As they watched, Beck knew his expression probably mirrored the shock he saw on Joaquin’s face. When it ended, they both turned to Badger.
“Holy shit!” Beck stared from Joaquin to Badger and back again, just to confirm what he’d watched.
Badger nodded. “Before ye even ask, I’ve got DNA tests being run as we speak. When I know, ye’ll know. But we’re not tellin’ anyone else this yet. Not even yer mates. I want proof first.”
“That looked pretty damned proofy to me,” Joaquin said.
“‘Proofy’?” Ken snarked.
“Hey, I can curse you out in two languages—”
“He’smymate, Joaquin,” Dewi growled.
“But I’ll be polite in both of them considering who you are.”
Dewi snickered. “Ass.”
“As I was sayin’,” Badger said, glaring at everyone, “I wantproof. And then we plan.”
Beck listened as Badger detailed exactly why this was trickier than it appeared on the surface.
He also couldn’t argue with his logic. “Yeah, I don’t think Nami and Malyah need to know this yet, either. Let’s wait until we have a plan. We don’t need to worry about Priming them every time they turn around just so no one picks up on the fact that there’s a problem.”
“My thinkin’ exactly,” Badger said. “Joaquin?”
Joaquin held up his hands. “Majority rules, but in this case I concur. Malyah’s not pregnant, and Nami is. I think we need to worry about keeping her calm and mitigating her stress.” He looked at Beck. “No offense intended, and I’m not trying to say I know your mate better than you, but she looked like shit this morning.”
Beck nodded. “Yeah, I know.”
Dewi scowled. “Do we need to call the doctor?”
“I don’t think so. I’ll talk her into going home early today and hopefully get her to take a nap.” He touched his hands together, a brief Namaste. “Thankyou for getting Bebe to shift back. I can only imagine how stressed Nami would be right now if you hadn’t managed that.”
“Any other parenting tricks you might have forgotten about from having little sisters?” she lightly teased.
“I swear, I dropped the ball on that one. I forgot that Jacie did the same thing. Wanted so badly to shift that once she could she didn’t want to shift back. I don’t remember exactly how it went down, but Mom used something similar on her. That it was a shame Jacie wouldn’t be able to learn how to shift back faster than Sadie, I think. Because Sadie didn’t start shifting until she was like seven, I think, but once she did it wasBAM-BAM, she could shift to wolf and back faster than any kid the adults had seen up until that point.”
“Oh!” Badger snapped his fingers. “That’s right! I remember that now!”
“Right? It was like the talk of the pack compound for weeks. I remember Charlie coming over himself to see it. Well, anyway, Mom used sibling rivalry on Jacie and then she was trying to shift back and forth faster than Sadie could.”
“Remember that trick,” Ken told Dewi.
“Oh, I will. Believe me.” She was about to say something else when her phone went off with a text alert.
And so did Ken’s.
And Badger’s.
And Joaquin’s.
And Beck’s.
And as they all shared a concerned glance and checked their phones, Beck’s stomach dropped. “Oh, shit!”
* * *
Nami
