Chapter Two – Elena
The jolt of the gun vibrated up Elena's arm, making her grin. She always loved this sensation, putting in the last nail of her project. She stepped back to admire her work, powering off the nail gun she had been using. The crown molding was perfect. Now all she had to do was fill in the nail holes and paint the whole thing. Some of the guys on the team didn't want to work with a woman when they first joined up, but she had been working construction since she was twelve years old and she knew her stuff better than most of them.
The foreman stepped into the room. "Aldana, the boss wants to see you."
Elena scowled. Just when she was getting into her groove. She set her equipment to one side. For years she'd had problems with the guys stealing her stuff since she always used the high-end products that they were too cheap to buy, but getting everything in pink had solved that problem. Unconventional, but effective.
Not that Elena didn't like pink. In fact, it was her favorite color. She'd have painted her truck a sparkly pink if her father had let her.
"It's a work truck," he had told her, though she had paid for it with her own money and was reimbursed only half her gas costs. "You're not during around to my sites in a pink truck. I have a reputation."
It made her blood boil, but when you worked for your father, sometimes you just had to play by his rules. The fact was that he wasn't as young as he used to be, and he needed her to help keep the business running.
Her father was talking with an old, grey-haired man when she entered the office. Both men turned to her when she stepped in. Another potential client needing a quote?
"Ah, Elena." Her father came forward and put an arm around her shoulder. "Let me introduce Alan Straight from the Cedar Grove pack."
A werewolf? Elena's brows rose. They usually kept to themselves. She'd never actually met one before. She certainly never expected one here. "How do you do?"
"Quite appalled, my dear. Appalled." The Wolf shook his head. "Am I to understand correctly that you father has never told you about the deal he made with the late Alpha of the Cedar Grove pack?"
Elena glanced at her father, whose face was stony. He released her as if she was diseased, and the sneer on his face bode nothing but ill. She knew her father wasn't always the most upfront person… so what had he gotten himself into this time? And what was she supposed to do to get him out of it? It had better not be like last time–she had to drop twenty pounds by starving herself to be the poster girl for a weight-loss drug that later turned out to actually cause weight gain. She had only just been able to gain back the weight so she felt comfortable in her own skin again.
"I don't know of any arrangement that he made," she said evenly.
"It was such a long time ago, and it can't possibly hold up in court," her father said. "Don't worry about a thing, Elena."
Well, that wasn't completely terrifying. She stepped away from her father. "What did you do?"
"These documents have all the information." Alan handed her a packet of papers. "When you were an infant, your father wanted to purchase a plot of land from the Cedar Grove pack. A plot that I believe you just took out a third mortgage on so you could expand your business?"
"It will never hold up in court," her father insisted again.
"What won't?" Elena frowned. "What does this all have to do with me?"
"Packlands, as a matter of law, are not able to be purchased by humans."
"But you just said my dad bought land."
"No. He wanted to, but your father did not purchase the land. Instead, it was given to him as an honorary member of the pack, because of the agreements he made with the former Alpha that you would be mated to his son."
"What?" Elena whirled on her father, her eyes blazing with anger. She had gotten her mother's temper, according to her father, but if that was the case she must have gotten her honesty from her, too. "What did you do? How could you trade me away like a truck that you have no more use for? You sold me off as a child bride for a stupid piece of land?"
"I did no such thing! You were not to mate him until after your twentieth birthday. And face it, Elena, that day came and passed long ago." Her father narrowed his eyes at her and folded his arms. "I was put in a terrible position by the Wolves, and I never thought that they'd actually try to make it happen."
Elena turned away, digging one hand into her short hair. What could she do now? Letting out a deep breath, she glanced down at the papers that she still held. Shaking her head, she opened them and started reading through them.
"I would be more than happy to let your human lawyers take a look at it," Alan said. "And of course, you are under no obligation to mate with our new Alpha. However, if you do not mate him then you can no longer be considered part of the pack and the lands will be taken away from you at once."
Her father huffed. "Take those lands away, and I've got three mortgages I have to pay off at once. How am I meant to do that? I'll be ruined!"
"Whose fault is that?" Elena muttered. She turned on him. "Bad enough that you do this in the first place, but why didn't you ever tell me?"
"I was in a terrible spot. I did what I had to in order to ensure your future. You could be a little more grateful."
Elena didn't want to feel guilty over her anger towards her father, but it inevitably started to rise. It was like this all the time. He'd do something that put her in a terrible position, and then when she got angry or fought back against it, it was somehow her fault and he was only looking out for her. She was sick of it but didn't know how to make it stop. This really took the cake, though.
"Perhaps there is an alternative to look at," Alan said soothingly. "Miss Aldana, you could come to the packlands and give it a bit of a try before you say no."
"No. No, I'm not going to be traded back and forth like I'm some medieval girl who has no choice with who she marries. This is absurd beyond belief. I refuse to talk about this any further." Elena glowered at first the Wolf than her father. "We're done here. I am not mating with some guy I've never met before. What does that even mean, mating?"
Alan opened his mouth. "It—"
"You are not going to ruin me with your stubbornness, Elena." Her father narrowed his eyes at her. "If you don't go with this werewolf and mate that Alpha, I'll have nothing and it will be your fault. You do this, or you will no longer be welcome as my daughter."
"You wouldn't dare disown me," Elena shout back. "I'm too vital to running your business for you. You wouldn't even let me look for other jobs, there is no way you would—"
"You're fired."
Elena froze. She stared blankly at her father. Was he serious?
"You're fired, and it's high time you moved out on your own. I'm going to change the locks on the house. You have two hours to move out." Her father smiled cruelly. "Of course, you're welcome back anytime, Elena. Provided we still have a home and the Wolves haven't taken it away."
The Wolf stared between them, shocked, but Elena rose her chin. "Fine. I'll go with the Wolf and try out this whole mating business. I'll grab my stuff and go. Oh, and Dad? I'm painting my truck pink."
***
"Highly unusual," Alan muttered once again, looking disgusted. "Lukas deserves to know you are being blackmailed into being his mate. He'll never stand for it."
Elena pulled up to the run-down house Alan had directed to her and stopped the truck. Ugh. Just looking at this place made Elena want to gut it and completely redo it. Which she luckily had the skills for. Well, maybe she could convince Lukas to pay her for the job, and use him as a reference as she searched for new employment. She wasn't going to crawling back to her father after this.
"You're not telling him anything about what my father did," she said shortly. "This is humiliating enough without him feeling sorry for me. I'll tell him that I didn't know about it and that will be it. Understood?"
The old man sighed and nodded. "Very well."
"Besides, everything will be fine, as long as there aren't any more surprises like he has seven brothers that I have to find mates for."
The door to the house and two men stepped out onto the porch. Elena's stomach went in flip-flops. If she was a cartoon, she would have become a heart-shaped puddle on the floor.
Both were possibly the most gorgeous people she had ever seen. Tall, broad-shouldered, muscles straining against their clothing. One of them was tattooed, with a shock of dark hair and dark eyes perfect for brooding. The other was more clean-shaven, and he held himself like a king. She had a feeling there was nothing he wanted that he didn't get. As she stared at them, her mouth watered and heat flashed through her body.
"Ah," the Wolf in her truck said. "I thought this might happen."
"What might happen?" Elena couldn’t take her eyes from the two.
"Well… it appears that you will have two mates instead of one."
Her head turned so quickly she cricked her neck. "What?"