Craving His Virgin Mate (Poison Wolves MC Book 2), page 2
She had checked the realtor again, and he still hadn’t removed any of the houses or apartments listed, which told her quite plainly he was lying. Fine. She didn’t mind, she’d find a place to stay.
“Well, well, well, I have to say I thought Wolfe was kidding, but he wasn’t, was he?”
Agatha looked up to see a beautiful woman pulling out a chair opposite her. She wore a lovely blue dress that hugged her body and flared out at the hips. Her long brown hair hung around her body.
Glancing around the diner, she noticed people were staring. Another little clothing item she spotted was the leather cut the woman was sporting. The kind that Boyan and a few of the other MC people had worn.
“Hello,” Agatha said.
The woman smiled and then held out her hand. “Hello, I’m Amelia,” she said.
She wasn’t rude by nature and she took the woman’s hand, giving it a shake. Agatha checked to see that there were several tables free, but this woman had come to sit with her.
“Do I know you?”
“I highly doubt that. You’re new around here and, well, I’m not.”
She had no idea what to say to that so she kept eating her breakfast. “What brings you here?” Amelia asked.
“Have you been sent to find out why I’m here?” Agatha asked.
“Yeah and no. The town is a little nervous about your presence.”
Agatha looked at the woman and knew she wasn’t going to leave. “You do realize this is strange?”
Amelia chuckled. “True, I do realize that, but you see, what is also weird is a woman on her own, still in a town where I can guarantee most of the residents have been assholes to her. It has me curious.”
This whole town was strange and weird. She was just a single woman looking to find a place to settle down. No, that was a lie, when she entered this town she hadn’t intended to stay. All she’d wanted to do was travel, and now she couldn’t imagine leaving. She found the town’s rudeness charming, which had to be incredibly strange, even for her. It wasn’t like she went out of her way to be around rude people.
“What is there to be curious about? I like this town. It’s beautiful and peaceful.”
“And do you have any family? A fiancé? A boyfriend?”
Agatha sighed. “No, my parents died a year ago. I don’t have anyone.”
“Oh,” Amelia said. “I am so, so sorry.”
“It’s fine.” The pain of losing her parents was still fresh, but she wasn’t hurting as much. “It’s why I want to move here. To have a fresh start. I’ve been traveling for so long now, and I think it’s time I settled down. I know that’s not going to be easy. I’ll need to find a job and no one seems to want to rent me a place, let alone find me a job.”
“I have a job for you,” Amelia said.
This surprised her. “You do?”
“Yes, I do. I’ll have to talk to the bar owner, Val, but I think there could be a place for you. We’re always looking for waitresses.”
“A bar?”
“Yes, the Poison Bar,” Amelia said.
“Do you think that’s wise?”
“I don’t see why it would be a problem.”
Agatha smiled. “No one likes me, don’t you think that would affect customers?”
Amelia threw her head back and laughed. “Trust me, no one in this town likes me, either. I mean, they put up with me because of who my husband is, but they don’t like me. They’ve been trying to get rid of me for years, and in fact…” Amelia stopped and looked at her. “I do have a place.”
“You have a place?”
“Yes, it’s my old place. I’m not living there anymore, so if you don’t mind being near the bar and kind of on the outskirts of town, to the point of obscurity, you should be fine.”
She actually felt elated. “You’re sure?”
“Totally sure. If you’re ready, we can go check it out now if you’d like?”
“Yes, yes, I’d very much like that.” She finished her breakfast and quickly got to her feet to pay the bill.
The waitress constantly glared at her, but she didn’t care. She would have happily stayed at the hotel, but the chance to get away from the nasty looks and perhaps start a life here was too much of a temptation. She left the diner walking side by side with Amelia.
“So, this town doesn’t like you? Were you an outsider?”
Amelia chuckled. “No, not at all. I’m a … vegan, which probably doesn’t mean a whole lot but I made sure to ban the hunting of deer, and I also own a couple of dogs, which is not well known here, and well, yeah, I’m the odd one out. You could say they act like a pack.”
She saw Amelia smiling.
“A pack?”
“Don’t you think?”
“I guess. Wait, are you referring to this town as a pack of wolves?” Agatha asked.
“Something like that.”
Agatha wouldn’t have described them like that, but this woman had been living here a lot longer than she had, so she figured it was best to leave the viewpoint to her.
“Don’t worry, they won’t be insulted by that,” Amelia said. “Most people would have left by now. If not at the hotel where Nancy and Georgie work, then certainly dealing with Bob.”
“Ah, you heard about Bob?” So those were the names of the women at the hotel—Nancy and Georgie. She liked the names. They were lovely.
“Everyone hears about Bob. He wasn’t exactly forthcoming with me. Tried to get me to leave town. Don’t worry about it. If you can handle people giving you the stink eye, and you know, being generally rude, then I’m sure you’ll settle in nicely.”
“What does everyone have against me?” Agatha asked. “I’ve been polite and haven’t been rude or attempted to ruin the natural beauty of the place.”
“They don’t like change, and you’re proposing it. Don’t worry about it, it’ll pass.”
