Chapter 2
Chapter Two
Duncan - Back Then…
What do I truly believe? And what should I do as a father?
Duncan stood at the kitchen window and watched their three eldest daughters playing in the yard. When he thought about it, so many of the old woman’s predictions had already come to pass that he wasn’t sure it was wise to keep Charlie Bleacke in Idaho.
At least not until his youngest, a baby girl due in less than two weeks, was of an age she could make up her own mind.
A baby girl he’d already asked Louisa if they could name Chelsea, and she’d agreed.
Despite everything that had so far come to pass, Duncan hadn’t told anyone—not his mate Louisa, not Badger, and not Charlie Bleacke—about the brief conversation he’d had with the dying washerwoman that night so many years earlier, not long before he and Louisa departed for America.
Even when he hadn’t consciously thought about her words, her counsel silently lingered in the back of his mind, and he’d faithfully followed it.
I have to assign him elsewhere.
Which Duncan hated to do because the man was, next to Badger, one of his best men.
Also a Prime Alpha, and someone Duncan could easily see himself handing the pack over to at some future point, once he was ready to sit back and relax and enjoy the fruits of their sometimes arduous labors.
Badger had hinted several times that he didn’t want the job and would only take it if pressed into the role and absent any other suitable candidate.
Duncan didn’t dare leave a leadership void. The only responsible course was to make sure he had a replacement designated in case the unthinkable happened.
And he felt certain that person should be Charlie Bleacke.
The next afternoon, Duncan decided to talk to Badger about it.
“Whadya mean he can’t meet Chelsea?” Badger asked, looking appropriately and understandably confused.
Duncan stared into his glass, where the ice cube slowly dissolved into the bourbon. “You can’t tell anyone,” he said. “Not Charlie, not even Louisa.” He stared at Badger. “Pack Alpha business.”
Badger scowled. “Of course. Now, out wi’ it, man.”
Duncan slowly swirled the liquid in the glass, first one way, then the other. “I have legitimate reasons to believe Charlie will feel a mating bond with Chelsea when she’s born.”
Badger’s scowl deepened. “Ye what?”
“You heard me.”
The grizzled shifter slowly shook his head. “Ye finally went daft, did ye?”
“I’m serious.”
“I know ye are, because ye sound like ye just received bad news. But yer not givin’ me enough information to convince me yer not daft. How could ye possibly know such a thing?”
“You’re leaving next month for Texas, right?” Duncan asked. “To spend time there with Charlie, helping him?”
Badger nodded. “Aye.”
“Don’t leave here until after she’s born. I’ll send something of hers with you. If he reacts to the scent, let me know immediately. Do not under any circumstances tell him who or where she is.”
He cocked his head at Duncan. “Yer really serious. Why do ye think that?”
“I have my reasons and I’m not at liberty to explain.” He stared at the liquor. “Pack Alpha business.”
Badger sighed. “Well, what am I supposed to do wi’ him if he reacts?”
“Move him to Florida.” Duncan met Badger’s gaze. “Immediately. He’ll remain stationed there indefinitely.”
“Yer banishing him?”
Duncan sharply shook his head. “On the contrary. If he reacts it means it cements his position as my successor as Pack Alpha.”
Three weeks later, with their healthy baby girl now a week old, Duncan had been unable to sleep and instead sat in his office nursing a drink while pretending to go over mining and mineral rights paperwork.
Meaning when the phone on his desk rang a little after 1:00 a.m., he snatched the receiver up just as the first notes sounded.
“Yeah.”
Badger. “Well, yer a spooky feckin’ bastard.” He sighed. “And tomorrow we’ll be starting preparations to move Charlie to Florida.”
Duncan simultaneously felt relieved and stunned. It wasn’t that he didn’t want Charlie Bleacke as his son-in-law. On the contrary, he couldn’t have picked a better mate for his baby girl if he tried.
As long as she felt a mutual attraction.
But confirmation meant this, too, was truth.
That the washerwoman was right.
Meaning there were other things she’d prove correct about—good and bad.
“How’d he take it?” Duncan asked.
“Well, I got a bit tricky. I wrapped a kerchief in the blanket and kept it there all the way back to Texas. Took the kerchief into the office with me today, and he got a whiff of it, damned near snatched it out of my hand. Outright lied to him and said it’d been in my dresser for months and couldn’t remember where it was laundered, only that it happened while out of town at one of my short visits to an office. ”
“He couldn’t tell you were lying?”
