andâ¦â
âOh, honestly, Allan. I plan to buy your services.â
Paul laughed.
âOr Paulâs. Depending on how high the bidding goes.â
Paul truly wouldnât mind. Allanâs mother was easy to get along with, and she wasnât picky about things, so he was more than willing to work for her if she needed a bunch of jobs done around the place.
âSo itâs not really a bachelor auction,â Allan said.
âItâs a honey-do bachelor auction. Whoever buys you will take you out for a night on the town after you finish your work.â
âIn this small place?â
âOh, Allan, there are a number of places you can go. Iâve got to run some errands now so Iâll let you go.â
Paul interjected, âIs anyone looking out for Michael while heâs in town?â
âAll of us have been taking turns watching him,â Catherine said. âThe full moon wonât be out for another week, and he seems to be doing just fine. But one of us has been either with him at the art exhibit or taking him around where he needs to go. Other than that, heâs been having a good time playing some of Allanâs games at the house. Tessa has called every day to check up on him. But she doesnât want him to know about it.â
That made Paul feel a little better about Michael being on his own. Since he wasnât exactly on his own. âGood to know.â
âAll right. See you later.â Allan ended the call with his mother.
Paul was shaking his head. âI can see if they had some local people who could do odd jobs around the placeâcarpenters, painters, plumbers, electricians, whatever someone might need to have fixed up. But us ?â
âHey, we can do anything the experts can do. Orâ¦we can call the proper professionals and have it done. Remember when that construction worker was taking care of some improvements on Momâs house and she asked him to change a lightbulb over the kitchen sink?â
Paul laughed. âYeah. He was touching the stainless-steel sink and zapped himself while changing the lightbulb. Iâve never seen a human fly backward that quickly and still land on his feet. I still remember his prematurely gray hair standing on end. His supervisor was laughing, saying thatâs why his assistant did the dangerous work.â
Allan chuckled. âRemember that if the woman who pays for your services asks you to do anything too dangerous. Just call on one of the professionals.â
âWorks for me.â
Allan helped put the groceries away, then paused. âDid you get the impression that the Cooper brothers and their friend might have given our pack members trouble?â
âIf they did, theyâll regret it,â Paul said, serious as hell.
He might not be here all the time, but no outsider would cause trouble for their wolves. It did concern him that the rest of their pack was all female, and two of them were the same age as the men from the Wolfgang pack. The pack had originated in Germany, the name meaning âpath of the wolfâ or âadvancing wolf.â It had been fifteen strong, but now only the Cooper brothers and Jerome Huffman were left.
Normally, fewer females existed in a pack. In the Cunningham packâs case, the mix was a little different because of the rabid lupus garou and the all-wolf pack that had decimated their numbers, killing off many of their women and children, and all of their men, who had been trying to protect their families. Only two male juveniles, Paul and Allan, had escaped the onslaught.
After unpacking their bags, fixing breakfast, and taking a long wolf hike in the woods, Paul and Allan had lunch with Allanâs mother, while everyone elseâthe Greypaws and Allanâs sisterâwas conspicuously absent.
Paul finished eating Catherineâs delightful chicken wings, covered in her special hot-and-spicy rub, and mashed potatoes and