Chapter 64
Chapter Sixty-Four
Dewi
She startled awake and realized she was still on the couch, but her head now lay in Trent’s lap.
Holy shit.
She sat up, yawning, while he smiled at her. “Feel a little better, Dewster?”
“What time is it?” She looked at him. “How did you two manage to swap places without waking me?” Her heart skipped a beat when she realized Lyssa wasn’t on the blanket on the floor, but then she saw Trent point toward the kitchen.
There stood Badger, with Lyssa on his shoulder, smiling and softly talking to her as he made himself breakfast.
“It’s nearly 6:00 am. You were out for about four hours. Badger already fed and changed her. And since you were sound asleep, he kinda took Prime prerogative to let you sleep while we swapped places a few times. He and Da took shifts, too. Hope you’re not mad about that.”
She sighed. “No, I’m not. Thank you. I needed the sleep.” She leaned against him, snuggling with his arm draped around her shoulders. “Sorry I’ve been a total bitch.”
“Sweetie, it’s been stressful. We get it.
You’re harder on yourself than any of us ever are.
But you have got to learn balance.” He sadly sighed.
“Blame me as much as Peyton for holding stuff back. I should’ve pressed harder for him to tell you more.
It’s hard for us not to flip into big-brother mode with you and want to protect you. ”
She looked up into his face. “I love you.”
He smirked. “Love you, too. Please don’t punch me.”
That made her laugh, and she laughed until she cried again, curled up in his lap.
Badger walked over, the baby on one shoulder and a large mug of coffee in the other. “Here, take this, fuzzball. Ye sound like ye need it.”
She sniffled as she sat up. “Thank you.” She gratefully took it and sipped. He always made it perfectly for her. “How much formula did she take?”
“Even more than the last time. I think this little lass is quickly on her way to soft food.”
Dewi tucked her feet under her as she sipped her coffee.
“I know Asia said not to feel guilty, but I do feel a little guilty about switching to bottle feeding this soon.” She’d opted to stop pumping, too, after talking to their pack doctor, who assured her Lyssa would be perfectly fine transitioning to formula now.
Trent rubbed her back. “Honey, Asia has this down to a science. Our pack of little heathens turned out just fine being bottle-fed. She’ll likely transition Malina to a bottle in the next couple of weeks.
Shifter babies aren’t on the same timeline as human babies.
Even Maisie’s already eating soft food.”
“I think ye should worry more about her first words being sweary,” Badger teased. “Ye kinda fergot that outside.”
Dewi winced. “God-shdarnit. Maybe I should let you Prime me to work on my swearing.”
“Nah,” Trent said. “We should set up a swear jar.” He grinned. “You’ll have her college tuition fully funded by her first birthday.”
Trent laughed as she playfully swatted him.
Dewi didn’t want to awaken Ken, but she couldn’t help returning to the cabin to check on him several times throughout the morning.
Seeing him there, in their bed, watching him sleep, assuring herself he was breathing and…
Safe.
And there.
Gillian smirked at Dewi when she returned to the kitchen after one such check. “Just put the baby monitor in there,” she teased. “You can watch him sleep that way.”
Dewi started to reach for the door to go do just that, then rested her forehead against it. “No.” Resignation filled her. “I have to learn how not to freak out over every little thing.”
Gillian leaned against the counter. “Now that’s a huge step in the right direction,” she said. “Look, I get it. My situation is a little different than yours, because Peyton’s a Prime and Ken’s not a shifter. But I completely understand your fear.” She blew out a long breath. “Believe me, I know.”
Dewi turned, crossed the kitchen, and hugged her. “I guess I shouldn’t be bitching when you’ve had it worse.”
“Hey, kiddo, it’s not a contest. And you had every right to be terrified when they drove off that damned mountain.” She offered Dewi a playful smile. “Don’t forget the other part of the equation,” she said.
“What?”
Gillian grinned. “Guilty make-up sex for causing a scare is usually haaawt.”
“Argh! No!” Dewi stuck her fingers in her ears. “La la lala not listening! Bad enough I learned you guys did it for the first time behind a dumpster!”
The older woman cackled.
Ken
When he opened his eyes, it looked like it was dark outside, but the room wasn’t moving, and it felt like he was in the bed in the cabin.
Good. I didn’t hallucinate making it back to Idaho. Yay.
Because, frankly, as perpetually sleep-deprived as he’d been since before leaving Idaho, he wasn’t altogether certain he hadn’t been hallucinating.
