A Bleacke Wind (Bleacke Shifters Book 3) (23 page)

He’d sworn it to his mother, now incapacitated by the shock of his brutal death.

He’d sworn it to Raul’s widow and children.

He would
not
be denied.

It didn’t matter that he suspected he’d learned why Raul had been murdered. Yes, he’d overlooked some of his younger brother’s indiscretions over the years, but that was beside the point.

The animal had cut him down in his own home.

And he would pay.

“Let’s go gas up the cars,” Manuel said. “We’ll start there. See what we find out. Can probably bribe someone there to talk.”

Chapter Twenty

Ken watched the struggle between Beck and Nami until Dewi finally shut the front door and headed for the living room.

The rest of them followed her.

Then Dewi turned to Badger. “Do you have the keys to the rental car?” When he nodded, she wiggled her fingers at him in a
gimme
gesture.

He fished them out of his pocket and tossed them to her, where she deftly snagged them out the air.

“Why ye be wantin’ those?”

She turned and handed them to Ken. “You take Nami to Spokane,” Dewi said. “Right now. Go get the stuff on her list.”

“Which stuff?” Ken asked.

“
All
the stuff. Everything she needs to get, whatever it is, anything.”

He stared at the keys in his hands. “Um, you sure?”

“Yes.”

“That’s going to take a while.”

“The longer, the better. Take as long as you need. Hell, take
longer
.”

Outside, they could hear Nami’s angry screams, threats against Joaquin’s genitalia, and rage-filled rants getting closer. Ken imagined Beck had his considerable hands full trying to wrangle his pissed-off mate across the front yard and back into Peyton’s house.

“And spend as much as it takes,” Dewi added.

“As much as it takes to what?”

“To calm her the fuck down,” Dewi shot back.

“Aren’t you going to Prime her?” he asked.

“I—” Dewi pulled up short. “I might have to,” she said, “but let me clear that with Beck first. I don’t want to if I can avoid it. Especially now that we know there are issues with that. She needs to deal with this.”

Beck and Nami burst through Peyton’s front door, Nami still trying to shake Beck off and go after Joaquin.

Ken felt sorry for Beck. The man was softly talking to Nami, trying to calm her.

“Babe, it’s okay. He didn’t hurt her.”

“She’s my little sister!”

“I know, but she’s his mate. That means—”

“You were
right
about his skanky ass! I should have snapped him like a damn twig when he first showed up in the middle of the night at Dewi’s! I shoulda listened to you about him and killed him myself!”

“Honey, remember how you felt about me when we first met, and what happened after we mated? That’s how she feels about him now.”

Ken couldn’t ever remember hearing Beck sound that soothing, that gentle before. A drastic difference from Ken’s first ever meeting with the wolf. This obviously pained the wolf, that his mate felt so distraught over the situation.

“I don’t
care
!” Nami tried struggling against him again. “I’m going to
skin the hide off that boy
!” she screamed out the open door.

Beck nudged the door shut with his foot, keeping his arms wrapped around Nami as he guided her toward the living room where the rest of them still waited.

Poor Beck.
The wolf looked miserable. When Beck scanned the room, he locked eyes with Dewi and tipped his head, beckoning her over since he apparently didn’t dare let go of Nami.

Dewi arched a questioning eyebrow at him, and he nodded. Ken didn’t need any explanations.

Dewi walked over and gently caught Nami’s flailing hands in hers. She whispered, “Shh, it’s okay, sweetie. Please, calm down, and let us talk to you about this.”

Ken watched as Nami fell still, but fat tears rolled down her cheeks. “She’s not even
thirty
yet! She’s still got a life ahead of her to live! She’s—”

“She’s an adult,” Dewi gently said in that same calm, soothing whisper.

Ken immediately realized what Dewi was doing. She apparently didn’t want to completely overwhelm Nami with her Prime. She just wanted to take the edge off Nami’s rage and allow her rational mind to take over again so they could all talk to her about the events.

“Dewi, Malyah doesn’t need to know about all this wolf stuff, and—”

“She already knows, and it’s okay.” Dewi pressed Nami’s hands against her own chest and stepped in closer. “She’s a full part of the pack now, even more than she was before. And she has her memories back about what happened. She’s okay, and she’s going to
be
okay as Joaquin’s mate. Loved and protected. Don’t you trust me?”

