He glowered. “You are the head of the expanded Pack Council. You are Head Enforcer. Fucking act like it! Your Pack Alpha is making decisions, and if you don’t like them, then fucking leave!”
Duncan took a step toward her, forcing her back another step. “But you will respect the Pack Alpha, pup. This situation is too dire for there to be any daylight between the leadership of this pack. You can say whatever you like in person to Peyton—in private. But do not ever let me hear you talk about him in public like this again, do you understand me?”
Dewi was once again eleven and sitting at the dining room table with Badger’s hand on her scruff, forcing her to show her throat and apologize.
She blinked, staring at him.
No one had talked to her like that since that night at the table.
She was aware of Badger emerging from his cabin—because of course they were only a few steps from his front door—and he wore a nearly identical dark glower as Duncan.
Badger walked over and stood next to Duncan, his hands on his hips. “I heard enough,” he said gravely. “An’ I won’t make ’im take back a single word, pup.”
She wanted to scream at both of them. Wanted to rail about how unfair it was that these decisions were being made behind the scenes without her input.
Finally, she tipped her chin up, just a little. “I apologize for the way I went off, but I do not and will not apologize for the feelings and fear I had that triggered it. Not after everything I’ve been through. Not after everything this pack’s been through. And I will not apologize for feeling angry that I’ve been iced out of decisions involving my mate, including literally dragging him halfway across the goddamned world without bothering to so much as tell me first, or even tell me Peyton’s alive, too. I submit to the Pack Alpha, but I demand to know what the fuck is going on. Respect the Pack Alpha? That goes both ways, right? Stop treating me like I’m a hand grenade about to go off and give me the information I need to help run this pack and do my fucking job. Mates are sacrosanct, especially human mates. And Peyton and you all have been fucking around in Ken’s mind without my knowledge or permission.”
“He’s an adult,” Badger said. “He’s allowed to agree to do things.”
“But I have a right to know what’s happening.”
Both men marginally relaxed. Badger reached out and touched her shoulder, squeezing it. “Go leave the baby with Gillian and meet us in the office,” he quietly said in a grim tone that chilled her soul.
“Why?”
“Because yer absolutely right—ye deserve to have the information. And as acting Pack Alpha, I’m gonna show ye everythin’.”
Three hours later, Duncan held the garbage can for Dewi while she retched into it, and Badger patted her on the back.
Fuuuuuck me.
She spit and took the offered glass of water, rinsing and spitting.
“Ken puked too, if it’s any consolation,” Duncan said.
She knew he was trying to lighten the tone, but that wasn’t possible right now.
Nodding that she was done, she sat back in the chair and gulped the water. “How much of that did Ken consciously know? And how much does he still remember?”
“Most of it was hidden from him until Peyton’s disappearance triggered everything,” Badger said.
“We left him with some of it, because it may be vital to the current situation,” Duncan added. “We want him able to put together various pieces of the puzzle, and if we took all of it away, he might miss things.”
She stared at Duncan, then Badger. “Why was I not given all of this before now?”
“Well, lass, ye were a child,” Badger kindly said. “Ye did have most of it in there already, but Peyton didn’t want it triggered unless the situation were…dire.”
“But why not trigger me instead of Ken?” she asked. “Why make him experience all of… that?”
That, more than anything, was what upended her stomach. Ken was a truly gentle soul forced into this life because of her. It was bad enough he’d killed—more than once—because of her.
That he’d had access to such knowledge…
It horrified her. And it shamed her, because it was her fault she’d claimed him as her mate.
“Because his skills are vital to this pack’s survival,” Duncan said. “Unless you want to give up being Head Enforcer and go back to school to learn what he knows. If so, then we need to arrange that immediately and figure out who will step in as Head Enforcer and take your place. I’m certain Ken wishes that’s exactly what would happen, putting you out of danger and allowing him to be a stay-at-home dad full-time.”
“That’s not viable, much less realistic, and you know it,” she flatly said.
