“Okay.”
“No, seriously. I mean, we might get the odd drunk and disorderly kind of bullshit. Especially among some of the non-shifting members or human relatives. But nothing worse than at any other family get-together.”
“I’ve never had a family get-together.”
“Ah. True.” She smiled, showing teeth. “I really think Peyton is a little bit of a sadist. He’s always enjoyed threatening people to send me in to stop shit when it got started. Nothing like watching a grown man nearly wet his pants in fear when I stand up and glare at him.” She sighed. “That is about the only fun I get to have at these damn things.”
“You have one hell of a reputation, huh?”
“Yep. Don’t worry. As my mate, chances are you’re going to find yourself treated with more respect and deference than the President of the United States while you’re here.”
* * * *
One of the places they stopped was a well-shaded cemetery not too far from Peyton’s house. Ken laced fingers with Dewi as she picked her way through the graves to two double headstones on the far side.
Then she sat at the base of a nearby tree, Ken snuggling with her.
One of the headstones marked the final resting place of Charles Bleacke and his wife, Chelsea Lister Bleacke.
Beloved parents — pack Prime Alpha.
It listed their dates of birth and death.
Next to it, a headstone with two names and different sets of dates. For Louisa Lister, and her husband, Duncan Lister.
Beloved parents, cherished wife — pack Prime Alpha.
Ken could envision a young Dewi sitting here in this exact spot, reading, studying, talking to their headstones.
“Grandfather Duncan’s not here,” she softly said. “I feel bad about that.”
“He lives on in your heart. That’s what’s important.”
“I know.” She tipped her head onto his shoulder. “I wish I could remember my parents. Peyton and Trent have some old family videos, but it’s not much. Those and pictures, of course.”
“Where was their house?”
“It’s Peyton’s. He remodeled before they moved in. It sat vacant for a couple of years, I guess, before Badger and Beck and Trent finally convinced him to do it.”
“Where were you raised, then?”
“Where Trent and Asia live now. That was Badger’s house. Badger was Dad’s second. Beck moved in after…after. Peyton and Trent both had other houses in the compound.”
“Why wasn’t Badger Peyton’s second?”
“He volunteered to raise me and knew he couldn’t do both. He told Peyton that, rightfully, Trent should be the second since he took a knee, and Peyton agreed.”
“Thank you for bringing me here.”
She tipped her face up to his. “Other than my family, you’re the only other person I’ve ever brought here.” She kissed him. “I think they would have loved you.”
“Don’t be so sure,” he muttered.
She smiled. “We have a mate bond. They would have welcomed you as a son, the way Peyton and Trent welcomed you as a brother.”
“Even though I’m a grazer?”
“Even though you’re a grazer.”
* * * *
The house whose driveway they pulled into looked nondescript, comfortable, neat, and tidy from the outside. Dewi didn’t bother getting out. She laid on the little car’s horn, beeping it a few times and frowning at its anemic sound.
“What are we doing here?” Ken asked.
She didn’t have to answer. The front door opened and Joaquin emerged, tossing a wave behind him at the residents before pulling the door closed and jogging over to the car.
Before Ken could even reach for his door handle, Dewi had slipped out and pulled her seat forward for Joaquin to get into the back.
“Hey, Ken,” the wolf said.
“Hey. I didn’t realize we were picking him up,” Ken said to Dewi.
“Peyton wants a debriefing while Beck’s away,” Dewi said.
“Man, that was years ago,” Joaquin said. “I cannot believe Beck still holds a grudge.”
Dewi fastened her seatbelt and shifted the car into reverse. “Maybe if Sadie hadn’t walked in on you fucking the Giraldi twins a few hours after you were with her,” she said, “he wouldn’t be holding a grudge. That’ll piss off any big brother, when his little sister is upset.”
“Sadie herself said we weren’t exclusive. Hell, she was dating Roger Carmans. I know she fucked him. I could smell it on her.” His next words sounded low, grumbly. “I wouldn’t have minded not being exclusive with her, but no, she had to lie to me and say she hadn’t fucked him. I smelled him on her.”