Nami tearfully nodded.

“I know you’re upset right now,” Dewi said, “but this isn’t a bad thing that’s happened. Do you think Beck loves you?”

Nami looked up into Beck’s face. “I know he does,” she said. “I wouldn’t be marryin’ him if I didn’t know he loves me.”

“Do you think he’d die to keep you safe?”

Nami, still staring into Beck’s eyes, nodded. “I know he would,” she whispered.

“Okay,” Dewi said. “Then know this—Joaquin feels the same way about Malyah that Beck feels about you. The same way that I feel about Ken. We’d kill for our mates. Die for them. And she feels about Joaquin the way you feel about Beck.”

Nami cried even harder. “He didn’t even give her a
chance
to say no.
 
He took her off into the woods. They just walked off together and—”

“And did exactly what you wished you could have done with Beck the moment you first met him, if you hadn’t been driving a bus at the time and he hadn’t run off.”

Nami swallowed and, eventually, slowly nodded.

Dewi pulled her in for a hug as the older woman began sobbing against her.

“Shh, it’s okay to be upset for a little bit, until the shock wears off. But Lu’ana and Reggie and Da’von, they don’t know about us wolves. We need to keep it that way. That means we need your help selling this. If you go along with everything, it’ll make it that much easier for them to accept. Maybe even pretend you knew about it all along and kept it a secret for Malyah and Joaquin.

“I need you to be strong for me, and for Malyah, and everyone else. I need you to be strong for our family and for the pack. You’re not alone. We’re all right here with you. But this isn’t a reason to be upset. Malyah’s met the love of her life. This is a
good
thing. This is a reason to
celebrate
.”

“What if those guys come after Joaquin? Those drug guys? They might hurt her.”

“There’s
nothing
bigger or badder in this world than we are,” Dewi said. “I don’t care what the Seguras think, the truth is, they’re nothing compared to us. We’ll keep her safe.”

“She’s got a job.”

“She’s part of the pack now, just like you are. If they need to live here for a while, they can. Or they can move in with me and Ken. They will be taken care of, one way or another. Joaquin will be able to provide for her, if nothing else. You have my word on it.”

Nami broke down again. Dewi guided her over to the couch and sat with her while Gillian fetched a box of tissues.

Finally, when Nami had composed herself, Dewi said, “I’m sending you and Ken to Spokane today for shopping, okay? You don’t need me there with you. With all this happening, Peyton really needs me here right now. Ken’s got the pack credit card, so buy whatever you think I still need for a proper froufrou wedding.”

That finally drew a smile from Nami. “Are you doing that Prime thing to me now?”

“Not now. I did just a little there a few minutes ago.” She held her thumb and first finger up, almost touching. “Not a lot, just a little. Just enough to calm you down so you’d listen to me.”

Nami nodded and blew her nose again, then let out a tearful laugh. “Should we go for a triple wedding?”

Dewi looked up at Gillian, where the wolf had been standing with her arms crossed over her chest and a sad look on her face.

“What do you think?” Dewi asked her. “Do you think Peyton and Trent are really okay with that?”

“They are,” Gillian said. “As long as you’re first on the list, they’d let the rest of the darn pack get married after you do. The official is one of our pack, a notary. Trent and I will take care of getting the marriage license for them.”

“Okay,” Dewi said. “Great.” She turned back to Nami. “What do we need to get for Malyah, then? A third cake?”

Nami nodded. “And a bouquet for her, and a proper wedding dress, not a bridesmaid’s dress, and now you’re gonna need a bridesmaid’s dress, and—”

“Whatever we need,” Dewi said, interrupting her, “you
buy
it. Whatever it costs. No matter how much. The pack is paying for it all. You get everything you need to give her the best damn wedding ever.”

Ten minutes later, Ken and Nami were in the little Honda, with Ken behind the wheel and speeding out of Peyton’s driveway. Away from Dewi’s direct Prime influence, Nami resumed her murderous muttering from the passenger seat.

“Swear to
god
, I will
hurt
that boy if he don’t treat her right! I
swear
I will!”

