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“Deep breath. I’ll get through this. It is something new. You didn’t want to be his mate, anyway,” Olivia told herself.
After washing her face and changing her clothes, she headed toward Howlers’.
Sean was bartending. He was tall, thin, with bright red hair and emerald-green eyes. Olivia thought that he looked like he had just stepped off the pages of an Irish magazine.
“My name is Olivia. Benny said that you might be able to help me. I need a job. I’m willing to do anything,” she said, hating the fact that she sounded so desperate.
“Have you ever waited tables before or bartended?” he asked, looking her up and down appraisingly.
“No, but I’m a quick learner,” she said.
He sucked his front teeth as he studied her. Finally, he nodded. “When can you start?”
“Right now,” she said. “Just tell me what to do.”
“I’ll pay you under the table for now, until we can determine whether you’re going to work out. There is no sense in filling out all the paperwork if it turns out that you aren’t a fit here,” he said. “You came at a good time, because my last waitress just left.”
“Sounds good,” she replied.
Besides, I don’t even know how long I’ll be staying. I have to stay one step ahead of Declan. He doesn’t like to lose, and I don’t think that he’s going to give up.
“Where are you from?” he asked.
“Up north,” she replied. “It was time for a change in scenery.”
That’s not a lie, she told herself.
Sean looked her up and down again, as though he was wondering whether her vague answers meant that she was going to be more trouble than she was worth.
However, he either really needed the help or he trusted Benny’s judgement. He said, “Follow me. I’ll get you a chart of the tables, a menu, and show you how to run the register.”
It felt as though a ton of bricks had fallen off her shoulders. She would have a way to save up money before she moved on to her next stop, wherever that might be.
2
Zac
“It’s time to go back,” Ian said.
“I don’t want to,” Zac protested. “Certainly, those miserable old coots can have their meetings without me.”
“I’m sure that they could,” Ian said. “But, they won’t. And, it doesn’t matter if you are the alpha of our pack, they will give you hell if you aren’t on time.”
“You’re my second in command. You could represent me,” Zac replied.
“Nope,” Ian said. “I have other things to attend to. Let’s go.”
Zac felt like he was a little boy again, arguing with his mother about whether he had to go to school or not. Only now, it was whether he had to go to another annoying meeting that the elders of his Nightshade pack deemed necessary. At least this time, they weren’t going to be happy with his new orders.
“Isn’t today the one-year anniversary of you taking over as alpha?” Ian asked.
“Yes. I hope they bring cake to celebrate. Then, I’ll have something to focus on instead of their droning voices.”
“You’re grumpy,” Ian said.
“I know,” Zac said as they reached the tree where they hid their clothes.
They pulled the clear plastic bags down. They always kept their clothes in plastic bags and put them in trees to keep them safe from bugs and animals. No one wanted to get back from a run just to find their clothes infested with fire ants or to discover that the clothes had been stolen by some wild animal.
