Chapter 49
Chapter Forty-Nine
Ken
Ken still didn’t feel quite human yet—ironic, he thought, when surrounded by shifters—but several uninterrupted hours of sleep and a long, hot shower dramatically helped. The delicious aroma of coffee seeping into his brain wasn’t bad, either.
He dragged himself into the en suite bathroom, showered to wake up, shaved, and then headed downstairs. Peyton and Jake were already sitting at the table when Ken joined them.
Ken did a double-take when he looked at Jake. “I almost didn’t recognize you,” Ken said. “No offense, but you looked a lot scruffier yesterday.”
The man smiled. “None taken.” Yesterday, he’d looked like someone who’d spent at least a week primitive camping in the general admittance section of an outdoor music festival.
Now? He looked like a middle-aged businessman with money, dressed casually stylish, and not even Ken would have guessed he’d just spent two-plus decades living in the wild.
It reminded him of when they found Duncan.
“Trevor took him shopping and got him a haircut,” Peyton said. “He needed everything.”
“How long, exactly, was I asleep?” Ken asked.
Trevor glanced at his watch. “Nearly fourteen hours. Peyton didn’t wish to disturb you.”
“And Dewi’s texting me every half hour asking if you’re awake yet,” Peyton joked. Then his smile faded. “Full disclosure, she asked me to delete the angry texts and voicemails she left on your work phone. I didn’t purge the deleted list, in case you want them, but I did delete them.”
“Thanks, and no, I don’t want to see them.
” Ken, still not fully processing everything, stared at the large carafe of coffee and the related fixings that appeared almost magically in front of him.
“Thank you,” he said to Elizabeth before looking at Peyton again.
“Can I have the whole story now?” He added creamer and sugar and wrapped his hands around the mug.
“And why aren’t we telling anyone you’re safe? ”
He knew he should call Dewi, but he wanted caffeine first.
“I haven’t even turned my cell phones on yet,” Peyton said, returning Ken’s. “And there’s yours, by the way. Thank you. I want everyone to assume I’m still missing. Here’s what happened, and what I—we, know, or strongly suspect.”
“Uh, shouldn’t you tell Gillian? I know she’s sick with worry.”
He smirked. “She already knows. After you went to bed and I talked to Dewi again, I talked to Badger, Gillian, Duncan, and Trent. Gillian’s Primed not to tell anyone else.
I had Badger Prime her before I even talked to her, so she didn’t scream and alert the whole damned state. I don’t even want Asia knowing.”
“Why not?”
“Not until we know more. We don’t need one of Trent’s kids accidentally letting something slip, and I’d rather not have them Primed if it’s not necessary.
Asia will understand why once we tell her.
It’ll play better if she’s still genuinely upset.
And yes, I did ask Trent if he was okay with that decision, and he agreed with me to wait to tell her. ”
Ken’s guts tightened with every point Peyton spun, which connected more of the tangled web.
The fact that there was a lab out there—and very likely a shifter traitor feeding victims into it—made him wish he had his own secure underground bunker where he could safely lock himself, Dewi, and the baby away for the next twenty or thirty years.
Ken was midway through his third cup of coffee—and a delicious breakfast of eggs and blueberry scones—when Peyton finished laying out what they knew, including his suspicions about Ray Dorland in Australia, and the newest tip phoned in to the Italian pack.
“Aaaand I suspect you’ll bring Aisling into this?” Ken asked.
“Yeah.” He cocked his head. “Why?”
Ken belatedly realized he’d almost said too much and, with Trevor and Elizabeth sitting right the fuck there, it probably wasn’t a great idea to mention Aisling had pinged on Tamsin as her mate.
“Her training,” Ken finally said, and from the way Peyton’s eyebrow lifted, Ken realized his brother-in-law had picked up on his near-stumble. “Sorry. I’m really not awake yet.”
Peyton nodded, but Ken suspected there would be a conversation later, in private, about that situation.
“So why did you insist on me driving myself from the airport?” Ken asked.
Peyton smirked, but it was Trevor who answered. “At the time, Peyton didn’t know who he could trust. He wanted to make sure someone didn’t intercept you. Another Endquist situation.”
“Exactly,” Peyton said. “Better safe than sorry. Wasn’t sure who we could trust besides Trevor and his inner circle.”
Ken eyed Trevor, and Peyton accurately interpreted his thoughts. “No worries, Ken,” Peyton said. “Trevor and his people are trustworthy.”
Ken slumped back in his chair as he sipped his coffee. “Do we ever catch a dang break? I feel like we’re jumping from one frying pan into another, and no matter how fast we dance, we’re getting scorched worse each time.”
“Until we tie all the threads together and eliminate their sources, no,” Peyton said. “If we don’t deal with this now, if we slink into the shadows with our tails between our legs and our wagons circled, it solves nothing. Makes the problem worse because it increases our risk of exposure.”
“And makes them think they can keep coming at us and we won’t openly respond with force,” Trevor grimly said.
“This will get bloodier than it already has, won’t it?” Ken asked.
“Most assuredly,” Trevor replied. “It’s already too damned bloody for my tastes. Peyton’s absolutely correct—we need to excise this cancer, now, before we’re all exposed. Or captured and vivisected.”
Ken shivered, thinking about their vulnerable babies back at home. “Tell me what you need from me.”
“I feel like I’ve already asked too much of you,” Peyton said. “But I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t think you were both up to it and the best man for the job.”
“Glad one of us has faith in me,” Ken muttered into his cup. “We don’t have confirmation Ray Dorland is in cahoots with Faegan, right?”
“We have more than enough circumstantial evidence of him being involved,” Peyton said.
“Whether it’s in concert with Faegan, no.
