Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Beck
Holy.
Shit.
Beck was still in shock.
Good shock, but shock nonetheless.
Beside him, he knew Nami felt the same.
Although she simultaneously felt somewhat slighted that they hadn’t been included in the initial revelation that Peyton was not only alive but had returned with Carl’s father.
Beck got it. He’d been doing this gig long enough—and still had nightmares about Charles and Chelsea Bleacke’s murders—that he understood why there was sometimes a vital need for deep secrecy, even withholding knowledge from those who were firmly embedded in the inner circle, like them.
Thank the Goddess Badger Primed them both to keep those two secrets, for now, because he knew Nami would want to immediately go to Brianna, Malyah, and Joaquin to tell them, so they would stop worrying about Peyton. And to tell Carl his father was not only alive, but safe.
That could not happen. Not when Peyton had a much larger plan underway.
The world still needed to think Peyton was missing and that Jake was missing or dead for that plan to work. It was a bigger-picture kind of sitch.
He squeezed Nami’s hand. In the seat on the other side of her, baby Tahlia was already falling asleep in her carrier, which was strapped into the airplane seat. Nami looked at Beck, but he didn’t need their mate bond to know what she was thinking.
“Please don’t be angry, baby,” he whispered. “I’m not.”
“I was terrified about him! And poor Gillian!”
“And that’s exactly why we can’t tell people. Peyton has his reasons. If we’re to… fix this situation so it’s permanently settled, we need to respect that he knows what he’s doing. He’s the Pack Alpha.”
“I don’t want you going over there,” she said, her voice tight. “I cain’t lose you, wolfman.”
He squeezed her hand again. “Badger said they’d probably leave me here. You heard him.”
“But if they ask you to go?”
He hated being in this spot but this wasn’t a simple problem with an easy solution.
“I won’t say no if Peyton says he needs me over there.
There’s too much at stake, and I swore an oath to do my job.
This isn’t an unfriendly corporate takeover—this is our lives at risk, baby.
” He tipped his head toward their sleeping daughter. “Her life is potentially at risk.”
Nami grumbled but quieted and didn’t release his hand as the plane taxied to the end of the runway to prepare for takeoff.
No, Beck didn’t want to go on the mission.
But he absolutely would go if Peyton asked it of him. This was the gig. This was part of being an Enforcer.
Beck also knew Badger didn’t tell Nami everything he’d revealed to Beck.
Badger had used his Prime to fill in some of the gaps for Beck that Nami had completely overlooked because she was simultaneously relieved Peyton was alive and well, and madder than a sack full of wet cats that she didn’t find out sooner.
If there was a chance of shifters being held hostage in the lab?
Well, even if it was only to go in and put them out of their misery, he’d do it. But if they could rescue people? Their kind?
Yeah, that was something he absolutely couldn’t say no to. Because he’d know if it was him stuck in there, he’d damned sure want someone to rescue or kill him.
Please don’t let them ask me to go.
Dawson Beckett of two years ago would’ve been begging Dewi and Peyton to book him on the next flight out to the UK to jump into the thick of this.
Although two years ago, Dewi likely would’ve been in the airplane seat next to him.
This older, married version of Beck, the one with the beautiful, perfect mate and the adorable baby daughter, wanted to stay close to home despite knowing that wasn’t the wisest tactical plan for the greater good of the entire pack.
“What else is going on, Beck?” she silently asked him through their mate bond.
He signed and laid his other hand over hers and gently squeezed. “There’s always stuff going on I can’t tell you about,” he whispered, then kissed her temple. “There’s stuff I don’t want to tell you, either, because there’s no reason for you to be worried about it.”
“Would you tell me if there is something for me to be worried about?”
“Absolutely. Without hesitation.”
She stared into his eyes. “I’ve got a bad feeling about all of this. Part of me is starting to think Ken has the right idea for us to up and move everyone to Idaho.”
He smiled. “That’s not how the world works, sweetheart. We can’t uproot everyone. Especially when they’re clueless.”
He knew he didn’t need to elaborate on what he meant. And a good chunk of Nami’s in-laws were clueless humans despite her little niece, Bebe, turning out to be a shifter.
And it looked like Bebe might not be the only one.
“Why not? Why can’t Badger, Dewi, and Duncan do that mojo on everyone to make them move and accept everything?”