“Two wrongs don’t make a right,” Dewi said.
“Yeah, but two Giraldis sure made for a hot night.”
Ken laughed.
Dewi scowled. “Following getting caught in the act of screwing around, accusing his little sister of being a slutbag wasn’t exactly your best course of action. Especially when you were the one caught with twins.”
Ken sucked in a breath. “Wow. Duuude.”
“I know,” Joaquin said. “To be fair, that was like ten years ago. And Sadie is seven years older than me. I was a horny wolf. What can I say?”
Ken glanced over his shoulder and caught the wolf’s playful smile.
“I wouldn’t say that around Beck, either,” Dewi said. “Remember, it’s only me and Peyton and Badger keeping him from turning you into a girl with his bare hands.”
“Yeah, well, believe me, I’ve matured a lot in the past few years,” he said. The wolf’s voice turned somber. “And I owe you an apology.”
Ken turned again. “For what?” he and Dewi asked in unison.
Joaquin glanced at Ken before focusing on Dewi in the rearview mirror. “Yeah, I was chasing you a little, too,” Joaquin said. “In retrospect, I look back at it and realize I was trying to gig Beck. Not that you weren’t or aren’t attractive,” he quickly added when he must have realized how that sounded. “But…I’m sorry. It was a childish game on my part, and you deserved far more respect than that. Especially accounting for your position in the pack. I’ll be offering up an apology to Beck as well, once I know he won’t try to kill me in the process.”
Dewi slammed on the brakes and brought the car to a stop in the middle of the road. She turned to look at Joaquin. For a long moment, she didn’t speak.
“You know, I do believe you’ve matured a lot since the last time I laid eyes on you.”
“You’re only twenty-five,” Ken said, realization dawning. Now he turned, his own territorial nature kicking in. “How old was she when you were hitting on her?”
Joaquin held up his hands. “Hey, she’d turned eighteen already. I swear.”
Dewi’s mouth curled in a smirk as she gently touched Ken’s shoulder. “I was eighteen,” she said. “We’d come back to the compound because Peyton and Trent wanted to throw me a birthday party.” She stared at Joaquin. “Romeo here ended up getting his ass shipped to Mexico the next week, courtesy of me being Head Enforcer.”
“I deserved it. I admit it.”
“You’re lucky Peyton overruled me. I wanted to send you to Anchorage.”
“Then I appreciate the latitude even more.”
“Glad to hear it.” She faced forward. “Oh, and apology accepted, thank you.” They started on their way again. “Be nicer to me this time or you still might find yourself shipped to Anchorage at some point.”
He let out a soft, moaning howl from the backseat. “No, please. I swear, I’ll behave myself.”
Ken didn’t miss her satisfied grin. “Good. That’s all I wanted to hear.”
* * * *
Peyton and Trent wanted to hear the full and detailed timeline and account from Joaquin about what had happened in Mexico. While the shifter sat with Dewi, Peyton, and Trent to discuss it, Ken joined Gillian in her large kitchen. She stood at the counter and perused a magazine.
�
��No nieces and nephews today, huh?”
Gillian offered up a smile. “No, not today. Asia took them over to meet up with some cousins who came in for the Muster. The kids are going to go for an overnight run into the park. Asia will join us for dinner later.”
“All of them? Even Chelsea?”
“She doesn’t shift yet, but all the older kids keep an eye on the younger ones, don’t worry. They need this time together to bond and play and learn. There will be some adults with them to keep an eye on things and step in if there’s trouble.”
Ken wondered if he’d ever be comfortable turning a child of his own, of that young an age, loose in the woods with other kids. “Okay.”
“They’ll be fine, trust me. Especially a large group of them together. The compound is safe.” Gillian’s smile widened. “It also means adult date night for both households.”
“But you don’t have any kids.”
