A Bleacke Wind (Bleacke Shifters Book 3) (21 page)

Ken watched as Dewi took a long, deep breath and let it out again. He heard her mentally counting to ten. “What the hell, Peyton? You might be the pack Alpha, but—”

“Joaquin claimed his mate. Mate bond.”

She blinked. “Say what?
When
?”

“Saturday evening. Before dinner.”

Dewi leaned against the counter and rubbed at her eyes. “Start over, Peyton. I’m sooo not in the mood or nearly awake enough for this bullshit. Who is Joaquin’s mate? And why hasn’t he presented her to you?”

“He did. Last night after dinner.”

“Then why didn’t he have her with him at dinner?”

“He did, but they were pretending they weren’t mated. They were trying to keep it a secret until after your wedding.”

“What?”

“Oh, shit,” Ken whispered. “It’s Malyah.”

Dewi looked at him. “
What
? No.” She looked at Peyton. “No, right?”

Peyton nodded.

Dewi’s head dropped, one hand covering her face. “No. Oh,
fuck
. Oh, fucking hell, no.”

“The real good news,” Peyton said, “is that it happened here and not back in Tampa.”

Dewi didn’t lift her head. “Yeah,” she grudgingly admitted. “True.”

“So what happened? And what’s the plan?” Ken asked.

While coffee gurgled into the carafe, Peyton told them about Joaquin’s admission at lunch the day before, and Peyton’s talk with them when Joaquin presented Malyah as his mate.

Worse, he revealed that Malyah now had her memories back of what happened when Jarome abducted her.

Once there was enough coffee in the carafe to pour a cup, Ken fixed Dewi a mug and handed it to her.

She finally looked up at Peyton. “This is
not
going to go over well. And how the
hell
did she get her memories back?”

“Duh, and I don’t know.” He nodded toward Ken. “I’m guessing something similar to why he was able to pick up a gun after you’d ordered him not to. Or not. I don’t know. You need to talk to Badger about that part of it. I learned that last night when Joaquin presented her to me. I haven’t talked to Badger yet about that part. You were my first stop this morning.”

“Lucky me,” Dewi snarked. "She sipped at her cup of liquid personality enhancer. Finally, “Okay. So in the grand scheme of things, this isn’t bad. Malyah can’t return to Florida until Joaquin does, though. That’s the only snag. We’ll have to mojo Lu’ana and—”

“Let’s hold off on that,” Peyton said.

“On what? If Malyah’s going to marry Joaquin this week—”

“Let’s get through this week first. We can outright lie and say Joaquin met Malyah months ago, and they were sneaking around in secret and online while he was out of the country for work. It’ll explain why she never got serious about that guy she was dating. Nami can help us sell that by acting pissed off.”

“I don’t think she’ll need to act,” Dewi muttered into her mug.

Ken snorted. “Yeah, I suspect that will be authentic.”

Peyton rubbed at the back of his neck. “I need to get back over to the house, grab a shower, and handle some pack stuff. Can you please go talk to Badger about the issue with Malyah’s recovered memories?”

“Oh,
greeeaaat
,” Dewi said. “Thanks. Leave
me
to wake him up.”

“You
are
Head Enforcer, as you keep reminding me.” He smiled.

Without letting go of the mug, she flipped him a bird.

Ken poured himself a mug of coffee when there was enough in the carafe. “Peyton, you hate me, don’t you?”

Peyton clapped him on the shoulder. “No, I love you. And if I didn’t think you could handle her, I wouldn’t take such great pleasure in winding her up.”

Dewi stuck her tongue out at Peyton.

Peyton leaned in and kissed her on the forehead before he headed for the door. “Don’t be late for breakfast, please. Nine.”

She grumbled something at his back as he departed.

Ken’s mind whirled. “So this will be an even crazier week, huh?”

“Probably.” She took another sip.

“You really think Nami will be upset?”

“Probably.”

He sipped his coffee. “This won’t go nearly as smoothly as Peyton thinks it will, will it?”

“Probably.”

Chapter Eighteen

Malyah wasn’t sure she’d even be able to eat breakfast, as nervous as she felt. Joaquin coaxed her into having a cup of coffee there at the cabin. Overnight, he’d washed and dried his clothes, so at least he’d be in clean clothes, even though they were the same ones he’d worn at dinner.

