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  “Hold please. Beeeep. Hey, what uuuup?”

  “What up? Seriously? Where’s my husband and what have you done with him?”

  “I thought I’d try talking tough. Be more intimidating. No?” She could tell from his tone he was joking.

  She laughed. “No. You’re better off just pulling your gun and shooting them. That seems to work well for you. How’s it going?”

  “Well, we got the last of Joaquin and Malyah’s things moved over to their new house. They’re sleeping there tonight. They’ve got a bed, but they’re going to go furniture shopping tonight.”

  “That’s good. How’s Beck holding up?”

  “Nami asked Duncan if it was possible to do something to Beck to chill him the fuck out. He emptied the bedroom that’s going to be the nursery so they can paint it. He wants to buy carseats and cribs, and literally has about thirty paint samplers he’s been testing in the nursery. She said the walls in there look like a pastel clown puked all over it.”

  “Holy shit, I’ve only been gone four days.”

  “I know, right? Imagine what he’s going to have done by the time you get back.”

  “Poor Nami,” Dewi said. “He’s going to be a nervous wreck by the time he or she is born.” She hesitated. “So, yeah, guess what?”

  “What?”

  “Guess who else is pregnant.”

  He went quiet.

  She checked to make sure the call hadn’t dropped. “Um, hello?”

  When Ken spoke, his tone sounded serious, guarded. “I thought we were careful.”

  “Not me. Asia and Gillian are both pregnant.”

  “Oh!”

  “Wait, would you have been upset if it was me?”

  “No! I just…” He sighed. “I was just…” He didn’t continue.

  “Say it.”

  “I was going to be a little disappointed that you told me like that. That you didn’t do it in person.”

  She wasn’t sure how to interpret his tone. “So you wouldn’t have been upset if I was pregnant?”

  “Is this going to turn into a fight?” he asked. “Because that sounds like a trick question.”

  “We’re not fighting, and no, that wasn’t a trick question.”

  Another sigh from Florida. “We’ve got a lot going on. We talked about this. You made good points for waiting. It’s your decision if or when we have a baby.”

  “That’s not really an answer.”

  “I’m not going to control you, Dewi. That’s not me. If you’ve decided not to wait, we should talk about that, too. Just because your brothers want you to, what, make it a hat trick or something, doesn’t mean we should.”

  She snorted.

  “What?”

  “That’s exactly what Peyton and Gillian called it—a hat trick.”

  He chuckled. “Hug everyone for me. Tell them I said congratulations, and I’m looking forward to being the token human uncle.”

  She laughed. “I will. I should get back over there. We want to try to leave either tonight or in the morning.”

  “Be careful, okay? Love you.”

  “I will. You be careful. No more fights with vicious attack trees. And love you, too.”

  After she hung up, she headed for the shower. She wanted to mentally decompress for a few minutes before returning to the main house.

  She also wanted to sort out her own feelings about why she’d felt a little disappointed that she’d thought Ken was disappointed about the idea of her being pregnant.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Fortunately, the return drive home to Florida wasn’t an urgent affair. Dewi and Badger did pull over one night and stay at a hotel to sleep, so it took them an extra day.

  When they finally reached home, it was nearly four in the morning. As much as Dewi wanted to collapse next to Ken, she was quiet when she let herself into their bedroom and took a quick shower. She needed that even more and knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep without one.

  Settling under the covers with Ken was such a relief. She deeply inhaled, loving Ken’s scent and leaving her wanting to rub herself all over him and cover herself with him.

  Inhaling filled her lungs with the scent of him and set her clit throbbing…

  Which was a problem. Because a) he was asleep, and b) she took a quick mental and physical inventory, compared it to the calendar, and realized nope, not a safe day for nookie.

  Crap.

  Ken awakened—which took care of part a. He kissed her, his cock suddenly erect and pressed against her. “Hey. Welcome home.”

  She nuzzled his nose with hers. “Hey.” She cuddled closer against him, which was the wrong thing to do, because her body throbbed in response to his, wanting to feel him inside her. But then she was kissing him, kissing him—and she somehow managed to stop herself before doing something really dumb.

  “Sorry,” she gasped against his lips while angling her hips away from him. “Risky day.”

  “Huh? Oh.” He sighed. “Oh, well.”

  “I could take care of that for you.”

  “That’s not very fair to you. Especially after you just drove in.”

  “We could take care of each other.” She settled against him, her fingers wrapping around his cock. “Like that.”

  “Mmm.” He kissed her, his fingers slipping between her legs.

  She let out a happy moan. “Oh, yeah,” she whispered against his lips.

  He kissed her as they played with each other, stroking, teasing, knowing each other’s bodies and enjoying the build-up despite their mutual exhaustion. At least like this they could play without expending a lot of energy.

  Dewi could tell he was focusing more on her than his own pleasure. She enjoyed the way his fingers glided over her clit, dipping inside her to gather moisture before trailing out again, over and over in a sweet rhythm that drew her close to the edge and kept her hovering there on purpose.

