What the hell’s wrong with me?
He’d definitely be having a talk with Badger on the ride home.
* * * *
“So, what’s on yer mind?” Badger asked by way of greeting as Ken climbed into the man’s truck that afternoon.
“What?”
“What did ye want to talk about.” He tapped his temple. “I’m a Prime, don’t ye forget. Mebbe I can’t read yer mind, exactly, but I can tell yer thinking something.”
“Oh.” Ken let out a laugh. “Yeah, I do want to talk to you.” He related what happened that morning with Mark and Jason while Badger negotiated his way off the campus and toward I-75. “What does it mean?”
Badger shrugged. “Honestly? I haven’t a clue.”
“That’s not much help.”
“I dunno what ye want me to tell ye, boyo. We’re in uncharted territory. I told ye, a Prime Alpha female is unheard of. The only counsel I have for ye is to keep the lines of communication open, to Dewi and to me and Beck.”
“I doubt Beck wants to talk to me about my relationship with Dewi.”
“Eh, don’t be so sure of that. He loves her, don’t forget. And they are still partners. Regardless what his feelings are on the fact that he wasn’t meant to be her mate, he knows the first priority is to the pack and to her mate. Yer part of the pack, lad, not just her mate. Just like there’s no way he wouldn’t have done what she asked last night.”
He settled back in his seat. “Yeah, but if he hadn’t, I would have been out of her life.”
“Ye could’ve been dead, and he would’ve hated himself for it later. Especially if Dewi had killed herself after the fact. And I don’t doubt she would’ve. She loves ye fierce and deep. Ye need to get that through yer thick head.”
They rode in silence for a few minutes. “Good work on proposing, by the by,” Badger said.
“Thanks,” Ken mumbled. “I appreciate you not rubbing Beck’s face in it at dinner.”
“Eh, he’ll be fine. He’ll find his one now that he has a reason to go looking. Besides, it doesn’t matter if ye marry her or not. That’s a formality. Yer mated to her. That’s all that counts in our kind.”
“I just wish I could do better for her.”
Badger patted him on the shoulder. “We all have to start somewhere. Ye love her fiercely. No one could ask for more. Everything else is just gravy, as they say.”
* * * *
Ken worked grading papers in the office later that afternoon. Unfortunately, Dewi called around six to let them know she wouldn’t be home after all.
“I’m sorry,” she said, sounding forlorn. “I’m still tracking down leads. Tayla invited me to stay here with her. One of his buddies is out of town and will be back later tonight. I’m going to talk to him and then get out of here early tomorrow morning so I can be there to take you to work.”
“It’s okay. You don’t have to worry about it.”
“I want to,” she said. “I don’t want to be away from you this long.”
He didn’t want her to be away that long, either, but he knew what she had to do was important. “It’s okay. People are depending on you. I understand.” He hesitated. “Maybe I’ll even let you try to teach me how to swim tomorrow night.”
He heard a smile creep through her voice. “Really?”
“Yeah. Hell, I know you won’t let me drown.”
“Oh, sweetie, thank you.” She already sounded a little less despondent. “I promise I’ll go slow and make it fun.”
“I’m sure you’ll make it fun, all right.” He suspected there would be a lot of sexy positive reinforcement used on her part. “You did mention something about a naked swimming instructor.”
She giggled. “Yes. Yes, I did. Whatever it takes.”
“I’ll hold you to it. And to something else, too.”
Another giggle. He loved hearing that sound from her. He especially loved being the reason she made the sound in the first place. “Promise?” she asked.
“Absolutely.”
She sighed. “I need to get off here and run down some more leads. I love you.”
“Love you too, baby.” He hung up the phone feeling a little sad. It would suck sleeping alone in their bed, but he supposed there would be times in their life it couldn’t be helped. When he thought about the possibility that Tayla Barrons’ daughter was being abused, his gut clenched. No one had helped his mom. He didn’t even know how bad the abuse had been because she did her best to hide it from him.
