[Carmen]On Monday, I was eager to get to work. This was the first week when Rock was going to work on the sites instead of staying with us. He hired Forrest to be the office guard. I told him Gemma and I could take care of ourselves, but he didn’t seem to care what I said. He was worried after seeing Rhett on Saturday. I got out of the truck and used my cane, with some information from Rock, to get to the doors. I knew he liked me hanging all over him, but I wanted to show him I could be independent enough that he wouldn’t have to worry about me. Not that it would stop him if he really wanted to worry, though. We went into the kitchen and finished our breakfast again. I’d never had as much fast food as I’d had in the last week. I wanted to get up earlier and make breakfast, but Rock’s stovetop was up to my chest and I didn’t have the ability to reach the dials to turn on the oven. He said he’d fix it, but it would have to wait until the busy time was done at work. After breakfast, we went to set up the office and go over the things I’d need to do today. It wasn’t as much work as I thought managing the office would be. Gemma said it was because I was a beast at work, but I just figured most of the work was done in the field. When everyone arrived, we went into the conference room for the weekly meeting. I could smell Forrest, even though I didn’t hear him. He didn’t say anything to me. ‘Forrest is standing in the room wearing his security uniform and crossing his arms like he’s the bouncer at a club,’ Gemma linked me. ‘His human glamour is hot. If I didn’t know what he really looked like, I’d be all over that man. He looks like a werewolf warrior, but bigger and thicker, damn.’‘His human glamour is a translation of his attractiveness in troll society. He mimicked one of the ugliest humans he’d seen,’ I replied. ‘Dear goddess. Does Rock do the same?’‘Most trolls do something similar. There are some who don’t want people to be attracted to them, so they go with average looks. I don’t know what Rock looks like in his human glamour. All I can feel is his real face. I think he does that on purpose,’ I admitted. “Ladies, we’re having a meeting. I need your attention. I’m sure Gemma’s panting after Forrest’s human form can wait until later,” Rock said. I blushed and I knew Gemma would be, too. I didn’t know how he’d guessed it. Maybe Gemma didn’t guard her expression as well as she thought. I heard Forrest’s laugh among the others. “As I was saying, Forrest will be acting as security for the office on the days when I can’t be here. I need referrals for dark elf women who can work in an office but have some sort of warrior training. I want Carmen safe and this will be the woman who takes over for Gemma when she leaves.” “You mean we won’t see Gemma anymore?” Ramsey asked before the growls of the wolves silenced him. In just a week, Gemma had established her own little fan club. Men tended to do that around her. She was very pretty and very flirty. “I’ll come and visit, but I was only ever here to help out with getting Carmen set up and training someone to deal with her. You all don’t even know yet. Carmen’s a monster.” Gemma laughed. A few other people laughed, too, but that had been on my peer reviews in school. Whenever I ran a project, people would say I was overbearing or dictatorial. The projects were always done and they got good grades. I didn’t care if they were put off. We never failed. I blushed again, because it wasn’t something I really wanted my mate to hear. Even with my little flares of temper, Rock thought I was sweet and soft. I didn’t really want to keep him in the dark about my werewolf tendencies. Rock took over the meeting again and gave assignments with expected progress from each of the teams by the end of the week. This week, he’d be out at the house of the woman who called a week ago. He wanted to get her work finished faster and said they needed more hands. When the meeting was over, we went back to the office. Rock was getting his things ready to leave. I settled in to do my work. Before he left, Rock kissed me goodbye. It was a sweet, soft kiss with none of our usual heat. I didn’t like that, so I reached up and stroked his ear gently, making him groan. That was more like it. I wanted my mate to always regret leaving me. “Goddess, Carmen, you’re going to drive me to distraction with your teasing,” Rock murmured against my lips. “I’m only reminding you why you need to be safe at work, Rock. Always come back to me and I promise to always leave you wanting more,” I purred. “Come on, boss, you can’t keep macking on your mate all day.” Tripp laughed. “You know, I could always make you the assistant and receptionist instead of hiring out for it? Would you like to spend all day in an office?” Rock growled. “Aw, don’t even joke about that, boss.” “Let’s go.” With that, they left. I sighed and got to work. We’d gotten things scanned, so Gemma handled the phone while I worked. There wasn’t a lot of work. I was proud of Rock for handling everything so ably for all those years. He told me he would spend a day in the office every week doing the paperwork and at the end of the busy season, he would sometimes spend a week doing anything that slipped through the craсks. This would give him more free time at the end of the busy season and might even mean time off for us in the end of the busy times. I was starting to understand the temp versus permanent positions. Some of the men would be gone once the work thinned out. They would be back at the beginning of the next busy season, though. I didn’t know what they did in the lower work parts of the year, but they were always back when Rock needed them. As long as they were living frugally, they could make it through the winter without really needing a job. My mate paid really well. The work ran out about an hour before Rock would be back. I suddenly wished my mate was more of a mess before me so I would have more to do. Maybe he would have a lot more once he saw what I could do. I’d had people give me a light workload before because they didn’t know what I could do. “What do you want to do now?” I asked Gemma.