Chapter 58 #2
“Not really,” Hamish said. “I haven’t spoken it in years.
Leastways, not at length. Not sure how much I remember, quite honestly.
But I remember how proud Father was of this house.
It was a legacy, according to him, because of what it symbolized.
A place for our roots to grow and flourish.
Unfortunately, Faegan thought more of the structure than of the flesh-and-blood people living inside it. ”
“Well, it won’t be long before he’s not thinking much of anything,” Ken said. “He couldn’t really believe his plan would work, could he?”
“Which one?” Dewi snarked.
“Fair point,” Ken said.
“You know,” Dewi said, “remember the night when Trevor brought Tamsin to us? I said then her mom was pretty long in the tooth to be having pups. Looks like I wasn’t wrong, even though I didn’t know it.”
“I remember,” Ken said. “Now we know she wasn’t as old as we believed. But Tamsin also said her mother defied Faegan not to let her be mated off too young.”
“After everything that happened,” Hamish said, “perhaps he simply forgot he could order her to do that. That, or the threat to the cousin Faegan wanted to mate Tamsin to was made directly to the man, and Faegan knew he couldn’t hand-wave that away without drawing more questions.”
“And perhaps he felt the delay could potentially yield an even richer mate,” Trevor darkly said. “He’s a greedy fucking bastard. I wouldn’t put it past him to think he could use that time to instigate a bidding war over her. What better excuse than to blame Hyacinth for that delay?”
“What Prime is strong enough to do this?” Ken asked. “I mean, I know there isn’t a decoder-ring secret society with membership lists to cross-check, but can we logic the shit out of this and narrow our suspects? Didn’t one of you tell me powers differ between Primes?”
“In theory, potentially any experienced Prime could do it,” Dewi said. “But they might not be strong enough to wipe all those memories, just force her to not remember.”
“Callum,” Badger gravely said. “Callum was feckin’ strong like that. People used to tell stories about not gettin’ on his wrong side or he’d snap his fingers an’ make ye forget ye were ever a two-legged human, much less yer own name.”
“Oh, yeah,” Duncan said. “He sure was.”
Something tickled Ken’s brain. “Okay,” he said, sitting back and waving his hands in front of him as if clearing everything away.
“Let’s look at this from a different angle.
” He ticked off points on his fingers. “Hyacinth…isn’t.
Donnel is MIA. Their sister Bryn ‘ran off’”—he used finger quotes—“assumedly with Callum. Callum is a damned strong Prime Alpha—”
“Faegan doggedly hunted them,” Hamish said. “From the moment they left.”
“Good point,” Ken said. “We know Callum and Bryn’s baby was alive and well at an exact point in time, meaning Callum and Bryn were alive at least as far as nine months prior to that date, give or take. Well, Bryn was. We know Callum was alive at least until the baby was conceived.”
Ken paused, processing. “I mean, Mom.” He swallowed hard. “My mom.” He looked at Peyton. “It’s still hard to reconcile that Mom was Bryn and Callum’s daughter.”
Peyton squeezed his shoulder. “I know.” He gave Ken a moment. “But it sounded like you were on a roll about something?”
“Yeah. Maybe Faegan struck a deal with Callum?” Ken scowled. “Tamsin’s brother. The one who died.”
“Which one?” Peyton, Dewi, Trevor, and Badger all asked in unison.
“She had three brothers,” Peyton continued. “One was executed in custody after he was interrogated by Primes, one was killed at the safe house during the initial attack on it, and one was murdered by Faegan years before Tamsin was born.”
Ken snapped and pointed. “That one. What’s his name?”
“Ben,” Trevor said.
“How old was he?” Ken asked.
Dewi grumbled something. “Hold on a fricking second. Gimme that—”
It sounded like she grabbed something, then walked away. Seconds later, a beep, a series of clicks, then she said, “Can you hear me on this phone, too?”
