Chapter One
December 30th
Ken stared at his brother-in-law, Peyton, and felt certain he’d misheard him. “You want me to dowhut?”
Exhausted didn’t even come close to describing Ken’s current mental, physical, and emotional state. This working-lunch meeting with Peyton, the Targhee Pack’s Alpha, fell on the heels of an already long morning of meetings for Ken. He’d spent hours handling pack business with Peyton’s mate, Gillian, and Ken’s other brother-in-law, Trent. Trent was Peyton’s second in command, and the eldest of the three Bleacke siblings.
Ken’s morning workload followed a nearly sleepless night, with him staying up waiting for Dewi to safely return from an overnight run with the other wolves.
That landed smack on top of a chaotic week, where Ken’s stress levels had shot through the roof and he’d slept very little overall. His first “family Christmas” in…well,ever. Because this was the first Christmas in years he’d actually had any kind of family, much less one as large as Dewi’s.
This Christmas “vacation” had also proven, so far, to be anythingbut.
Between a surprise mating and wedding for members of their family, in addition to the ever-present worry about a psychotic corgi shifter who was still on the loose and stalking one of their adopted packmates—he wished he was kidding about that part—this trip had definitelynotbeen a run-of-the-mill holiday family reunion.
Never saw anything like this on the Hallmark Channel.
With only two days until New Year’s Day, Ken wasn’t sure how much more “relaxation” he could handle.
Now Peyton had added one more responsibility to Ken’s increasingly weighty burden.
“You’re Dewi’s mate,” Peyton said. “If anyone can pull this off,youcan. I have faith in you.”
Ken tried to process that Peyton was dead serious. “I think you have far more confidence in my abilities than I do, dude.”
“Of anyone in this pack,” Peyton insisted, “you are theonlyone who can ask your mate to do something and have any chance of getting her to actuallydoit,withoutraising her suspicions. And get her towantto do it.”
Ken took a deep breath, held it, and slowly let it out. Peyton was a Prime Alpha wolf.
Not to mention he was Dewi’s older brother.
Yet here he was, asking the impossible of Ken, who was only a human without any special powers of his own.
“Exactlyhowam I supposed to keep this a secret from Dewi? She can read my fricking mind through our mate bond.”
“You’re a clever guy.” Peyton smiled. “I’m sure you can think of something. You have the sweet touch when it comes to Dewi and know exactly what to say to her. It helps that she’s expecting us to throw her a surprise baby shower before you all head home. That’ll knock her suspicions off-balance. Especially once Asia and Gillian throw Nami hers tomorrow.”
“That means she’ll be anticipating that any excuse I use to get her back here to Idaho is a cover-up for her baby shower. Kind of defeats the purpose, doesn’t it?”
Peyton’s smile widened into a wolfish grin. “That’s the beauty of it! We’re going to hold her baby shower out in Florida. Gillian and Asia will coordinate with Nami, Malyah, and everyone else there. Dewi will never expect that. She’ll think we’re going to have it for her here.”
“Great. Then Dewi will have her feelings hurt when you have one for Nami, but you don’t have one for her.” Nami was Beck’s mate, and Beck was Dewi’s second-in-command.
Also, he was her ex, in a relationship that put the complicated in “it’s complicated.” Beck nearly snapped Ken’s neck on their first meeting in Dewi’s kitchen, but Ken didn’t hold it against him. Dewi had saved him.
Frankly, Ken wasstilltrying to come to grips with the fact that he was going to be a father. Dewi’s pregnancy had been an oopsie—literally. She’d returned from a trip to Idaho in October, and upon her early morning return they’d fooled around before she’d fallen asleep. He’dthoughtthey fooled around safely, since it was Dewi’s fertile time of the month.
So had Dewi.
Apparently, mutual hand-jobs were safe only if you rememberednotto finger-paint each other’s privates with jizz in the process
Whoops.
Dewi was due in mid-July, but sometimes shifter babies could arrive a little earlier than human babies and still be perfectly healthy. They might even have a summer solstice baby, which apparently was a big to-do for wolves. So anywhere from mid-June to mid-July. They’d know a more accurate delivery date as Dewi’s pregnancy progressed. Ditto for Nami, who was only a couple of weeks farther along in her pregnancy than Dewi.
“No, she won’t get her feelings hurt,” Peyton insisted. “Beck’s family is all here this week. We have that excuse, for starters. Plus, I’ve got more than enough pack business to easily keep Dewi distracted while she’s here, trust me. And,” he added, “in all honesty, I’d rather do it there than here. I don’t want her or Nami making the trip out here from Florida more often than necessary while they’re pregnant.”
“What about Gillian and Asia, though? They’re both pregnant.”
