Wolver's Gold (The Wolvers) Read Online Free PDF Page A

The same went for any conversation he heard, which made him the most reliable gossip in Gold Gulch.
    "I want to know everything he says," she whispered to him when he answered her beckoning finger, "Everyone he talks to. Don't leave him alone for a minute. It's important."
    "Rachel!"
    "Coming, Papa." She pointed her finger at Eustace's nose. "I'll pay you for it, but I want every word."
    "Don't you worry, Miss Rachel, y ou can count on me."
    There was nothing Eustace liked better than gossip.
     

 
    Chapter 3
     
    "Papa's not going to like this," Rachel said as she stripped the sheets from the bed of Room 3, formerly Mr. Jack Coogan's room. "He'll be so angry."
    Mrs. Hornmeyer's head snapped between the two speakers as sharply as she snapped the new sheet into place .
    "No he won't," Bertie stated emphatically. She stuffed the last of Jack Coogan's unmentionables into the suitcase. "Not once you tell him what that no-good weasel said."
    "Oh, I couldn't tell Papa that." It was too personal. Like some of the other things he's said, it was too embarrassing to reveal to her father or any other man.
    She knew Mrs. Hornmeyer was curious, but too polite to ask and Rachel couldn't bring herself to repeat what she'd already told Bertie. Saying it once was hard enough and that was to Bertie who knew everything about her, including how many diapers she wet through when she was two days old. That's how long Bertie had been with her.
    "I could. Not that he'd listen to the likes of me, " Bertie told her, snapping the case shut. "But somebody ought to show him up for what he is. I'd like to know how he got himself a seat at the big bug's table in the first place. His folks were no more 'n me and Victor, hard-working betas. And don't tell me he earned it. Murlene Davis' cub started over to the Bank long before Jack Coogan and he ain't livin' near so high off the hog."
    Jack Coogan's ambition was another thing her father admired. Coogan had made the leap from beta to alpha and Papa spoke of him as a wolver on the rise. Not unusual, yet in this case, Rachel failed to see how or why. While the man had some brawn to him and could no doubt handle himself physically in a Challenge, as far as she could see he was a coffee boiler, a lazy and shiftless wolver.
    Rachel had no idea what a Challenge entailed because females took no part in it, just as they took no part in any of the decisions made for the businesses of Gold Gulch. Their standing within the pack was based on their father's standing and eventually their mate's. They had no rights, but those their governing male gave them and those rights were few.
    It was the way things had always been and up until a little over a year ago, Rachel had never thought much about it. With the exception of her refusal to mate, she'd accepted the role she was born to play. She'd been content. Nothing in her life had changed, yet slowly her contentment began to fade and was replaced by a growing dissatisfaction with the hand she'd been dealt.
    "What's wrong with me?"
    She didn't realize she'd spoken aloud until Mrs. Hornmeyer answered.
    "Why, nothing's wrong with you, dear. You're a lovely young woman with a fine face and figure. You have this fine hotel as an inheritance and you've plenty of time to bear young. I can think of a number of young wolvers who would consider themselves fortunate to have you. Once you're mated and have someone to take care of you, things will settle down."
    In Rachel's present mood , it was the wrong thing to say.
    " No! I don't have an inheritance," she snapped and Mrs. Hornmeyer jumped. "I've run this hotel for fifteen years, but it will never be mine. It makes no difference if I mate or not, a male will profit from my hard work and if that male decides to turn this place into a gambling hall, I will have no voice in that decision. What can a mate offer me that I don't already have? The privilege of making his meals? Keeping his house? Bearing pups who also need to be fed and