Page 18 of Legally Mated
One of them swallowed visibly, then held out a reluctant hand, which Quin shook. “Alpha, I’m Graham Saxton, the assistant to the Communications Director, this is Crystal Pomar, assistant to the Press Secretary. Do you have luggage?” He glanced around at the rest of us, breathed deeply, and smiled. “And you must be the Alpha’s Mate. And this is?” He noddedatme.
“This is Garrick, our lawyer,” Quin said, and bent to pick Aggie up again. “Yes, we do haveluggage.”
I hid my wince at him referring to me as alawyer.
Saxton nodded and took a step in the direction of some escalators at the far end of the corridor. “We should go pick it up and then we’ll get you to the Residence.” We started walking, Quin abreast of the two humans, Holland and I following behind with Dorian. That was when I noticed the men in dark suits moving parallel to us, clearing the crowd away from our path. Honestly, I didn’t know whether to be appreciative or insulted. It was nice to be able to go straight to our goal without having to duck through crowds, but the implication that there was someone here who couldn’t be trusted was like a thorn inmypaw.
We got our suitcases, and followed the humans out to their car, something sleek and black with plenty of room. The men in suits put our luggage in the trunk while we were shown to seats in the back of the car, one facing forward like normal, the other reversed so we could face each other. I took a seat on the same side as the humans, so that Quin, Holland, and the pups had the backward-facing seat to themselves. The pups giggled and hung on the doors to watch out the window, as impressed with being able to sit backwards in the car as they were with the cityscape flowingpastus.
The humans gave us a rundown of everything that would happen as we passed through the gates. Quin had taken our paperwork and passed it out to the men at the security building, then the car stopped at what I realized with a fluttering thump of my heart was the entrance to theWestWing.
“We’ll have an usher take your bags over to the Residence,” Saxton said. “But I thought you might like a tour of the place, since I understand you’ve never been herebefore.”
Abel nodded, and I saw Holland throw him a measuring glance, but whatever he saw, I didn’t. He just looked like the Alpha to me, solid and commanding. And then we were standing outside the building and all I could think was, “We’rehere!”
Chapter13
They showedme to the Queen’s Bedroom after a tour of the West Wing that left me open-mouthed with wonder, like when I’d been a pup and Midwinter Wolf had come in the middle of the night. I’d always been interested in government, even though I knew I couldn’t ever take part. Aside from my anatomy, which would have made things in the pack impossible if anyone knew, I was a shifter, which made things entirely impossible in the humanworld.
My bags were waiting at the foot of my bed and we’d been invited to join the First Lady at the pool for a swim until lunchtime. I’d just sit out in the sun—didn’t have a bathing suit and didn’t want to be naked in front of anyone. Besides, humans frowned on that sort of thing inpublic.
A soft knock on the door distracted me from my awe-struck tour of the room. “Garrick?” It wasHolland.
I opened the door to find him holding a rough-folded square of dark blue cloth. “I’ve never seen you swim, so I didn’t think you had one. It’s high waisted, and has a tie to tighten it even more if you’re worried about it slipping down.” He was still dressed, but while we were standing there, Dorian streaked by, completely naked and giggling madly while Quin chased him down the hall. Holland thrust the cloth at me and threw a, “Get changed,” over his shoulder as he bolted in the other direction, I assumed to make sure that Agatha didn’t pull the same stunt. I was still standing in the doorway when Quin marched back up the hall with his wiggling prey giggling under one arm. He nodded as he passed, and his rare smile flashed across the hallway at me before he disappeared into the Lincolnbedroom.
It was the smile that made my decision for me. Five minutes later I was out in the hallway with the dark blue bathing suit tied securely around my waist and a towel I’d stolen from the bathroom hanging over my arm. Low laughter came from behind the closed door of the Lincoln bedroom, Quin’s voice, then Holland’s, punctuated by a pup’s voice raised in query. They sounded happy, and I was glad for it, though it wasn’t the lifeforme.
