Page 2 of Conri

Now, there was a bastard.His father had caused so much trouble in the pack that even his brothers were considering leaving for another group.The day that he’d been killed by the pack, including him and his brothers were in on it, had been a great day for everyone.Then, not a week later, his wife had committed one of the worst laws by selling images of herself changing from human to wolf and profiting off it.Needless to say, when she was dealt with, he thought that the world was coming down on his head.

He’d also found out that Carol and his father had been stealing from the pack funds that his dad had been in charge of and buying themselves a big house out in California.Why there?He had no idea, but the fact that he found out more and more about them over the next few decades just went to show him how blinded by love he’d been.It had also soured him on finding anyone to mate with since then.

He would play the game about finding himself a mate with his mom as she had no idea what secrets he’d been hiding.Not even his brothers knew of all the things that he’d found out.But he wasn’t going to look for a mate again.One had been more than enough for him.

The first thing he did was go over his appointments for the day.He had two this morning and nothing for the rest of the day.Not that people wouldn’t be coming in and out of his office all day, including during the times someone had actually made an appointment, but he felt in a better frame of mind to deal with it.

After lunch, he decided to go to town and see about the new banker.He had no idea how long the man would be in his offices since he was new, but he did want to go and get the lay of the land, so to speak.

The man wasn’t in his office like he thought that he’d be.Instead, he was sitting at a makeshift desk, signing up his people for checking accounts for their new paychecks.He liked a man who got down and dirty with his employees, and when talking to Mr.Roger Hamlin, he decided that they couldn’t have done better with getting someone to take over for the other man.Hamlin was a wolf shifter and a part of his pack as of the moment they got a moment to sit down and talk.

“I should have come to you sooner, but I wanted to get this taken care of.But I would enjoy being a part of your pack.My other pack leader isn’t thrilled that I’ve come here, but he’ll get over it.My boss from the bank was none too happy to get the call from Calla Smith yesterday.”He smiled a little.“Shewas none too happy to be making the call either, but we don’t do that to prospective accounts.Banks need all the new accounts we can get.”

~*~

Yuri watched as the line behind him got longer and longer.He’d only stopped by the grocery store to pick up some milk and eggs.Had he known some crazy couponer was in the store, he’d have gone someplace else.As it was now, he had a lot of things to do tonight, and one of them wasn’t standing in line with a couponer person.

He knew that coupons saved money for those who used them.He’d been guilty of that, too, by holding up the line because his coupon hadn’t worked the way he had thought that it should.But this woman had hundreds of them.And the way she was watching the cashier, he knew she was wanting to get every one of them to work.

“She’s scanning them too quickly.”He might not have heard the woman behind him if he didn’t have special hearing because he was a wolf.But she might be right.Watching the cashier scan the coupons, it looked like she was having a race with herself to get them scanned.“The system will shut down if you keep this up, Milly.”

Intrigued, he turned to look at the woman.Christ, he nearly swallowed his tongue.She was that beautiful.Instead of saying something stupid, he asked her what would happen if she did shut the system down.She eyed him with a cocked brow.

“I didn’t say anything.”He nodded and said that she had, and he would like to know if he had to get his milk and eggs elsewhere.“I’d say yes.If the system shuts down, then neither register will work, and they’ll have to void all of her purchases and redo her order.And I didn’t speak out loud.You must have heard me whispering.”

“I did.”He looked at the couponer and then at the cashier.“She’s going to fuck it up for all of us, isn’t she?”

“I’d say that’s about right.Milly thinks that if she beats the computer on the register—has the coupons still ringing up when she’s finished with them, she gets herself a mental prize.Only she knows what that will be.But she’s done this before.”She eyed him hard.“What are you?Wolf, I’m thinking.”

“You’d be correct.”He turned back to her, winked, and then smiled.“My name is Yuri Valley.I’m with the local pack that’s around here.”

