Chapter 4
Four
Peyton
Peyton spent a restless night unable to sleep for more than a few minutes at a time. What little he managed was filled with dreams of a faceless woman he chased through the wilderness, just for her to disappear into the darkness while her laughter trailed along behind her.
He gave up before dawn and took a hot shower—masturbating twice—before switching to cold water and forcing himself to stand under it until he finally couldn’t take it anymore.
While his coffee brewed he picked up his scattered clothes and dumped everything into the hamper.
That’s when he froze and wondered if he could steal Badger’s clothes from the hamper over at his house.
Peyton had actually started formulating a plan to do just that when he mentally smacked himself.
You’re an idiot. Stop it.
Now dressed in his usual outfit of jeans, boots, and a button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows, he grabbed his coffee and walked through the purple morning twilight to Badger’s, knowing Beck would already be awake.
As he reached the property he nodded to one of the four Enforcers who were on duty outside the house.
They always had four outside now. When Dewi started school—and Peyton still wasn’t sure how that was supposed to work—she’d have an armed guard then, too.
Hell, last night he’d left so fast he hadn’t even acknowledged the presence of the sentries.
Peyton let himself in the kitchen door with his key. Sure enough, Beck stood leaning with his hands on the counter and his head hanging.
“Jesus, you do look like you need a day off,” Peyton said.
“I haven’t been sleeping.” Beck didn’t look at Peyton even though he straightened and rolled his shoulders. “Nightmares again.”
Well, that was a topic of conversation that could knock down Peyton’s chub. “Yeah. Sorry.”
“It is what it is.”
“Look, I’m here. Just go back to bed and sleep, if you can.”
“I thought you needed to be in the office this morning with Trent gone?”
“I do, but I can take Dewi with me and Badger can work from there today. Trent’ll be back by noon.”
A weighty sigh escaped his friend. Beck was an Alpha and a year older than Peyton. They’d grown up here together and were best friends
And Beck had been with him and Trent and Badger…that night.
When they found them.
“I mean it,” Peyton insisted. “Don’t make me pull Pack Alpha rank on you, dude.”
That finally earned Peyton a rough laugh from his friend. “Okay. Thanks. Maybe if I go for a run and wear myself out I can curl up and sleep somewhere.”
“Do that. Is she awake yet?”
“No, she—”
They both heard Dewi on the baby monitor sitting on the counter.
Peyton headed toward the hallway, patting Beck on the shoulder as he passed. “Go. In fact, take off from now until Friday, okay?” Badger’s instructions to Peyton hit him again. “You can take over again on Friday.”
“Thanks.”
Peyton walked down the hall and opened Dewi’s bedroom door. She was sitting up in her toddler bed and rubbing at her eyes. When she saw him, she reached up. “Paynin!” But there wasn’t a smile on her face, just that grim determination she usually wore.
She hadn’t smiled or laughed since the attack, no matter how hard they tried to get her to do it.
He smiled. “Hey, Dewster. How’s my princess?” He scooped her up and turned, heading for the bathroom. She was nearly potty trained but they still used pull-up diapers for her at night.
Because Beck wasn’t the only one who had nightmares. And sometimes when Dewi had night terrors, she had accidents.
Another reason they’d already transitioned her from a crib to a toddler bed. She’d started climbing out of the crib on her own almost as soon as she could walk, and when she did it during a night terror they were worried she might fling herself out and get hurt.
Once she was taken care of he carried her into the kitchen. “What’s for breakfast this morning, Dewster?”
She scrunched her little lips together, her brow furrowing in a way that reminded Peyton so much of their mom that he nearly cried. “Ceweul.” She pointed to the top of the fridge. “Pweese.”
“Ah, good girl.” He reached for the box he knew she wanted. “But you need to eat something else, too.” He set the box on the table and turned to the fridge with her still on his hip. He pulled out the milk and then quickly surveyed the meats. “Ham, or—”
“Ham!”
Hell, she packed away twice as much as the average human child a few years older than her. But that was due to her being a Prime Alpha, and Peyton remembered his parents teasing him about that, that he damned near ate them out of house and home while he was a kid.
