Chapter 6
”You are absolutely certain the baby is Chase’s?” Marlana”s voice was slow and careful over the phone.
”Yes. Absolutely,” Ben said.
Marlana sighed.
Viviana spoke next, as they were on a three-way call. ”Well? Is the baby cute? Is it a boy or a girl?”
”It”s a girl,” Ben said. “I don”t know if it”s cute, I didn”t really look at it.”
”Ben,” Viviana said, laughing, ”you’re useless.”
She meant it as a joke, but all Ben could hear was Chase telling him that he was good for nothing. ”Sorry,” he said.
”Be quiet a second, I”m thinking,” Marlana said.
Ben sat on his front step. He still hadn”t gone inside the house after Delilah and the baby had left. However, he had told Delilah to call him if she needed anything. Was that enough to count for his good deed for the day? He took the calendar out of his pocket and held his pencil over the day’s square.
No, he realized. It wasn’t good enough. Somehow, he was going to have to do something more.
”Okay,” Marlana said. ”I have an idea, but as our soon-to-be alpha, Viviana, I want your input.”
Ben leaned back against his door. Did he really need to be a part of this conversation?
”Go for it,” Viviana said.
Marlana cleared her throat. ”Obviously, we need to keep in touch with the mother. She”s raising one of us, and things might get weird for her. Because Ben has already made contact with the mother, it should be his job to remain in contact with her, so that we can monitor the growth of the child and ensure that we are present in her life when she reaches puberty.”
”I think that sounds like an acceptable course of action,” Viviana said.
”One problem,” Ben said. ”You should have somebody else befriend the mother.”
Viviana”s voice held an edge to it. ”What”s the problem, Ben?”
Staring at today”s blank square in his calendar, Ben said, ”She doesn”t like me.”
”Well,” Viviana said in a sweet voice, ”make her like you. Make yourself likable.”
She must”ve known she was asking the impossible. Ben opened his mouth to retort, but his phone beeped. He took it away from his ear to look at the caller ID.
Delilah.
”Shit, she”s calling me now,” he said.
”Answer it, then call us back,” Viviana said.
Holding in his sigh, Ben answered Delilah”s call.
”Is this Ben?” she asked.
She sounded shaken, upset. Ben felt a strange sense of protectiveness build in his chest. ”What”s wrong?”
”It”s—I wasn”t sure who to call. I mean, I already called the police, but, well…I don”t know what to do next. I just need somebody to tell me what to do.”
Trying to stay calm, he said, ”Tell me what happened.”
”Oh, right,” she said, giving a hysterical little laugh. ”Somebody broke into our place while we were gone. The lock’s broken, I can”t afford to get it fixed, can”t afford to stay anywhere else, and I don”t know where to go. If it was just me, I would sleep in my car. But—but—I’ve got McKenzie.”
Ben nodded to himself. This was something he could handle. He still needed to do a good deed for the day, and he already had an idea.
”I”ll arrange a place for you to stay tonight,” he said. ”Don”t worry about a thing.”
He had ended the call and already pulled up a listing of motels in Maxon before he remembered he needed to call back Marlana and Viviana. Growling to himself, he dialed them up.
”Somebody broke into her place,” he said. ”I”m arranging a hotel room for her and the baby.”
He was proud of himself. He was doing something nice. A good deed—to show that he wasn”t good for nothing. He made a slash mark over the date in his calendar.
”Good job,” Marlana said.
”Hold up,” Viviana said. ”A hotel is nice, but this baby is family, a part of our pride. We were just talking about building a relationship with this woman. Ben, you have two extra rooms at your place.”
Ben wasn”t an idiot, he knew where this was going. ”I don”t think that”s a good—”
”Let her have Chase”s room. Just for the night. She”s probably scared, I mean, her place was just broken into, and she”s trying to protect her baby. Don”t send her to a hotel. This will help build more of a relationship with her, which will be good when that baby becomes a full-grown lion shifter.”
This was not ideal. He was going to invite his dead brother”s ex-girlfriend and baby into his house? He didn”t like babies, and he didn”t like thinking about Chase.
”Ben, did you hear me?” Viviana asked.
He waited. Viviana wasn”t his alpha, yet.
”Ben.” Marlana”s voice held the force of an alpha.
Ben”s head snapped up. ”Yeah. Yes, I hear you. Consider it done.”
He ended the call, swearing under his breath. Then he dialed Delilah.