Chapter 32
Chapter Thirty-Two
Ken
Okay, so we’re doing this.
There wouldn’t be any easing into it. Dewi stood looking at the four of them with her arms crossed over her chest, a thick, dark cloud of serious energy swirling around her in a way he’d never seen or felt before.
Ken didn’t know if the others sensed it the way he could, or if it was just a mate thing.
Trent started to speak but Ken talked over him. “There was a trap. Peyton was abducted.” Ken sensed Dewi currently had zero tolerance for slow-rolling info, and this whole conversation would go much easier with a “rip the bandage off” mindset instead of the gentler way Trent wanted to conduct it.
Great in theory and intent, but not so great considering Dewi’s current take-no-prisoners mindset.
Slow-rolling would only fast-track her anger.
She sucked her teeth. “Alllrighty. Whose head am I removing from their shoulders, and where do I find them?”
“We don’t know,” Ken said. “And even if we did, you can’t.”
She barked a laugh that cut through the air as sharply as a well-honed boning knife. “Oooh, I absofuckinglutely know I can.” She tipped her head from side to side, cracking her neck. “Give me one valid reason why I shouldn’t?”
“Lyssa,” Ken snapped, grabbing Dewi’s attention.
He knew that because her eyes widened slightly.
Once she was really seeing and hearing him, he plowed forward.
“We don’t know who took him, or why they took him, or where they took him.
But there were several of them armed with tranquilizer guns, and they hauled him off in a helicopter.
By the time Trevor and the others caught up, there was nothing they could do. None of them were armed.”
“A fucking helicopter?”
“It was a trap,” Ken said. “They were prepared to jump whoever showed up at the supposed campsite. There wasn’t an informant.
Either the guy was forced to say what he said, or information was tortured out of him about the local area and someone used his phone to impersonate him.
That doesn’t matter now, because three members of the Haugen family are dead.
Murdered. Including the kid who was the supposed informant.
The father’s in the military and on deployment.
Trevor’s trying to make contact with him so he can break the news. ”
“Wait, what? Murdered?” He sensed her confusion.
Which was exactly what he wanted, hoping that would derail her wrath long enough he could reason with her.
If not…
Well, he kinda hoped maybe Badger had a tranquilizer gun stashed around here somewhere, because they’d probably need it if he couldn’t reason with her.
Now that Ken had Dewi’s focus, he let Trent take over, since he was the one who talked to Trevor. While Trent had Dewi’s attention, Badger and Duncan slowly edged around behind her, ready to pounce, if needed, to control her.
Dewi’s gaze slowly dropped to the floor as Trent spoke.
She chewed on her lower lip and Ken heard her angry mental mumbling, but she didn’t interrupt.
Anyone else might have thought she was ignoring her brother, but Ken knew it was just the opposite—she was absorbing every word not just into her brain, but through her very skin.
When Trent finished catching her up, all the way through him opening the safe and reading Peyton’s instructions, she stood still for a long moment, even her mental mumbles going silent.
Finally, “How’s Gillian?” she quietly asked.
Ken didn’t dare breathe a sigh of relief yet.
“As expected,” Ken said before Trent could. “Upset. Scared for her husband. Angry. Actually, move angry to the top of the list.”
“No shit,” she muttered, still staring at the floor. She took a long, deep breath and slowly let it out again. “Why do I get the feeling Peyton invited everyone over tonight as a ‘just in case’ move?” She looked up, meeting Trent’s gaze. “All those Enforcers? Really? Maybe he had a…a feeling.”
It bothered Ken that right now he couldn’t read Dewi the way he normally could. Her deeper mental mumblings had gone silent, or perhaps blocked from his ability to sense them in the same way he learned he could block her from parts of his mind.
Something Peyton had made sure Ken could do before entrusting him with all the information he now held.
“He’s not dead yet,” Badger said from behind her. “Not that we know, leastways. So we assume he’s not. But we have a pack to run an’ we’re disobeying the Pack Alpha if we don’t follow his instructions.”
“Yeah,” she said, still using that same soft tone. “I know.”
