She sighed and she sent yet another text to her absent mother. CALL ME ASAP – IT’S URGENT. I’M IN ROSE, VA!!! XXX. Violet was a moderately successful travel writer and liked to travel all over seeking new subjects. Sometimes she was gone for weeks at a time. Usually she answered the damn phone though!
Rosalee worked as a part-time temp to cover bills but really she was an artist. She had a little success over the years, selling her work to some local art galleries but generally she sold the most at craft fairs. She’d had a few commissions come up as well, usually just dogs and cats. People loved their pets more than their children.
Rosalee explored the upstairs and found four bedrooms and two more bathrooms. Three of the bedrooms looked like they hadn’t been touched in years and contained dozens of books stacked up to the ceiling. The fourth was obviously Iris’ room; the bed was still turned down, almost like it was waiting for Iris to come home.
She sat on the stairs, resting her elbows on her knees. The wall leading upstairs was covered in various paintings but oddly enough no photos. In fact there were no photos throughout the whole of the house. There was no evidence to suggest her mother had ever lived here, no baby pictures, no embarrassing school pictures, no vacation snaps.
Most of the paintings were dull watery landscapes but two caught her eye. One was of a landscape in Mexico and the other was a busy street scene in New Jersey. They were instantly recognisable to her, she’d painted both of them.
She didn’t know anything about her grandmother, but clearly Iris knew about her. Strange that she never tried to make contact.
Rosalee decided she could hang around here for a while, get the house in order and sell it. Her mind raced at the thought of all the places she could go and the things she could do with the money. A sharp twinge of guilt assaulted her that her happiness came at the expense of a blood relation. But there was nothing she could do about the poor woman’s death, and besides Iris wanted her to have this.
Her stomach grumbled breaking her reverie. It had been hours since she’d grabbed a burger at a roadside cafe. She was starving. She braced herself and went looking for food in the kitchen. It was cleaned out. Whoever had cleaned up had got rid of anything edible as well.
Only one thing for it. She would go into town and get some supplies. It was 4.30pm. As she drove in she’d spotted a pizza parlour, perhaps she could get some take out. She could quickly unload her car, set up her TV, and be there and back before it got dark.
She surveyed herself in the hallway mirror. She was a bit travel weary and felt a bit grubby but she was tired and didn’t really care what these small town people thought of her. She pulled her hair back and fastened it into a fashionably messy bun on the top of her head. Gingerly she sniffed her armpits. Hey, when you’re travelling it’s not always possible to be a lady!
Hmmm, no time to shower. She retrieved her perfume from her suitcase and doused herself liberally with it, the rose scent lingered on her skin and she inhaled the sweet scent. There, that’ll do.
*
Adam Grey, the Alpha of the Grey wolf pack, stacked his shopping trolley with beer. Acksel, his Chief Enforcer and Alec his Beta, were coming over to his house later that night to discuss pack business. In the last couple of weeks a local witch Emerald Cole had murdered fellow witch Iris Bennett, and then she herself been put down by the pack whilst trying to attack his Beta’s new mate Liv. It had been intense so he figured things would go a little better with a little liquid relaxation.
Not that Alec would actually partake. Since mating with Liv he had barely drunk a drop of alcohol and certainly hadn’t been seen in the local pack owned bar. But then why would he want to go out when he could be at home with his luscious pregnant mate?
Adam felt a little jealous of their obvious happiness and it irritated him. He wasn’t accustomed to being jealous of anyone. Other men were usually jealous of him.
As he walked around the grocery store he nodded and greeted various town people who smiled back at him. He winked at Rena the new cashier sparking a fit of giggles. He smiled smugly. She wanted him. Rena had practically purred at him every time he had been in since she started. Maybe he would ask her to come over to his place tonight after her shift ended. By then Alec and Acksel would be gone and the two of them could have a bit of fun.
Being the leader of the pack he just didn’t have time for a relationship or dating but as a wolf he ran hot and needed regular sexual release. He kept things casual and sought out women who just wanted the same thing as him – no strings sex.
He knew one day he would need to settle down and find a mate. He hadn’t given up hope that he would fine his own true mate yet. He was only 29. He figured if he hadn’t met her within another couple of years he would bite the bullet and settle down with a she-wolf and father some pups. That day just seemed a long way off yet. He thought of Rena again and felt his arousal stir; there was plenty to occupy himself with in the meantime.