Not that he could have kicked his step-father’s ass anyway.
If Dewi could help prevent another statistic, he certainly could sleep alone for the night. Not like he wasn’t used to it.
Only now it seemed more lonely without Dewi there beside him.
Chapter Twelve
Wednesday morning, Ken knew which shirt he wanted to wear but couldn’t find it. Apparently, Dewi had washed and rearranged all of his clothes for him on Tuesday morning after dropping him off at work. Not that he minded the care, but she didn’t know his system.
Then again, before he’d met Dewi his system had consisted of need to wash now, wearable around the house, only worn once so it doesn’t stink yet, and clean.
Her system of organizing them by color was admittedly better.
He trailed through some of her shirts, the men’s shirts she favored that hung loosely over her frame, big enough he could easily wear them, many even larger than that. He pulled one out and checked the tag. Sure enough, it was his size.
Curious, he thought back. Everything she wore, with the exception of the tank tops and jeans, were big on her. Her bathrobe, her shirts, the men’s shirts.
He kept looking and only found three dresses, two of them black, generic wedding-funeral kinds of practical, and a dark grey one.
Once his mind hooked onto the thought, it wouldn’t let go. In the pictures of her he’d seen around the house, she always wore something baggy, form-hiding. Well, okay, she wore shorts and work-out clothes, and she obviously had no problems with body image as far as shucking her clothes to shift into a wolf. And she brimmed with easy self-confidence.
So why not dress the part of the sexy woman she is?
He finally located the shirt he wanted and buttoned it, still deep in thought.
The knock on the bedroom door startled him. When he stuck his head out of the closet, he saw Beck standing there.
The shifter didn’t look comfortable or happy. “Dewi called a while ago. She’s running late. She asked me to take you to work.”
“Is she okay?”
“Oh, yeah, she’s fine. Wreck on I-75 held her up. She’s still down around Venice.” His gaze skipped over Ken before he looked away. “I’m ready to leave whenever you are.”
Guilt washed through him. “Listen, I don’t mind driving myself. I’m sure Badger will loan me…something.”
“Badger’s not here. He left to run errands. And everything here is a stick shift. Except for Dewi’s motorcycle.”
“Um, okay.” Ken had never driven a stick before.
Beck snorted. “You ever drive a stick shift before?”
Ken tried for bravado. “How hard can it be?”
Beck snorted again. He sounded even more like a wolf than Dewi when he did that. “I don’t think you want to deal with Badger if you burn out the clutch in one of the cars. Seriously, I don’t mind driving you.”
Knowing that arguing would only rub salt in Beck’s wounds, Ken nodded. “Give me five. I’ll meet you in the kitchen.”
With a nod, Beck left.
Maybe that was his answer. He could talk to Beck on the ride in to work, find out more about Dewi that way.
No expression seeped through Beck’s mirrored sunglasses. Ken snuck glances at him from the passenger seat.
“Just say it,” he said, startling Ken.
“Say what?”
“Whatever it is on your mind that you’re dying to say and haven’t said yet.”
“It�
��s more a question.”
“Fine. Ask.” They pulled through the gate and onto the road. It was a comfort that Beck appeared more at ease driving within the posted speed limits than Dewi.
“What’s with Dewi and the baggy clothes?”
Beck flinched before he looked at him. “What?”
“Come on, you can’t tell me you don’t know what I’m talking about. The oversized shirts, the baggy tees, like she’s hiding her body.”
“She wears jeans and stuff.”
“You’ve known her all her life.”
Ken waited Beck out. Beck’s jaw tensed and clenched, working, nervous. Before they reached I-75, he looked at Ken. “How much has she told you about her parents?”
“All I know is what you guys told me last weekend. And Badger told me they were murdered. We haven’t done much talking about it since then.” It was hard to talk when you were too busy fucking.
Beck waited until he merged with traffic on I-75 to continue. “Whoever the fucker was that killed her parents, he’s still out there. He had to be a shifter. No way a human could have got the jump on Charlie like that. He kept them alive for a while. Tortured him and Chelsea.”
