“I don’t want to think about that. There’s more instructions, I’m sure. I told them I don’t want to talk about it until then. I don’t want to know until then. There’s nothing else we can do until then, anyway.”
Gillian chuffed. “Leave it to him, he’ll pop up just before the damned vote, I bet.”
Dewi snorted. “Yeah. Fricking drama queen he is.”
That made Gillian laugh, and they both laughed until they cried and laughed some more.
Finally, Gillian sat up. “I know I should be the adult here, kiddo. I’m sorry.”
Dewi sat up with her, grabbing herself a couple of tissues from the box before passing it to Gillian. “No, you’re his mate. You and Malina are his top priority, and rightfully so. I’m head of the expanded Pack Council. I should be comforting you.”
Gillian sadly smiled and poked Dewi in the shoulder. “You were my starter pup. I used to tease Peyton that if I could handle you, I could handle any pup the Goddess threw at us.”
“Yeah, well, I know I wasn’t the easiest kid to raise.” She stared past Gillian, to a picture hanging on the bedroom wall, one she had a copy of hanging in her living room in Florida. Of their mom and dad sitting, smiling, with her just an infant in her mom’s arms, and Trent and Peyton flanking them.
The first and only formal family portrait of the five of them.
A picture where she was actually smiling.
Happy.
Safe and secure and well-loved.
Their parents were murdered only months later.
“Behind a dumpster, huh?” Dewi commented, looking to her sister-in-law. “I never heard that story.”
Gillian’s face went blank before she tearfully laughed. “Yeah. I dragged him back there, and he’s lucky he still had any clothes to put on by the time I finished with him.”
“Guess that’s why he never gave me serious grief about how I mated with Ken, huh?”
Gillian nodded. “Yeah. We got it, believe me. When it hits, it just…hits.” Gillian reached a hand toward Dewi, and Dewi took it.
Gillian squeezed. “Promise me something, kiddo,” she said.
“What?”
Her gaze narrowed, cold. “If…if. If this is…it. If it is, promise me they’ll suffer.”
Dewi squeezed back. “If it is, I will spend the rest of my life hunting every last one of those cocksuckers down and personally flaying the flesh from their bodies while they’re alive.” She sighed. “As long as you babysit for me while I go do it.”
Gillian’s eyes widened before she burst out laughing, and the two of them hugged, long and hard.
Dewi stared over her shoulder at the picture as they embraced.
Dad, help me out here, please? I need all the help I can get.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Peyton
Fuuuck.
While his head throbbed with excruciating pain—and that was the only thing he could currently focus on—he suspected this new development wasn’t attributed to his original captors.
Peyton remained still and quiet and didn’t open his eyes at first, opting to listen and scent. From the damp, earthy smell of the air, overlain with old smoke, and the way sounds echoed, he assumed he was in a small cave. The soft patter of rainfall outside meant he’d likely been unconscious for more than a couple of minutes.
“I know you’re awake, Prime,” a man’s voice said. “No reason to fake it.”
