Luc and Meg had made it to the office with minutes to spare. Ginny had just unlocked the door. They both knew if they were too late, she’d call Jeff and have him checking on Luc before they finished coffee. Neither one of them wanted to put Ginny under any more stress than she already was. The day after the incident with Bitty, they had been an hour late. When they arrived, Ginny was shouting at Kevin until he had hid in his office. When they’d tried to explain why they were late, she’d threatened to send Luc home and call Jeff. Ginny had made it clear that if Luc wasn’t up to working, then he needed to just go away and leave her to deal with the office.
“Morning Ginny,” said Meg.
“Morning,” said Ginny as she grabbed for the phone that was ringing already. “Alpha Wolf Technologies, how can I help you?”
Luc and Meg waved and headed for his office. Luc shut the door behind them and headed towards his desk.
“Is there anything we can do to take the strain off of her?” Meg asked.
“Yeah. Get her the hell out of the office and find someone to take her to bed!” said Luc. He was trying to find the paperwork for Calvin Johnson, the new shifter they’d hired to replace Duke.
“Did I just hear you right?” Meg asked.
“Yes. Last time she got this crabby, we hunted high and low for an old flame to stop by and fuck her brains out. Just because she’s older than us doesn’t mean she doesn’t get horny,” said Luc. “It’s about the only way to cool her down.”
“Oh,” said Meg. “I just figured that finding someone to help with the work load was the issue.”
“It is to some degree, but the rest is all just too many damn hormones in that house of hers. Bitty, ‘Solda, and then Ysabel and Sandy have been around a lot too I found out. All of them unattached. All of them horny. It’s like a damn soup over there,” said Luc.
“How can you tell? You haven’t even been to Ginny’s lately,” said Meg.
“No, but I can smell it. It came with Ginny the other night and this morning it is as thick as a pea soup fog around her,” he said.
“Oh geeze,” said Meg. “So who do you call? A werewolf dating service?”
Luc laughed. He shook his head. “No, I’ll call Sandy and see if he can find one of her former lovers and see if they are available.” He snickered again.
“What are you laughing about?” Meg asked.
“The thought of a dating service for shifters. Arrrrowls. com or Hunka-hunka-Furry Love. com or better yet, Howling Delights. com,” he giggled. They were laughing so hard that they missed the knock on the door at first.
“Hello? Ginny sent me down here for some paperwork,” said Calvin from the door.
Luc looked up, “Sure, come on in, I have it right here,” he said and held out the paperwork to the man.
“If you don’t mind me asking, what was so funny?” asked Calvin.
“Meg and I were making bad jokes about dating services for shifters,” Luc said with a chuckle in his voice.
“Ah, I take it the boss lady out front needs a good romp in the forest?” said Calvin.
“That’s an understatement.” said Luc. Meg just nodded.
Calvin smiled and walked over to a chair to look at the paperwork. He pulled a pen out of his shirt pocket and started filling out the forms.
Luc picked up the phone and hit the speed dial for Sandy. Meg blew him a kiss and headed for her own office. “Hey Sandy, this is Luc. Um, we have a bit of a problem here at the office,” he started. “Yeah, guessed you’d have noticed. Any ideas?” he asked. He listened for a few minutes and wrote down two numbers. “Thanks Sandy. I’d appreciate it,” he said and hung up the phone. He sat down and booted his computer while waiting for Calvin to finish the paperwork.
Calvin stood up and brought the papers over to Luc. “Here you go Luc,” he said.
“Thanks. Do you go by Calvin or Cal?” he asked.
“I prefer Cal. When I hear Calvin, I keep looking over my shoulder for my mom,” Cal said.
Luc laughed. “I know the feeling. When you hear your entire name, it just makes your hackles rise,” he said.
Cal nodded. “Hey, I know you don’t know me very well, but I have a cousin that lost his mate a few years ago. He’s sorta in the same state that boss lady is and well,…” he trailed off.
“The boss lady is Ginny, and she’ll rip your head off and shit down your neck if she hears you use that phrase. As for your cousin, is he nearby?” asked Luc. “God this sounds lame, but if it works, I’ll give the guy a raise!” he thought.
“He’s suppose to come visit next week. You could meet him then and see if Bos- I mean Ginny might like him,” said Cal.
“Sounds like a plan. Now let’s show you the warehouse, let you meet Peter and see how well the backhoe likes you,” said Luc as they headed out of the office.
*
Luc entered the warehouse with Cal only to see Peter pacing back and forth between two stacks of boxes.
“Peter, what the hell are you doing?” Luc asked.
“There’s a cat in here, and the last thing I want is piss all over my inventory,” called Peter as he moved fast to the left. He thumped a box hard and out shot a silver tabby. The cat headed off across the parking lot and out of sight.
“That was a pretty good shot there,” said Cal.
Peter looked around and saw a man in his mid twenties standing next to Luc. The jacket and work clothes made him think this might be Duke’s replacement. “Hi, I’m Peter, the warehouse foreman,” he said.
“Cal, Cal Johnson, and I guess we’ll be working together,” he said as he held out his hand. The two men shook hands and sized each other up.
“Where’d Duke leave the backhoe?” asked Luc.
“Round the corner out back,” said Peter. “It was acting up last time he used it, but I’m not sure how much that was Duke and how much it was the backhoe.”