A Bleacke Wind (Bleacke Shifters Book 3) (20 page)

Another earth-moving sigh. “Because it’s my fault Collier died. I was too slow getting into position. I thought I scented the girl and went to investigate instead of following the plan exactly as he’d laid it out. Had I been where I was supposed to be, I would have seen the fucker sneaking up behind Collier before he killed him. Just like when that guy doubled-back on me and Dewi killed him. I was in charge of that mission, and it’s Dewi who saved my ass.”

He stroked her back. “So believe me, it’s not a lack of sympathy on my part for what Joaquin’s going through. We all have our burdens to bear.”

Chapter Seventeen

Malyah had dozed off in Joaquin’s arms, draped across his chest. She awoke when he stroked her shoulder.

“Babe, we need to get up.”

“Why?”

“Peyton is a stickler for promptness. It’s a quarter ’til midnight.”

She slowly peeled her eyes open. “What exactly is gonna happen when he gets here?”

“It’s just a formality. Even though he already knows, I have to present you to the pack Alpha.”

“So…what’s gonna happen? You just tell him I’m your mate?”

Joaquin smiled. “Pretty much, yeah.” His smile faded. “But I think he’s also going to give us the plan for how he’s going to tell everyone about us.”

“Oh.” Her stomach tightened. “Eloping still sounds like a good idea to me.”

He kissed her. “Nope. I think from what I’ve seen that if Dewi was going to say it, she’d say misery loves company.” He smiled.

She sat up, allowing him to get up. She didn’t move from the bed, though, as he pulled on jeans. “You know, before I got here, I was really worried about everyone accepting us.”

He turned. “Why?”

“Other than my family, have you seen another black person since Spokane?”

“That’s irrelevant. The pack—”

“You’re not understanding me. This was before all the wolf stuff. Before I
knew
all the wolf stuff.”

He paused, his shirt in his hands. “Okay. Fair enough. So what’s your point? You know
now
that you and your family are accepted by the pack.”

“Now I’m worried about my family accepting you.”

“They accepted Beck.”

“You don’t know my sister.”

“I’m guessing you mean Nami.”

“Uh,
yeah
. She just about ran poor Reggie through the Inquisition before she finally signed off on Lu’ana marrying him.”

“Wasn’t Lu’ana an adult?”

“You don’t understand. She
raised
us, Nami did. Her word was law while we were growing up. And it still is, in some ways. It would’ve upset Lu’ana if Nami hadn’t agreed to Reggie, but I don’t honestly think she would have crossed Nami if she’d put her foot down about him.”

He walked back to the bed. “Well, now Nami knows about wolves and mates,” he said. “She has no choice but to accept me.”

Now she couldn’t stop the tears. “I can’t say no to you,” she said. “The thought of not having you in my life rips me up. I know if Nami throws a fit about this, it might mean the end of my relationship with my sister.”

He sat next to her, pulling her into his arms to comfort her. “Babe, Peyton and Dewi and Badger are Primes. They’ll—”

“Look what happened to
me
! They did that mojo on me, and I remembered what that bastard did! I got my memories back!”

“That’s different. Nami’s already a wolf’s mate. I don’t claim to have all the answers, but I suspect the fact that we mated so soon is what jostled everything loose. I don’t know. We can talk to Peyton about it when he gets here.”

He reached over and picked her clothes up from where they’d landed on the floor next to the bed and handed them to her. “And unless you want to be naked when that happens, we really should finish getting dressed.”

* * * *

No, Joaquin wasn’t sure why what Dewi had done failed. He’d seen Dewi Prime people before with no trouble.

The only explanation he had was that it must have something to do with their mating.

They were both dressed and waiting when the knock came precisely at midnight.

Just to be safe, Joaquin looked through the viewfinder before opening the door and letting Peyton in, quickly closing it behind him again.

Even though the wolf wore a T-shirt and shorts, Peyton still radiated the power and confidence of being the Prime Alpha.

Joaquin reached for Malyah’s hand and drew her to his side. “Sir, may I present my claimed mate, Malyah Charlene Drexler.”

Peyton nodded. “Welcome to the Targhee pack, Malyah. It’s an honor and a privilege to have you join our family and pack.”

She looked a little nervous. “Thank you. I appreciate it.”

Peyton glanced around, apparently checking to make sure they’d drawn the blinds, which they had. “Let’s sit down at the table and talk.”

