Terror that was quickly replaced by confusion, then grief and regret, as Badger Williams succinctly summarized the situation.
Now Hamish—who for decades had been known as Earl to the rest of the world—stared at Badger’s phone.
The pictures on it.
A daughter, born from a one-night stand to a woman he’d hoped would stay around for the long term.
A woman he didn’t realize would walk out of his life without even revealing her real name.
An hour later, the men were standing in Hamish’s living room as he struggled to think of anything else he’d need on this whirlwind, last-minute trip. Both his large suitcases lay open and nearly full on his couch as he ran his hands through his now unruly hair and…stared.
Badger laid a hand—without the Prime powers this time—on Hamish’s shoulder. “Take a deep breath, lad,” he gently said. “We’ve got three hours before our flight.”
“But…” Hamish sucked in a breath. “I have a…daughter.”
“Ye have a lot of family now,” he said. “Blood and bound, both.”
The other thing making Hamish’s mind whirl was the information Badger revealed to him about Faegan and the evil fuckery he’d been up to in the years since Hamish vanished.
Hamish now regretted not returning to Wales years ago to blow Faegan’s brains out. It sounded like a lot of people would have been better off—and still alive—if he hadn’t been a coward.
If he hadn’t chosen the easy, safer, self-centered path every time he confronted a fork in the road.
“Don’t fash yerself,” Badger added. “Not a single person blames ye for leavin’ the way ye did. Who’s to say ye’d even still be alive if ye’d stayed? At the very least ye’d be painted with the same damned brush.”
“And no one knows where Donnel is? Or if he’s even still alive?”
“No,” Badger said. “And that’s after several Primes interrogated Hyacinth and others. If he’s still alive, she doesn’t know his whereabouts. Faegan never told her what happened to him. Apparently, she developed a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ survival policy to not make waves.”
“Faegan always was an arrogant gobshite,” Hamish said. “Even back when we were lads. I think he fancied himself wanting to run with the wolves. The truth was he was the worst kind of coward when all was said and done. Sending everyone else out to do his dirty work and be his human shields while he kept his paws relatively clean.”
“Guess he grew more quarrelsome over the past several decades and started taking matters into his own paws,” Badger said. “He killed his own son’s mate, and then his son, when he tried to defend her.”
“Perhaps Donnel finally left because he grew tired of being drawn into Faegan’s follies,” Hamish said. “Although I admit murder is more than a folly.” It was odd how Hamish realized he’d reverted to his old Welsh accent while in the company of the other shifter, even though he’d long ago perfected his Midwest American accent to blend in.
“I suspect so,” Badger said.
They finally made it to the airport and checked in for their flight to Atlanta. As always, Hamish felt a twinge of fear when forced to fly and present his ID. He’d had the foresight decades earlier to bribe a doctor to create a birth certificate for a fictitious son, and then again not too long ago, for his own “grandson.”
Amazing what a new car could buy in this country. That would be the last birth certificate Hamish would be able to obtain from him, because the man was retiring. But now with the Targhee Pack’s resources, he could obtain a new one when the time was right.
And the paperwork always held up when starting from scratch like that.
Still, it didn’t assuage his fear, the familiar, pinching pining and aching that echoed his last view of the UK disappearing in the freighter’s wake.
He’d never returned, not even to the continent. He’d limited himself to North and Central America, and a few cruises through the Caribbean.
He’d always felt the safest place would be with at least one ocean separating him from his older brother.
Until now.
As they sat at the gate while awaiting the call to board, Badger gently elbowed him. “Try to stay in the moment, lad,” he said.
“When can I meet Imani?” he asked. “I have to meet her.”
“Eh, we’ll handle that soon enough, but we need to be delicate about it. Prime powers or not, it’ll be a helluva shock to her. And even though she doesn’t know it, she’s pack, meaning we will be as gentle as possible. I love her as family, and I won’t just drop her into the vat to sink or swim without cushioning the blow.”
“I need to meet her,” he said. “I need to be part of her life. She’s my daughter.”