We don’t. It’s too damned coincidental that Ray Dorland had Jake captured, and someone baited us to Norway knowing about Faegan.
Unless or until we prove differently, I’m working on the assumption they are more than coincidentally connected.
I won’t issue a blood edict on the guy yet, if that’s your concern. ”
Ken’s hands curled around his coffee mug, more for comfort than anything, because this conversation spiked his anxiety through the stratosphere. “Ray Dorland could have used the Faegan ploy, though, right?”
“Possibly,” Trevor said, “but he has few known contacts and even fewer friends in Europe. Whoever targeted the Haugen family, they must have had information fed to them, and Faegan could very well be behind that.”
“What’s our plan?” Ken asked.
“I’ve discussed this with Trevor,” Peyton said. “We’ll order Ray Dorland to Idaho. Well, Badger will do that, as acting Pack Alpha.”
“Order?” Ken asked. “Can you actually do that to another Pack Alpha?”
“We can strongly suggest. No, we have no authority to ‘order’ any Pack Alpha who hasn’t taken a knee to us to do anything.
It’ll be billed as a strategy meeting. We’ll have a bunch of other Pack Alphas there—and yes, ones I know damned sure are loyal to the Targhee Pack.
We’ll tell Dorland we’ve uncovered a threat to all shifters, we need a meeting of the Pack Alphas from all around the world, now that I’m ‘missing,’ and then it’ll look suspicious if he doesn’t show. ”
“And bait him with Dewi?” Ken asked.
“No,” Peyton said. “He knows she’s a Prime. And he’s too chickenshit to do his own dirty work. He’s met her and knows she’s way more powerful than him.”
“You’re pretty damned powerful, too,” Ken noted. “And they used a dart gun on you to neutralize you.”
“He won’t get anywhere near Dewi,” Peyton said. “None of his people will. Not until we figure out what the fuck is going on.”
“But he has to know Badger’s a Prime.”
“Yes, but he’ll assume Badger will stick to protocols as acting Pack Alpha. He has no reason to believe Badger knows any of this information, and there isn’t any past pattern of behavior to suggest Badger would break protocols like that.”
“I still don’t like this idea,” Ken said. “I don’t want Ray Dorland anywhere near the compound. He might try to abduct our baby. Or any of the babies.”
“Don’t worry.” Peyton smiled, showing teeth and looking completely terrifyingly wolfish.
“He won’t get the chance. Duncan will lead a team of Primes and meet him at the airport.
Ray Dorland isn’t a Prime and doesn’t have any Primes in his inner circle.
He’s never met Duncan and has no idea what he looks like. ”
“Are we sure Dorland isn’t working with anyone in our pack?”
“We’ll certainly find that out, won’t we?” Peyton’s toothy grin widened. “Because we’ll do the usually unthinkable, and that’s kidnap and interrogate him.”
“We need to move Dewi, Gillian, Asia, Tamsin, and all our kids to Florida before that happens,” Ken said.
“I’m putting my foot down. I want them in Florida and the adults well-armed, as well as under heavy guard.
You told me when I first met Dewi that anything I want, anything I ask, it’s done. Well, that’s what I want.”
Peyton slowly nodded. “Understood. And agreed. In fact, the entire Idaho compound will be on lockdown. Supposedly, as a security measure ahead of the meeting. But it’ll make it easier to keep everyone under control until we determine if we have more traitors in our midst.”
“But what if he’s innocent?” Ken asked. “We only have Jake’s suspicion. Valid, sure. Heavy circumstantial evidence. Still, it’s not proof, right?”
“Not that I think Ray Dorland is innocent,” Peyton said, “but we’ll Prime him immediately, and any of his people who come with him. They’ll never know the difference if they’re innocent. No harm, no foul.”
“And if you’re right and he is involved?”
“We learn everything he knows,” Jake darkly grumbled.
“Then I get to kill him. He’s a cowardly, murdering bastard regardless.
He was willing to sell out his own sister.
Not to mention, because of him I missed decades with my son.
I have a son-in-law I haven’t even met. Maybe I could have been helping Mateo’s aunt, and she wouldn’t have—”
Peyton reached out and touched his arm. “Don’t let those what-ifs eat you alive,” he said. “It’s not what happened, and nothing can change the past. We have to move forward and protect our future. That’s the only thing that matters now.”
“Have you told Dewi any of this?” Ken asked.
“She knows there will be a plan, but I spoke to Badger, Duncan, and Trent about this without her being there.”
“Because she’s already pissed off at you enough because you scared her?” Ken asked.
“Fuck yeah,” Peyton said, smiling. “It’s bad enough she’s going to punch me in the face and balls.”
Ken snorted. “You won’t actually let her do that. Will you?”
Peyton set his cup of coffee down and leaned in, scrolling to something on his burner phone. Then he held it out for Ken to see.
“What is that?” Ken stared at the picture of a somewhat younger Peyton stretched out on a couch, based on his clothes and the furniture, with an adorable baby girl asleep on his chest.
“You and…Dewi?”
“Yeah.” Peyton sat back, wistfully smiling as he stared at the picture. “I keep a secure photo backup I will never forget the password to. And this is one of the pictures I keep there.” He blinked, and Ken realized the man’s eyes were too bright.
When Peyton spoke again, he sounded choked up.
“My sister could very likely kick my ass in a fair fight,” he quietly said.
“But no matter how old I get, or how old she gets, she will always be my baby sister, and I would burn down the whole fucking world for her if she asked me to.” He laid the burner facedown on the table and met Ken’s gaze.
Ken spotted the tears there. “If you think I won’t let her punch me however she wants after putting her through all of this,” he quietly said, “then you and I really need to get to know each other better.”