They had walked for several minutes, leaving the town behind. The sun kept filtering through the trees but she had also noticed they were under a great deal of shade.
“Here it is,” Amelia said. “It’s not much, and the main showroom is still empty. I always hoped to do something with it, but so far, zip.”
“It was an old shop?”
“Yep. The shop closed down, but the apartment it’s attached to is more than fine. Trust me.”
In an odd way, she kind of did. It probably helped that she was the first and only woman to be nice to her in a long time. She watched as Amelia pulled out her keys and went to the door. Following her inside, Agatha knew instantly she had fallen in love with the place. It was small, quaint, and in a bizarre way, smelled exactly like home.
“This is perfect,” she said. “When can I move in?”
****
“You allowed her to move in?” Alpha asked.
Boyan looked across Alpha’s office to see Amelia sitting with Wolfe right behind her, hands on her shoulders.
“Yep.”
There was no fear in Amelia’s eyes. She had allowed the human woman to move into her old place, since she now spent most of her days with Wolfe at either the club or the home they shared together.
Alpha swore and paced the length of his office. It was rather entertaining to see him losing his shit. Boyan was thoroughly amused. There was still the problem, though, of the human female now living amongst them, especially as they were two weeks away from a full moon. This posed a huge threat.
“I’m also talking to Val, I believe he’ll have a job opening for her as well. Poison is always so very busy, and there are not a lot of the pack willing to be a waitress. She’s looking for work.”
“Wolfe!” Alpha all but growled.
“Do not tell your man, my husband, to shut me up. I don’t see what the big deal is.”
“She’s human,” Boyan said. “That poses a big threat to all of us. We accept tourists to a certain extent but not like this. You have made a massive mistake with this one.”
Amelia shook her head. “If you actually spoke to her, I’m pretty sure you would sense that there’s something different about her. Something … off.”
“Boyan said the exact same thing,” Enzo said, still knitting away.
“What?” Alpha asked.
“She’s … her scent isn’t strong,” Amelia said. “She’s not easily scared either, and I do think she finds this pack charming. All of us. All the crap they’ve done, being rude.”
“What do you mean, her scent isn’t strong?” Alpha asked. “All humans have a strong scent.”
“It fades,” Boyan said.
He’d been watching the woman from afar, trying to figure out what it was about her that made her so different.
“That’s not possible,” Alpha said.
“I’m telling you, when I followed her from the diner through town, her scent faded within the pack.” Boyan shrugged.
“What do we know about her?” Alpha asked, seeming to grow even more tense.
Boyan knew why he was tense, as did Wolfe, Enzo, Rocco, Draco, and Gunnar. They all knew why he was tense. They’d found … another one.
A year ago, Wolfe’s mate, Amelia, had been attacked by a vet she used, Dr. Milton. He’d helped with a couple of the deer she’d attempted to save, which had then led to the petition to stop the pack from hunting them during a full moon. Anyway, Dr. Milton had discovered they were wolves, and as he did so, he had started to infect people, including himself.
Up until two weeks ago, they hadn’t found any more people infected, until they stumbled on a man, squirming, his bones shattering as he went through a transition. This man was no longer human nor beast, but something mixed, something deadly. They had him chained up in a secret location, under constant watch. They didn’t trust the beta team with him. This was something for the club.
Not long after they found this man, Agatha showed up in town. Boyan wanted to believe it was a coincidence, but he had a horrible feeling it wasn’t. Whatever Dr. Milton did, he had infected people with their blood, and now, it was up to them to try and clean up the mess.
Humans were not meant to turn. Full-blooded wolves could turn. Humans didn’t have the strength of mind or body to withstand such a transition. It would kill them. Everyone they encountered had so far perished. They tried to save them, but it was impossible.
“She’s alone,” Amelia said. “She has no family, her parents are gone. No boyfriend or loved one.”
“I’ll run a check on Agatha Preston,” Boyan said.
The club looked toward him.
“That’s how she introduced herself to me. She gave me her name.”
“And once she meets Val, I can give you a date of birth,” Amelia said.
“You’re willing to do this?” Wolfe asked.
“We need to protect the pack, I understand that, but if you just spoke to this woman, even if you only said a few words, or smelled her, you wouldn’t see a threat.”
“Boyan didn’t see a threat,” Enzo said.
“Fuck off, Enzo,” Boyan said.
“What does he mean?” Alpha asked.
“He means nothing because he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”
“I need to know if this is going to be a problem for you?” Alpha asked.
“So, I think she’s sexy? Yes, I want to fuck her. What’s the big deal? I want to fuck most women. This woman won’t be a problem.”
“You will not fuck her,” Alpha said.
“Out there, you tell the pack what to do. Not me and not here.”
He wasn’t going to be told who he could stick his dick in.
“Leave us,” Alpha said.
One by one, the men left. Amelia followed behind her husband, and within seconds, he was alone with Alpha.
“This woman could be dangerous to the pack, Boyan.”
“I understand that, but you’re making a judgment call right now, without meeting her.”
“She’s human.”
“And so humans are all bad?”
