A Bleacke Wind (Bleacke Shifters Book 3) Page 4

  “I wish I’d met you sooner,” she softly said. “Maybe I could have helped you out there.”

  He reached across the seat to hold hands with her. “That’s all in the past,” he said. “I know your parents and mine would want us to be happy. We have the future together. That’s what I want to focus on, not the pain of our pasts.”

  She glanced at him, her smile warming his heart and stirring interest below his belt. “We’re going to my special spot while we’re here,” she said.

  “I know. You told me.”

  “I’m really looking forward to that.”

  “Believe me, so am I.” He stared at the passing landscape again. “I hope I don’t get lost while we’re out here.”

  She snorted, amused. “I will always be able to find you. Wolf sniffer, remember? You ever get lost, just keep yourself alive and safe until I find you. That’s all you have to do.”

  “Guess playing hide and seek would be useless against you, huh?”

  She laughed. “Wolf pups don’t play that game. Tracking games and races, yes. But hide and seek is kind of stupid. Unless you’re playing with human kids, and then it’s like shooting fish in a barrel. It’s pointless and no fun.”

  * * * *

  It was just after dark when they rolled into Peyton’s front yard. Which was a misnomer, because as far as Ken could tell, there wasn’t anything to mark the boundary between their yard and the wilderness beyond.

  When Dewi pulled in, Beck parking next to them, Peyton and a man Ken guessed was their eldest brother, Trent, stepped out onto the front porch, followed by several others.

  Dewi climbed out and raced over to the unknown man, who caught her and swung her around in a playful hug as if she were a child and not twenty-five.

  “There’s our Dewster. Welcome home, sis.”

  Peyton smiled and extended his hand to Ken as he walked over to join them.

  “Good to see you again,” Peyton said.

  Ken shook with him. “Good to see you, too.”

  Peyton quickly made the introductions. Yes, the man was Trent, the eldest of the three Bleacke siblings. Peyton also introduced their wives, and Trent’s kids, as well as a few assorted cousins.

  Nami and Beck also received a warm reception. Once the introductions were completed, Nami spoke up.

  “Sorry, not to be rude, but I have two dresses I need to get unpacked and hung up as soon as possible so they don’t get wrinkled.”

  Peyton’s wife, Gillian, stepped forward. “I’ll show you to your guest house.”

  Asia, Trent’s wife, followed. She waved her teenaged sons along. “Come on, be polite and help them with their bags. I didn’t raise you wild creatures in a barn.”

  “Beck,” Peyton called out when the man started to follow the group. “A moment, please.”

  Ken sensed Beck’s change in demeanor as he stopped, turned, and returned to them, resignation now weighing down his considerably wide shoulders.

  “Yes, Sir?”

  Peyton glanced at Trent before speaking. “I know you’re not fond of Joaquin, but I would consider it a personal favor if you would please let your objections to the man drop, at least during the Muster. I still haven’t decided where to send him yet but he can’t return to Mexico. I know how you feel about him, and I can’t say that I blame you.

  “But what happened is years in the past and your sister was an adult when they hooked up. If I banished everyone from the pack whose exes have family who have a problem with them, we wouldn’t have a pack.”

  Beck’s heavy sigh nearly bowled Ken over. “Fine, I won’t get into it with him.”

  “Thank you. That’s all I ask. Badger took him over to Jack and Moraine’s. He’ll be staying there this week. Their two oldest are away at college, so they offered him a room.”

  “Thank you for that,” Beck said.

  “I’m not an idiot.” Peyton then focused on Dewi. “I also need a sit-down with you four to discuss Joaquin’s disposition.”

  “Four?” Ken asked.

  “Yes,” Peyton said. “That includes you.”

  “I’m assuming you mean discussing Joaquin’s new assignment and not his personality?” Dewi snarked.

