Page 32 of The Twelve Knots of Christmas
Balthazar had been the one to trigger her heat, and Jasper was the first to take her. Both of them that much more Alpha than me. Maybe I should have been aggressive in getting her to go out with me after we’d worked together or shed my hurt that she was leaving and been the one to take her out today. Clearly Mariska liked Jasper’s cocky confidence and Balthazar’s playful ego, but where did that leave me?
“She told me why she doesn’t like Christmas.” Jasper gazed at me with raised brows.
“Bal said she has family issues.” Balthazar had told us everything about his date at the market with Mariska, includingher getting upset at the family talk. How anyone couldn’t adore her was beyond me.
“More than that. They’re all Betas, and she’s the only Omega. They sent her away to Omega school and just basically forgot about her.” Jasper shook his head and frowned. “Right after her grandmother died too. Left her there all year, even for holidays.”
“That’s awful.” I clenched my hands, wanting to hit something. I wanted to shout why would they do that, but I knew all too well how some families could never accept a person, no matter what they did. Just like I was never good enough for my family. I would hide away among the trees out of fear no one would ever think I was worthy.
Until I met Balthazar and Jasper. They saw beneath my quiet exterior and loved me for the person I was. Becoming part of their pack was life changing. Someone had accepted me for being me, and that’s exactly what Mariska needed. Adrenaline spiked in my system and I straightened, nearly jumping up and down. “That’s it! Family!”
“What?” Jasper regarded me askew. “No, I don’t think it would be good to bring Mariska’s family into this. Things could get real fucked up.”
“No, no. Not that. Mariska’s family is her family, and we’ll respect whether she wants to try to make amends or not.” I paced back and forth, trying not to vomit out all my thoughts at once, but hope had burst through my heart and my mind was going a million miles a minute. “She’s close with the girls at Primrose House. It’s her yearning for family, for a pack. She might not consciously realize it, but that’s what she wants. We are that family. We can make her see that we’re everything she’s ever needed and then some.”
“That’s an interesting theory, and fuck, yeah, we’ll show her those things, but that wasn’t where I was going with this.”Jasper straightened and folded his arms, fingering drumming on his bicep. “Mariska loves Eloise and the other girls at Primrose. They aren’t keeping her here.”
“It’s different. They aren’t her mates.” Important point. At least I thought it was.
Jasper worked his jaw, chewing on my comment and nodded. “Yeah, true, but I went more along the lines that Mariska was leaving to run after her dream job, her environmental tech position in California. It’s something she can’t find here in Wisconsin. We need to offer her something equal to that. Something that does not include our pack.” He motioned between the two of us. “It has to be just for her and her passion.”
I stopped pacing and furrowed my brow. Shit. Mariska was not only good at her work, but she believed in it. That was a powerful thing and something I hadn’t even considered in trying to convince her to stay. She’d have to give up the job she worked so hard for and more than deserved. I wanted her to stay, but I couldn’t take that away from her. “You’re right.”
“Fuck, you are right.” Balthazar emerged from the shadows of the hall, and I startled at his sudden entrance.
“Jesus, man.” Jasper huffed and rubbed a hand over his face. “You’re a ninja now?”
“I’m deadly.” Balthazar flashed a grin and then went serious again. “You two were so absorbed in your conversation, you didn’t hear me come in.”
That was true. Santa himself could have come in for some milk and cookies and I wouldn’t have noticed. “How much did you hear?”
“Enough.” Balthazar unzipped the front of his hoodie. “I had it in my head that Mariska would choose us as her mates and that she’d never leave us, but she’s smart and passionate aboutthe environment. What if we had a chat with the board at her work now and got her a raise?”
“It’s about more than money.” Way more. “They won’t let her do the work she wants to do up here.”
“Then we make them give her what she wants.” Balthazar said it as if threatening the board of a big corporation was something we did every week.
“It’s not that easy. Due to various factors, they probably couldn’t even make it happen if they wanted to.” I didn’t know much about Blue Skies, but the state legislation regarding the environment was a lot different from California’s, and the company Mariska would work for there would have far more resources than what they had here. “So that leaves the question, what can we do?”
“What we can do is this.” Jasper turned and grabbed three beers from the fridge. With his soda forgotten, he slid a beer across the counter to me and handed another to Balthazar. “We share a drink and make a plan. No idea is bad. We have ten dates left to convince Mariska to stay. Ten dates is not a lot of time.”
“Ten dates is plenty.” Balthazar snorted as he twisted off the cap to his beer and gulped half of it down.
Ten days wasn’t much at all. I was more than ready to try, but the problem was that I couldn’t think of how to give Mariska something here in Wisconsin that was equal to, no, it had to be better than what was waiting for her in California. “We need more details about her new job and why it’s better than the one she’s leaving.”
Jasper nodded and pointed the top of his bottle at me before he removed the cap. “Good. That’s your job. You’re taking her out tomorrow. Drill her.”
Those last two words sent a whirlwind of hot images through my head and had my dick straining against my pants.Just to kiss Mariska would be like heaven, but getting between those sexy legs and drilling her… Fuck.
“Like you did?” Balthazar grunted, and when he got a scowl from Jasper, he jerked his chin at him. “What? You showered, but I can smell her on you, man.”
“Our girl tastes like paradise.” Jasper smiled, eyes glazing over.
“Cheers to that.” Balthazar held out his beer and we all tapped our bottles together. I screwed the cap off mine and sipped it along with them.
“Since she works tomorrow, I’ll take her out to a dinner club. Plenty of time to sit and talk about her work.” Which was of great interest to me as well. I’d found my dream job here at the farm. I’d never thought a Christmas tree farm would be where I’d end up when I was in university, but life surprised me in the best of ways.
“Perfect. We’ll let you cover that aspect of convincing her to stay.” Balthazar took another swig and burped. “Now on to the other part of the plan. I’ve got some ideas on how to convince her that we’re her mates.”