She chuckled. “Doesn’t matter. Trent and Asia’s pups might as well be mine. They’re in and out of here all the time since they live right next door. You know how big families are.” She straightened. “That’s right. I’m sorry. I forgot you don’t have a large family.”
“Any family. Well, except all of y’all now.”
A sly smile lit her face. “You’ll be having pups before you know it, I bet. A big family of your own.”
He side-stepped her comment. “Do you mind if I ask why you and Peyton don’t have any?”
“I didn’t want pups of my own before now.” A wistful expression clouded her usually bright features. “Honestly? After losing Charles and Chelsea, and with Dewi getting attacked…It broke Peyton’s heart, and, frankly, it scared me.”
“I didn’t think you were mated to him then.”
“I wasn’t. I had met them years ago, when Peyton and I were both kids, before our hormones kicked in. But Charles was our pack Alpha. A Prime. If he could be taken down, I worried about any kids we had. We never knew who did it. Never caught the son of a bitch. I didn’t know if he’d come back and try again. But now…”
She shrugged. “Now I can relax. Endquist can’t hurt our pack or our family again. You finally closed that painful chapter for us for good.”
He blushed and brushed off the compliment. “It didn’t stop Trent and Asia from having children.”
“No, not much stops Trent. He might not be the pack Alpha, but he is still an Alpha. He busts his hump working for the pack, and is nearly as strong as Peyton is. It wasn’t an easy decision for him to take a knee and hand things over, but he and Peyton were so worried about Dewi, and the shock of losing both Charles and Chelsea…”
She clasped her hands together and studied them for a moment. “I have nothing but the utmost respect for Trent. He did what he had to do for the pack. When he met and mated Asia, she was happy to be a stay-at-home mom and raise their pups. Had the decision been solely up to Peyton, we probably would have had a houseful of our own by now. Just because he’s the pack Alpha, and a Prime, doesn’t mean he’s an inconsiderate asshole.”
She leaned against the counter. “I want to get through this Muster, and then I’ve got a private vacation scheduled with Peyton in Seattle. Just the two of us for a whole week, no cell phones or work allowed. We’re going to spend the days hiking around Mt. Rainier and doing a lot of talking.”
He’d wanted to ask. “As Peyton’s mate, what do you do?”
The majority of his dealings had been with Peyton and Trent, not his sisters-in-law. He knew she was an attorney, but beyond that, he didn’t know much about the woman.
She grinned. “I handle business for the pack through my law firm in town. We’re all wolves, or otherwise tied to the pack. That’s another reason I wanted to wait to have pups. I do a lot of traveling. I might be home one night, and the next be falling asleep in Paris. Or Tokyo. We have business interests all over the globe. Charles had started investing the pack’s fortune on a global scale. Peyton, Trent, and I carried that forward with our vision for the pack’s future. We wanted to ensure the pack’s financial stability in perpetuity. Wanted to be able to care for our pack.”
“No offense, you guys don’t look rich. I saw Peyton’s truck. It’s like twenty years old. And, again, no offense, compared to the house in Florida, this one isn’t nearly as fancy.”
“No offense taken,” she said. “We don’t squander our money.” The sadness crept into her face and voice again. “Although I will admit I did go a little overboard for Dewi when we sent her to Florida. Badger found that property and we snatched it up for cash.
“I personally supervised the construction of the house. I wanted her to have a nice place that she could call home, that she could make hers. That she could claim and own and retreat to when she needed a sanctuary. I wanted her to have the best things. It didn’t make up for losing her parents, but it made me personally feel a little better since I couldn’t be there for her all the time. It’s not like she was a spoiled brat with an entitlement attitude, ever. You’ve seen how she is. She rarely buys anything for herself.”
“The car.”
Gillian nodded. “She loves that Saleen. Again, it’s not like she’s going out on shopping sprees. And, technically, she uses it for work, so it’s a deductible expense. It was something that made her happy when she saw it. Well, as happy as she was able to feel before you came into her life. Actually, she wasn’t going to buy it. Beck’s the one who ratted her out, and Peyton ordered her to get it if she liked it.”