  “Yeah. We need to figure out where to send him once it’s safe. For now, he needs to stay here. Once the Muster’s over, I’ll probably give him one of the guest cottages to use for the remainder of his stay. I talked to Ramirez today. He said he got the Escobar family out of there and they’re safe for now with distant relatives in Texas, but there were people checking out Joaquin’s apartment and asking questions. We don’t know how far the cartel has managed to track him. I’d rather not send him back out unprotected. He’s going to need a full new identity, and that’ll take Gillian a while to put together.”

  Ken sensed the immediate shift in Dewi from personally happy to be home and back with her family into full-on pack-business mode. “Why didn’t you call me when you found that out?”

  Trent smirked, and Ken could clearly see some of Dewi in the expression. “Uh, maybe because you were on a plane?”

  Now Ken saw where Dewi got her sarcasm. It apparently ran thick in the Bleacke family’s bloodline.

  “If it involves one of my Enforcers, I need to know this stuff.”

  It amazed Ken that Dewi could flash from aggravated at Joaquin and his unexpected arrival, to being worried about him because she also felt he was her responsibility. Especially considering Joaquin was older than her.

  “Again, Dew,” Peyton said, “you were on. A. Plane.”

  “We landed a couple of hours ago.”

  “And as pack Alpha, I knew it was something that could wait until you got here. Yes, we have to deal with pack business while you’re here, but it’s not totally a work trip.” He pointed to Ken. “You’re here to get married.”

  “By the way,” Trent said. “When do we get to see you in that dress?”

  Peyton and Trent grinned.

  “I hate you both,” she muttered, spinning on her heel and stomping off toward the SUV, presumably to grab their luggage.

  Ken shook his head. “Guys, I know she’s your little sister, but cut me some slack, okay? Just like I told Beck and Badger, if you two wind her up, then I have to calm her down. And I’m not a shifter.”

  “Sorry,” Trent said, grinning and looking anything but apologetic. “But you have nooo idea how long we’ve waited for this moment.”

  “Literally her entire life,” Peyton added with a nearly identical grin. “Considering what we have been through, we are damn sure going to enjoy every second of it.”

  * * * *

  Peyton had seven guest houses on his property, all of them situated in a semi-circle behind the main house and connected by covered walkways to each other and the main house. Dewi explained it was because of him being the pack Alpha and needing to accommodate visitors, sometimes important ones.

  In the nearby town thirty minutes away, there was also a hotel which was owned and run by the pack. The bulk of their usual business was composed of human hunting and fishing tourists, but they also did a brisk trade housing pack members during Musters and other get-togethers, as well as renting their facilities out to other wolf packs and shifter races who needed safe, discreet gathering places to hold their events.

  Badger occupied the guest house in the middle, while the two couples had been given the guest houses at either end. Nami’s family, when they arrived, would get three more guest houses, with Reggie, Lu’ana, and their daughter in one, and siblings Malyah and Da’von each getting one of their own.

  Plenty of room, with no one right on top of each other.

  And the wolves didn’t have to worry about how much noise they and their mates made in bed without clueless humans bunking just a wall away from them.

  With the vehicles unloaded, and once the newcomers had time to settle in and freshen up, everyone gathered in Peyton and Gillian’s huge dining room at their enormous table for dinner. Badger had returned
to join them.

  Sans Joaquin.

  Gillian offered Ken a smile. “I hope what I made is okay. Dewi warned us you’re a grazer.” She said it kindly, without any hint of snark.

  With a huge salad and vegetable side dishes aplenty, in addition to the pile of steaks for the rest of them, Ken knew he wouldn’t starve.

  “It looks and smells wonderful, thank you.” That she’d actually taken the time to do that meant a lot to him.

  “You’re pack,” she said. “Not to mention you’re family. We take care of our own. If there’s anything you like that I don’t have, feel free to add it to the grocery list on the fridge and I’ll get it when I’m in town.”

  “And feel free to raid our fridge and pantry,” Peyton said. “Dewi will tell you I’m not even joking. Our home is your home.”

  “That goes for you, too, Nami,” Gillian added. “If you’d like to add anything to the shopping list, I’ll be happy to get it.”

