Chapter 3
Chapter
Three
Liam wasn’t really sure what was going on. Not in an absolute practical sense, at any rate. He knew something terrible had happened to this baby’s parent. And he knew that Theo guy was in real trouble.
He also knew that it was bullshit that someone would leave a baby and this guy who obviously needed help up here in the high reaches.
Where had Theo come from? Why was he the one with the baby?
Not that it was time to ask those sorts of questions, and he knew it.
Now was the time to get this baby fed, to get this man to the healer, and ask questions after everyone rested.
He glanced at Keegan, knowing they had to be close to the ATV now. “This is wild.”
Keegan nodded. “I don’t like it. I mean, I don’t know him.
He’s not from one of the families who left.
So I don’t know where he came from, and I don’t know who shot the baby’s parent.
But I’m very concerned that all this shit is happening.
I know we’re werewolves, but we don’t tend to shoot one another willy-nilly. ”
“Well…” Liam shook his head. “I don’t get it, either. I’ve been working with y’all for a long time. Even when things were bad with your old pack alpha, we had a working relationship. I don’t remember things ever being quite this psychopathic.”
Keegan shook his head. “No. No, I don’t either. Loyal’s waiting for us, and so is Niall, so at least we’ll be able to get the baby and this guy help.”
“Theo. He says that someone shot and killed the mother or the whatever. What do you call male mothers?” Liam knew there was a word for it. Rory was one, apparently.
“Omegas.” Keegan chuckled, his grin wide.
“Omegas. Right. Theo said he died before Theo even knew he was hit.”
“And now?”
Liam tried to shrug, but his hands were full, and to be honest, he was getting a little bit tired. Theo didn’t weigh much, and Liam would carry him to the ends of the earth if that was what was necessary. But he was kind of hoping that wasn’t necessary.
“How do you know all this?”
“Because he told me so.” He wasn’t sure why Keegan would ask him that. Again, Keegan looked at him but didn’t say anything else, which was good because he was getting short on breath, and thank goodness that the ATV was right there.
“Okay, so how are we going to do this?”
“If we strap him into the front seat, you sit in the back holding the baby, I can drive.”
Keegan had a point. That seemed to be the safest way to get everybody down to Loyal’s. There were no belts to hold Theo in the back, unconscious as he was.
“Okay, honey, so here’s the deal. I’m going to put you in this thing. I know that you can’t hear me, but you’ve got to listen. I need you to just relax. I’m going to put you in the seat belt. We’re going to get you help. We’re on our way and we’re going to get the baby help too.”
Theo was absolutely stunning, even as sick as he was. This man was pale like Rory’s husband Fen, but instead of being muscular and tall, he was tiny and lean. Almost, but not quite, delicate. It was odd. Fascinating.
They managed to get everyone in the four-by-four finally, and he held the baby in the back as they got moving.
It was later in the day than they had wanted to be gone, than they had expected to be when he’d planned to spend the night on the mountain, but it took a lot of energy to carry a full-grown man down a mountain.
And Keegan hadn’t been able to run in wolf form because he had the baby.
They didn’t speak much as they drove. Keegan pushed the vehicle as fast as it could go, and he tried to keep dust and debris off the baby’s face and hold Theo in the seat up front.
They roared up to the mishmash of cabins and lean-tos that made up Loyal’s pack compound halfway between the original wolfpack and the old dragon compound and screeched to a halt.
The buildings were all interconnected, paths formed under breezeways to get from one home to another.
And Keegan’s brother, Loyal and his mate, Niall, ran to meet them as soon as they pulled up. “What on earth happened?”
“We found him. He was calling to us. They’re hungry. The omega was shot. They need help.”
“Liam’s bonded,” Keegan put in softly.
Niall’s eyes flew open wide. “Pardon me?”
Keegan spoke again, very slowly. “Liam, brother of Rory who is the mate of Fen. Bonded to Theo, our as-of-yet unconscious packmate.”
Niall blew out a surprised huff of breath. “Excellent. Let’s get him inside and get him help. LuAnn, I’m going to need some warm blankets. Somebody needs to grab me some food. Applesauce maybe.”
“You guys are obsessed with applesauce,” he whispered to Keegan.
“Apples are good for dogs. Ruff.” Kee snapped his teeth together.
Liam tried to find it in him to be scared, but he just couldn’t.
