“BebeattackedDania! Then she called her a bitch!”
Unable to contain his amused snort over the last part, he faked a cough and hoped she bought it. “If it means anything, the little squabble they had was mutual, and it was perfectly normal for shif—”
“No,” she quietly said, deadly calm. “Those babies arenotshifters. Theycain’tbe. They havehumanparents. You said you don’t even know ifourbaby will be a shifter because I’m human.”
He took another deep breath. “Bebe and Dania might not be able to shift,” he said. “But it’s also not uncommon for kids born into shifter families, kids who can’t shift, to still act like that when they’re young. Also, while it’s uncommon, sometimes shifters are born to parents who aren’t shifters. Even clueless humans. It depends on how the genes were passed down.”
She slowly shook her head as she stared out the window. “I refuse to believe it. They were tired, and obviously Bebe is absorbing too much of that…thatstufffrom her time with Tamsin! She wants to be a wolf shifter so much she is pretending to be one. Why are we even trying that with her! That baby is not—” She shook her head. “No. She isnot.”
Beck took her hand and gently squeezed as tears started rolling down her cheeks. “This isn’t the end of the world, sweetheart. It’s a complication. It’s still an uncertain complication, at that.”
“Acomplicationthat can get either or both of them killed!” she screamed, startling him.
She jerked her hand free and crossed her arms over her chest, angling herself toward the door as best she could despite her seatbelt.
Beck softly sighed and didn’t speak, knowing nothing he said to her right now would be right. She felt terrified, not just about Bebe and Dania, but about their baby, too.
I need to cut Ken a lot more slack.
Beck already knew, first-hand, how intense Dewi could be when she wasn’t pregnant.
If Ken was dealing with a fraction of the mood swings with her as he was with Nami…
He’s a better man than I am.
When they got home Nami headed straight back to their bedroom to take a shower and Beck didn’t have to be a mind reader or use their mate bond to sense she needed a little time alone.
Instead, he slumped onto the couch and checked his phone, where he had received a text from Dewi during the drive home.
We need to talk. Now.
He called Dewi and she answered on the first ring. “Hey. About today.”
“Yes?” he said.
“First, how’s Nami? She seemed pretty upset.”
He sighed. “She is. In denial, I think. Overwhelmed.”
“Well, we need to figure something out. I know Nami is planning on taking over babysitting duties for Tamsin for a while after her baby’s born, but we need Bebe to stay with Tamsin for now during the day. Carl and Mateo volunteered to take up the slack, and Brianna and Da’von will help, too. So will Malyah, and Stig’s wife, if we need her. Today proved that we cannot risk clueless humans caring for those girls until we ascertain if they can shift. Not that Nami’s clueless,” she quickly added. “But we need to continue caring for Bebe and Dania.”
“We can’t abduct their kids, Dewi.”
“No, that’s not what I mean. Da had a good suggestion—Prime both sets of parents to let us handle daycare and schooling. We also add an order in there that if anything unusual happens, they call us immediately, get someplace alone and safe, and wait for us to arrive.”
“That’s not bad,” he admitted. “Why do I sense this is more than an FYI?”
“Because you need to convince Nami to get in line. I love her to death, you know I do, but she’syourmate. I don’t want to have to Prime her about this. None of us do. But Badger, Da, and I all agree that if you can’t make her understand why this is necessary, we’ll have to do it, because we don’t want her stressing out so much that it makes her sick or hurts her baby.”
Beck closed his eyes and laid his head back against the couch. “I know. I’ll talk to her. We just got home and she went to take a shower. I think once she wraps her mind around it everything will be okay. Let’s give her a few days.”
“Well, about that. She’s got approximately twelve hours.”
His eyes popped open. “What?”
“I called Peyton and Trent. Badger and I will intercept Leila tomorrow morning before she heads out to take Dania and the twins to their pre-school.”
“What?”