Joaquin led her over, pulling out a chair for her and letting Peyton have the other chair. Joaquin pulled out the chair from the desk, dragged it over, and sat next to Malyah. She immediately grabbed his hand again and held on tight.

Peyton clasped his hands on the table and looked from her to Joaquin before speaking. “Thank you, again, Joaquin, for apologizing to Beck today. I’m sure that will go a long way toward helping tomorrow morning.”

Malyah squeezed Joaquin’s hand more tightly.

“I meant every word, Sir,” Joaquin said.

“You can drop the Sir,” Peyton said. “We’re informal.” He directed his next comment to Malyah. “I have Joaquin’s parents coming in next Friday. The question is, what other plans do we need to make?”

She glanced up at Joaquin first before returning her focus to Peyton. “If Nami doesn’t kill me or him, I have a feeling I’ll be having a wedding. With Lu’ana here, too, I’ll be outnumbered.”

“Then we’ll table that discussion until tomorrow,” Peyton said. “Joaquin can’t return to Tampa until Gillian finishes his paperwork. I would guess I’m not out of line by thinking that you’ll want to stay here with him?”

She nodded.

“Okay. The pack will pay for your wedding. Least we can do under the circumstances. And the pack will help with your housing once you figure out what you’re going to do in Tampa.” He slowly shook his head. “This one takes the cake, even for us.”

“How will this happen tomorrow morning?” Joaquin asked.

“After breakfast, Asia will take Lu’ana, Reggie, and Bebe over to her house. Gillian, Trent, and Asia already know what’s going on. I just told them. They’ve got centerpieces and decorations to make, so they’ll be working on them. That’s when I’ll break the news to Nami and Beck.”

“What about Dewi and Ken?”

“I’ll be telling them in the morning before breakfast. That way they won’t be broadsided by this and can help me if necessary. Badger already knows, of course, and can help, too.”

Joaquin knew what that meant. Dewi and Badger could help Peyton by using their Prime powers to contain the situation.

“Then what?”

“I don’t know. I guess it depends on how long it takes Nami to not be upset. If she was a wolf, there wouldn’t be a question of her accepting this. A mate bond is a mate bond.”

“There’s another issue,” Joaquin said.

Peyton sighed. “What?”

Joaquin told him about Malyah’s memories returning. While he did, she sat there, not speaking, her fingers tightly clamped around Joaquin’s hand.

After Joaquin finished, Peyton sat back, an unreadable expression on his face. Finally, he spoke.

“I don’t honestly know,” he said. “I’ll have to ask Badger if he’s heard of anything like that happening before. Like you, my guess would be that it has something to do with your mating bond. But it still doesn’t totally explain it. It’s not uncommon for a Prime wolf, or even another Alpha, to resist a Prime for a while, but not a human. Not to totally shake it off.”

“What about Ken and his fight with Endquist? Badger told me about that.”

Peyton slowly nodded.

Now Malyah spoke up. “What about Ken? What fight?”

Peyton handled it. “Endquist was a rogue Prime Alpha with a grudge against our mother for her rejecting him. He attacked Dewi and killed our parents when Dewi was a baby. Then, a few months ago, he attacked Dewi and Ken. Ken resisted a standing order from Dewi not to touch a firearm without her permission, grabbed a gun, and shot the guy.”

Malyah looked like she wished she hadn’t asked. “Oh.”

Peyton stretched his arms over his head, then laced his fingers together behind it.

“I’ve seen Dewi use her Prime on other Prime wolves before. And humans. She’s stronger than I am, and now that she’s an adult, I’d bet money she’s stronger than Badger. She’s at least
as
strong as Badger. It doesn’t explain anything, though. But maybe your fresh mating bond overrode the Prime order.”

“Ken and Dewi had a recent mating bond,” Joaquin said. “It makes sense.”

“Can you make me forget all that stuff again?” Malyah asked Peyton.

Joaquin’s heart ached for his mate.

Peyton didn’t answer at first. “Let’s get through tomorrow,” he said. “I want to talk to Badger about this first. We all figured Ken’s ability to resist Dewi’s Prime order was because he was her mate, and due to the circumstances. I would rather not use that on you again right now.”

“Oh.” She stared down at her lap.