“Loud and clear,” Peyton said.
“Okay, good, I didn’t fuck that up. Standby.” Yet another beep and more clicks. “What about this one? Can you hear me still?”
Ken snorted. “Great. Cellphone commercials.”
She blew him a raspberry. “Give me a minute.” They heard a door open and close.
“Where’s she goin’?” Badger muttered.
“I said wait a minute,” Dewi said.
A moment later, they heard another door open. Dewi muffled the phone and called to someone, followed by the sounds of walking, another door opening and closing, and then Dewi again, but not speaking directly into the phone. “Take this one. I’m going to the office.”
“H-hello?” Tamsin tentatively asked over the line.
“Talk to Tamsin instead of playing a literal game of Telephone with me,” Dewi said. “I brought her over to Peyton’s and handed her a phone.”
“Tamsin,” Ken said, “how old was your brother Ben?”
“I believe he was twenty-seven… No, sorry, twenty-eight, I think, when Father killed him. He was the youngest until I was born. I know very little about him. Mother didn’t want to talk about him.”
“And your two older brothers?” Ken asked.
“Alastair was close to fifty, perhaps? Norton was older and around sixty, I believe, but I don’t remember exactly how old either were. I had little contact with them. Honestly, I couldn’t have picked them out of a police lineup. I never lived with them and usually only saw them on the odd holiday.”
Trevor stopped pacing long enough to look up something on his phone. “Alastair was 49 and Norton was 64.”
Ken looked at Peyton. “They were all born after Hamish left. Specifically, they were born after my mother was born. Let’s assume Faegan got Callum to do this for him. Why? And how? Why would Callum strike a deal with him?”
They all looked at Hamish. “To be honest, I was shocked when you told me Hyacinth had Tamsin, much less the others, because I was under the impression she couldn’t have any more children.”
“What’s this about?” Tamsin asked. “Why these questions?”
“Buckle in and just go with it, honey,” Dewi said. “It’s a doozy. I’ll fill you in later.”
Hamish pointed at the photo album, which now lay on the desk. “Did the woman you just questioned insist the men in that photo album are her sons?”
“Yes,” Trevor said. “Alastair and Norton and Ben.”
“And are those her only children besides Tamsin?” Hamish asked.
“According to her, yes,” Trevor said.
“She had no other children?” Hamish asked.
“None she remembers having,” Trevor said.
Dewi snorted. “No woman’s going to forget being pregnant and having kids.”
Hamish cleared his throat. “Hate to be the bearer of bad news yet again, but the only living sons Faegan had when I left were Winston and Carlisle, and they would both be well over one hundred years old now.”
“Who?” Tamsin asked. “I don’t have any brothers by that name.
I remember hearing about a couple of cousins I never met who died long ago,” Tamsin said.
“Mother rarely spoke of the past and especially not around Father. I learned at a young age not to ask. I don’t even remember where I heard about them, or who from.
It was likely at some pack gathering, but Mother kept me away from most of those. ”
“Wait a minute,” Trevor said, pacing again. “I heard a couple of members of Faegan’s pack were killed during the Blitz. Male shifters. I honestly didn’t care who they were, at the time, but I assumed cousins. Honestly couldn’t tell you their names.”
Jake’s face twisted in disgust. “He needed a breeder for legitimate heirs to replace the ones who died.”
They all looked at Hamish. “I have yet to see a single photo of Winston, Carlisle, or the real Hyacinth. Not even a picture of Donnel as an adult. Faegan likely burned it all if you’re saying he replaced the real Hyacinth with Frannie.”
“He wouldn’t want evidence around to trip him up,” Peyton said. “Not just because he didn’t want people realizing she wasn’t Hyacinth, but because he didn’t want people possibly asking her about them. Something stupid like that could expose his lies.”
They all heard a startled gasp from Tamsin. “Peyton? Is that you?”
“Bloody hell, Peyton,” Badger muttered.