Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
Ken
When Aisling emerged from her room in the pool house over an hour later, Ken breathed a sigh of relief.
Despite knowing it would make him look like a real shit if one of the Primes caught wind of his thoughts, the unexpected Aisling/Tamsin distraction relieved him, and he rooted for it to be an ongoing issue that would take up the inner circle’s excess attention that wasn’t already directed elsewhere.
He already had far more on his plate than he was comfortable juggling. So much so that it was becoming a strain to hold a shield around everything Peyton tasked him with to keep it from bleeding through his thoughts and risk Dewi learning it.
“I’ll take the baby,” Ken said to Dewi. “While you help them with this.”
“You sure?”
He leaned in and kissed Dewi. “Absolutely.” The baby had just nursed and was ready to take a nap. He took her from Dewi and carried her upstairs to change her, allowing him a few minutes to himself.
I don’t know how Peyton does it.
Ken knew there was a vast gulf of information he wasn’t privy to—and frankly didn’t want to be, either—but what Peyton and Gillian had read him in about chilled him to his core.
The black-hat hacking he currently engaged in for Gillian and the pack wasn’t something he felt comfortable with, but it was a necessary evil in light of the potential danger from the growing threat.
And a preferable option to armed confrontations with the drug cartel people, too. In his mind, anything that kept those people far from their front door and kept their own people safe was justifiable.
It wasn’t like he was hacking them to steal money or committing industrial espionage. The pack simply wanted information regarding what the cartel was up to in case it involved another run at the Targhee Pack.
Early warnings.
Still, Ken didn’t feel comfortable with this cloak-and-dagger stuff. And it felt like a lifetime ago instead of only earlier the previous year when he would have laughed all of this off as a fever dream had someone from the future popped in to give him a heads-up.
With the baby changed and now falling asleep, Ken tucked her into her crib and then headed to the bedroom with the baby monitor to work on his laptop, which he’d brought upstairs earlier.
The latest data dump was ready. He compiled it, uploaded it to their private, anonymous secure server, and then sent Gillian a message that it was ready.
None of this felt…real.
He also suspected there was far deeper knowledge he held that Peyton had maybe implanted and then told him to forget about. He sensed a gaping void in his mind where it felt like something should be there, but… wasn’t.
And he couldn’t ask Dewi or the others about it, either. While he instinctively knew Dewi, Badger, and Duncan hadn’t done it, he also suspected they couldn’t know about it. Not until Peyton wanted them to.
I hate this.
He wasn’t built for this bullshit. If there was something on the far opposite end of the spectrum from adrenaline junkie, that would be him.
He loved his newly adopted family but felt they all had greater confidence in his abilities than he did.
Simply remembering the ordeal he and Nami survived in Idaho nearly made him nauseous.
With the latest data dump forwarded, he focused on the more mundane and ironically also more intimidating assignment of researching contractors to start the construction process for the new properties the pack had bought adjoining this one.
They were creating a smaller version of the Idaho pack compound, with new houses for Beck and Nami, Joaquin and Malyah, and others, as well as guest cottages and a meeting hall with permanent offices for them, and an emergency hurricane shelter, meaning their home could truly become a sanctuary outside of the business of running the pack.
The new facilities would be a safe place to hold small gatherings and runs for their packmates without the risk of clueless humans stumbling over them.
A place to build a school so they could safely raise the pack’s children in an inclusive environment that embraced and protected them in all ways.
All his life, he’d wished for a large family.
Now, he had one. And then some.
Another issue he grappled with was the cloudy nature of his true roots, that his mother was the child of two shifters, and they didn’t know the circumstances that led to her being abandoned, resulting in her adoption by clueless humans.
Plus, he was still coming to grips with the fact that he was related by blood to Tamsin, Hamish, and Badger.
And to Nami’s sister’s mother-in-law, Imani.
Although Imani still had no idea about any of that. That was yet another pressing situation to untangle on the collective to-do list hanging over their heads.
Closing his eyes for a moment, he pinched the bridge of his nose, massaging it.
At least he wasn’t having panic attacks when the full weight and scope of everything periodically washed over him.
He was increasingly improving his ability to pull back, focus on the immediate task at hand, and eat that elephant one bite at a time instead of trying to swallow it whole.
On top of everything else, however, was his being a new dad. Let’s not forget that.
He took a long, deep breath, held it, then slowly blew it out before opening his eyes again.
I can do this. Easy-peasy. Right?
Aisling
“Are ye sure this’ll work, then?” Aisling nervously asked Duncan where she sat in a chair in the living room. Duncan and Badger each sat on one of the sofas, while Dewi slowly paced around the room.
The old shifter shrugged. “I’m not certain of anything. I believe you are capable of maintaining control even without our intervention. But if what we do helps reduce your stress about it, I’m willing to try.”