“Not in the condition he’s in, no. He’s damned near close to chasin’ his own tail, he’s so out of his mind. I do believe he’s ready to start retracin’ all my steps for the past year.”
“I’ll call him right now.”
“I wouldn’t. I made sure to slip him a little somethin’ in his drink to calm him. Wait until morning, if ye please. I’ll call ye and put him on the phone.”
“Thank you.” Duncan sat back in his chair. “Is there anything you can do with your Prime to help?”
“Oh, aye. Once I had him good and shitfaced so he couldn’t figure out what I was doin’, I planted a little idea in his mind that everything’s gonna be okay, but he has to be patient and listen to us.” He paused. “Everything is gonna be okay with him, right?”
“Absolutely. Keep me posted. And thank you.”
“Ye thank me now, but I’m gonna be swearin’ at ye for all the extra travel yer costin’ me.” He grunted. “The Pack’s gonna be paying for a new car for me, all this drivin’ I’ll be doin’.”
Two weeks later, Duncan stood face-to-face with one of his best friends.
“Why do I feel like I’m being punished?” Charlie asked. His face looked drawn, haggard, like he hadn’t been sleeping.
And according to Badger, the man hadn’t been sleeping.
“You’re not being punished,” Duncan assured him.
“First, I scent who I know has to be my mate, and Badger can’t tell me a damned thing about her. Then you send me to Florida and say I can’t return to Idaho?”
Duncan walked over and laid his hands on his friend’s shoulders, pouring the full force of his Prime into him. Badger was already holding on to Charlie’s left arm and aiding him.
“I know who she is,” Duncan gently said. “But you have to wait to meet her.”
Even under the force of their combined Prime powers, Duncan felt Charlie’s will trying to stir, wanting to protest. “For how long? Who is she?”
“I will let you meet her in fifteen years,” Duncan assured him.
“And that’s all I’ll say about who she is.
When you meet her, if she doesn’t feel a mate bond with you, you must walk away.
If she feels a mate bond with you, you have to swear to me at that time to exhibit self-control with her until she’s fully of age. ”
Charlie’s jaw dropped. “Fifteen years? That’s—” His jaw snapped shut as his gaze widened. “Oh, bloody hell,” he muttered, his old accent returning. “She’s a feckin’ child?”
Duncan shielded his thoughts. “She is. And, yes, her parents are aware. And that’s all I’ll reveal.”
“And that’s why ye said I cannae return to the compound wi’out yer permission.”
Duncan nodded. “Because if you are, I have to make sure she isn’t.
For all our sakes. As the Pack Alpha, I am sworn to protect all of our pack, even from fellow packmates.
If you don’t follow my orders and you lose control, I’ll be forced to kill you.
Friend or not. And Badger is under orders to follow my orders if that happens. ”
Charlie’s knees sagged. Duncan and Badger quickly eased him into a chair that Badger had the forethought to position for just this purpose.
“She’s a child,” Charlie whispered, the weight of the revelation still sinking in. “Bloody hell.”
Duncan knelt in front of him, looking him in the eyes. “I know how difficult this is for you. I know it’s a shock. But on my very life, I make you a promise here and now.”
Charlie forced himself to focus on Duncan. “What promise?”
“If you do what I say, meaning you follow my orders and exhibit self-control, then I swear to you that when I’m ready to retire I will hand this pack over to you and step aside.
Willingly. I will publicly take a knee to you, bare my throat, and swear my allegiance to you as Pack Alpha.
I have no desire to remain Pack Alpha until the day I die—I want to enjoy my family.
And from this moment until that one, I will make sure everyone knows that you are my first and only choice to take over this pack.
All I ask is that you don’t talk about the reason why. ”
Charlie blinked. “Wh-what?”
“Any man with the honor, integrity, and self-control to put his own needs aside for the greater good of this pack and all of its members is worthy of being our next Pack Alpha. And I will fully back you. But the three of us swore to leave most of the old ways behind when we crossed the Atlantic. I don’t want anyone thinking I’m arranging marriages or betrothing children to adults.
We will frame this situation as you focusing on what’s best for the entire pack on the business end of things.
That your efforts are to ensure the financial survival of our pack. ”
Charlie’s eyes brimmed with tears. “Fifteen years, though? I dunno if I can bear it!”
“Ye can an’ will, lad,” Badger said, his hands now firmly gripping Charlie’s shoulders. “Don’t think about it like that. Instead, think about it as preparing properly to care for yer mate and any future pups ye have. Buildin’ yer own fortune along with the pack’s.”
“But…but that’s so far away!”