  Realizing he was playing with her now, she worked harder to get him over, sucking on his tongue, nipping his lips, arching her body against his. His cock grew slick as pre-cum spilled from him, all over her hand and his shaft, making it that much easier to stroke him. She reached between her legs and wet her fingers, stroking him with that and making him moan as he started tipping closer to the edge. She did that several times, reveling in the sounds he made, the hunger washing through their mate bond as she stroked him.

  Keeping one hand on him, she used the other to keep him wet and urge him on with her, his fingers sliding inside her, thrusting in time with the rhythm of her hand on his cock, until, finally, they were coming together.

  Dewi’s eyes closed as she fisted him and stroked harder, his hand closing over hers to help finish him, then covering her hand again on her to tease one last release from her.

  Finally, spent and exhausted, they were both lying there and falling asleep when she realized they needed to clean up. “Hey,” she mumbled.

  “Hmm?”

  She untangled herself from him. “Shower.”

  “Oh.”

  Five minutes later, they were snuggled together in bed, and Dewi dropped into a deep and dreamless sleep.

  * * * *

  When Dewi finally awakened, it was almost four in the afternoon, and she really didn’t want to get out of bed.

  Maybe I should take the day off.

  Hell, it was mostly over already.

  She rolled over onto Ken’s side of the bed, with her face planted in his pillow, and she deeply inhaled.

  Mate.

  Goddess, she was glad to be home. She haaaated being away from him that long. Yeah, it’d only been a week, but it felt a lot longer than that.

  She finally dragged herself out of bed to use the bathroom. By the time she was done and had pulled on a robe to go look for coffee, their bedroom door was opening, and there stood her perfect, handsome mate.

  With a perfectly prepared cup of coffee for her in his hands.

  He handed it over with a smile. “I heard you movin
g around.”

  “Oh, my Goddess, I love you so much.” She sank onto the end of the bed and sipped.

  “I was going to start making dinner soon. You must be starving.”

  Her stomach rumbled in reply. “Yes, I am.”

  He laughed. “I sent Badger and Martin down to Valrico a couple of hours ago. The Johnsons. Again. Their oldest son called that they were fighting, again. That’s the third time in three months. He asked if we could just ask them to get divorced and be done with it. They don’t have a mate bond and they’re making their kids miserable.”

  “Badger? Why not Duncan? Badger must be as exhausted as I am.”

  “I was going to, but when Duncan asked if he could kneecap the guy, Badger said he’d go. I really think Duncan was just kidding, though. And Badger handled them the previous two times. He’s going to give them a Prime ultimatum. They should be back soon. He was literally going to walk up, Prime them to make up their minds to either divorce or get counseling to stop fighting, and leave.”

  “Okay.” She threw on shorts and a T-shirt and followed Ken downstairs, where she sat at the counter, drank her coffee. There, she scrolled through e-mail to start catching up while he started chopping fresh vegetables for the vegetarian lasagna that would be his main dish, as well as a side dish for the shifters, to go with the steaks he’d defrosted earlier.

  Duncan walked in. “There you are. Have a good trip?”

  “Yeah, but I’m glad to be home.” She slipped off the barstool and hugged him, long and hard. “Thank you for coming back, Da.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.” She looked up at him. “I know how hard it was for you to come back. Thank you. I love you, and I’m glad we have you back.”

  His brow furrowed but she didn’t pull away, wanting to hold on to him for a little longer.

  “You’re feeling awfully…emotional, sweetheart.”

  “Yeah. On the way up to the compound, I stopped at the…place. On the road. I—”

  He gasped.

  “I’m sorry,” she hurriedly said. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

  “Um, I’m not upset.”

  “Then why are you acting weird now?”

  She heard the large garage door rolling up, marking Badger and Martin’s return.

  “I…” Duncan stared down into her eyes and seemed at a loss for words. He was also carefully shielding his thoughts from her right now.

  “I didn’t mean to dredge up painful memories, Da. I’m sorry.” She hugged him hard again.

  He finally hugged her back. “Eh, sweetheart, you…um…”

  “What?”

  She heard Badger and Martin talking out in the garage.

  Duncan sighed. “Ken, can you put down that knife, please?”

  “What?”

  Dewi looked up. “What?”

  “I don’t want him to cut himself.”

  “Why?”

  “Why?” Ken echoed.

  Badger opened the door to the garage. “Hey, there. We got it settled, I think.” Martin followed him in and closed the door behind him.

  “Wait a minute,” Dewi asked. “Why don’t you want Ken to cut himself? I mean, what suddenly brought that on?”

  Ken set the knife down and walked over. “Yeah, I’d kind of like to know that myself.”

  Duncan looked at Badger and apparently said something to him silently, because Badger’s face blanked out for a second.

  Then Badger reached for Dewi’s arm, his meaty fist gently grabbing her.

  “Um, guys? You’re scaring me.”

  Badger burst out laughing, as did Duncan.

  Dewi untangled herself from them. “Okay, tell me what the hell’s going on?”

  Badger grinned. “I’ll let ye do it, Duncan.” He pulled out his phone and apparently started recording with the video camera. “Go on, then.”

  Duncan smiled. “Guess Ken welcomed you home last night.”

  “This morning, but whhhyyy?”

  “You’re pregnant.”

