CHAPTERFIVE
KEN
Ken had retreatedto their bedroom later that evening while Dewi was still on a video call involving pack mates out in California. Badger had confided in Ken that, in the past, Dewi likely would have already been on a plane and flying out to immediately settle things in person.
Meaning that she was making an attempt not to immediately jump into a situation like that as part of her obscure and frequently inscrutable love language.
That she wastrying, in other words. Because she wanted Ken to feel comfortable.
Meanwhile, he sat up in bed and read on his tablet because he suspected long stretches of pleasure reading would soon be a thing of the past once the baby arrived, between taking care of her and working.
At least I can take care of her while working.
Which…he didn’t mind at all, come to think of it.
He still preferred the idea of being safely tucked in the middle of the Idaho pack compound instead of there in Florida, but Dewi was right. Everything had hit him all at once, a tsunami of life-changing life…changes.
His nervous system was still trying to adapt to everything, in addition to impending new-dad jitters.
Add in Badger, and Duncan, and if none of the three of those Primes were seriously worried beyond the larger-picture, nebulous stuff they were all rightfully concerned about, then he wouldn’t, either.
Or, at least he’d try.
About an hour later, Ken heard Dewi’s darkly aggravated mumbles and her heavy footsteps on the stairs as she slowly and no doubt frustratedly stomped up them, giving him just enough time to set his tablet aside before she shoved the bedroom door open, thundered through it, and slammed it behind her.
Then she walked over to their bed and he was certain she would have face-planted next to him if it wasn’t for her baby belly. Instead, she sort of flopped down on her side and immediately scooched over to snuggle against him.
He also struggled not to laugh because even in irritated-as-fuck mode she was still adorable.
“You all right, sweetheart?” he asked.
“Yes,” she grumbled against his side, her voice muffled. “Except Ireeealllywant a drink and know I can’t have one. I mean, Ican, but I shouldn’t.”
He changed positions to tuck her against him so she could lay her head on his chest, which was what he knew she wanted. She ended up with a leg draped over him, and an arm. “Fucking twatwaffles,” she mumbled against his T-shirt.
Dewi had many moods, and while this was similar to the aggravated venting she frequently engaged in with him, there was a different aspect to it now that she couldn’t just wade in andhandleit.
Frustration.
He nuzzled the top of her head. “Feel like talking about it?”
Another grumble. “There aren’t any strangely whackadoodle religious nuts that will shake out of your family tree, are there?”
He laughed. “No. Even if they did they can go screw themselves. What happened?”
She shifted position enough she could speak without mumbling against him. “Long-story-short, Melpomeni Argyros—Mel for short—is a gamma shifter. She turned twenty-seven two weeks ago. While on a belated birthday trip with some of her cousins and sister this past weekend, she met a guy. A clueless human. Mate bond.”
“Uh-oh.”
“Oh, it gets better. This happened at a resort. There was also a wedding happening there. That’s where she stumbled across the guy. Scented him in the lobby on her way to the pool with everyone. So she tracks him down, coaxes him outside alone, and boinks him in the bushes behind the ballroom during the wedding reception of Calvin’s older brother. He’s twenty-two.”
“Calvin’s brother’s twenty-two?”
“Calvin’s twenty-two. No clue how old his brother is. And she didn’t know it was his brother getting married. Anyway, she bit and claimed Calvin, but before she could do anything else, like tell him her name, get his name, much less,‘Oh, hi, shifters are real and I am one,’—”
“Sounds familiar,” he snarked.
“—hisgrandmotherwalks outside looking for him and caught them still tucking everything away into non-public-nudity-charges territory.”