Ken didn’t dare reach out and touch her. That this was going so… Well, easier than they’d anticipated, that kinda scared him.
No, wait, not kinda.
It terrified the fuck out of him.
“Did he leave anything for me?” she asked.
Trent tipped his head toward the office and led the way, Dewi falling in behind him. Ken followed her, and Duncan and Badger brought up the rear.
Okay, if they were all in the office they had a better chance of containing her if this…paralysis broke and she decided fuck this, she was going after Peyton no matter what.
Duncan was the last one through the office door. He locked it behind him and leaned his back against it, his arms crossed over his chest nearly identically to how Dewy had just stood.
Trent handed her an envelope and she sank into one of the chairs in front of Peyton’s desk. With a heavy sigh Ken had never heard her make before, she slipped her finger under the flap and opened it.
Dewi
This cannot be happening.
It was tempting to zone out standing there while Trent detailed what little they knew, but whether it was her mate bond with Ken and his voice she heard, or maybe imagining Peyton standing there telling her to pay attention, she didn’t know.
But it was a man’s voice, a comforting one. Like it whispered in her ear.
Telling her she could do this.
Even though…yeah, she wasn’t sure she could.
For the second half of her life she’d felt torn between feeling like she could cunt-punt the world and wondering where the adultier adult was to take care of things for her, even though she knew everyone saw her as the “adultier adult.” Even when she was still legitimately a kid.
Now she was a mom, the Head Enforcer, and with Ken by her side she’d just started feeling like maybe she had the hang of this “adulting” bullshit, and now…
This.
As she slipped her thumb under the flap to open the envelope, she thought about all the days she’d sat in here doing homework while Badger, Beck, Peyton, and Trent discussed pack business.
And now…
Now she’d rather be nearly anywhere else but here.
Sighing, she pulled the sheet of paper out, unfolded it, and read it. It was dated the day he left for Europe.
Dewster,
I love you. I don’t know what’s happened, or if this is temporary or permanent.
But know that I love you and I believe in you, and I’m sorry so much got heaped on your shoulders at a young age.
Lean on everyone—especially Ken. Follow their guidance.
Let them in and don’t ice them out because you think you should act a certain way or become some pillar of strength at the expense of your own soul.
I’m not giving you specific instructions because whatever needs to happen has been told to everyone else.
But please, whatever you do, think about that beautiful little niece of mine before you do it. She’s a miracle because YOU are a miracle, and I’m so very proud of you and everything you’ve accomplished throughout your life. Mom and Dad would be, too.
You are NOT alone.
I mean, unless something horrible’s happened, and in that case, I’m sorry.
Do what you do best and focus on the pack—not on me.
Be safe.
I love you beyond words, baby sister.
XOXO,
Peyton.
Dewi shuddered, sucking in several gasping breaths as she tried to hold back her tears. The words blurred on the page, her hand trembled…
And then Ken rested his hands on her shoulders from behind and leaned in, his head touching hers.
“I’m here, Dewi,” he whispered. “We’re all here. And we’ll get through this together.”
She didn’t trust herself to speak, at first, and no one interrupted the silence. She was well aware of them all watching her, focused on her, certain she would explode or run off or need to be tranqued or something.
And she got it. Maybe Dewi of a year ago, before Ken, before Lyssa, would have done exactly that.
She closed her eyes. “When all the Enforcers arrive,” she softly said, “we call them in here for a meeting. Immediately. Tell them I need to talk to all of them. Nothing gets said before then to anyone. Not even to Asia and the kids, not Tam—no one.”
She reached up with her left hand and gripped Ken’s, where it still rested on her shoulder.
Then she opened her eyes and met Trent’s gaze.
“Who knows? Maybe he’ll be found by then.
Still, call all the Enforcers who were invited and confirm they’re attending.
If they’re thinking about not coming, tell them I’ve called a mandatory Enforcer meeting to get them here. Blame it on me.”
She sensed her eldest brother studying her. “Dewi? Talk to me.”
She folded the paper and tucked it into the envelope. “I’m running off to Europe half-cocked,” she said. “So you can stop guarding the door, Da.”