Ken felt his gut roll. “How do you know that?”
“Because we found Charlie tied up. And Chelsea had been raped before he killed her. The killer made Charlie watch while he raped her. Probably told them he’d kill Dewi if they fought him. Our best guess is that he killed her and hurt Dewi before killing Charlie.”
Ken swallowed back the bile. “Does she know that?” he whispered.
Beck slowly nodded. “Some of it. Not all of it. She’s never asked for the details, and we never volunteered them. But I know she must have picked up some of it from our thoughts, you know?”
“Did whoever killed them…” He couldn’t say it.
He didn’t have to. Beck shook his head. “No, she wasn’t molested, but her skull was fractured, like he’d kicked her, or threw her. Bruises all over her body like she’d been beaten. We found her under the couch, crying. We don’t know if he meant to let her live, or thought she wouldn’t live, or maybe he forgot about her in his hurry to get out of there. Peyton, Trent, and I went over to check on them and we…found them. Charlie and Chelsea were late getting to a pack dinner that he’d ordered, and they weren’t answering their phones.” Ken heard his audible sigh. “We went looking for them.”
Once Ken’s nausea over the revelation abated a little, he was back to being confused. “What does that have to do with her wearing baggy clothes most of the time?”
“I told you that a twelve-year-old Prime Alpha wolf is a lot like a twenty-year-old human, right?”
“Yeah?”
“Well, a six-month-old wolf shifter baby mentally ages much more rapidly than a human. It’s the wolf in them. She was old enough to have some memories of the attack, even though she doesn’t know who it was.”
Nope, back to queasy. “You think she witnessed her mother get raped, and both of her parents get murdered, and maybe she has memories of it?”
Beck changed lanes. “I’d be willing to bet money on it. But she’s always refused to talk about it and Peyton and Trent didn’t want to force her.” He glanced at Ken. “You know why I’m not trying to rip your head off?”
“You’re scared of Dewi killing you?”
Beck laughed. “Besides that.”
Ken shook his head.
“She was a gorgeous baby. Smiling and laughing and cooing from when she was a week old.” His expression darkened. “Until that day.”
Badger’s words Sunday morning came back to him, but he let Beck continue without interruption.
“I can sit here and honestly say yes, I love her. And while I wish like hell it was me she was mated to, you’ve done something that I never managed to do, even though I tried every day of her life since that day. I don’t give a damn that I’m a shifter and you’re not. You managed to do it, and for that I can’t ever hate you. Envy, yes. Hate, never.”
Ken had to ask. “What did I do?”
Beck changed lanes for their exit. “You’ve made her smile.” He glanced at Ken. “More importantly, you make her laugh. You make her happy. And this is the first time in her life we’ve ever seen her genuinely happy since her parents were murdered.”
* * * *
Ken made it through his day without unusual aggravation, although he received three more requests for teacher conferences from female students he’d barely spoken two words to during the entire semester.
Odd.
He decided not to mention that to Dewi and prayed she wouldn’t want to sit in on Thursday. He closed his office door and decided to grade papers while awaiting Dewi’s arrival to take him home.
Home. It hadn’t taken long of him to think of Dewi’s house as home. Or of Dewi, Badger, and yes, even Beck, as family. That’s probably why when he heard the knock on his office door nearly an hour later he called, “Come in,” without thinking.
When he looked up, the smile shriveled on his mouth.
“Hello, Cliffie.” In the doorway stood his step-brother, Dave. “What? Ain’t you happy to see me?”
“What do you want?”
He snapped his fingers at him and held out his palm. “I need the key to your place. Where the fuck you been? You ain’t been home in a couple of days.”
He wanted to deck the bastard, but Dave had six inches and at least fifty pounds on him. “I’m moving.”
“Oh. Huh.” He stepped forward and plopped down in the chair across from Ken’s desk. “Then I guess I’ll wait until you’re ready to go and follow you to your new place.” He grinned. “Damn women, so fucking fickle. She said I have to be out today. Stupid cunt can’t take a fucking joke.”
