Chapter 59 #2
When the older man looked up, Ken spotted the tears in his eyes.
“When they met, Maisie was in heaven. Tam was so delightful, and we couldn’t believe our good fortune.
We immediately fell in love with her as a daughter and felt blessed she was in our lives.
” He wiped at his eyes. “Nothing we do will bring Maisie and Rupert back. But it’s been the better part of a year now, and if it’s a mate bond, absolutely we’ll support them. ”
“And,” Dewi continued, “Aisling is worried that if she reveals it to Tamsin that the complexity of Tamsin’s emotional state might complicate matters.
She absolutely doesn’t want Tamsin to jump for an emotional life ring instead of dealing with her trauma in a healthy way.
She would rather Tamsin feel it independently without knowing how Aisling feels first.”
“Ah,” Trevor said. “That’s quite considerate of her. I suppose I can see her point of view.”
“That was very diplomatic of you, Dewi,” Peyton said.
“For a change,” Trent snarked.
“Okay, fuck both of you assholes,” Dewi growled. “I’m PMSing and itching to pound something. Just keep it up.”
“Trent,” Ken said, “remember that I’m not there to distract her to save your ass if you wind her up.”
“KMAG-YOYO,” Jake snarked.
“What?” pretty much everyone asked.
Jake grinned. “Kiss My Ass, Guys—You’re On Your Own.”
“Anyway,” Dewi growled, “I also think part of Aisling’s thought process is the age difference, especially in relation to Aisling’s career. That she’s…well, she’s seen some shit, and she’s worried she might not be the best mate for Tamsin.”
“Bollocks!” Trevor said. “That girl—Aisling, I mean—has never been able to see herself the way we all see her.”
“As a pain in my fucking ass?” Dewi muttered.
“I will say she feels she’s a failure, but she doesn’t deserve that,” Trevor continued without missing a beat.
“She hates herself for the attack on the safe house, but it wasn’t her fault.
Then she lost Faegan’s trail, and she blames herself for that, too, when again I’ve tried, repeatedly, to convince her I do not hold her responsible. ”
They all fell silent for a moment.
“Well, goddammit,” Dewi said. “That means I need to fucking be nicer to her. Aisling, I mean. Gee, thanks a lot.”
Ken laughed at Trevor’s confusion. “Their first meeting was…contentious.”
“You were naked in our kitchen, and she was ogling you!” Dewi said. “And she had my favorite coffee cup, goddammit!”
“At least I had a gun,” Ken said.
Peyton clapped a hand over his eyes and groaned while Hamish and Duncan burst out laughing.
Trevor looked at them. “Um, may I request context?”
“Let’s put a pin in that, too,” Peyton said.
“Anyhoo,” Dewi continued, “Peyton probably needs to be the one to speak to this so I don’t spill beans that are supposed to remain unspilled—”
“Again,” Peyton muttered.
“Fuck you. Then you explain the other reason Aisling doesn’t want to claim her yet.
At least I didn’t tell Tamsin you’re alive—that was your fuck-up, Mr. Prime Prick.
And I’m still punching you when you get home for scaring the crap out of me and not letting Ken at least tell me you were alive before he left.
Fucker. I was worried about both of you—”
Ken cleared his throat and looked at Peyton. “I don’t know everything,” he said, “but I do know I had to make a phone call to Aisling as part of your instructions when all this shit hit the fan.”
Peyton nodded. “Yeah. Since I know we’ll need Jake, I want him to know all of this, too.” He focused on Trevor again. “You were here when I talked to Aisling and recruited her. You remember the things I discussed with her?”
“Yes?” he said, looking confused. And then Trevor released the most somber sigh Ken had ever heard from anyone. “Aisling’s worried her duties may get her killed, and she doesn’t wish Tamsin to go through that again,” Trevor quietly said.
Peyton touched his nose. “And that was before all this shit happened, and I disappeared, and we knew about the lab. Plus, she doesn’t know I’m alive yet.
She’s under the assumption she may need to return here to begin carrying out our scorched earth plans.
Unfortunately, now that we know about the lab and what we might be up against to put it out of commission… Well, she might be right.”