“He means he’s pretty sure it’ll work, but no guarantees,” Dewi snarked as she stood there, arms crossed over her chest.
Badger looked up. “Are ye helpin’?”
“I don’t know,” Dewi shot back. “I’m not not helping.”
Under different circumstances, Aisling suspected she and Dewi would quickly bond and become best friends. There was a lot in the younger woman Aisling sensed aligned perfectly with her own personality.
Like experiencing too much trauma at far too young an age, and as a result developing a crunchy outer shell in an attempt to keep people away.
“You do have to trust us,” Duncan told Aisling. “You need to relax and not fight us. We promise we won’t violate your trust. All we’ll do is address your self-control where it comes to Tamsin.”
Aisling’s fingers curled around the soft armrests. It was that or nervously pick at her cuticles. “Can’t ye just take away the need? That’d solve this feckin’ mess, wouldn’t it?”
“No,” Duncan and Badger both said, glancing at each other before Badger continued. “Ye can’t fight basic biology, lass,” he said. “Ye feel what ye feel for her. And even if we could attempt that, what happens if she feels a mate bond with ye?”
“Are we certain putting the two of them in a room together to talk isn’t the easiest solution?” Dewi asked. “Don’t tell Tamsin why, just say it’s an introduction. Maybe Tamsin doesn’t feel a mate bond. If not, then we do this. If she does, the situation takes care of itself, right?”
“I don’t want her feeling obligated to me.” What Aisling couldn’t explain were her instructions from Peyton. “And until we know what’s goin’ on with that cunt of a father of hers, getting distracted with a new mating isn’t exactly safe. I need my wits about me.”
“I remember how batshit Beck went when he first met Nami and didn’t claim her right away,” Dewi said. “That was one hell of a distraction.” She stopped pacing again. “I’m just saying I don’t know how putting the two of them in the same house, all the time, will avoid the issue. And—”
Her cell phone rang. Dewi pulled it from her back pocket, scowled as she glanced at the screen, then answered.
“Hey, Peyton. I—” Her eyes went wide as he apparently interrupted her.
“Oh! Great! We’ll—” She scowled again and looked at the screen.
“Fucker hung up on me.” Aisling hadn’t caught any of the conversation because Dewi’s phone volume was turned down too low even for Aisling’s keen ears to pick up.
“What’s that all about, then?” Badger asked.
Dewi shrugged. “It’s a reprieve.” She smiled.
“Gillian just went into labor. Peyton wants me, Ken, Tamsin, Nami, Beck, and the babies to head to Idaho right now. Meaning Malyah will likely want to come with, too. And probably Joaquin. And for you and Da to follow in a day or so, once arrangements are in place here to keep things running smoothly while we’re gone.
He wants to hold a recognition ceremony for them all at once.
Asia is due any day now, I guess. He was talking so fast I barely understood him. ”
“What about Aisling?” Duncan asked.
“I’m going to make a judgment call,” Dewi said.
“Badger, if you and Da could take point on introducing Aisling to all the parents and the kids tomorrow and”—she waggled her fingers at him—“use your Prime to facilitate things, then Aisling can fill in as their caretaker over at the clubhouse during the days while we’re all in Idaho, with Carl, Mateo, Brianna, and the others as backup.
She can even stay over there, if she wants to, since Tamsin will be gone. ”
“What about keeping a Prime here?” Duncan asked.
“Stig and Elliot will be here in case they need one.” She looked at Aisling, nodding toward her. “And she’ll be here, with Carl and Mateo, and Martin. That should be plenty of Enforcers.”
“Isn’t Elliot’s wife due soon?” Badger asked.
“Yeah, but if they need more Primes than Stig, it means shit’s really hit the fan and it’ll be all-hands anyway.”
Aisling blew out a shaky, relieved breath. “That’s that, then. Like ye said, a reprieve from the Universe.”
“No, it’s not,” Duncan said. “We should probably still implant a preliminary command for you. You’ll be spending your next several days surrounded by her scent.”
“I know it’d like as not drive me barmy,” Badger said.
“Well, while you all do that,” Dewi said, “I’m going to make phone calls and flight reservations. Da, Badger, I’ll fly you out in two days and book tickets for everyone else for tomorrow.”
Dewi walked out, leaving Aisling with the two Primes.
“What if we do all this,” Aisling said, “and she doesn’t feel a mate bond with me? What recourse do I have then? Honestly, I don’t want to claim her, no matter how much I want her, if I’m not sure if she wants me just as much, or more.”
“We’ll burn that bridge when we cross it,” Badger snarked. “Right now, let’s see what we can do to help ye wi’ yer willpower, then you and I will pay a couple of visits tonight. Ye just became a teacher.”
“Brilliant,” she darkly mumbled. “Just what those bairns need, a chaotic bin fire like me.”