“I’m afraid to Prime her too much for fear of masking her abilities.”
Duncan also wore a scowl. “What about Reggie’s cousin?”
“I know,” Trent said. “We’ll need to find out exactly who and where they are, infiltrate the school with one of pack, and go from there. I might even have to move someone into their neighborhood.”
Joaquin didn’t want to assume he knew more than the pack’s Alpha, but he had an idea. “Can’t we just arrange for them to move to Tampa, if they aren’t already in the area?”
“I don’t want to uproot a family if I don’t have to. If they are local to Tampa, it’ll be easy for Dewi, Badger, and Duncan to Prime the parents into letting them let their little girl be “homeschooled” by extended family.
“We don’t tell them about shifters, if she turns out to be one?” Joaquin asked.
“I’d rather not. The more clueless humans who know, the greater our risk. If we can get the kids through life until they’re old enough to understand how serious this secret is, we might be able to get away with not telling the parents. Then we can use the excuse of the kids coming to boarding school in Idaho. We’ll set it up to look like a high-tech STEM program or something. Then they can be around their own kind for a while and learn what they need to. Have a chance to be wolves.”
Duncan draped the blanket back over Tamsin, who shifted into human form once again. Dewi shifted before Peyton could do the same, taking the blanket from him and wrapping it around her. “Have we ever had cases of non-shifting parents who were clueless having shifter kids?”
Badger rubbed a hand over the scar twisting from above his left eyebrow, through the sunken lid of his missing left eye, and down his cheek all the way to his chin. “Not fer decades, that I’m aware of.”
“I hate to be the one to say this,” Dewi said, “but is it possible that the…thingwe discussed in private yesterday might have been triggered by someone getting their hands on a shifter from a non-shifting family?”
“At this point,” Peyton said, “anything’s possible.” The pack Alpha sounded weary. “We’re entering a dangerous new time. Cell phones, CCTV cameras everywhere, computers. This is the other reason I want our pack moved to the States. We have a better chance of protecting them here. We can intercede more easily if someone’s picked up.”
Bebe had nearly cried herself to sleep in Badger’s arms. “Our lines are strong, but increasingly diluted. All we can do is improve communication and watch out fer each other more carefully. None of us will survive if we canna do that.”
Dewi and Tamsin got dressed again, and Badger returned a now sleeping Bebe to Joaquin. When they returned to the main house, it was just Beck, Nami, Ken, Trent, Asia, Malyah, Carl, and Mateo.
“Well?” Trent asked.
Peyton shook his head. “We’re all in agreement she’s acting like a shifter, but she didn’t shift.” He related what happened to the others. Nami and Malyah looked stunned, while the other seemed to be taking it in stride.
“I’d be happy to help watch her,” Tamsin said. “She’s adorable.”
“You’re gonna have one of your own soon enough,” Nami said. “That’s a lot to ask. Take it from me, I know what it’s like to raise an infant. I raised Da’von from a baby. And I helped Momma when the others were little, too.”
“That’s all right,” Carl said. “We’ll help. Absolutely, we’d love to watch her.” Mateo nodded, too.
Peyton stared at the sleeping toddler, then looked at Trent. “What do you think? You’re a father of shifters.”
“We can’t risk it,” Trent said. “She needs to be watched by family who can handle her. She shifts in the middle of a human preschool, that’s a panic situation, right there. It’s not only trying to Prime a few dozen kids and teachers and parents into forgetting what they say, it’s what happens if one of the workers films it on a cell phone and uploads it to YouTube before we get to them? Then we’re screwed.”
“People wouldn’t believe it, though, would they?” Malyah asked. “They’d think it’s a faked video, right?”
“Maybe,” Peyton said, “but it’s not worth calling attention to ourselves like that.” He turned to Dewi, Duncan, and Badger. “Let’s handle this tonight with Lu’ana and Reggie,” he said. “So that from when you all return to Florida, family is watching Bebe. I don’t want it on my plate any longer than necessary.”
Chapter Nine
Mateo listened to the other shifters relate what happened with Bebe. He’d learned over the years to listen to and trust his instincts, even though he couldn’t shift. It was sage advice their father had given him before his parents died.
Listening to his and trusting his instincts had kept him and Carl alive plenty of times while working for Abundio Segura. While on paper their former employer had been running a legit business…there was enough skating the edge that they’d avoided some pretty hairy scrapes by listening to that sixth sense. And Abundio’s nephews ran a notorious drug cartel.
Mateo’s instincts, in this case, were telling him Bebe would end up being a shifter.
It wasn’t impossible for a shifter to be born to clueless humans, but usually if a family had strong enough recessed genes in its history for them to combine enough to give birth to a shifter, there were people in that family who were aware of it to start with.
I guess we really are babysitters now.
That wasn’t even sarcasm. Frankly? He was looking forward to it. He’d take this option over their previous career. They were now working for a pack who’d welcomed them with open arms, allowed them to join, and were now considered family.
Literally, because of Brianna mating with Da’von.