He felt like he could go back to sleep, too.
Except right now, his bladder screamed at him to take care of business.
When he climbed out of bed, he realized not only was he still fully dressed and had landed on top of the covers, he never took his shoes off.
“Dewi?” But he suspected he was alone in the cabin, because the baby wasn’t in her crib.
After taking care of his bladder, kicking off his shoes, and stripping down to his briefs, he found his phone where he’d apparently set it on the nightstand and looked at the time.
10:37.
Okay, still lots of night left to sleep.
He closed his eyes, but something bugged him.
Finally, he sat up again and pulled his phone up to his face. The system time had reset when he’d landed in Seattle, and he knew it should be accurate to local time.
But that doesn’t make…sense.
Because no way he only slept for a few minutes. In fact, the drive from Spokane had to take longer than that.
Right?
Then his stomach let out a hellacious growl.
Oh.
He tried a third time to make sense of his phone and realized no, he hadn’t slept for only a few minutes.
He’d slept approximately twenty-four hours.
His stomach rumbled again, and he finally climbed out of bed. Because now that his stomach was wide awake, apparently, so was he.
Rummaging through the small kitchen, he downed two bananas, a handful of cookies, and a cheese stick. All washed down with two glasses of water, because damn, he was thirsty.
With that taken care of, he crawled back into bed, under the covers this time, and crashed back into sleep.
It was still dark when he awakened again, but this time there was a very warm and Dewi-shaped lump molded against his back.
With her arm slung snugly around his waist.
Aannnd now I’m wide awake.
But he didn’t want to move for fear of waking her.
The longer he lay there, however, the more he realized he had to get up. Because the two glasses of water he’d downed earlier were ready to exit.
Moving slowly, he eased himself out of her embrace, sliding his pillow into position for her to hug once he was on his feet. He grabbed sweats and a T-shirt on his way to the bathroom and did what he needed to do.
This time, his phone read 5:38.
Okay, that’s a start in the right direction.
Maybe his body clock would finally reset itself.
What he really wanted was coffee, but he didn’t want to wake Dewi up. Instead, he set up his computer on the table and settled in with another glass of water.
He didn’t know what time zone Peyton, Jake, and Alvarez were in, and he didn’t have any updates from them.
Wait. That would’ve happened yesterday, right? No. Today.
Shit.
Hoping he didn’t regret it, he texted Peyton.
I just woke up. Did the world blow up?
He responded a minute later with a cry-laughing emoji. And:
I heard you were playing Rip Van Winkle. We have everything in place for today.
Whew.
That meant he hadn’t literally slept through the operation.
What do you need from me for today?
Nothing. We have it under control. We’re still a go to meet today. Keep your work phone close, but I don’t anticipate needing anything from your end. Seriously, we’re good.
He sat back, feeling a little… Not disappointed, exactly, but—
He blinked. I’m a fucking idiot.
Ken closed his laptop, walked to the bedroom, stripped naked, and returned to bed. Dewi stirred as he replaced the pillow with himself, and he rolled to face her.
Her eyes fluttered open. Ken lifted his hand to her face, brushing the hair out of her eyes and tucking it behind her ear. “Hi, baby.”
He’d expected a smile, a kiss, or being shoved over onto his back and ridden like a Shetland pony—all options he was perfectly fine with.
What he didn’t expect was her somber expression.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Badger and Da told me everything.”
“Huh?”
Her gaze searched his face. “I guess I had some stuff in my brain, too, that I didn’t know about. But they showed me everything. Including the stuff you don’t remember now.”
A chill filled him. “Oh.” He knew there was once again a gaping chasm in his mind, where Badger and Duncan had relieved him of some of the burden, and Peyton had fine-tuned it over in the UK. But even though much of the information wasn’t there…
Yeah. The memory of how he felt about the information, that lingered like a foul, sticky goo he couldn’t flush from his skull.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “This is all my fault. You didn’t deserve to be dragged into—”
He kissed her, slanting his lips over hers, not wanting to think about anything except her and them.
And that he was home, with her.
She rolled on top of him, and that’s when he finally processed that she was also naked.
Yay! Good start in the right direction.
Their kisses grew urgent, hungry, devouring. For once, Ken managed to shut down his brain and just go with it, reveling in having her in his arms again.
She reached between them, notched his erection against her, and impaled herself, all the way to the root. Slick, warm, her muscles gripping him. They moaned in unison, followed by a shared giggle.
She lifted her mouth from his. “I know I promised you a blow job, but can we do this first?”