44. Zeke
Zeke
A fter Clayton’s dramatic reveal to Caroline the other night, Mr. Menucci had called me to let us know that Caroline and Pack Adamar had officially withdrawn their case. There would be no need to be in further contact about paperwork or future court dates.
We were once again free to focus on planning for the new baby.
Clay had agonized over every detector and monitor installed in the space, Dakota had done a beautiful job of refinishing Maisie’s old pink and white crib into a soft yellow and elephant gray, and Montana had added some of his beloved trinkets to make the room feel cozier.
There was now a dangling mobile made out of stuffed birds, and a small shelf filled with children’s books that Maisie helped line up neatly on the shelves.
With everything we were dealing with, the doc said we could all do with some relaxation.
The Sweetwater summer-festival over the weekend was the perfect opportunity to spend some time together as a family.
Even though Maisie was taking all the focus on the pending arrival of her new sibling in stride, we wanted to make sure we reminded her just how special and important she was to all of us.
So, we agreed to take the night off to go to the carnival in town and eat dinner from the different food stalls and vendors.
Maisie could hardly think about anything other than the cotton candy she’d sampled last year.
She yapped about it to Piper, who smiled and nodded patiently as our four-year-old yammered on about the heavenly qualities of the sweet treat.
Piper was looking about ready to pop—carrying her belly low, big and round beneath the pale pink cotton and spandex maxi dress she wore. Maisie wore a coordinating pink dress, and they were adorable together.
“Let Daddy Kota help you into the truck tonight, Maisie-Rae,” Dakota offered brightly, swinging Maisie up and into his arms.
I sidled up to Piper, offering her my elbow.
“Are you gonna help me into the truck, Zeke?” She giggled, waddling down the short walkway to the driveway on her swollen ankles with my support.
“Of course, Pipes.” I beamed, leading her to the passenger-side door. “You know I’m always right here for you,” I added, opening the door and chivalrously offering one hand to help Piper up.
“What a gentleman,” she grunted, gripping my hand and the passenger seat as she pushed off from the running board, my spare hand moving to cup her ass, giving her a bit of a squeeze and a lift at the same time.
“Wow, a little grabass during the family-friendly portion of our date,” Montana grumbled just over my shoulder.
“Don’t be jealous, Monty,” I tutted, kissing Piper chastely on the cheek before closing the truck door behind her.
He gave me a withering look, but I just smiled and clapped a hand on his shoulder.
“I’ll see you over at the fairgrounds?” I gave him a friendly shake.
“Yeah, yeah.” He shook his head.
“Oh, and Monty?”
“Yeah?”
“That’ll be fifty cents in the swear jar when we get home.”
“Mama! Can I ride the Ferris wheel with Papa Kota and Daddy Monty?” Maisie shrilled, yanking on Piper’s hand, nearly pulling her from beneath the drape of Clayton’s arm.
“If Kota and Monty want to go with you, baby, it’s fine with me. Afterward, we can get something to eat.” Piper gave her hand a loving squeeze, then booped her on the nose with the tip of her index finger.
“Cotton candy!?” Maisie squealed with excitement.
“We can have cotton candy after we have something for dinner,” Piper assured her.
“Yay!” Maisie squealed, peeling off to grab Dakota and Montana, bounding for the Ferris wheel.
“Meet you back here in the food court for dinner,” Dakota called to us as he and Montana escorted Maisie toward the rides.
“I’m going to get into the line for some food.” Clay nodded to the massive line for the basic fairground fry shack fare.
“Whatever you do, don’t forget to get me onion rings and jalapeno poppers,” Piper warned Clay gravely.
“All right, you two find us a place to sit, and I’ll get a big tray of things for everyone to share. Goodness knows we’ll eat plenty more with all the snacks they have here.” He snorted a laugh, waving a hand as he trudged off in the direction of the end of the line.
“Thank god, I have been dying to sit since we got here,” Piper groaned, allowing me to help her to a nearby wooden picnic table, the perfect place for us to settle down and wait for the others, and dinner.
“Can I get you anything to drink? A lemonade or something?” I crooned sweetly, pressing kisses against Piper’s cheek as we settled down next to one another on the empty wooden bench seat.
“No, I’d just like to sit here and make kissy faces with you in this rare moment of peace, thank you,” she laughed, leaning in, laying a hand over mine, her fingers running up my forearm to the strained sleeve of my T-shirt over my bicep.
“That can be arranged,” I purred, dipping my head to kiss her lips.
