Startled, Aisling stumbled for words, but Badger took over again. “Lass, ye best get goin’ before traffic is too horrible.”
Lu’ana glanced at her watch. “Oh, my gosh! You’re right!” She hurriedly leaned in and kissed Bebe before calling out her good-byes.
When the front door closed behind her, the eyebrow over Badger’s good eye went up and he walked over. “What was that about, then?” he asked Aisling.
Aisling nodded at Bebe. “Cheeky little thing winked at me. When Lu’ana was talkin’ about her not makin’ friends easy.”
Bebe giggled. “Gwampa did the wuffie on Mommy.”
Badger’s eye widened. “Well, then. Yer not wrong, missy. But what’d we talk about?”
“I don’t talk about wuffie stuff to Mommy and Daddy and people who aren’t wuffies. But Auntie A’s a wuffie.” Bebe grabbed Aisling’s face and turned it so she could look into her eyes. “No, wait. You not a wuffie. You a puppy. Like me and Auntie Tam, but diffwent. Wight?”
Brianna, who’d been heading to the sofa with a mug of coffee in hand, froze mid-step. “Um, did she just say what I think she just said?”
“Uh-huh,” Aisling said.
Badger handed the girl’s bag off to Brianna and held his hands out for Bebe. She willingly went.
“All righty, lass,” he said as he settled her on his hip. “One more time. No wuffie talk—or puppy talk—around anyone who doesn’t know already. Understand?”
“But I was quiet!”
“Quiet or not, we cannae risk it.”
Bebe solemnly nodded. “So Auntie A is a puppy?”
“How the feckin’ hell does she know that?” Aisling asked.
“Langwage, Auntie A,” Bebe scolded.
Brianna snorted while Badger looked like he was fighting a headache. “Yes, Auntie A’s a puppy,” he said. “She’s an Irish Wolfhound. You and Auntie Tam and Uncle Hamish are corgis.”
Bebe happily bounced in Badger’s arms. “Yay! Another puppy!” She leaned over for what Aisling realized was a high-five with her, and Brianna finally lost it laughing.
“Is she always this sharp?” Aisling asked Badger.
He looked disconcerted, and that disconcerted Aisling. “She’s extremely perceptive an’ precocious, yes. So watch what ye say around her.”
“Especiwy your langwage,” Bebe added.
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,” Aisling said. “What the hel-eck have I gotten myself into?”
Badger snickered. “Welcome to the family, lass.”
Badger stayed until just before lunchtime, making sure Dania and her sisters were also comfortable around Aisling. Fortunately, he’d needed to use very little Prime on them, just enough of a nudge that they accepted the situation like they’d already known about it. When the old shifter was ready to leave, Aisling walked him out while Brianna remained inside with the children.
“What happens if there’s suddenly a small shifter prancin’ around here?” she asked.
“Call me immediately,” he said. “I’ll call the respective parents and tell them there’s gonna be a slumber party, and then I’ll put myself on the first flight back to help you. I implanted commands in the parents to allow me to give them emergency instructions over the phone in a case like that.”
“Ye sure I can handle this? Bebe is already a handful. And if Dania isn’t a shifter, I’ll eat my feckin’ shirt.”
“I’m fairly certain yer right about that, but all that’s on hold until after we return from Idaho. Once Hamish has returned, we’ll start the next part, which is breakin’ all this to Imani. After she knows—and has recovered from the shock—then ye’ll be takin’ care of the babies and her, too. Workin’ with her to teach her how to do it and control it.”
“I’ve never heard of a shifter never shiftin’ again once they have as a child.”
“Neither have I, but she was raised by clueless humans with zero knowledge of what was happenin’. The younger a child, the easier to imprint on them—positive and negative. Plus, it seems like our pack is the center of a bunch o’ firsts lately. What’s one more, then, aye?” He offered her a wry smile. “Just take it one day at a time. Teach ’em, have fun with ’em. Be the fun ‘aunt’ to ’em.”