“This will be okay,” he gently assured her.

“You can’t say that. You don’t know my sister.”

“Hopefully she’ll see reason.”

“Thankfully she doesn’t have access to a firearm.”

She sat at the table and he knelt in front of her, taking her free hand in his. “Do you trust me?”

She nodded without hesitation. Whatever this was, yes, she trusted him, loved him, knew with all certainty that he was as head-over into it as she was.

Whatever it was.

Crazy.

And real.

“Then trust me that this will be okay. We’ll get through it. Yes, maybe she’ll be upset, but Beck and Dewi and the others will help her get through it. Then the rest of the week can be spent enjoying this time with our family. We won’t have to pretend anymore. Won’t that be nice?”

“Yeah.” It would. She’d hated having to pretend she barely knew him. It’d almost hurt her soul in a physical way.

Again, crazy.

But real.

More real than anything she’d ever experienced before.

At eight thirty, Joaquin sent her out to the house first. His rationale was that if she waited until the last minute to show up, and so did he, it would be more suspicious.

She tried to stay calm but with every step she took away from him she fought her instinctive urge to spin around and run back to his arms. He was going to wait until she was inside, then go out the cabin’s back door and circle around to Peyton’s front door.

How she’d make it through breakfast, she didn’t know.

She’d no sooner opened the kitchen door than Nami looked up from where she stood at the stove. “Oh, perfect timing, sugar. Can you make the biscuits?”

“Good morning to you, too, sis,” she snapped, surlier than she meant to, before angling toward the sink.

Malyah didn’t think she imagined the look of pity on Gillian’s face as she smiled and leaned in for a hug.

Nami turned, planting a fist on one hip. “Well, who pissed in your Cheerios this morning, girl?”

Malyah swallowed back the response she wanted to shoot her. “Sorry, sis,” she said. “I just need coffee.”

Nami waved her at the coffeemaker currently burbling on the counter. “Second pot already. Have at it.”

Malyah detoured from the sink to the coffeemaker, fixed herself a mug of coffee, then went and washed her hands. That done, she took her position at the counter and started rolling out biscuits. Around her, Nami and Gillian, soon joined by Lu’ana and Asia, worked on cooking up a massive breakfast, even by large family standards. Heavy on the meat products, but including french toast and eggs for Ken, in addition to fresh fruit.

It made sense, though. Malyah knew the majority of the people who’d be at the table, including Asia and Trent’s kids, were wolf shifters with big appetites.

Malyah tuned out the discussions about wedding plans and the day’s agenda—which Malyah suspected would soon be changed once Peyton revealed the information. At least on Nami’s end of things.

As she had the evening before, Malyah
felt
it when Joaquin entered the house. As if he walked into her conscious brain and started making himself at home.

All she wanted to do was go find him and curl up in his arms.

She forced herself to stay where she was, finishing the last batch of biscuits.

Peyton led Joaquin into the kitchen. “Coffee?” he asked Joaquin.

“Yes, please.”

Gillian immediately swooped in to hug Joaquin while Malyah forced herself to remain focused on her job.

She noticed he took the long way around the counter, giving Nami a hug from behind, then her, before reaching the coffeemaker.

“Just a little while longer,”
he silently assured her.
“You’re doing great.”

She didn’t
feel
great. The battle within her now was to not burst into tears.

After a thousand forevers—or fifteen minutes—they were all gathered around the table. She’d immediately slipped off her sandal to hook her foot around Joaquin’s ankle. How he could remain so calm and collected amazed her. Bursts of need fired through her nervous system, thinking about how calm and collected he acted.

I wonder if that’s how he’s like when he’s working.

* * * *

After Peyton had left their cabin and after Dewi had consumed another cup of coffee, and both of them had grabbed showers, she and Ken went and awakened Badger. The old wolf had looked as stunned as Dewi had felt when she told him the news about Malyah getting her memories back.

He also had no idea why. “I attributed what Ken did to yer bein’ a Prime and all. But Joaquin’s just an Alpha. And Malyah’s a plain human, not from a shifter family. It don’t make sense.”