Trevor sagged, eyes closed, head thrown back. “Bloody hell,” he muttered. “You’re right.”
“She barely survived losing Maisie,” Peyton gently said. “It took me and Duncan and Badger and a fuckton of energy to keep her wanting to live, even when she was pregnant.”
“I concur,” Duncan said. “If Tamsin were to lose a second mate this soon… I don’t honestly know if we could save her.
Before, we could force her to live because she was pregnant.
Knowing Maisie has an incredible extended family now who can love and care for her and keep her safe…
Well, I don’t know if what we did before would be enough. ”
A solemn silence settled over them for a few seconds.
“I hate that I can’t hate her,” Dewi grumbled. “Aisling, I mean.”
Ken knew this time from her tone that she was trying to lighten the mood, and he chuckled. “Remember you promised not to punch me, sweetheart.”
That finally earned him a laugh from Dewi. “No, just Peyton. What do you think you guys can find out? Badger’s still on the phone with someone and won’t tell me shit. Can one of you please fill me in?”
Duncan took over. “I don’t remember exactly when, but during that time period—World War II—close to a hundred or more refugees arrived from Britain and Europe and elsewhere.
They came to America to escape the war. Most of them never moved back and fully integrated into the Targhee Pack or other packs.
Because of the circumstances, we didn’t ask many questions or do a lot of research.
We were more concerned about moving people and their families to safety and helping them get settled.
And sometimes, because of the war, research wasn’t possible.
Hard to access records in a town that either no longer existed, was under enemy occupation, or where the local infrastructure was bombed back to the Stone Age.
“But I remember a couple who arrived not long after the war ended. At the time, I didn’t have the focus to dig deeper, but they said they lost everything in the Blitz.
I remember asking if they had any packmates they wanted us to try to locate, and they said no, they were alone.
That everyone was dead. By then, we were also offering to connect people to the Staffordshire Pack, but they had no interest in returning to England.
They didn’t want us sharing their information with anyone, either.
“I mean, there was a lot of trauma because of the war, so we didn’t press people.
And they slipped off my radar not long after they arrived because I had no further contact with them.
As far as I know, they never attended a Muster or asked for help.
We didn’t have the resources back then to monitor people who didn’t want to stay in contact with us.
Plus, back then, there were more packs around.
Far smaller than the Targhee Pack, yes, but they easily could have joined one of those.
Or they went off and blended in with human populations.
That also wasn’t unusual. Especially if they had no children to worry about. ”
“And you think they might be Donnel and the real Hyacinth?” Dewi asked.
“Maybe,” Duncan said. “I remember their first names were something like Donald and Helen. Meaning it’d be a hell of a coincidence if it’s not them.”
Ken let out a low whistle. “In terms of secret identities I guess the bar’s in hell.”
“Wait a minute,” Dewi said. “Tamsin said they wanted to mate her to a first cousin on her mother’s side. How’d they pull off that switcheroo if the woman’s not the real Hyacinth?”
“The man was likely this Hyacinth’s—Frannie’s—nephew,” Trevor said. “Or the man might never have met the real Hyacinth and had no way of knowing it wasn’t her. Shifters use different names throughout the years. Plus, Faegan is such a well-known control freak that—”
“Yeah, yeah, I get it,” Dewi said. “Can we ask him? The cousin, I mean.”
“We could, except he’s dead,” Trevor said. “He was one of those killed in the days after the safe house was attacked.”
“Well, that’s unfortunately inconvenient in this situation,” Dewi snarked. “Normally, I’d celebrate that kind of news. Too bad necromancy’s not a real thing. I’d happily dig him up, question him, and then kill him a second time.”
“That sounds like overkill,” Hamish said.
“Hey, every girl’s gotta have a hobby,” Dewi snarked. “Can we hunt down this Frannie’s family and find out what they know?”
“I already have people working on it,” Trevor said. “Before we even left the safe house. If any of them are alive, we’ll locate them.”
Hamish looked grim. “If they’re still alive. I wouldn’t put it past Faegan to have set it up and then killed them to keep his secret. Not like she would remember them to mourn them, right?”
“Fuuuuck,” Dewi said. “The sad part is, I think you might be absolutely right.”