Page 1 of Weston

Chapter 1

Rogen was putting the next sheet of sheetrock up on the wall when her sister, Belinda, contacted her.Being a cat made it easy for them to speak to each other like they were in the room together.Smiling before she even spoke, Rogen picked up the tape to fix the seams in the drywall before she moved on to the next wall to make sure it was set up well, too.As usual, her sister started out the conversation like they’d been talking all day long.

Belinda worked for a man near where she lived—the mayor of their little town, Weston Sheppard.He was paying her well, and she was happy.It was all she could do when she heard from her not to find the man and hug him for making her older sister as happy as she’d been of late.Rogen thought of all the people she knew, not counting that she was her sister, deserved this more.It was, she thought, just a bonus that she was making such good money on top of it all.

I have a clothing bonus as well as time paid for lunch, isn’t that great?Not to mention the vacation I was telling you about last night.Two weeks is a nice one if you ask me.Especially when I’ve been here for such a short time period.”She told her that was great as she lined up the last of the tape that would hold the wall together until the plaster dried.“There’s medical, too, but I don’t know that I’ll use that all that much with me being a cat and all.Today was proof that I might need to bring more clothing to work in case something happened and I had to shift.”

Pausing, she asked her what had happened there.Rogen felt better after hearing all the details about the men coming into the office to try and blackmail her boss about some playground equipment, but she still didn’t care for the fact that she was literally in the line of fire with this job.She wouldn’t tell her to quit working but decided that she was going to make sure her boss understood that if anything happened to Belinda, there would be a world of hurt brought down on him as the one who should be protecting her.

The room was finished by the time she was finished speaking to her sister.As she thought before, Belinda was happy.It had been a very long time since she’d heard her laughing and having a good time.When her husband had been killed a few years ago, all of them despaired of her ever recovering.Not only had Benson been killed, but their two children had been as well.It had been a fire in their home that had not just taken Belinda’s family but everything in the house as well.Some items that she would never get back.And that hurt her to have no photos of her own with her kids in them.

“Whatcha up to?”Rogen looked up at her sister and partner, Sandy, and asked her how the other rooms were going.“I have two of the main rooms finished up, and they’ll hopefully be painted tomorrow.That was a great idea that you had about the fans blowing directly on the walls.It’s saved us about a week of getting this house finished.Not to mention the smell, too.It’s easier to stand to be in the room when it doesn’t smell like wet dog all the time.”

“I spoke with the owner the other day, but I didn’t mention that we’d be finished early.I believe that it would give the woman more things to think about changing in the house.I can’t believe how much rework we’ve had to do because we told her that we had a day extra.No way am I telling her that we have a week.What’s up with you now?”Sandy sat down on one of the large spools of wiring that had been being used for a table.“Is it that bad?What can I do for you?Slay some dragons?I will, you know.”

“Danny wants me to quit working and stay at home more with him.I don’t know how he expects money to be coming in when he doesn’t have a job and me out of work as well.Just because you and I own the company doesn’t mean that both of us didn’t have to work.”Sandy put up her hand to stop what Rogen knew was going to upset her.“I know.You told me not to marry him, but I was lonely.Not only that, but he was also working when I first met him.He’s so different now.Just as yousaid, he’d be.Lazy and a jackass too.”

“I don’t think that he’s any different but just more vocal about it.He certainly is to me.What did you tell him about the partnership that the two of us have?”She didn’t look at her but did tell Rogen that he knew that if she quit working, the company and everything else would go only to Rogen.That was the deal that they’d had made up when they went into business together.“I told you that was going to be the only thing that saved you.What did he have to say about that?”

“That he thinks you should have to buy me out so that he can—and he actually said so that he could have some extra money for the things that he does.The only thing that he does is spend money on those toys he’s playing with.”She finally looked up at her, and Rogen could see that she’d been crying.“Danny told me that I needed to get with child, and that would make you back off.Something about the two of us being too old to be working like we are and life passing us by.He’s a moron.I don’t know how he thinks that’s going to happen.I’ve told him several times that I can’t have his child, but he insists that I’m lying because you told me to.He acts like I can’t have an opinion unless you give it to me.I’ll say it again.He’s a moron.”

“Want me to have a talk with him?”Sandy told her that she didn’t want to have to visit her in jail again.“That first time was all on him.It even came out in court that he drew his gun on me first.I wish more and more that I’d ended his life rather than spare it.I know that I’d sleep better at night.”

“Don’t kill him, please?He’s not worth it.Especially for you ending up in jail or prison.”Nodding, she noticed something on her sister that she’d not seen this morning when they were having breakfast to start the day.She moved her sister’s hair out of the way and then started cursing.“I’m not even going to lie to you and say it was my fault.He backhanded me right before I left for work this morning because I didn’t want him to go with the two of us to breakfast.All the two of you would do is fight and—where are you going?”

“I’m calling the family.Enough is enough.”She waited for Sandy to tell her not to do it, to not involve the family, but when she picked up the phone, too angry to reach out to them, Sandy told her that Toby and Leanord would be working the fields and not hear her calling.That was all the okay that she needed to get Danny taken care of once and for all.The slimy bastard had hit the wrong person in hitting her sister.