  “WHAT?” she screamed.

  “WHAT?” Ken echoed.

  Martin burst out laughing as Badger cackled. “Ooooh, yeah. This’ll get sent to Peyton an’ Trent here in just a minute. They’re gonna be so tickled!”

  * * * *

  An hour later, Dewi lay cried out in Ken’s arms on their bed. “How could I be so stupid?” she said.

  “It’s not the world’s worst thing, honey.” He knew she was upset, and his emotions kept wildly swinging between euphoric and terrified, with a stop along everything in between.

  He knew Dewi wasn’t unhappy they were going to have a baby—they already covered that territory—she was just still in shock and trying to come to terms with the fact that they were going to have a fricking baby.

  So was he—shocked—but Dewi was used to being in charge, being in control…

  And now, she wasn’t.

  At least, not right now.

  Right now, she was his wife and mate and a mother-to-be, and she was trying to come to grips with the fact that her brothers had already called her on FaceTime to congratulate her…followed by Beck, with Nami playfully scolding Dewi for having to learn about it from Gillian, and then Asia calling to scold her for her having to learn it from Trent.

  As well as half the pack now knew the Bleacke boys were going to be uncles.

  And she hadn’t even been pregnant a full twenty-four hours yet.

  Oh, boy.

  Then there was the whole thing that she felt a little cheated she stupidly got herself accidentally knocked up via mutual handjobs and not a more…fun way.

  Ken gently rocked her. “Maybe we can get Beck to help us with our nursery, too,” he tried to joke.

  But that just made her cry harder.

  He didn’t take it personally.

  When someone knocked on their door, he welcomed the distraction. “Come in.”

  It was Duncan. “Hey, sweetheart.” He walked over and sat on the end of the bed. “Dinner’s almost ready.”

  “I’m not hungry,” she pouted.

  “Honey,” Ken said, “you can’t be like that.”

  “Watch me.”

  “He’s right,” Duncan said. “This isn’t the end of the world. It’s not the end of you being Head Enforcer, either. Peyton already told you that.”

  Yes, to his brother-in-law’s credit, after Peyton and Trent had gleefully congratulated Dewi and busted her chops, Peyton had grown serious and insisted that Dewi would still stay on the job. He only asked that, as she got farther along, that she’d delegate others to go out on her behalf and stick closer to home. And hire a couple more Enforcers to help out.

  But he promised her she was still and would continue to be the Head Enforcer. Nothing would ever change there.

  And Dewi promised Ken she’d be careful, not take risks.

  “This is a celebration,” Duncan said, but he sounded choked up. Ken looked and realized the older shifter was crying.

  When Dewi realized it, too, she sat up and hugged him. “Why are you crying, Da?”

  “Because I missed getting to see your mother have you. And you look so much like her, it breaks my heart. I’m so glad I get to be here for you and this.”

  Ken remained quiet and watched them. He hoped maybe the perspective shift would help Dewi get through this faster.

  Finally, she took a deep breath and turned to hug Ken. “I love you,” she said.

  “I know, babe.”

  “And I do want this baby.”

  “I know.”

  “Gawd, if I’m this hormonal now, how bad am I going to be later?”

  “I know.” He looked at Duncan over her shoulder. “You realize you’re not allowed to ever leave, right? I’m going to need you and Badger to keep me alive.”

  He smiled. “I know.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Manuel sat at his uncle’s dining room table. In front of him was a laptop with satellite imagery zoomed in a
s large as it would go.

  Carl hovered over his right shoulder, both working with him, as well as to prevent him from attempting to access any sites, or do something stupid like e-mailing anyone.

  It was nearly the end of November, and Manuel hadn’t left Abundio’s house since his arrival a month and a half ago, although he had spoken to his wife and a couple of his men via telephone while under strict supervision.

  The story intricately woven by his uncle was that there was an ambush at the airport upon their return from the US, by a rival cartel. That Manuel barely escaped with his life, and had been severely wounded in the process. The missing men’s bodies were hauled away by the attacking cartel and likely disposed of in some remote and unknown spot.

  Injured and in peril, Manuel had sought help and refuge from his uncle. Which also explained why he was currently in hiding, and why he was making some of the business decisions he was.

  His orders to his men were to continue operations as they were, and to protect his wife, daughters, and mother at all costs.

  His wife was under orders by him to say nothing, not even to their own daughters, about his visit home.

  Extra pay from Abundio, both to Manuel’s men, and payouts to the lost men’s families, would help insure their loyalty and silence.

  Manuel felt even more ashamed that he’d panicked and been unable to come up with such an elegant solution on his own.

  Right now, they were going over satellite images of the Idaho town and compound, and Manuel was trying to recreate the day’s events as well as he could. As had happened that day in the compound when trying to match the actual topography and roads to the images he’d had on his tablet, it seemed like nothing in the image lined up with his memory. And this current image was only two weeks old, but seemed drastically different than what he remembered.

  The only thing he was sure of regarding the compound’s layout was the large maintenance building, where the bodies had been run through the chipper, and the campground where he’d stolen the truck. Also, the main road from the western entrance, where they’d entered, which ran through the compound, seemed to be in the right place.