Dangerously Attracted [Werewolves of Hanson Mall 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) by Cara Adams Page B

quarter to six and were lining up at the fourth-floor parking lot entry waiting for the door to be opened and the gym to let them in. Dakota had gotten to know most of these people and she recognized their cars pulling into the parking lot. Quite a few wolves exercised then, too, some driving in from the apartment building in town, and others who lived in the professional suites.
    Dakota was surprised when Maelor Powell was waiting for her when she made her way from the staff parking lot down to the ground-floor entry where the shifts always changed over. “I thought I was working with Cory this shift?”
    “He was coughing and sneezing all over everywhere. I told him I didn’t want the entire team off work with flu and to go home.”
    “Good decision. I haven’t got time to get ill this week.”
    Even though the people on the earlier shift had said there was no trouble in any of the parking lots, Maelor decided they’d check them all first. Dakota hid her smile and walked with him. He was a big man and bossy, but an excellent security guard who never missed anything. After they’d paced around every level of the parking lot, they did an external walk around of the entire mall checking staff exits were locked and everything was silent and secure. Only then did they finally go inside and begin checking all the internal doors and shutters.
    There was a good reason to do things in this order. Had there been an unlocked staff door it was much more likely there’d be intruders inside. With all the exits locked up tight, the inside was more likely to be safe.
    Some of the guards chattered constantly as they patrolled. Maelor tended to be silent and that suited Dakota as well. She didn’t have the acute wolf hearing of the men. Late at night little sounds carried on the still air, so if there were people anywhere she was more likely to hear them if she wasn’t holding up her end of a conversation.
    All the cleaning crews had finished and gone home already. Sometimes one or more of them didn’t finish until after midnight, but tonight they’d evidently had trouble-free shifts and they were gone. All the stores were locked up nice and tightly and the restaurants were in the process of closing down, the patrons mostly gone already and the staff leaving now as their cleanup was completed.
    They stopped and spoke to Taliesin, the manager of the cinema, who was waiting for his last few staff to finish up so he could lock up the theater for the night. Everything was very quiet, safe, normal. Dakota thought it was going to be a rather boring night. But she had plenty to think about. Two delicious men who wanted her to move in with them.
    As she and Maelor walked from level to level, checking all the storefronts and doors, remembering to look up along the roof line as well as down into any cubbyholes, and behind the huge potted plants scattered around the mall, Dakota’s body worked on autopilot as she thought about living with Lewis and Andreas. Logically, she was most unlikely ever to find two men who suited her as well as they did, let alone another two men who even wanted her. She was a very ordinary woman, not especially beautiful, and with no great wealth or intelligence to attract people to her either. Normal, she supposed she was. But happy to be ordinary and normal. Happy to have a job that suited her and that she enjoyed. Content to be sharing an apartment with other women who were her good friends. And very interested in spending time with and getting to know her two wolves better.
    So why was she balking at moving in with them permanently? Was it her own version of a trial marriage? Yes, in a way. She needed to spend more time with them to prove to herself they were the men she thought they were. And to demonstrate to herself that she was ready for commitment. Andreas worked very long hours and her hours, being shift work, were constantly changing. Both those things would put a strain on any relationship, not just on