After talking to all her brothers, she called Belinda later.She didn’t want to upset her at work, and whatever they planned for the man wasn’t going to include her sister.Belinda was fragile, and no one wanted her to be brought back down to where she was several years ago.Once she got her on the phone, it was only a matter of minutes before Belinda told her that not only was she going to help with Danny, she might well be the one that killed his fucking ass.

“I didn’t think you’d want to be a part of it.”She asked her why not, Sandy was her sister too.“She is, and I didn’t mean to imply that she wasn’t.But you’ve had a rough few years and are just now getting up on your feet.I didn’t want to bring you down again.As far as I’m concerned, you’re my sister as much as Sandy is.”

“This is just what I need.To help her the way that you all helped me.We all know that if not for your family, I wouldn’t have survived.Just losing my husband was bad enough, but my…I lost everything, or so I thought.The rest of you wouldn’t allow me to wallow in my self-pity, and I couldn’t love you anymore for it.”Rogen told her that she loved her.“And I love you too, Rogen, with all my being.But I want him out of her life, especially since he’s knocking her around.Let me ask you something.Do you think it’s the first time he’s done it?”

“I didn’t ask her.I don’t think that I want to know.”Belinda had to put her phone down to answer the door.She thought about hanging up, but when she heard the man’s voice in the room with her sister, she did reach out to figure out if she was in trouble or not.Apparently, it was her boss coming by to tell her that he was going to go back into the office tonight so that he could take tomorrow off.Rogen thought that was nice of him.

“I might have to take some time off too.One of my sisters is being beaten up by the man that she’s married to.”He must have asked if he was a shifter because Belinda answered that.“No.Sandywas feeling lonely one night after coming to my house with the kids around her, and Danny came around, making her feel special.Then, about a week after they were married, he not only quit his job, but he started spending money that they didn’t have.That’s not true; they had the money, but it was not enough for him to spend it like he does all the time.”

Rogen thought that she was telling the man a great deal about their soon to be ex brother-in-law, but she’d never met the man, nor did she trust easily.When her sister came back on the line, she started out with a plan to get Sandy away from Danny for a few days so that no one would blame her when he came up missing.

“And by that I mean dead.”Rogen laughed, telling her sister that she’d never would have thought that she had that in her.“I’d like to think that I’m as strong as you are, but no one, not even our brothers, can outdo you.But I will help.And here’s my plan.”

After telling her that Sandy could come up there and talk to Weston, her boss, then she could stick around and help out his shadow when it came to training his people about construction and how to make it work.That was where Weston was going to be headed in the morning with his brothers Nash and Beau.After Sandy came there and worked for a while, then they could do whatever was necessary to get him out of her life.

“And what do you think your boss is going to say when he figures out that Sandy just happened to be around your boss when her husband of eleven years comes up missing?Someone might well miss the little fucker.Didn’t you tell me that one of them was a shadow alpha?”She told her that was a brilliant idea.“Now, what have I said?I don’t know if you realize this or not, but you talk a great deal in riddles.What did I have an idea about?”

“That they go there.Oh, this is great.Archie is a great man and a wonderful leader.I was actually thinking about joining this one here rather than have to pay part of my check to the one down there every week.”Rogen asked her what she meant.“Since I’ve been here, I’ve been billed weekly a fine for not living with my shadow.”

“He can’t do that to you.At least, I’m reasonably sure that he can’t.You told me, too, that you pledged to the leap leader there.Didn’t you?”She said that she had but didn’t have to pay any fees because she worked for his brother.“That’s not right, honey.Let me look into things here, or you can talk with this Archie person and find out if that’s true.How much is it that you’ve been paying?”She told her.“Holy Christ, Belinda, no wonder you were having so much trouble with keeping your lights on.That’s about half of what you make, or close to it, I’m betting.”

“Close.I guess I never thought that after all this time, I’d be cheated, so I just paid the fine and went on with my life.I wonder if, now that I have a better-paying job, he’ll try and get more out of me?”Rogen told her to look into it and to make sure that she wasn’t being told that she didn’t have to pay the dues and then find out later that she did.“I have that in my paperwork.So I know that’s true.”

Rogen didn’t know what to believe now.As they were talking about the plans that she had, and it was a good one too, she decided that she was going to go and talk to their leader and find out about this.Then she thought that was a good way to get herself killed and decided to go to Belinda and find out from her boss.Since he wanted help, she was going to get as much from him as she could.No mother fucker was going to take advantage of her little family and get away with it.It just wasn’t right.

She and Sandy finished up working on the house they were working on that evening.It was a big payday for them, but only if the woman who owned the house would quit changing her mind every three days.As it was now, they’d had to move the two outside doors over to make room for one more.Then there was the kitchen that had to have a bigger refrigerator as well as a six-burner stove that she could have her staff use.That had taken four more days of work just to get the kitchen looking like she wanted it.And she didn’t want to get started thinking about how there was no carpet in the bedrooms four times then she wanted it back.The house had heated floors.Why did it need carpet anyway?

They’d not had it laid as yet, knowing that she was going to change her mind before things were wrapped up.Telling the woman that the carpet that she wanted, a bright white for the children’s rooms, was on back order so that she’d not have to change it out again and again.Who put a whitecarpet in a kids’ room in the first place?Rogen didn’t have kids but knew better than that.

She was just glad that she didn’t have to work outside with the woman.The lawn company had threatened to quit a dozen times, but the place still looked like a dump site for construction site debris.She was the house person, not, thankfully, the yard company.

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