“At least we’ll have everything we need for the new baby when she arrives,” Peyton said.
Gillian wrapped her arms around him from behind.“Don’t you ever scare me like that again,” she muttered against his back.“I willfuckingkill you.”
His hands settled over hers.“I learned my lesson.”He turned, holding her.“I will spend the rest of my life making that up to you.”
“So what do we tell him?”
“Tell who?”he asked.
“Moose.When he’s older and asks questions, what do we tell him?At some point he’ll look at his birth certificate, do the math about his age and Adair’s, and that math will not math.”
“We don’t hide that he’s adopted,” Peyton said.“The story is the truth—that his parents were murdered by the lab, he has no biological family that we’re aware of, and we adopted him because we knew he’d need to be with a family able to raise him with his kind.None of that is a lie, as far as we know.”
“Will the truth ever come out to all those kids?What if someone says something?”
“Well, everyone who participated in the raid and who’s treating the rescued hostages is sworn to secrecy and Primed to reinforce that.Meaning the shifter world at large doesn’t even know.We’ll mix in just enough truth to make the lies go down easily.We’re not hiding their parentage, only the depths of the horrors they witnessed and experienced firsthand.They don’t need to carry that trauma.I think Callum’s actions with Frannie prove he can successfully manipulate memories.”
“I’m surprised Elizabeth and Trevor didn’t take this little guy, too.”
“I think she wanted to talk me into letting her have him, until I told her he’s probably a Prime.The rest aren’t.Many of the kids are shifters, some aren’t.Mostly younger ones aren’t.”
“Why—oh.”She swallowed back bile.
He gravely nodded.“Once kids were older and they figured out they weren’t shifters, they killed them.”
“Can I take a whack at that fucker before he’s killed?”Gillian growled.
Peyton grimly smiled.“Callum and Bryn rightfully get that honor.Right now, he’s a prisoner in the cellar at the manor house.He’ll never leave there alive, but we can’t kill him until we’re confident we have all the intel out of him that we can glean.And we still need him to interpret the records.There were decades of this bullshit.We are nowhere close to finishing with the records.”
“We?Does that mean you have to go back over there?”
“Hopefully not.For now, I should be able to deal with things over the phone.Especially since they have Callum there for now and don’t need me as a Prime.”
“This is a lot to process,” she said.
He nodded, nuzzling her nose.“I know.But the good thing is our suite at the beach resort has two bedrooms.”He smiled.“One for the babies, and one for us.Small kitchenette.Literally a few yards to walk down to the beach.”
“I’m already pregnant, Bleacke,” she teased.“Can’t get me more pregnant.”
He laughed.“I promise that every year from now on, we’ll come here for at least a month, and try to stay at the beach resort, just the two of us, for a weekend or longer.”
“We’ll need a pool for our house.”
“Our house?”
She smiled.“The one we’re building here.We won’t be living here all year round, but there might be times I want to bring the kids down for long weekends or something.”
“Ah.”He kissed her.“Is this a hint that you want to eventually live down here full-time?”
She sighed.“Not right now.Not yet.But I miss Dewi and Badger and everyone.I want Duncan to see his great-grandbabies grow up.”
“What about your mom?”
She snorted.“Why do you think I want a house in Florida?”she joked.“I’ll need a break from her.At least my sister’s giving her in-person grandbabies.”
His smile faded as he stared into her eyes.“Are we okay, baby?”
“We’re absolutely okay as long as you never scare the crap out of me like that again.If you do, you’re getting a satellite radio tracking collar like the bears in Yellowstone.”