“You’re not going home with me.”
Dave’s smile faded. “Cliffie, we’re family. Where else am I gonna stay but with my baby brother?” A dark look Ken knew all too well clouded Dave’s expression. “Don’t make me get tough with you.”
That was Dave’s code for “beating the shit out of you.”
“Fuck you.”
Dave leaned forward. “Now you look here,” he softly said. “You don’t want to fuck with me. Remember what happened the last time you told me no?”
“No,” Dewi’s voice spoke from the doorway. Dave’s head swiveled to look at her. “Why don’t you tell me.” She pushed the door all the way open and stepped inside.
Ken immediately stood. “Dewi, it’s okay.”
Her gaze never left Dave’s face. “Who the fuck are you, and why the fuck are you here?”
Dave stood and grinned, looking back and forth from Dewi to Ken. “Son of a bitch, you landed yourself some pussy. Nice looking pussy, too. Congratulations. I thought you was a fag.” His smile faded. “Honey, you and me are gonna get along fine if you just—”
His voice transformed into something between a grunt and a squeal of pain as Dewi, in one fluid movement nearly too fast to see, kicked the office door closed with her foot, grabbed Dave’s crotch with one hand and his throat with the other, and then slammed him onto the floor.
She placed one knee over his diaphragm. “Let me tell you something,” she said in a low, growly tone. “No one calls me honey but that man over there.” She tipped her head toward Ken. “And I am anything but a pussy. A bitch? Oh, absolutely. Let me tell you something else, asshole. I don’t take kindly to threats.”
She twisted her hand between his legs and he let out another ineffectual squeak, which she choked off with the hand around his throat. “I damn sure won’t tolerate any threats against him. Oh, and another thing,” she said with a cheerful smile. “If I ever see your fucking face again, I will kill you.” She leaned in closer, only inches separating their noses. “If you don’t think I mean it, just try me. I’d love to see what you’d look like with your throat ripped out and your blood in a nice, large pool around your ugly-ass head.”
She stood, picking Dave up with the same two handh
olds she’d used to put him on the floor—throat and balls. Then she slammed him against the office door. “Do we have an understanding?” she asked.
Gasping for breath and turning an ugly shade of purple, he nodded.
“Good.” She released his balls but kept a grip on his throat. With her free hand, she opened the office door and flung him through the doorway. He slammed, back first, into the concrete block wall on the other side of the hall.
She closed the door behind him and leaned against it with a smile. “Ready to go home?”
Ken stared at her, his mouth gaping. The whole confrontation had lasted less than thirty seconds, if that, but it had felt like slow motion.
Outside in the hallway, he heard Dave coughing and gasping for air.
“Um…”
She shrugged, the smile not slipping from her face. “He picked the absolute wrong day to fuck with my mate. Not that there’s ever a good day for anyone to fuck with you, but I’m not in the best of moods to be charitable. I’m assuming that’s your step-brother?”
Ken nodded.
“I wasn’t very impressed with him. I’m guessing he’s not going to be on our wedding invitation list?”
Ken shook his head vigorously.
“Good. Ready to go?” she asked again.
“Um, yeah. Let me get my stuff together.”
She hadn’t even broken a sweat. The man who had been the bane of his existence since Ken was seven years old had literally just been thrown out of his office by the throat.
He started giggling, the sound rolling out of him in a near hysterical way. Unable to stand, he collapsed into his office chair as full blown belly laughs took over.
Amused, Dewi stood with her back against the office door, watching him until he finally got it out of his system. “You okay?” she asked.
He nodded. “Yeah. Sorry.” He shook his head. “You did what I’ve dreamed of doing for years.”
“Grabbing him by the balls?”
He laughed. “Well, throwing him out of my life.”
She rounded the desk and climbed into his lap. She wrapped her arms around him. “I love you,” she softly said. “I only want you to be happy. Asswipes like that, we don’t need in our life.”
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