Now sitting at the dining room table in Peyton’s house, Dewi caught Badger’s gaze a couple of times. Just long enough to know he was thinking the same thing she was, keeping an eye on everyone who didn’t know the secret to make sure they could intervene, if necessary, and control the situation, if warranted.

It bothered her that Malyah now remembered what happened. Guilt coiled through her. Her job was to protect her people, her family.

Her pack.

She’d failed in that way.

Malyah shouldn’t have to keep those memories of what happened to her. But now that she knew the existence of wolves, maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing. There wouldn’t be any uncomfortable questions from her now about how they knew how to track her down, how they could rescue her and overpower her captors the way they had.

Although she shouldn’t have those memories in the first place.

It also bothered Dewi because while she’d set everything up at the crime scene, and it appeared Tampa PD wouldn’t reopen the case of one convicted felon who’d “accidentally” shot his own balls off while his friends killed each other and themselves, it meant Jarome might one day be able to speak about what happened despite Dewi using her Prime on him to keep him quiet.

That could call uncomfortable attention upon her and the pack.

Something they could
not
afford.

Dewi did her best not to focus attention on Joaquin or Malyah. She suspected if she did that Beck would pick up on it and wonder what was going on. Now that Dewi knew what was going on, she realized how clueless she’d been. Before, she’d attributed Malyah’s scent to hugging Joaquin. With all the introductions and hugging this weekend, everyone smelled at least a little like everyone else.

I’m an idiot. I could have gotten people killed.

That kind of inattention from the pack’s Head Enforcer was inexcusable. She’d been too wrapped up in her personal misery at brunch yesterday to pay adequate attention to her surroundings. She’d wanted to be anywhere else, discussing anything else.

Almost hoping Martin would text or e-mail her that her presence was required back in Florida immediately so she could fly home and there wasn’t a damn thing Peyton could do about it to stop her.

Not that she didn’t want to marry Ken. She did. Absolutely. He was her mate, but she already considered him far more than just her husband, and for life.

The “wedding” wasn’t for her. It was for her brothers and their mates, and for Badger and Beck. She would have been just as happy with a quick, small ceremony followed by a celebratory run with the wolves in the pack.

Or a barbecue.

She suspected had her parents been alive, she wouldn’t have been forced into this wedding. That her mother likely would have let her decide what she wanted to do.

Then again, had her parents been alive, she might not have been a Prime, and might not have made her first kill at twelve, and had the weight of the pack’s safety resting on her shoulders as Head Enforcer.

A lot of things might have been different.

Unorphaned Dewi, with the pack Alpha as her father and a doting mother, as well as two older brothers who had free time to spend with their baby sister, might have turned out to be a girlie-girl instead of a tomboy who stubbornly refused to comply with most feminine standards for the majority of her life.

Under the table, Ken reached out and touched her thigh, immediately refocusing her thoughts there, on breakfast.

When she looked at him, he offered her a smile.

Bless his heart, Heathcliff McKenzie Ethelbert was the love of her life, the light of her soul. He’d changed her life forever, for the better.

She forced a smile back. Part of her wanted to stand up and announce the new mating and get it over with and worry about dealing with the fallout from Lu’ana, Reggie, and Da’von later.

Now she couldn’t count on what, until before that morning, she believed to be a sure thing. She had spent so many years believing her Prime powers were a given, a magic wand in some ways. Able to soothe and smooth memories, gain control, keep the upper hand.

If that wasn’t a truth, she wondered how many other times in the past things she’d done hadn’t “taken.”

And what would the future repercussions be to their pack?

* * * *

Beck nerves tingled in a bad way, on edge. There was something going on, some subtext that he wasn’t privy to. He’d bet his life on it.

Well, maybe not his life, but a shitload of money, at least.

He could see the subtle tension in all three Prime Alphas, and especially in Trent, Joaquin, Gillian, and Asia. Then there were Jack and Moraine, whose presence Beck thought was odd. He knew they both worked in town and figured they’d be at work, not there. Obviously, Peyton had invited them.

Dewi, whose moods he knew better than he knew the others’, seemed withdrawn, borderline snappy, and overly watchful considering the circumstances and company gathered in Peyton’s house.