Aiden
Whoever the two goons with guns were, they most certainly weren’t government agents.
They weren’t nearly aware enough of their surroundings, nor did they give him the respect he deserved. True, they both brought their weapons around when he appeared, but after Willow told them he was fine, they relaxed.
He’d listened carefully to Willow describe to him who the men were. He hadn’t sensed any deceit in her voice. Whoever they truly worked for, she believed they were part of a government agency. What kind of lies was her father giving her, he wondered. Whatever was in the brown boxes was absolutely illegal. He just didn’t know what it was.
Preparing himself, he lifted the first box, muscles flexed and ready.
“Whoops,” he muttered as he nearly upended himself.
The box weighed next to nothing! It wasn’t empty; he could feel the contents, they just didn’t have much weight to them. With a shrug he picked up an entire stack and started walking back to his truck.
“These aren’t fragile, are they?” he asked Willow.
“No.”
“Excellent.”
The loading of the truck proceeded in fairly quick order.
“Only one stack at a time?” Willow jabbed as he was working. “Orren usually takes two.”
He rolled his eyes at her taunt and snatched up two piles of the ultra-light boxes the second time around. “It’s not the weight,” he remarked as he set them down. “It’s the bulk. If they would shrink-wrap them together, I could take four stacks at once with ease. It would make the whole thing go far easier.”
“I’ll mention it to Father,” she replied with a twinkle in her eye, grabbing some of the boxes that had been shoved in and around the main stacks and moving them over as well.
Another ten minutes and both vans were empty. The guards nodded at Willow, went over to their vans, and got in. Aiden noted they both entered the passenger side. Which meant there had been two others present, drivers only. Very interesting. He really needed to get a look inside the boxes, to figure out what they contained.
“I’m just going to secure these down a little better,” he remarked, hopping into the truck. “I don’t want them to fall all over the place.”
“Are you criticizing my driving?” Willow challenged lightly.
“Is it really criticizing when you state facts?” he shot back. “You ran over the curb getting us in here.”
“It’s a tight squeeze!” she protested.
He snorted, looking on the boxes for any labels that would give a clue to the contents. “You realize that this facility is designed for ease of entry and exit with big eighteen-wheeler vehicles in mind, right?”
Willow just glared at him.
“Since I’m going to be the one unloading them, I want them to stay stacked upright. Not only will it be more work for me if they don’t, but I’m sure someone will yell at me for it.”
“You’re probably right,” Willow agreed. “But you can console yourself with the knowledge that you deserve it.”
He slumped. “Ouch.”
That earned him a giggle, though the Alpha’s daughter quickly tamped down on that reaction, turning away. “I’ll be in the cab.”
“Okay.” He tried not to sound too excited.
Once she was gone Aiden swiftly sliced open a box to take a look at the contents.
“What the hell?” It was just filled with translucent plastic packets. Like plastic baggies, but a much heavier grade. His mind was taken back to the one time he’d been to a hospital, after a particularly bad injury. He’d received an IV bag…which when empty, looked exactly like what he was holding in his hand.
What the hell?
Shoving it back inside, he adjusted the tape as best as possible, and then shuffled some stacks around, hiding the opened box near the bottom of a random one. Hopefully nobody would notice or care when they finally got to that point. Maybe, if he was lucky, he’d be able to retape the box later when nobody was around.
Everything secured as best he could, Aiden closed the rear and hopped into the cab. Willow had it in gear before he even had his seatbelt done up.
“Hey, safety first!” he yelped. “With you doing that thing you call ‘driving’ in this rig, I’m probably gonna need it.”
She glared at him as they approached the exit. “Keep this up and you’re going to need protection, that’s for sure. But far more than the seatbelt can provide.”
Aiden laughed off her threat, enjoying their little banter. It was the most he’d really gotten out of her since they’d met. He felt she was enjoying it too.
“Maybe I’ll have to buy a dashcam,” he muttered, ensuring it was loud enough for Willow to hear. “That way I’ll have proof of my claims.”
All he could hear was a high-pitched growl from Willow. They both laughed at that for a bit before settling down into amicable silence.
He broke it first. “Can I ask you something now?”
“I guess I owe you, don’t I?”
“Nah, I don’t keep track of that kind of stuff,” he said with a wave of his hand.
“Well, you can ask. I might not want to answer, but I will.”
“What happened to your family? How did you end up adopted by werewolves?”
She grimaced. “I should have figured it would be that.”
“I’m sorry, if it’s too painful, you don’t have to tell me.”
Willow shook her head, hands staying calmly on the wheel. “No, it’s only fair. You told me about your past, I guess I reciprocate. That’s how these things work, right?”
He very carefully did not make a comment to the effect of “these things.” That would be pressing things too much, too soon. If he wanted her to learn to grow comfortable with him, he’d have to move a little slower.
“It’s painful,” she said. “But not because of the memories I have.”
Aiden frowned, not understanding.
“It hurts because of what I don’t have. What I never had. I don’t remember my family. I was an infant still, no memories of that time. So all I know is that I never grew up knowing my real family. They never got a chance to meet me. When I look around and see other human families, or werewolves at that, I hurt, because I want that, but I don’t have it.”
His heart ached for her. Aiden wanted to reach out, to rest his hand on her forearm, to tell her that it was okay to hurt, that she shouldn’t feel guilty about it. To make sure she knew he would be there for whatever she needed.
“My family was killed by a rogue werewolf,” she said at last. “Stephen was hunting him, trying to bring him down before he did any more damage. They lived out in the woods, preferring privacy to the city life. Anyway, as he tells me, he got there too late. The wolf had killed everyone but me. He managed to save me, and he felt guilty about what had happened, so he adopted me and raised me as his own daughter.” She pursed her lips, thoughtful for a second. “Yeah, that’s the story. I’ve worked at his company ever since he started it when I got back from college.”
Aiden nodded. “I see. And you’re, what, mid-thirties did you say?”
Willow gave him a look, and he just realized he’d asked a woman her age. Shit. But he needed to know. “On the dot, actually.”
He nodded, trying to play it off, not wanting her to know the thoughts racing through his head. Thirty-five years ago. He would have been twelve. The age difference mattered exactly not at all to him. That’s not what he was thinking about.
Rogue or wild Weres were an extremely rare occurrence. To the point that they were all documented and reported. He could think of exactly twice that it had happened during his lifetime. Neither one of which had occurred thirty-five years ago.
What other lies is her adopted “father” telling her? “Government agents.” “Rogue Weres?” Right.