“I’m sorry that happened to you, Malyah. And if you still want to forget all of it once we figure out some answers, we’ll work on that. I don’t want to do anything that might harm you.”

She nodded.

Peyton sat up and reached over to touch her shoulder. “You know Jarome will never get out of prison, right? He’ll die there. Even should some miracle happen and they release him early, we’ll make sure he doesn’t survive more than twenty-four hours after he walks. I swear it. We take care of our own. You, your sisters, your brother and brother-in-law, and your niece. All of you are part of the pack. Doubly so now. This is how we do things. We take care of our own.”

She nodded.

“Breakfast at nine tomorrow morning,” Peyton said as he stood. “Over in the big house. Once Lu’ana and Reggie have left with Asia, then I’ll break the news.”

“What about all the kids?” Joaquin asked.

“Trent will send them home with Asia to hep with the centerpieces. They’ve already been told they’ll be helping.” He headed for the door. “Oh, and Joaquin? I also told Jack and Moraine what’s going on and swore them to secrecy for now. You don’t need to sneak back there. They’ll be joining us for breakfast in the morning. You can catch a ride with them to go get your stuff before they bring you back here.”

“I can stay here?” Joaquin asked.

Peyton turned at the door. “Of course you can. You’re mates. Try to get some rest tonight.” When Peyton left, Joaquin locked the door behind him.

Malyah still sat at the table. “Let’s go to bed and try to get some rest,” he said, holding a hand out to her. Yes, he suspected they’d be making love again soon, but the fact that she was so worried about tomorrow put a damper on his ardor.

She finally looked up at him. “Please tell me everything’s going to be okay. That after we get through tomorrow morning, that’s the worst of it.”

“That will be the worst of it,” he said. “You don’t even know your sister will blow up. Now that she’s with a wolf, she might accept our mating because she went through it.”

Taking his hand, she let him lead her to the bedroom. “You don’t know my sister.”

* * * *

The knock on their cabin’s front door awakened Dewi and Ken. When she looked at the clock and saw it was only six forty-five in the morning, which was
really
damned early as far as she was concerned, she let out a growl that would have scared Ken were he not used to her foul morning moods.

“Holy crap, there better be somebody dead, missing, or seriously injured to wake me up this early in the morning. And if they’re not, they soon
will
be.”

Ken was already out of bed and had pulled on shorts. He figured it was better he open the door rather than unleashing an under-caffeinated Dewi on whoever the poor unsuspecting person was.

Glancing through the viewfinder, his pulse sped when he spotted Peyton standing on the stoop. He quickly unlocked and opened the door. “What’s wrong?”

Peyton hurried in and closed the door behind him. “Where’s Dewster?”

“I’m in here, you sadistic fuck,” she called from the bedroom.

Ken followed Peyton as he hurried down the hall.

Dewi yanked the sheet up to cover herself. “Dude, what the
hell
? I’m not five anymore!”

“We need to talk.”

“Well, can I put on some fricking
clothes
first?”

“And coffee,” Ken said.

“Yeah, and
that
,” Dewi said, glaring at her brother.

He rolled his eyes and headed for the kitchen. “I’ll start the coffee. I know where everything is. Ken, get her conscious and vertical.”

“Who’s dead?” she called after him. “Because someone
better
be dead, missing, or hurt for you to barge in here like this.”

“Nobody,” Peyton called back. “Yet.”

Ken’s gaze locked with hers. “
Yet
?” they both asked as Dewi threw the sheet off and took the robe Ken offered her.

They crowded into the small kitchen, where Peyton was getting the coffeemaker going. “Yet,” he confirmed.

Dewi pulled her long hair back into a ponytail with an elastic band from the pocket of her robe. “Okay, you want to tell me what’s going on, or keep me guessing and pissing me off?”

“Glad to see you’re still not a morning person,” Peyton said.

Ken stepped in front of Dewi when she let out a growl. “Again, you guys wind her up, and I—”

“I know. Sorry.” He turned, leaning against the counter, arms crossed. “You want the good news, or the bad news?”

She jabbed a finger at him. “You can’t fool me. You’ve screwed me over too many times like that. I want the
bad
news first.”

“We have a new pack member. A mating.”

She frowned. “What the hell? Why is that bad news?”

“Oh, that’s not how we play the game, Dewster.”

She rolled her eyes. “Then what’s the good news?”

“We have a new pack member.”