“Because what happens when they get to Idaho? Is the pack supposed to stop being who they are and living their lives the way they do just so people aren’t exposed to who they are?
There are still plenty of packmates who don’t even know they’re from shifter families, much less that shifters exist, because their family opted not to tell them.
Would it be fair to everyone to uproot them and force them to leave Florida and all their friends to come live somewhere they likely don’t want to? ”
She huffed. “No.”
He tipped his head, touching hers. “I love you so much, baby. I can’t protect all of us all of the time from the entire world, but I promise you that if there is something I feel is a threat, I will make sure we are prepared and you both are taken care of.”
As they settled into the flight, Beck closed his eyes and hoped he hadn’t just accidentally lied to Nami.
Nami
It was after 9:00 pm Florida time when they finally landed in Tampa. Nami was exhausted from losing a few hours on the flight east and also having their body’s natural clocks skewed by the time change.
And the stress, natch.
But yeah, okay, it was good to be home after having been gone for over two weeks. Parking in their driveway and with the quiet settling around them after Beck shut off the engine reminded Nami that this place, this home, had been her new start.
Where her heart lay. And it looked like they’d get to build the house of her dreams over on the new property, near Dewi’s house, where Malyah and Joaquin and others would also live close by.
I guess that’s one benefit.
Beck carried their luggage inside while Nami carried baby Tahlia. She’d awakened during the last leg of their flight. Nami had nursed and changed her, and she’d fallen asleep again.
The intellectual part of Nami, who’d come to terms with the reality of her new life ever since meeting Beck and the revelation of what he was, understood exactly why the news about Peyton and Jake had been withheld from both of them.
But the momma hen of the family still felt righteously indignant that she’d been allowed to worry for weeks about Peyton.
I am not in Kansas anymore, Toto.
“What time do we have to be up tomorrow morning?” she asked him after getting Tahlia settled for the night.
He pulled her to him. “I already told everyone that, barring an emergency, I’m off the clock tomorrow. I want a day off to relax and just decompress.”
She pecked his lips. “Good. I feel like I haven’t really gotten my legs back under me yet.”
“Uh, you just had a baby, life’s gotten pretty damned crazy, and you had your world rocked again today. I can’t imagine why you’re discombobulated,” he snarked with a sexy smirk.
She playfully swatted his arm. “You know what I mean.”
He hugged her again. “I’m sorry we were gone for so long.”
“Yeah. I want to get my arms on that little baby girl of mine and kiss her up one side and down the other.”
“You mean Bebe?” he asked.
“Of course! Why—oh.” She smiled. “Yeah, I guess Bebe isn’t the baby anymore, is she?”
“She’ll still always be ‘your’ baby, honey. That’s understandable.”
Nami sighed. “More like my grandbaby, almost. Never really felt like her auntie. I hope she’s gonna get along okay with her cousin.”
“She must not have shifted while we were gone,” he said, releasing her to head to the bathroom. “Guess what Badger did worked or he would’ve said something.”
That’s when that whole situation…
Well, slammed into Nami.
Beck must have noted her non-response because he leaned out of the bathroom doorway. “Babe? You okay?”
She sank onto the bed. “No, I’m not,” she shakily said.
“Bebe’s a shifter. How did I totally forget that?
” She looked at him in horror. “We still have to deal with all…that.” She waved her hand in front of her.
“And Hamish and Imani. And…” She flopped back onto the bed. “Can you take a couple of days off?”
He returned to the bedroom and sat next to her. “Overwhelmed? Brain finally blue-screened?”
She clapped a hand over her eyes. “Uh-huh. Completely. And Tamsin and Aisling! Oh, my gawd, how’d I forget that, too?”
“Well, at least that circus and those clowns are not ours,” he joked.
“Ken said Trevor knows about it because Dewi accidentally let it slip on the phone. And Trevor’s completely okay with it.
He’d prefer they get together, actually.
It’ll be a matter of nature taking its course when the two of them are finally in the same place without Aisling being able to run away.
But don’t say anything to anyone about that, okay? I was sworn to secrecy.”
“Then gettin’ together cain’t happen with Tamsin in Idaho and Aisling being here,” Nami said, finally pulling her hand away from her eyes and looking up at Beck. “Does nothin’ ever go easy in this family?”
He smiled. “I’ll let you know if it does, baby.”