  Nami wore a beaming smile. “I wouldn’t mind a chance to cook for y’all while I’m here.”

  “We’d be honored,” Gillian said. “We’ve heard what a great cook you are. Or, if you want to come to the store with me, I’d be happy to have you along.”

  Nami glanced at Beck. Ken didn’t miss the bashfully pleased smile she gave her mate. “Food is love,” Nami said. “At least it always was in my family. I love to cook. Even when times were rough and we had little, it was easy to stretch a dollar to cook a meal that could feed everyone. Momma used to make us have Sunday dinner together when we were growing up. After she died, I kept it up as a tradition. It helped keep us together.”

  “Nami’s got us doing it now,” Dewi said, smiling. “It’s a nice tradition to have.”

  Trent’s expression turned somber. “Well, as we all found out, family’s important. Especially when it can be ripped away from you in a heartbeat.”

  “Amen,” Peyton said.

  They all fell silent for a moment. Peyton held up his glass of iced tea. “To family, both here and fallen.”

  “To family,” the rest of them echoed, everyone drinking a toast.

  “So, Dewi,” Trent said when the somber mood broke. “When do we get to see you in that dress?”

  Chapter Four

  Once the dishes were done and the kitchen cleaned, Asia sent her four kids home. Charles, Kent, Arthur, and Chelsea were seventeen, fifteen, thirteen, and eleven. As much as they wanted to spend time with their Aunt Dewi—and their new Uncle Ken—they obediently said good night when Trent arched an Alpha eyebrow at them after they initially balked at their mother’s order.

  Trent was the eldest of the three Bleacke siblings at fifty-one, twenty-six years older than Dewi. His mate, Asia, was forty-five. When Charles and Chelsea Bleacke—their parents, and two of Trent’s children’s namesakes—were murdered, Trent willingly took a knee so younger Prime Alpha brother Peyton could be named the Targhee pack Alpha. At forty-eight, Peyton was only a year older than his mate, Gillian. None of them looked much older than thirty.

  Despite their roles, it didn’t mean Trent didn’t have influence or say or control in the pack’s matters. As Peyton’s right-hand man and the pack’s second in command, he worked every bit as hard as his brother to ensure the pack’s safety and successful future.

  They gathered in Peyton and Gillian’s living room while Peyton played bartender and the adults sat back to breathe a collective sigh of relief.

  Badger looked around. “Well? Should I be sayin’ it?”

  “Say what?” Dewi asked.

  Badger lifted the short glass he held filled with bourbon. “Charles and Chelsea would be proud of ye,” he said. “Of all three of ye kids. For keepin’ the pack together through its darkest hour and into a bright new day. I’m proud to welcome Ken and Nami both to the pack, growin’ our family in the process.”

  The other wolves, including Dewi, held up their adult beverages of choice.

  Ken held up his beer, which had been the strongest thing he’d wanted to try. The early morning and lack of sleep, combined with the stressful travel, had worn him out.

  “Thank you,” he said.

  Nami dabbed at her eyes, but she wore a smile as she also held up her glass. “I’m glad to be here,” she said. “Y’all have been very welcoming. I can’t wait for my—” She seemed to catch herself. “You know, I always want to call them my ‘kids’ even though they ain’t. It was just me for all those years. I felt like a single parent, even though I was only their sister.”

  “Not only,” Trent said. “You were their parent.”

  “Just like these guys were mine,” Dewi said.

  “It’s nice not to be alone anymore,” Nami said. “To be part of a large family. I can’t wait for my brother and sisters to get here to meet all y’all.”

  “They’re part of the pack now,” Peyton said. “Even though they can’t know about the wolf stuff, they’re still under our protection.”

  “We take care of our own,” Dewi said. “As you already saw.”

  “That reminds me,” Peyton said, turning to Dewi. “I hear you were a little…theatrical in how you handled that situation with Malyah’s father and his thug friends.”

  “Who, me?” She flashed a toothy, wolfish smile. “I took care of the fuckers,” she said. “They deserved it. Hey, I left Jarome alive.”