A laugh escaped her. “And the motorcycle. Badger and Beck were our eyes and ears once again. But the car she bought for you? That’s the first ‘splurge’ she’s ever indulged in, and I’m not exaggerating. I don’t count that as a splurge, either, since it was for you. It was for a good reason.”
“You’ve missed her, haven’t you?”
Gillian’s expression turned sad again. “Always.”
“Did you take care of her?”
“She was older when Peyton and I mated. When she was a baby, Badger took over supervising her care, of course, since he was a Prime. With Beck’s help. But at first, when she got out of the hospital after the attack, their aunt Collette took care of her until they realized Dewi was a Prime. Then Trent and Asia mated. And my sister met and mated her husband and started having pups almost immediately.”
She wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand. “Was almost enough to make me ask Peyton to get me pregnant. Except I knew we had to stay strong and focus on Dewi. I didn’t know if I’d end up living in Florida with them part of the time, helping her through things as she grew older. I tried to stay as close to her as I could over the phone, and later on with the Internet and texting, but she was a Prime and not just a tomboy. I’m really glad she’s grown close to Nami. Dewi needs that kind of strong motherly influence in her life.”
“Badger and Beck did a great job with her. Did it…” He felt comfortable discussing this with Gillian. “Did it bother you all when Dewi and Beck hooked up?”
“No, although I don’t blame you for asking. Wolves are a little different. I know it’s hard to understand if you weren’t raised in a pack, but even if two teenagers get together and mess around, we don’t care as long as they’re careful.
“Now, had Beck tried something before Dewi came of age, they never would have found his body, believe me. Beck’s a good man and we all knew he was a stable force in Dewi’s life. That when she—or he—found a mate, that would eventually be the end of it between them.”
“He’s definitely a force, all right.”
Gillian grinned. “Badger told me about your first encounter with Beck.”
“Yeah.” Ken fought the urge to rub his throat at the memory. “It was a memorable experience.”
“I heard Dewi handed him his ass.”
“Sort of. She flung him across the kitchen and against the wall.”
“She’s strong.”
“I noticed.”
“Let me give you another hint about so
mething.” Gillian walked over to the doorway, glanced out, and then returned, dropping her voice.
“You have made her happy. I cannot emphasize that enough. Before you, she was not happy. I don’t even know if she knew what happiness felt like before she met you. She’s like a new woman. I couldn’t believe it when Peyton told me after he got back. Part of the reason he flew to Florida was to see her for himself, and to make sure she was okay. I was standing there when he took the call from Badger, and it was like someone had slapped him, he was so shocked.”
She gently tapped his chest. “If you asked for the moon, Peyton would see about the pack buying a stake in NASA to make that happen.” She tapped his chest again. “That is how much status you have in this family. This pack. Human or not, you are one of us, because you have made Dewi happy. Not because she’s Head Enforcer, or because she’s a Prime Alpha. Not even because she’s Peyton and Trent’s little sister. You have a status in this pack beyond the average mate because you made Dewi happy and brought about a positive change in her none of us ever thought would happen. Because of that, you have our undying gratitude and love.”
Ken sensed more under her tone. “What aren’t you telling me?”
It seemed to take her a moment to decide whether or not to speak it. “Her grandfather, Duncan, killed himself out of his grief. No, they never found his body, but we all did the math. Everyone who knew Duncan personally, like Badger, says Dewi is very much like him. Very intense, very devoted and determined. It wouldn’t have surprised any of us if she’d literally worked herself to death. Had she not found you, it wouldn’t have shocked any of us if she’d gotten herself killed one day. Deliberately.”
Gillian hugged him. “And she let you mark her. That’s her way of telling you that she trusts you, that she loves you, and that she needs you, from time to time, to take charge. To force her out of that controlling headspace and let her exist without bearing the weight of the pack on her shoulders. You didn’t just save her life, you saved her sanity.”
A Bleacke Wind (Bleacke Shifters Book 3) Page 6