“Bail early and go shopping,” she said decisively. I laughed. She was always like that. Gemma loved having fun but only after her work was done. She worked as hard as I did. When we were in classes together in school, we would always group up with Ashley and worked harder than any of the other groups. Some people said it wasn’t fair that we always got the best grades, but the teachers knew it was because we egged each other on when it came to our work. If we didn’t have to deal with other people, we finished the assignments the weekend they after they were given, so we got to mess around in class while they were all working. “We can’t do that. Rock is expecting me to be here when he returns,” I told her. “Plus, that warlock wasn’t told to leave you alone anywhere but at home and in the office. This is the safest place until we know what he wants from you.” “I don’t know. I think he just pisses me off because he pries so much and because he hurt you. I wouldn’t have known what happened to you if Rock hadn’t come back when he did. I don’t think he means me any harm, but it’s hard to like him when he hasn’t been straightforward. And he keeps talking about me going to the fae healers,” I said as I thought about all of his actions and words. “So he thinks something’s wrong with you, other than your eyes?” I shook my head. “When he showed up on Saturday, he said I would need to see them before I got pregnant. It was something Rock and I were discussing. It can be deadly to women who carry troll children, the ones who don’t die in the mating process, at least.” “Fuсked to death. That sounds scary. At least, by a troll, I wouldn’t mind it by the right werewolf. I’ve been hearing things since I started listening for stories about trolls, and I hear they’re built differently. Like in ways that can tear a woman up,” Gemma said with a shudder in her voice. “Rock isn’t. He’s bigger than any of the guys I’ve been with, but normal otherwise.” I shrugged. “How ‘bigger’? I mean, he’s tall and thick but you mean bigger ‘bigger’, right?” I nodded and smiled, then measured it out on my arm to show her. Gemma hummed appreciatively. It was something we’d started doing when talking about men when we started dating. “Nice. You should go to the healers there, though. They’ll know more about pregnancies with troll babies than the doctors in the pack. We need to know how safe it is so you can have little rock wolves.” She giggled. “I would like to have at least two. I hope to get good news from them. We’ll be going later in the week. Rock realized already how important it was but it felt like the warlock was trying to tell us something, so we’re concerned I may have gotten pregnant outside of my heats,” I explained. “That’s pretty rare. I mean, it happens, but not often enough for it to really be a concern. Though, we don’t really know how powerful Rock’s swimmers are. But if you’re not ovulating, then there’s nowhere for them to go.” “I know and I never had my heat after the marking, so either I got pregnant immediately or… something could be wrong. I know it’s possible. The goddess wouldn’t have put us together if we couldn’t have pups….” I stopped. It was so similar to something I’d heard my brother and Beth saying. They still weren’t pregnant no matter how hard they tried. My hand dropped to my stomach. I would almost rather be unexpectedly pregnant than barren. Rock always planned on kids. It was the whole reason he created a three-bedroom home. He wanted at least two children. “Don’t worry, Carmen. You’re right. The goddess wants her children to be happy. She’s going to give you pups when it’s time,” Gemma said. I nodded quietly. This would bother me for a while, but I needed to have myself pulled together by the time Rock returned. I didn’t want him to see me like that. “Let’s change the subject. Are you ready for the mating conference? It’s coming up in a few weeks, right?” I asked. “Yeah! I can’t wait. I’m sure I’ll find my mate there. I’ll bring him home to meet you. I bet he’ll be best friends with Rock and we’ll all spend a lot of time together. And you will have pups and our pups will be best friends, too.” I smiled at her. Maybe that would happen. It would be great if it did. We started chatting about other things. Ash was leaving at the end of the week to go with her mate back to Alaska and there was going to be a going away party on the pack lands. I really wanted to go, but I didn’t want another incident with my family. She said she’d talk to the Alpha about it. He was already dealing with my mother, according to her. I didn’t ask if she heard what they were going to do to my mom. I didn’t even want to hear about it. I just wanted her to leave me alone if she couldn’t accept my mate. When the doors opened, I could hear some of the men laughing and talking to each other. It seemed like they all had a pretty good day. Then, I heard Rock. He was trying to leave a conversation gracefully while making his way to the office. I smiled as I listened to him try to get away from the joking and teasing. Rock must have missed me as much as I missed him. It wasn’t long before I heard him make his way across the room. In moments, I was swept into his arms. He smelled of sweat and sunshine. I loved the way it mixed with the softened mate scent. It was like he was made of so many delicious things. Rock nuzzled my neck. “Mmm, you smell so sweet and fresh, my little wolf.” “You worked outside today,” I murmured. “You feel warm and smell like sunshine.” “Then I was trapped in my truck with two smelly men,” he grumbled. “I much prefer your scent, my delicious mate.” I giggled as his nose snuffed around my ear. No matter what the future held, I was sure it would be fine as long as we were together.