Niall and LuAnn whisked Theo and Gael away deeper into the compound, leaving them to sit there twiddling their thumbs and being worried. It really didn’t suit him very well. In fact, it sucked big, hairy donkey balls.
“I hate this.” Liam growled deep in his chest. “I want to see him.”
“They’re helping. He probably doesn’t want you to see him like this. No one’s mate does.”
He arched one eyebrow. “What are you talking about?”
Key raised an eyebrow at him. “I’m talking about the fact that he never said more than two words out loud, and you heard all this stuff about how the baby’s omega parent was shot and killed and how his name was Theo and the baby’s name was Gael.
” There Keegan’s lips pursed in an amused smile. “You’re bonding with him.”
“What does that even mean?” Liam didn’t get it at all, because “bonding” was like a wolf thing, right?
Like he remembered everybody saying that Rory and Fen had needed to have a mate bond, and that they both felt sick when it wasn’t completed.
He could remember lots of talking about that with Keegan and his mate John, too, but Liam was just a dude.
He and his brothers had all decided that Rory must have a different dad than them, because that was the only reasonable explanation for him turning out to be a wolf shifter. “I’m not a wolf.”
“Yeah, you just keep telling yourself that, buddy. Because Theo is a wolf.”
“Well, it’s not like the baby is his, and it’s not like I got him pregnant or something.” Liam crossed his arms over his chest, feeling incredibly defensive all of a sudden.
And yet at the same time some little part of his brain was saying Theo was his, and he wanted to growl at Keegan for even mentioning his name because Theo was sick and hurting, and he needed Liam to be there for him, and he couldn’t be in there with Niall and Loyal because they wouldn’t let him.
When Liam came back to his senses, he was standing in the middle of Loyal’s front room with his chest against Keegan’s, his teeth bared.
Liam backed off fast, his whole body denying what he had just been doing, his brain running in circles like a little rabbit in a cage. Or maybe a hamster on an exercise wheel or something.
“Still believe you can’t possibly be mated to a wolf?” Keegan asked.
“It’s not possible.” How could it be?
“You know after all this time that the Calhoun family has been providing provisions for dragons and wolf shifters and other sundry interesting mythical creatures, you would think that you guys would be a little bit more open-minded, but you’re all very determined to think that you’re just regular old folks.
” Kee kind of curled his lip at Liam. “I’m hungry. You want something?”
Keegan turned toward the kitchen and wandered off, leaving Liam standing there, staring after him.
Liam shook it off because, yeah, actually he was starving, so he might as well go see what there was to see in the kitchen. Niall made the best cookies and LuAnn almost always had stew or bread on the stove.
He walked into the kitchen behind Keegan, rubbing the center of his chest. “I’m sorry about that chest bumping thing, and I’m happy to eat with you as long as you don’t feed me applesauce.”
“No need. Looks like there’s leftovers—spaghetti and red sauce with some meatballs and some garlic bread.”
“Oh my God, that sounds like heaven.” Liam loved spaghetti and meatballs, and his brothers didn’t particularly love that meal.
They were more steak and potatoes kind of guys, so he didn’t get it very often.
Frozen pizza, sure, real spaghetti and meatballs, no.
“You don’t think they’ll mind us eating it? ”
Keegan gave him a look. “When have you ever known Niall and Loyal to begrudge anybody food? If we eat the remnants of their dinner, and they were expecting to have it for leftovers, then we’ll just help them make more before we leave.”
“Fair enough.” He and his brothers felt the same way if someone needed food.
Keegan gave him a grin, and those canines seemed incredibly long. “Do you want some salad? There’s some of that too.”
“That depends on what’s in it. If it’s just lettuce, cheese, and dressing, then yes.”
Keegan rolled his eyes. “You are so white middle America.”
“Hey! How would you even know what that is? You’ve lived your entire life isolated up here on this stupid mountain.”
That got him another round of chuckles. “John has taught me all about American TV and politics and all sorts of shit, and frankly, I’m kind of glad that I didn’t have to grow up that way.”
“Yeah, I grew up on the fringes of it myself.” Liam shrugged, grabbing a couple of plates out of the cabinet. “But I watch a lot of TV and a lot of YouTube when my brothers don’t think I am.”
“Do you wish you could get out there and see it all?” Keegan asked. “I know Loyal wasn’t impressed.”
Keegan’s brother Loyal had actually gone to college in Flagstaff, Arizona as some sort of an experiment in sending wolves out into the human world.