Duncan chuckled but she didn’t turn to look at him.
Standing, she folded the envelope in half and tucked it into the back pocket of her jeans.
“I want to talk to Gillian. Check on her.” Ken didn’t move as she walked toward the door.
“I don’t want to discuss any of the rest of this until tonight,” she said, Duncan stepping out of her way after unlocking the door for her.
“If there’s an update, tell me. Other than that… ”
She opened the door and glanced back. “He’s still alive,” she added. “Unless or until someone shows me conclusive physical proof, Peyton’s alive. And that’s how we talk about him—alive.”
They all nodded.
She shut the door behind her and walked across the house, down the hall to the master bedroom.
Inside, she heard Gillian softly sobbing, likely into a pillow from the sound of it.
Instead of knocking she opened the door and stepped inside, closing and locking it behind her.
Gillian lay facedown on the bed, a pillow tightly clutched against her. Dewi suspected it was Peyton’s.
She rounded the bed, her own tears already flowing, and stretched out next to her. Gillian rolled onto her side and stared into Dewi’s eyes.
“I’m so mad at him for going,” she whispered. “I said horrible things to him. And I sent him horrible texts and left him angry voicemails.”
Dewi pulled her into her arms, crying with her. “He’s not dead,” she said. “I will not believe he’s dead. I just told them that, too. Unless they can prove it, he’s alive.”
They lay there crying for the better part of thirty minutes, holding each other, not talking.
Finally, Gillian broke the silence. “The vote will be tonight, right?”
“Yeah.”
Gillian slowly nodded. “Who?”
“I don’t want to think about that. There’s more instructions, I’m sure. I told them I don’t want to talk about it until then. I don’t want to know until then. There’s nothing else we can do until then, anyway.”
Gillian chuffed. “Leave it to him, he’ll pop up just before the damned vote, I bet.”
Dewi snorted. “Yeah. Fricking drama queen he is.”
That made Gillian laugh, and they both laughed until they cried and laughed some more.
Finally, Gillian sat up. “I know I should be the adult here, kiddo. I’m sorry.”
Dewi sat up with her, grabbing herself a couple of tissues from the box before passing it to Gillian. “No, you’re his mate. You and Malina are his top priority, and rightfully so. I’m head of the expanded Pack Council. I should be comforting you.”
Gillian sadly smiled and poked Dewi in the shoulder. “You were my starter pup. I used to tease Peyton that if I could handle you, I could handle any pup the Goddess threw at us.”
“Yeah, well, I know I wasn’t the easiest kid to raise.
” She stared past Gillian, to a picture hanging on the bedroom wall, one she had a copy of hanging in her living room in Florida.
Of their mom and dad sitting, smiling, with her just an infant in her mom’s arms, and Trent and Peyton flanking them.
The first and only formal family portrait of the five of them.
A picture where she was actually smiling.
Happy.
Safe and secure and well-loved.
Their parents were murdered only months later.
“Behind a dumpster, huh?” Dewi commented, looking to her sister-in-law. “I never heard that story.”
Gillian’s face went blank before she tearfully laughed. “Yeah. I dragged him back there, and he’s lucky he still had any clothes to put on by the time I finished with him.”
“Guess that’s why he never gave me serious grief about how I mated with Ken, huh?”
Gillian nodded. “Yeah. We got it, believe me. When it hits, it just…hits.” Gillian reached a hand toward Dewi, and Dewi took it.
Gillian squeezed. “Promise me something, kiddo,” she said.
“What?”
Her gaze narrowed, cold. “If…if. If this is…it. If it is, promise me they’ll suffer.”
Dewi squeezed back. “If it is, I will spend the rest of my life hunting every last one of those cocksuckers down and personally flaying the flesh from their bodies while they’re alive.” She sighed. “As long as you babysit for me while I go do it.”
Gillian’s eyes widened before she burst out laughing, and the two of them hugged, long and hard.
Dewi stared over her shoulder at the picture as they embraced.
Dad, help me out here, please? I need all the help I can get.