Our faces had just parted when a loud gurgling noise erupted from Piper’s stomach.
“Okay, maybe I could be talked into a bit of the fried dough I’m smelling right now,” she giggled, nuzzling the tip of her nose against mine before she sat back on the bench, a hand helping to support her low-hanging belly.
“For the baby, of course.” I nodded dutifully.
“Yes, for the baby.” Piper pinched her auburn eyebrows together in mock seriousness. “Probably should grab one of those lemonades too—maybe one of the frozen ones.” She nodded solemnly. “ For the baby ,” she added with finality before both of us cracked up in a fit of laughter.
“All right, you sure you’re fine to wait here alone while I go get your treats?” I snickered, getting up from the table and patting my back pocket down to confirm the position of my wallet.
“I’ll be just fine, thrilled to be off my swollen feet,” she laughed as I pecked another kiss onto her lips.
I hadn’t taken but a few steps toward the funnel cake stall when those three Pack Adamar weasels emerged from the crowd, moving to approach Piper immediately.
“Piper!” Lance, the pale one, called to her, pulling Piper from her dreamy gazing up at the Ferris wheel.
Piper, who had turned to sit facing the picnic table, nearly jumped up from her seat when she caught sight of her old pack circling the table.
Within a few long strides, I was looming behind the three idiots who had sidled up to my omega.
I saw the knowing flash in Piper’s blue eyes. She had seen me, even if the trio of douchebags hadn’t taken notice.
“What do you want?” Piper quipped back coldly.
“We were wrong about Caroline, about you,” Lance began, wringing his hands.
“Caroline took off with a bunch of money and expensive stuff,” Ralph continued, shining a little more light on the situation.
“We realized that, even if you weren’t exactly what we wanted, you were better than Caroline,” Kyle explained.
Piper blinked, dumbfounded.
“Not to mention, we all really miss your chocolate chip pecan cookies,” Lance added soberly.
At that, Piper threw back her head and laughed before standing, a hand braced beneath her pregnant belly.
Pack Adamar all frozen, eyes drawn to her.
“Holy shit,” Ralph breathed, his shock evident.
“What makes you boys think I have any interest in you anymore?” She tossed her auburn locks over one shoulder, several of her well-healed bonding bites on display.
“You’re—” Kyle trailed off, as stunned as his other pack mates.
“I’m…? What, Kyle?” Piper prompted impatiently. “Pregnant? Bonded? Incredibly happy—not that you’d know anything about what that’s like.” She shrugged, her anger simmering just beneath the surface, emboldened by my backing her up behind the trio of bozos.
“You’re glowing ,” Lance gushed, doing his best to salvage the quickly deteriorating situation.
“Why, thank you, Lance! It’s all thanks to you!
If you’re here to collect my gratitude, please—” She waved her hands through the air dramatically.
“If you had never treated me like garbage, cheated on me, and then let me wander off on my own, I never would have found the loves of my life.” Her eyes flitted to mine for the briefest of seconds before she continued with her scathing rebuke.
“I never would have found the men who could make me a part of their family.”
Before the members of Pack Adamar could make any kind of scene, I decided this was my cue.
“Speaking of family…” I let my voice boom from behind the three weasels, Kyle nearly jumping into the air. “You boys are interrupting family night.” I looked down my nose at them, Lance, the tallest of the group, still a few inches shorter than me with about half my muscle mass.
“Now, if you’ll excuse us and go run along.” I tipped my hat to Pack Adamar, my wooden smile letting them know they were dangerously close to outstaying their welcome.
Kyle looked as if he might have liked to fight about it, but before he could make a fuss, Clay—with a tray full of fried food delights—and the twins, Maisie riding on Montana’s shoulders, returned.
“Everything all right over here?” Clay growled, his teeth gritted through his best attempt at a civil smile.
“Just peachy,” Piper sighed happily, reaching out to pinch a crispy crinkle fry from a paper boat on the dinner tray.
“Pack Adamar was just leaving, on their way to have a nice life . Weren’t you, boys?
” she chimed sweetly, nodding to the trio of dumbasses who had paled at the sight of all four of us Blackwood boys rallied around our omega.
“Indeed, we were,” Lance replied tightly, offering a clipped nod before he shepherded the rest of his pack in the other direction at a decent pace.
“Shouldn’t be a problem any longer, not with Clay growlin’ at them and Zeke towering over everything.” Dakota snorted a laugh.
“Good riddance to bad rubbish,” Montana agreed.
Gratified, I watched Pack Adamar skulk off into the crowd, their tails between their legs.