A few minutes later, Agatha opened the door and walked out into the hall wearing a bright yellow bathing suit with huge eyes painted on the front and what looked like fins hanging from the sides. “You coming swimming too, Garrick?” she asked, in her highvoice.
“I am,” I said awkwardly and did my best not to cringe when she reached out for my hand. I hoped she wouldn’t suddenly decide to do something crazy, like pups seemed to do sooften.
Luckily, I didn’t have to stand there like a stump with Agatha hanging off me and tugging me this way and that for long. The door to the Lincoln bedroom opened and Quin, Holland, and Dorian walked out torescueme.
Turned out, we could have gotten changed down at the pool. There was a cabana sheltering the pool from the back end of the West Wing, a tidbit of trivia that I had forgotten about in my excitement at seeing the central seat of government. We were hailed by the First Lady as we came out the door, and walked over to meet her where she was already stretched out on a lounge chair on the near side ofthepool.
"The President will be out to join us as soon as he's done with whatever meeting he's been roped into this time," she said in a tone of voice that somehow managed to be both dryly humorous and completely supportive of her husband. "Would you like some lemonade? Or apple juice? Something stronger?" She sat up and reached for a pitcher of pale yellow juice, mottled with ice cubes while water beaded on the exterior curves ofitsbody.
"Thank you," Quin said gravely. "The lemonade is fine." Unsaid, I thought, was that he wanted to keep a sober head for the discussionstocome.
Holland smiled at him and reached out to run a hand over his shoulder. "Why don't you change while I get the pups intothepool?"
"Who's going to look after the baby?" Quin frowned slightly and tilted his head totheside.
"Garrick," Holland announced with what I decided was an evil grin. He brought me the baby and laid him in my arms. "It's an excuse to stay in the shade and not go in the pool if you don'twantto."
"Thank you." I gave him a questioning look and he shrugged and leaned close as if adjusting some part of the baby'sclothing.
"You never learned to swim,didyou?”
I shook my head, dumbfounded. Pack didn’t bother with bathing suits—I certainly couldn’t go swimming with my agemates. “How didyouknow?”
"I’ve never seen you at the pond. Seemed logical." He smiled and swiped his thumb over the baby's chin. "Little drooler. Let me know if you decide you want to paddle around in theshallowend."
"I will." I watched him crouch next to Quin, who sat on the edge of the shallow end of the pool with his legs in the water, then I looked down at the sleeping baby. I'd never really missed being able to swim--I'd been the nerdy bookworm who preferred to stay in the shade or, better yet, in the pack's library. The baby was heavy and I was plagued with visions of me dropping him on the concrete surrounding the pool, no matter that we were sitting securely in the chair and I had no intention of getting up to go for a walk. Splashing made me look up again to see the older pups jumping into the water, grinning at their adopted sire as they paddled about. It was surprising how comfortable they were in the water, and I wondered where in Green Moon there'd been a pond for them tolearnin.
"Oh, do it!" I suddenly heard Holland cajoling Quin. I looked up to see Quin frowning at Holland and Holland staring back at him with raised eyebrows and eyes gleaming with challenge. Involuntarily, I sucked in a breath and held it, waiting for Quin’s response. "You’ve changed your mind? Someone needs to be first," Holland continued, and put a hand on Quin's shoulder while they continued the discussion in lower voices. Even from here, I could see the tension in Quin's body, and I was just trying to figure out how to balance the baby without dropping him on his head so I could get out of the chair, when Holland lifted his chin and took a step back from Quin. "Okay. But I'm going to have fun while we're here. I'm on vacation." He said it with a certain finality, as if daring anyone to say he wasn't. Then he tossed me a glance and a wink and walked into the cabana, leaving his towel on one of the chairs. Quin shook his head, then slipped the rest of the way into the pool to start a water fight withthepups.
"Do you swim much back in Mercy Hills?" the First Lady asked, slipping smoothly into the gap in theconversation.