Five minutes later, she was two-fisting her ham steak, gnawing on it, when Badger walked into the kitchen, fully dressed but looking half asleep.
“We’re tryin’ to teach her manners, ye know,” he grumbled as he walked over to the coffeemaker. “Ye got her eatin’ like a barbarian.”
“Yeah, but she’s cute when she’s in Tasmanian Devil mode.” He made a funny face at her, futilely trying to earn a giggle. “Besides, we’re raising a wolf, not a grazer.”
“Ye won’t think she’s so cute when she’s a tween an’ tearin’ around here.” Badger poured himself a mug of coffee. “Where’s Beck?”
Peyton’s smile faded. “I told him to take off work until Friday. You’re right—he’s fried. Nightmares. Said he’s going for a run and will probably sleep somewhere.”
“The lad needs it.” Badger sat at the table and sipped his coffee. “Ye like that ham more than me now, ye wee fuzzball?”
“Sowwy, Badda.” Dewi leaned in to give him a ham-flavored kiss on his grizzled cheek. “Mo-nin.”
He chuckled. “Good mornin’ yerself.”
This was Peyton’s reality—the pack, and her. Dewi.
And his friend, and his brother.
Those had to be his priorities. And despite what he now suspected, he couldn’t get ahead of himself.
“Friday, huh?” Peyton muttered to Badger.
He chuckled into his coffee mug. “Aye. Ye figured it out, hmm?”
“You could say that.”
“Besides, it’ll give ye a chance to clean up that shipwreck ye been callin’ a house.” He lifted his good eyebrow at Peyton. “Because if I were ye, I wouldn’t want anyone to see the way ye been livin’. Talk about a barbarian.”
“It’s not that bad.”
Actually, it was. He was never a neat freak but at least he’d kept up with everything.
Before.
He’d had more pressing matters than housekeeping to deal with over the past two years.
“Lad, call Lucille Parker. Today. Give her, oh, at least two hunnert, an’ let her have a go at it. She’ll have it sparklin’ by tomorrow an’ ye won’t have to lift a paw except to keep up wi’ it. I’ll even call her fer ye.”
The Alpha wolf woman and her human husband lived in the pack compound.
She was over a hundred, if Peyton remembered correctly.
When she aged out of her previous job the couple moved back to the compound.
Now she was semi-retired but helped out at the pack school, babysitting, giving an extra hand to new parents, things like that to feel useful and do her part.
“Fine,” Peyton said. “Tell her four hundred if she doesn’t give me a hard time and does the laundry, too.”
Badger chuckled. “I’ll tell her to come pick up the key from the office when she can do it.”
Once Dewi finished her ham and cereal, and Peyton cleaned her up and dressed her in tiny jeans and boots and a shirt, brushed her teeth and her hair and redid her pigtails, the three of them headed to the office in Peyton’s truck with three of the Enforcers trailing along in their vehicles. One would stay behind at the house.
They always had one stay behind at the house now, just in case.
Always.
With Dewi happily coloring in the small play area in the corner of Peyton’s office, he tried to focus on work and…
Couldn’t.
Now that he had a chance to sit down, his mind wanted to wander.
But he also knew there was no way he could compel Badger to reveal the woman’s identity before he said he would. Peyton was a strong Prime Alpha in his own right, but not nearly as strong as Badger.
And Badger was, what, ten times older than him?
There was no contest.
Peyton also tried not to think in terms of “when” but “maybe.” Because there wasn’t a guarantee the woman would even want to be his.
And one of the rules his father had heavily impressed on him was that you didn’t force someone. Ever.
Even if it meant forcing yourself to walk away from them.
But yeah, a clean house would be bonus points in his favor, sure. If the mystery woman said no, maybe he could at least convince her to come over for dinner. Spend time with her. Maybe something would…develop on her end.
But it wouldn’t if she was too worried about what might crawl out of his couch.
And having sheets that he honestly couldn’t remember the last time he changed weren’t exactly conducive to romantic interludes, either.