“We’ve never met a good one, and right now, I don’t believe it’s safe for her. I’m pretty sure it hasn’t escaped your mind that all the people currently infected are in some way making their way here.”
It hadn’t escaped his notice.
The people they had found were close to the town line, most of them collapsing in the forest.
“She is a human female, and this means her life could be at risk.”
“Dr. Milton is dead.”
“And we don’t know how many people he infected or who they’re infecting, if they can even infect other people.”
“I’m aware of this, which is why now is a good time to keep her around,” Boyan said. “We don’t know what is out there, but to leave her to fend for herself, to leave town completely unprotected is not something we should be considering either. I know having a human female in town is not ideal, but we’re going to have to deal with it.”
“What about Draco?” Alpha asked.
Boyan knew he’d bring up the club brother. Draco had been the only one of them to be mated. This was many moons ago. His mate had been killed by a human hunter, and Draco hadn’t been the same since. Losing the only love he’d ever have had killed a part of his soul. There were moments Draco was more animal than human. If it hadn’t been for the club, he’d have gladly given in to the beast.
“Then he’s on guard duty,” Boyan said. “I know none of this is ideal, but it is what it is. We can’t put her life at risk, and we can’t expose her to Draco or any of the infected. We just can’t.” He ran fingers through his hair then pulled it all back, tying it in a bun at the base of his neck.
He needed to get the length cut, but he kind of had a thing with the salon owner, Macy, and they liked to fuck around the full moon. The only problem was Macy got a little too attached, and well, he got a little bored. It was why he’d not gotten his hair cut in a long time.
Not that he feared Macy. The club would be pissed if anything happened to him, and she would have to answer to any crimes she committed. She didn’t like to take no for an answer. Macy had started to talk about mating, the future, kids, all of it. Boyan knew she’d enjoyed many men of the pack, not that he minded that, but she wasn’t the woman he wished to settle down with.
“Fine. I’ll deal with Draco,” Alpha said.
Alpha was always able to bring Draco back from the edge. So far, Draco had seemed fine. The last few weeks, he’d been focused on keeping this human alive.
It was strange, ever since his mate died, he’d been happy to hunt and kill humans. The infected humans seemed to garner his sympathy, and he attempted to help them all through the transition. They hadn’t made it.
The current infected seemed to be lasting the longest. Boyan knew they should contact Shirley, the pack healer, but if they did that, it would alert the pack to the problem. The pack could be giant pains in the ass, but they also feared the unknown. There was a chance they would attempt to hunt and kill all those infected, even though it wasn’t their fault.
There was a lot of shit going on. He knew deep down they didn’t have time for a strange-smelling female, but what more could they do? He also didn’t want her to leave. There was something about her that had his wolf intrigued. He’d not told Enzo about that.
He’d not let anyone know that the moment he was close to Agatha Preston, his wolf woke up, and the urge to mate was exceedingly strong.
Chapter Three
This was insane.
Agatha had never known a job interview to go by so fast. Amelia had picked her up from her apartment, and they’d walked to the bar.
Val was a nice man, a little rough around the edges, and his gaze had seemed almost penetrative. Like he was trying to see all the way through her, which was fine, a little off-putting, but it was something she could handle.
She had gotten the job after a few choice questions. Again, the easiest interview she’d ever been part of.
Now, all she had to do was work, which consisted of clearing tables, taking orders, and delivering them to the customers. Most of the time, as Amelia said, it was about serving the bar. Her training would begin tonight. Agatha had no idea how this was going to work.
She’d never liked crowds. She’d never been a people person. In fact, back in the city, her job had been in a small cubicle, taking phone calls and handling people’s insurance. That was it. She’d not been great at her job, but she’d been good. Her small cubicle had been her safe haven, as it stopped people from crowding her space. At work, they all had a job to do.
Working at a bar was not keeping people at a distance. It was not talking to them through a device and helping on a computer screen.
“You’re looking nervous,” Amelia said.
“Oh, it’s nothing. I haven’t had much experience in bars.”
“You haven’t?”
“No.”
“You’ve not partied?” Amelia asked.
“No, I’m not much of a partier.” She held onto the cloth with a death grip, not wanting to let it go for fear of what that would mean.
She was not going to panic.
Her heart raced. Her hands felt clammy. Her stomach seemed to twist.
Amelia grabbed her hands. “Stop. Just stop. Don’t worry. Trust me, they won’t bite, and even their hatred of me didn’t stop them from ordering. Everything is going to be fine.”
“I don’t think Val should have hired me.”
“He likes to be a rebel. Don’t mind him. He seems to like everything everyone else doesn’t.” She shrugged. “He was the only one who’d hire me.”
Agatha smiled. She didn’t see why people in town had such an issue with Amelia. She was a sweetheart. So lovely. She had to wonder if people still gave Amelia a hard time because of the leather jacket she wore. Agatha had noticed she rarely took it off. Even now, she was behind the counter, and it was hot—summer was not messing around this year—but Amelia still wore her leather jacket.
For a split second, she couldn’t help but think about what it would mean to be wanted enough to have someone give her a leather cut, to stake their claim. She didn’t get much time to think as the doors to the bar opened and a large group of people stepped through.
