Page 33 of Baby and the Beast

“Do you think Martin would mind showing me where everything is?”

“I’ll make sure he doesn’t,” Kyle said. “To be honest Clara is wanting him to retire, but I have enough on my plate with the pack. We have human managers who have no idea the logging company is owned by wolf shifters, but I’m very reluctant to go a hundred percent human.” He sighed. “And I don’t think I could afford to replace Martin on top of everything else.”

They made short work of the cleanup. Kyle hesitantly offered to get Cyrus another glass of wine and he was tempted. “It won’t kill you,” Kyle teased. Cyrus reluctantly agreed. Not because he didn’t want the wine, but because he was doing his best to limitthe amount of time he was spending with Kyle. For his own sanity he had no choice.

They were sitting in the den. It was the most unwelcoming room he had ever seen. “Is this where your dad used to relax?”

Kyle shook his head, stood. “No, come on.” He unclipped the bunch of keys attached to his belt loop and walked out of the room. Cyrus scrambled to follow. They walked past the stairs that led to all the bedrooms and stopped at the second to last door. They were double doors and Kyle took a key off his ring, unlocked them and stepped back. Cyrus wasn’t sure what he expected to see, but thisdisasterarea wasn’t it.

He glanced at Kyle, unsure of how he should react, and caught the utter misery reflected in those blue depths. He swung his head back and slowly took in everything. From the tossed beer cans that reminded him of Mike to the empty bookshelves, the filthy rug and the overflowing ashtrays. A curtain rod snapped in two, hanging and looking almost drunk, from a large window. An expensive looking leather armchair tipped over on its side next to a half-broken glass and a stain on the floor he was pretty sure was blood.

“This was where the challenge started,” Kyle whispered. “Marnie got a call through to me and I was granted emergency leave. I thought I was just coming home for their burials and then returning, but I walked in to find Marnie at her wit’s end trying to comfort two distraught babies and cook at the same time, and my uncle and four of his betas were all sitting in here drinking and smoking.” Cyrus’s throat tightened.

“I walked in and they laughed because I was in fatigues. Said fucking GI Jane had turned up. Asked me if I’d lost my way to the mess hall. I asked my uncle if he’d lost his mind. Then I offered to go help him look for it.” Kyle’s eyes glittered with fury and so much hurt Cyrus couldn’t stand it. He stepped up to Kyle, put his arms around his waist and laid his head on Kyle’s chest.He might not have all the parts of an omega, but he sure as hell had the emotions of one, and his need to comfort his mate overrode anything else. Kyle seemed shocked, but then his arms came around Cyrus and held him tight. They stood like that for a long moment.

“I just locked the door and left it,” Kyle mumbled. “I couldn’t stand to look at it, because Mom and Dad loved this room. She had it full of books. After supper she’d read to us or we’d play a game with Dad. And he fucking destroyed it.”

They both stood for a long moment, then Kyle seemed to realize what he was doing and stepped back. “Sorry,” he mumbled. “I’m kind of tired. Going to grab some sleep.” And before Cyrus could even think of a response he was striding away. Slowly, Cyrus closed the doors and using the key that Kyle had forgotten, locked them. He pocketed it for safety and went back to the den, taking their untouched glasses of wine to the kitchen and turning the light off before going upstairs himself.

He didn’t go to sleep though. He spent a long time going through the accounts line by line and didn’t like what he found. He didn’t like it at all.

The next morning, he woke to find a red dragon on his pillow. Chuckling, Cyrus grabbed a quick shower, left the dragon in pride of place on Chloe’s bed and went downstairs. Marnie was in the kitchen making something that smelled wonderful. He looked over at the office which he could just see from the open doorway. He saw Martin and Clara in there and decided not to venture over. He needed to speak to Kyle first. He helped himselfto coffee and hopped onto a stool. “Where are the girls?” He wanted to ask where Kyle was, but hoped Marnie might tell him anyway.

“Amanda’s gone to the village with her sister. Chloe needs her hair cut and they’ve gone to pick up some new clothes Kyle ordered for them.” She dusted floury hands on her apron and beamed at him. “Kyle, Liam, and Pepper have gone to look at the cabins on the far slopes. There are a bunch of them not being used and he wants to get them ready. Are you hungry?”

He was actually and helped himself to some sausage Marnie said she’d saved for him and decided to take advantage of being on his own. He had the key to the room they’d seen last night still on him because he was going to give it back to Kyle. Did he dare? It was personal, private, but Cyrus had seen the sheer anguish in Kyle’s eyes last night and knew he couldn’t face it. He slipped off the stool, went into the small pantry and grabbed the cleaning caddy. He could come and get the rest of it when he saw how much there was to do. He walked down the same corridor, went inside and locked the door behind him.

And stood aghast. It was almost worse than it had appeared last night. He pulled off a garbage bag from the roll he had brought and got to work. He even found three boxes full of books that had been tossed in there carelessly. Some of them children’s books.

He was back in the kitchen in the middle of the afternoon when Kyle walked in along with Liam and Pepper. Marnie had gone to visit someone and Cyrus was finishing supper prep for the gammas. There was a huge plate of sandwiches in the fridge for anyone who wanted them and he’d just made a fresh pot of coffee The three fell on them like they hadn’t eaten in a year and Cyrus smiled to himself.

“Do you know what you want to ask Martin?” Kyle said nodding to the office. “We can go in there.”

Cyrus did. He seemed to be missing quite a few ledgers and he hadn’t a hope of digitizing them if he didn’t have everything. He followed Kyle into the office. Clara had left but Martin was sorting some mail. “I might have lucked out and found you some help,” Kyle said as they went in, grinning to Cyrus.

Martin’s eyebrows shot up. “Really?”

“I have a little experience with pack finances and Kyle said you were wanting to digitize everything but that you didn’t have the manpower.”

Martin beamed. “I think you just became my mate’s favorite person. She’s been on me to work less hours.”

Cyrus smiled back, relieved, and explained to Martin what he was looking for. Martin frowned and glanced warily at Kyle. Uncomfortable prickles ran down Cyrus’s arms. “What is it?” Kyle asked.

Martin visibly squirmed. “Your uncle used to sometimesdisagreewith the way I’d prepared the accounts.”

“I can imagine,” Kyle said dryly.

“Thing is, he took a lot of papers to ‘study’, so he said, and they never got returned.”

Kyle sighed. Cyrus glanced at him. He didn’t look surprised. Maybe he would need Kyle to ask the bank?

“I’d just like to help,” Cyrus said.

“Oh, and I’d love you to,” Martin said fervently. “To be honest I have my hands full with just the payroll, to say nothing of trying to prepare these estimates. If you can say what’s missing, I can get copies. Statements certainly aren’t a problem.” He glanced at Cyrus. “If you write me a list, I’ll do my best.”

“Just the statements and the full invoice for the accounting services.” He shot a look at Kyle. “I’m hoping to save the alpha some money by doing the prep myself.”

Martin smiled looking relieved, then the office phone rang and he answered it. Kyle turned and lowered his voice. “Is that it? Isthere anything else you need?” Cyrus shook his head mutely. He couldn’t have spoken right at that moment if his life depended on it because the list of things that Cyrus needed from Kyle had nothing to do with paperwork.

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