Satisfaction (Legatum Book 7)

Prologue

Air exploded from his lungs as Les was tackled from behind. With a loud ‘oof,’ he fell to the side. He picked up the tiny body before rolling to his side. And then they were on him, like the pack of wild animals they were.

Giggles filled the air. Les continued to tickle the squirmy toddler in his hands. He laughed harder as more small bodies crashed into the puppy pile. Human puppies, at least at the moment. At some point in their futures, most of these kids, if not all of them, would develop a unique skill and shift into actual wolf puppies. Not exactly unique to the family, but to the human world, certainly.

For the first time this generation, Mission Run, the Palatine family’s home-base in Northern California, was brimming with toddlers and babies. And Les was laying on the floor, being attacked by most of them.

Not that Les exactly had plans for babysitting, but toddlers didn’t ask intrusive questions. They just wanted attention and to play or be given more cookies. Even if it was annoying how they preferred the dried, stale cookies out of a crinkly snack bag over the perfectly crafted pastries that Les baked. He would train their little pallets to appreciate fine dining, he had time and access to a kitchen.

But for now, no one questioned his motives. Playing with little kids was something he hadn’t done for years. At least not since he was an obnoxious tween and thought he was too cool for playing with babies.

“I’m gonna get you!” Someone squealed with the lisp of a small child.

Les sat up in time to catch Ethan around the middle, mid-flight.

“Oh no, you don’t.” Les rerouted the flying small child. “You have to be careful of the little ones. Roxie can barely walk. You don’t want to hurt her.”

Ethan’s little face went round, wide eyes, mouth open. Suddenly, he scrambled out of Les’s grasp and was next to the bald baby girl. Ethan had his hands out, around her like a shield. He moved slowly and at her pace. Suddenly he was her protector.

“You look like you’re having far too much fun,” a rumbling voice said.

Remi Palatine, barrel chested and formidable despite the spinal injury that confined him to a wheelchair, smiled at the mass confusion that was a room full of toddlers and little kids. Remi was from the older generation of Palatines, but it was hard to pinpoint his age. His hair was still thick and dark with barely a hint of age related graying, and his skin was mostly free from the wrinkles of someone who spent long hours outdoors.

“I thought I might find you hiding out in here,” Remi said.

“Who said I’m hiding? I just prefer the company of short people,” Les smirked.

“You’ve always been a bad liar, Les,” Remi chuckled. “What’s that smell?”

Les scanned around. He scooped Cas up. “Got you, you little stinker.”

A member of the nanny team slipped in behind Remi and took Cas from Les’s arms. She carried him directly to the changing table on the far side of the room.

“I can handle that,” Les said. His arms extended out after Cas.

“You seem comfortable with the newest members of the family,” Remi said.

Les picked up Pol as he crashed into his legs, and turned him upside down as he talked. “Mi primos en casa de mi abuela were always having kids. I was one of the youngest of one generation, and oldest of the next, if that makes sense.”

“It very much makes sense.”

“Oh, Remi,” Honey, strode up behind Remi. “And Les, great, Morgan sent me to find you. He’s getting started in the dining room.”

Honey was tall, glamorous even in a worn flannel over an old T-shirt and jeans. In a previous life she had been an underwear model, and one look at her, it was obvious why. No wonder Morgan, the Palatine alpha, had found her irresistible the first time he ever saw her. She was also the mother to the twin boys Cas and Pol.

Les grumbled. “Do I have to?”

Honey laughed at his obvious annoyance. “It’s the whole reason you’re here, remember?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, command performance by the king. You know, I had hoped all he wanted from me was more cinnamon rolls, or something easy.”

Les loved his families, both of them. And he thought of them as two very separate groups, even though there was some overlap. He had his abuela’s family, the one he grew up with his mother and a million cousins. There were kids there that were all somehow related, even if Les never fully understood the connection.

And then there was his father’s family. The Palatines.

Les didn’t know the Palatines until he came to live with them as a teenager. The home at Mission Run was both family compound and exclusive private school. Exclusive to shifters.

If it wasn’t for the fact his mother’s sister worked for the Palatine family, Les would have felt completely cut off from the Hernadez family. Especially after his mother died in a motorcycle accident. Les was well aware part of his disconnect from his father’s side of things was he had no idea who the man was.

His mother refused to tell him. Fortunately, Tia Connie knew what to watch for in the younger Les and brought him to live with the Palatines before the Hernadez side knew his secret.

“Morgan is hardly a king,” Remi said as he led the way from the nursery toward the wing of the house where they were required. The trip involved several long halls and an elevator.

“I guess I just don’t understand why I’m here. I’m not one of his investigators. And I don’t have anything to do with the school like you.” He shoved his hands in his pockets and followed Remi into the large formal dining room.

