Chapter 20 #2
Holy Shit! Our pup will have a cousin to play with.
Grinning, he wondered if their pup would get into as much trouble as he did; a low chuckle escaped him as he thought of his brother’s reaction to that possibility.
Then his face grew serious, thinking about how hard it would be for his mate to carry a Dire Wolf pup and, for the first time in his life, he was grateful that his mate wasn’t the first to do so.
He knew Ian and Colton would give his mate the best care and would know what to look out for as Dakota’s pregnancy proceeded.
Inhaling his mate’s scent again, Slate’s last thought before sleep claimed him was how happy his parents were going to be.
~/~/~/~/~
Waiting for Colton to answer his call, Jackson watched Daniel playing with his stuffed wolf, noticing again how fast he was growing.
“Jackson?”
Turning his attention back to his phone, Jackson said, “Hey, how’s it going, bro?”
“Good. We spent the day at the museum, learning about the history of Scotland. Of course, it didn’t mention anything about the Scottish Wolf shifters, but Ian’s mom filled us in on that part.”
“Did you relax and enjoy yourself?”
“Surprisingly, I did.”
“Good. I know it’s late there so I’ll make this brief. First, Zane found video proving we were in Las Vegas at the time of the massacre so one less thing on your plate…”
“Fanfuckingtastic!”
Chuckling at his brother’s reaction, Jackson continued, “Second, I asked Oracle if she had known about the Scottish Wolf shifters living over there and, just as I expected, she said she did but wasn’t given permission to tell Ian.
According to her, the Fates didn’t want Ian to feel any pressure to live there. ”
“Thank goodness, he doesn’t want to live there, but now that he knows about them, I’m pretty sure he’ll want to do something for them.”
“Hey, if you guys need any help with that, talk to Steel or Slate.”
“Good idea. We’ll know more next week when we see them. Oh, I almost forgot. Would you tell Cody and Dylon to expect a call from Dr. Rom DiLupo? He’s the guy Ian recommended as a therapist for Cody’s home for boys.”
“Will do,” Jackson said, then added as he saw Cody and Dylon enter his study, “in fact I’ll do it right now. Anything else?”
“Not that I can think of.”
“Talk to you later, bro.”
“Bye.”
Ending the call, Jackson smirked. “Colton spent the day in a museum.”
Laughing, Cody said, “Good thing it’s him and not me because he likes that stuff. Do you know when we were in Las Vegas, Carson and I had to talk him out of going to the Mob Museum?”
“No shi...eet!”
“Really bro? No sheet?”
Jackson chuckled. “Yeah, well, little pitchers have big ears,” he said pointing to Daniel. “He is making sounds now and I’m hoping ‘dada’ is going to be his first word.”
Nudging Cody, Dylon said, “Remember that when you’re expressing how happy you are at night.”
“Fu…dge off! Oh my gods! Now I’m doing it, too!” exclaimed Cody.
“I like that…fudge off. I think mom will approve,” said Dylon.
“Yeah, you’re right. There is no way I want to hear the ‘f’ word coming out of Jessica’s sweet mouth. Your mother would skin me alive if her little princess swore.”
“Although I think she has every right to do what her brother can do,” said Dylon. “Just because she’s a girl isn’t a good enough excuse to hold her to a different standard.”
“Ha! That’s because she’s got you wrapped around her little finger. Even your mother said so,” Cody replied.
Jackson’s laughter filled the room. “Oh boy, I can just see her swearing while wearing one of those frilly dresses your mother loves to dress her in! Yup, right in the middle of the great room, in front of Lizzie and Frank!”
“Oh, no!” groaned Dylon. “I can see that too! My mother will blame me because she thinks my mate can do no wrong.”
“Well, now you know why I wanted everyone to watch their language.” Jackson smirked. “Now, moving on…good news. Zane has found video of all of us in Las Vegas.”
“Wow! Fantastic! What did Penn say?” asked Cody.
“He looked at it and agreed it gives us an iron-clad alibi so our uncle can go fu…dge himself,” Jackson said, catching himself in time.
“What happens next?” asked Dylon.
“Nothing. After talking it over with Penn, I decided to sit on it, until we need to produce it,” answered Jackson.
“But why?” asked Cody.
“Because as long as our uncle thinks his plan is working, he won’t come up with any other scheme in an attempt to harm us,” Jackson replied.
“I like that,” said Dylon, approving of Jackson’s strategy.
“The natural reaction would be to clear your names as soon as possible, leaving your uncle to think of new ways of going after you. By saying nothing, he’ll think he has you on the ropes and all he has to do is wait for the time to expire… a false sense of success. Good job.”
“Exactly. I plan on announcing my decision at a pack meeting when everyone is back but I wanted to ease your worry over Josiah’s complaint regarding Jake and Jessica.”
“Thanks,” said Cody, “we appreciate that.”
“Well, I’m going to take my son and go find my mate,” Jackson said, rising, “and have some fun.”