“Good for you.I’m Cassidy Warmer.I work here a few days a week.I also work at the Warmer Horse Farm too.Yes, I’m related, but I don’t have any money, so save your flirting for someone else.My sister, perhaps.”He couldn’t help it, he laughed.Then he asked if she was as pretty as she was.“Cynthia is gorgeous.She tells me that all the time.”

Again, he couldn’t help himself.He laughed.She was delightful and funny.And he had no doubt that Cassidy was much more beautiful than her sister was and twice as engaging.He was just about to ask her out when she groaned.

“Cassidy, can you be a sweetheart and open another line for me?Milly has her hands full.”Instead of answering him, she told him about the coupons and explained how Milly was going to shut down the computer.The man, he assumed the store manager, came out of the little cubby hole he was in and put his hand on the scanner.“Milly, if this shuts down again, I’m going to fire you.I’ve had enough of your shenanigans.Stand there until the computer has time to catch up.”

She did, but she wasn’t the least bit ashamed of her actions.Instead, she popped her gum loudly and glared at Cassidy.The manager asked her again if she’d open up a register for him.

“It’s my day off.”He said he’d pay her double.“Whatever.Just bring me out a clean drawer, and I’ll take the customers in line right now.Then I’m going home.I have a life other than this, you know.”

“I know, sweetie, but Milly didn’t tell me that Mrs.Craine was coming in today.I would have scheduled you to take the order.You get her in and out quickly.”Mrs.Craine said she didn’t bitch as much, either.“There is that.All right, everyone, just go to the other line, and Cassidy will get you all out of here lickty split.”

In less time than it took her to count out her drawer, he was on his way home.But he didn’t wantto go and had even thought about staying in Milly’s line so that he could linger around more.Taking his purchases to his car, he decided to go back in and ask Cassidy out.He felt like they’d had a personal connection.But by the time he was back in the store, she had gotten the other customers out of her line and was in the cubby hole with the manager.He didn’t want to interrupt her, so he waited until she was finished before smiling at her at the door.

“What do you want?”He laughed.He’d laughed more today than he had in a few weeks.He asked her to go to dinner with him.“Are you addled?I said my sister was way prettier.Not to mention better at dates than I’d ever be.I’ll even give you her phone number.”

“How about you give me yours instead?”She blew her bangs off her face, and he wanted to see if it was as soft as it looked.There was something about this prickly little thing that had him wanting to take her out and pamper her.And he had no idea where that thought had come from.“I’d very much like to take you out to dinner.What harm can come from that?”

“You have no idea.All right.I’ll give you my number and my sisters.I’m sure that once you think about it, you’ll come to the conclusion that I’m not proper date material.I blow my nose at the table, and my mother thinks that I have no idea which fork to use.Why would you need so many forks for one meal?Anyway.”She pulled out a small paper bag and wrote down her number in small numbers and her sisters in large ones.He was still laughing when she left him there with his paper bag.

By the time he was home, he was smiling.Making reservations at his favorite restaurant that had about anything you could want on the menu, he picked up his cell to call Cassidy.He should have known she’d not give in that easily when he got Cynthia on the line.She asked him who he was.

“Yuri Valley.And I’m trying to find your sister, Cassidy.I had made plans with her to go to dinner.”She said that her sister didn’t live in the big house but she’d go out with him.“I’m sorry, I don’t know you.I was really hoping to get Cassidy.”

“Oh, you can get to know me over dinner.You can pick me up at the big house, that’s where I live with mommy and Daddy.Cass, as I said, doesn’t live here anymore.Is six all right with you?”He was stuck, and he had a feeling that Cassidy had done this before and gotten away with it.He told Cynthia that he’d call her and see if they were still on tonight.“Oh, don’t bother her.She never dates.That’s why we don’t get along all that well.She is a fuddy-duddy.And not nearly as pretty as I am.”

There it was, the, she told me that she’s prettier than I am, quote.Getting off the phone with Cynthia was harder than he thought it would be, but she was wearing him down.Instead of giving in to her whiney attempts to get him to go out with her, he told her that he had to go.He had things to do.

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