the table with Adelle, Remy, and another wolf named Marcel. The rest of the pack made themselves comfortable at the tables next to them.

“I didn’t see that coming,” Rissa said from behind the counter in a whisper loud enough for even Mason to hear.

Zan snorted. “Once you’ve hung out with wolf packs enough, you’ll see it a lot. They are not into individual activities."

Even though everyone could hear the two, they ignored them. Wolves saw their community-orientated life as perfect. Anyone who disagreed was just jealous.

“When I was a kid, the Sandy Paws Pack visited us often,” Skyler told Adelle. “They’d shift and run on our property and the desert beyond. They always brought food, and we’d have bonfires. Watching the adults play with the cubs in shifted form was my favorite.”

Mason heard the longing in her voice. Judging by Adelle’s gentle smile, she heard it too.

“We do bonfires and pig roasts in the summer,” Adelle said, reaching out to pat Skyler’s arm. “We don’t have any cubs now, but we will.”

One of the wolves made a grumpy sound. “Don’t look at me.”

“No one’s looking at you, Kayla,” Remy said. “We all know it’s Gail who’s going to be popping out a dozen cubs when she finds her mate.”

Gail grinned. “Not a dozen, but probably at least four. Four is a good number.”

Mason watched Jack’s expression relax as Skyler and the wolves chatted. As much as Mason had to brace himself for life with a pack, it seemed Skyler would fit right in. Maybe the pack intrusion wasn’t the worst thing to have happened on their date.

“That’s settled then,” Remy said, making Mason realize he’d missed what they were talking about.

He gave Jack a confused look.

“We have permission to view the property we’re buying,” Jack explained. “The pack wants to take Skyler there.”

“And Skyler wants to go,” Skyler said with a smile.

“That’s fine,” Mason agreed. “But I’m driving.”

“Thank the goddess of the hunt,” Marcel said under his breath.

Jack made an aggravated sound but everyone ignored him. Jack handed Mason the fob to his car with a faux scowl.