Tightly Held [Werewolves of Hanson Mall 5] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read Online Free Page A

again. There were plenty of tools there and other people they could ask for advice. If it broke down on the side of the road without any tools they had no hope of getting it working again. In particular, no hope of getting it working and delivering them to the pack expecting them on time. Ah shit. His life was just one big crisis right now. All he wanted to do was think about Georgia and winning her love and respect. Instead he was more likely to be sent back home with a kick on his ass for causing her grief and trouble.
    By the time she drove up in a white SUV, Ethan had almost convinced himself he was certain to fail, to be sent home in disgrace, and never to see her again.
    Fortunately for his peace of mind, she jumped out of the car and smiled at them. “I’m glad you’re on time. Put your things in the trunk and let’s go.”
    She climbed into the backseat, buckled her seat belt, and lifted a pile of papers onto her lap.
    Ethan moved to the driver’s seat while Nolan put his backpack into the trunk and took the passenger side. Confident he knew the way, Ethan drove slowly out of the mall parking lot, familiarizing himself with the steering and braking of the SUV. It didn’t seem to have any unusual quirks, so by the time he reached the interstate he was happy to travel at the speed limit.
    Apart from a few quiet remarks to each other about the route they were taking, he and Nolan remained silent, very aware that Georgia was there to work and they shouldn’t disturb her.
    Eventually he heard her moving around and he glanced in the rearview mirror. She was putting the files of papers into a briefcase. “Thank you for your patience, Nolan and Ethan. It’s a big help being able to get everything organized as we travel. On the way home I’ll be able to start tabulating the results. This pack was one of the very first to agree to be interviewed. They have intermingled with other packs a little, but not as much as I would have expected, seeing they’re only a couple hour’s drive from two other packs. That’s one of the things we should have followed up on after the first interview, but didn’t know to check back then. You’ll be looking for more links to other packs or reasons why they kept away from the neighboring packs.”
    Ethan nodded, not taking his gaze from the road.
    Nolan murmured, “Yes, ma’am.”
    “Call me Georgia, please. We’re colleagues on this project.”
    Ethan nodded again, but he felt diffident about actually doing that in a work situation. In the apartment, sharing a donut, sure. But here she was very much their boss. They were just brand-new beginners at this job. Ethan swallowed hard. What if he made mistakes? What if he forgot to ask important questions or he sounded rude and upset the people he was interviewing? What if he did something wrong inadvertently and brought disgrace on his pack. Oh shit. So many things could go wrong. And he truly wanted only to please her and do everything right.
     
    * * * *
     
    Nolan was excited to see this pack and meet the people. Georgia had said the pack didn’t have very many links to other packs, despite not being particularly isolated. All the packs were isolated to some extent, because that’s how they’d settled the land originally, finding an area to call their own and trying to stay relatively unnoticed by the local human population. But these days, with good roads and fast cars, what might have taken a man a week to walk a couple of hundred years ago, now was only a couple of hour’s drive.
    He was looking forward to learning if they had enough females of their own, or very nearly sufficient, or whether theirs was one of the packs gradually disappearing. He was surprised to discover how engaged he was in the project, when he hadn’t even really started work yet. But of course, finding out why there were so few women was vital to the survival of the species as a whole, not just to this pack and his own pack.
    That didn’t mean he