“He will take care of her, Nami.”

Ken realized they had less than half of a tank of gas. Even though it would delay them and take them a few minutes out of their way, he decided to stop and fill up at the station in the town outside the compound. Yes, they had enough to reach the interstate, where there were a couple of gas stations at the exit, but why risk it?

Twenty minutes later, Nami was still ranting when they pulled into the gas station.

When he got out to pump gas, Nami got out, too, and started pacing beside the little car.

“What the
hell
does Joaquin want with her, anyway?” she asked. “He’s
older
than her!”

Ken, on the other side of the argument, was doing his best not to smile or point out the fact that Beck was older than Nami.

And to not point out the fact that Nami had felt sorry for Joaquin…before she found out he’d secretly mated and claimed her little sister.

“Nami, please, stay calm.”

She pounded a fist against the rental car’s roof. “I
am
calm!”

Now Ken was wishing they’d given him one of the SUVs to drive instead of the little Honda. At this rate, he worried the small car might not survive Nami’s wrath all the way to Spokane and back.

Note to self, see about swinging through the rental car place in Spokane and swapping out vehicles before we return.

Then again, once he distracted Nami with shopping for all three weddings, they might need a larger vehicle anyway, to get all their purchases back to the compound.

After filling up the tank, he led Nami inside the convenience store, which also housed a restaurant, so he could get a coffee for the drive. The early wake-up, combined with the emotional stress he knew lay ahead of him dealing with Nami all day today, called for a far higher caffeine-to-blood ratio than his body currently possessed.

Nami followed him inside, still ranting about Joaquin.

* * * *

Two people entered the store. Manuel froze as he listened to the large black woman ranting to the skinny white guy she was with. He would have sworn he heard her say Joaquin.

Sure enough, she said it again.

And again.

She obviously wasn’t happy about Joaquin and whatever it was he’d done.

It couldn’t be a coincidence. Not in the middle of Nofuckingwhere, Idaho.

At that point, Jose looked at him, a question on his face.

So he heard it, too.

Manuel leaned in and whispered to him in Spanish. “
Take Tomas, Miguel, and Aldo, and follow them. Stop them and question them. I want to know where that son of a bitch is. The rest of us will make our way into that property after we ask around here for information.
”

Jose nodded and headed off to round up the three men.

Chapter Twenty-One

Webster Kent, the Alpha wolf running the convenience store’s cash register, was used to seeing strangers in town. As the owner of the only gas station in a twenty-mile radius, if there was a stranger in town, he was usually one of the first to encounter them. Especially around Musters, or during human events like hunting and fishing seasons.

With Dewi and Beck both returning and marrying their mates, they were expecting a good-sized crowd in town by that weekend, including many unfamiliar faces, due to the importance of the events.

Not every day the pack Alpha’s little sister, also the Head Enforcer, got married.

Peyton had called him on Friday and warned him to keep a watchful eye peeled for strangers, humans who didn’t seem to belong in the area and who didn’t appear to know anything about wolves. Especially anyone foreign. Particularly Hispanic.

And definitely anyone who might be angling for information about Joaquin Carlomarles.

Webster’s older son had gone to school with Joaquin when they were kids. He remembered when the Carlomarles family first arrived from Colombia to settle in Idaho in their town near the pack compound. His wife had become good friends with Aleana Carlomarles, Joaquin’s mother.

So far, while the eleven men had gassed up their three vehicles and purchased pre-made sandwiches and snacks to eat over in the restaurant side, they hadn’t asked any questions. Other than casually perusing the large rack of tourist brochures, which were heavily filled with local hunting, fishing, and hiking guide pamphlets, they appeared to not have an agenda.

Unfortunately, Webster’s Spanish wasn’t very good, so he couldn’t understand exactly what he was eavesdropping on with his acute wolf hearing.

Then, after Dewi’s and Beck’s mates gassed up, came in and bought some snacks and left again, four of the strangers followed them in one of their three vehicles, leaving seven of the men behind.

While Beck’s mate had been grumbling fairly loudly about Joaquin, Dewi’s mate appeared to be trying to placate her and calm her down. The general gist he picked up from that was Joaquin had apparently mated with the woman’s little sister.