Morgan stood at the far end of the room, speaking to someone Les didn’t know. Seats around the large table were filled with family members he did recognize. Les made the mental calculations of whose kids were upstairs. Ethan and Mikey belonged to Caro, Cas and Pol were Morgan’s. Roxie was adorable, but he hadn’t figured out who her parents were yet.

Morgan glanced up and nodded when he made eye contact with Les. “Good, everyone is here. Les, will you close the door.”

“What’s going on, Morgan? You haven’t called an all hands on deck in a while. I thought we were done with any threats from Lazarus?” Shane, not exactly a Palatine by birth, but one of the members of the extended family, asked.

Shane had spent the past few years in San Diego, so if he was up here, this had to be big news.

Julia, Morgan’s youngest sister, started cackling. “Oh, Lazarus is not a threat. Didn’t you hear?”— she continued to laugh so hard Les didn’t hear the name—“said she wanted his head on a platter. Apparently, Fernando delivered, and made sure that it was a silver platter.” She continued to cackle.

“No, the issues surrounding Lazarus and that power struggle have been managed rather effectively. I think we can trust the bridges we have built with the vampires to continue on that front. As you know, we have been reaching out when we become aware of shifter DNA evidence popping up on those ancestor test sites. We want to make sure those wolves out there know they have our support.”

Dante coughed and poorly hid, “Not wolves,” under his cough like some middle schooler.

Caro reached out and smacked Dante across the back of his head. “Wait, what?”

Morgan gestured at Dante.

“Yeah, so Geena and I headed up to the Sierras. Some guy up there, grew up in the foster care system, had no clue so of course got the DNA test. Only when we get there—you’re going to love this—he’s not a wolf. He’s a freaking bear. And I’m not talking leather daddy bear, either. A big ass brown bear.”

“How?”

“Bears?”

The room erupted in chatter and questions. Les crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. None of this had anything to do with him. Why wouldn’t there be bear shifters out there? There were probably other shifter types, it only seemed logical.

“If you think about it, all apex predators probably have a shifter element. At least the land-based ones,” he said.

Not everyone stopped and looked at him at once. But enough did so that within moments everyone else had turned their attention to him.

“Shit, what?”

“Say that again,” Morgan insisted.

“The thing about apex predators being shifters? Yeah, why not? If you think back on every creation myth you’ve ever learned, all those old cultures had human animal cross-overs, and pretty much always with predators. A lot of myths were just oral history. So why not?”

“Damn, he’s got a point there,” someone rumbled.

“Well?” Morgan looked pointedly at the woman he had been speaking with earlier.

“I don’t think I’ve met everyone. My name is Dr. Stacey Barnes. I work for Roman Aventine at SeaQuence Labs. I’m one of the researchers working on this whole shifter mutation and how we can identify it. After Dante and his wife came back saying that Eli Johansen up in the mountains wasn’t a wolf. I got a hold of his test results. And then I actually drove up to meet him to get additional samples. Right now, we can’t tell the difference. All we get is shifter.”

The room dissolved into noise again as everyone started talking over each other.

“Settle,” Morgan’s voice boomed over everyone. “It’s more important now that we get everyone on board with testing. I need DNA on everyone in this family.”

Morgan’s eyes locked with Les’s at that moment. Les narrowed his gaze to a glare. Morgan continued to speak, but Les was no longer listening. This felt like a set-up. Morgan had been after him for a while to get tested. Les didn’t understand why it mattered. He had made it this far in life without knowing who his father was. And the fact that he shifted into a wolf was more than enough proof for him that he was a Palatine.

He slipped out the door when Stacey Barnes started lecturing again. The air on the other side of the door felt cooler. Less pressure.

“They done in there yet?” JoJo, another stray the Palatines had brought into their family, asked. She was curled up on one of the overstuffed chairs, thumbing through a magazine. Her feet in fluffy bunny slippers peeked out from under the blanket she was under.

Les shrugged. “No, but it didn’t really have anything to do with me.”

“Werewolf business? You’re one of them, you should be in there.”

“You know better than to call them that.” He shoved his hands back into his pockets and stepped a little closer.

“Them. Hmm. Les, hate to break it to you dude, but you are one of them. If you’re going to go hide in the kitchen, ask Connie if she’ll make some fudge, or donuts, or chocolate donuts. No, I want Bavarian cream filled éclairs topped in thick fudge and a big scoop of ice cream and lots and lots of fudge and caramel sauce.”

“Gotcha, chocolate comfort food.” Les nodded.

“Break up food. Les never marry a human, they’re heartless cheaters,” she sniffed.

“Not all humans.” He didn’t need to point out how many of the mates to the wolves in that meeting were human.

“No, all of them.” She crossed her arms with a finality that said she wouldn’t change her mind.