  Trent snorted in amusement. “Barely, from what we heard.”

  “You can ask Beck and Martin,” Dewi continued. “Leaving him alive is more than he deserved. The other three assholes admitted they were going to rape Malyah, and two of the fuckers had committed rape in the past. And it would have been with Jarome’s blessing.” Her expression darkened, her voice turning growly. “I did what we always do with those kind.”

  “We’re not questioning your judgment,” Peyton said. “Just making an observation.”

  Ken slung his arm around Dewi’s shoulders and snuggled her closer to him. “You guys just love riling her up, don’t you?”

  “Duh,” Trent and Peyton said together.

  “What part of ‘little sister’ did you miss?” Peyton teased.

  “Yeah,” Trent added. “Not like we get a chance to bust her chops in person very often.”

  “And we didn’t bust her chops very often before now,” Peyton said.

  “Then why the sudden change?” Ken asked.

  The men grinned. “Because,” Peyton said, “she’s a lot lighter now. Emotionally. Less serious. Are you kidding me? None of us would have dared tease her like this before.”

  “They’re right,” Dewi added, looking up at him with a smile. “I was pretty tightly wound.”

  “This is you not tightly wound?”

  Everyone else, except Nami, burst into gales of laughter.

  “Believe it or not, lad,” Badger said once he regained his composure, “this is the most relaxed any of us have seen her…well, in her entire life, sad to say.”

  Dewi rested her head on Ken’s shoulder. “You’re a good influence on me.”

  * * * *

  Ken felt completely exhausted by the time they left Peyton’s to retreat to their private guest cabin a little before eleven local time. Even he could tell the difference in the scent of the air—drier, piney, like a Christmas tree lot.

  Cool with a crisp tang to it.

  Dewi slipped her arm around his waist as they walked. “Think you might have a little energy left for me?”

  “Maybe,” he said. “If it’s soon and doesn’t require a lot of movement on my part.”

  She stepped in front of him, turning, making him stop. Rising up on her toes, she kissed him, nibbling on his lower lip as she did.

  His cock instantly responded, thickening.

  “I’ll do all the moving,” she promised, taking his hand and leading him the rest of the way to the cabin.

  “Glad I didn’t need to seduce you our first time together,” he said. “I would have screwed that up.”

  She opened the door,
leading him inside. “It doesn’t matter how we met.” She turned to him again and draped her arms around his neck. “I would still be as madly and deeply in love with you as I am right now.”

  “You would, huh?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Grazer and all?”

  She rose onto her toes again to kiss him. “Grazer and all,” she assured him.

  Taking his hand, she led him down the short hallway that passed through the small kitchen area to the bedroom. There, she started tugging his shirt free of his shorts.

  “You’re stuck with me,” she said, staring up at him with those damned huge, mocha-colored eyes. “And I love you.”

  Maybe he could manage a little energy for some movement. He turned, shoving her back and onto the bed, where she landed with a bounce and a giggle. He was, slowly but surely, getting over his reluctance to manhandle her.

  Sometimes, Dewi didn’t just like it rough, she needed it that way. As he grew more comfortable with his role as her mate, it grew easier to reconcile her need to feel his strength with what he’d grown up learning “nice guys” didn’t do.

  Like get rough with their women.

  He crawled up the bed, straddling her, sitting up and pulling his shirt off and dropping it to the floor. “I love you so damn much, you have no idea.”

  He leaned in, grabbed her by the wrists, and pulled her hands over her head where he pinned her to the mattress. Then he leaned in to take a crushing kiss, loving the soft, needy moans escaping her.

  “Stay,” he whispered before sitting up again.

  She remained in position, arms over her head, as he got out of bed, finished stripping, then reached down to unfasten her shorts.

  Her lower lip caught under her teeth as she watched him. He didn’t need their psychic connection through their mate bond to know she was now hot and horny. That she practically squirmed on the bed, her hands still obediently held over her head, told him that.