By the Embers Dies the Fire

  He looked Brodey in the eyes as his smile faded. “But I’m not comfortable around him yet, and I’m sure he and his mate aren’t comfortable around me for that very reason. I don’t deny I can be difficult to live with. I am no stranger to my faults. That’s why I’d rather have my own place where I can still be a part of your lives, yet far enough away everyone is comfortable.”

  “Okay,” Brodey said. “Thanks for not giving me a bullshit ‘no comment.’”

  “I would expect no less from all of you, but I do appreciate that you’ve been very…patient with me during my stay. I’ll leave you to your fatherhood. Treasure every moment, Brodey. You never know when life and loves will be torn from you.”

  Brodey shivered as he watched Brighton leave. There was something…

  Well, something so Brighton-ey in the way he’d delivered that last line.

  Thank the Goddess he’s clearing out.

  Brodey had felt mildly guilty about it…until that last line.

  I wish I knew why the crazy bastard is so fucked in the head.

  Maybe if their mom was still alive she could pry it from him. She’d been the only person able to really tolerate him and talk to him. Even their father had a limited well of patience for Brighton…after.

  Once Connor finished the bottle, Brodey draped a burp cloth over his shoulder and gently patted his son between the shoulders, lightly bouncing as he started walking around the living room. Jasper, Juju, and Bea, who’d taken over the couches, didn’t even lift their heads, watching him with their eyes when he circled through.

  Normal.

  Newborn babies, two—three—dogs, a ranch doing well all on its own. Plenty of money in the bank that they could easily retire and sell out if they wanted and live on their investments.

  And one batshit crazy brother I’m not sure if I trust or not.

  After getting Connor settled in his crib, Brodey closed the nursery door behind him and headed for the bedroom. He turned on the baby monitor before slipping back into bed, glad he didn’t have to shove Cail over.

  Brighton and his issues notwithstanding, life was perfect.

  For some reason, that scared the ever-loving fuck out of him.

  * * * *

  As soon as Brighton returned to his room, he checked his phone.

  Yep, there was the picture he’d texted himself from Elain’s phone before quickly deleting the text from hers so it wasn’t discovered later.

  And now able to examine it…well, he was disappointed to realize it was a low-res image. He’d have to run it through Photoshop to see if he could sharpen it up a little.

  But it certainly looked like a birth certificate.

  From the great state of Maine.

  So why would Elain lead Brodey to believe the baby was from Bolivia? Well, from “down there,” in Ortega’s region. Which implied South America, or Central America.

  This would take some looking into, once he got the picture clear enough to decipher.

  Until he could be alone long enough to tackle that, preferably not while under his brothers’ roof, he’d have to sit on that task.

  Hopefully, the wait would be worth it, and it’d be one more point of proof against that woman and who- or whatever she really was.

  He could only hope his brothers’ hearts wouldn’t be too broken in the process. He swore he’d be there to support them and help them through it, however, once he released them from the dark hold she had on them.

  Then they’d see. He’d get rid of the spell, get rid of her, and expose the truth.

  They’d all see he was right.

  Chapter Five

  Elain felt a little better the next morning. Definitely less exhausted than she had the day before. Brodey was staying behind today because Ain needed to go supervise a vet visit or something at the barns. As soon as Brodey had heard her up and moving, he’d come in with water and coffee, practically hovering as she returned from the bathroom and settled in bed to nurse Ellie and watch TV.

  She arched an eyebrow at him. “I love you, but you have to stop doing that if you’re going to stay here at the house today.”

  “Stop doing what?”

  “Hovering.”

  “Sorry, babe. Just that when you get so tired, I get worried.” He sat on the end of the bed and watched. “Hey, while you were sleeping last night, guess what happened?”

  “All the cockatrice in the world committed suicide?” Elain felt bad about the dark direction of her thoughts when his eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Sorry. Still groggy. What happened?”

  “Well, the three of us had already talked, that we would ask Brighton to ‘get along, little doggy.’ But late last night, while I was feeding Connor, Brighton joined me in the kitchen and told me he’s closing on a place north of town and will probably be gone in a few days.”

  Conflicted emotions rolled through her. “Am I supposed to say yippee, or aww?”

  “He actually admitted he’s still on the fence about Dad, and that it’s his problem to get over. Don’t feel guilty, babe. Seriously.”

  “If you’re sure.”

  “Hey, I can’t lie to you.” He grinned. “So don’t feel guilty if you want to make yourself scarce until he moves out.”

  There was something else. Her gaze narrowed as she studied his green eyes. “What else happened yesterday?”

  “So you accidentally poofed a baby monitor into the pool the other morning, huh?”

  She wouldn’t let him deflect. Especially about that topic. “Brod.”

  He snorted. “Okay. Fine. Lina ‘talked’ to me and Cail both yesterday before.” He used air quotes around the word.

  “And?”

  “I wish you all had told us you weren’t comfortable with having Brighton around the babies. He’s our brother, for chrissake.”

  “Exactly the point. None of us wanted to say that to you guys about your brother. Especially since I made a stink about you guys making him feel welcomed when he first got here.”

  “The point is, it’s not an issue—” A knock on the door silenced both of them. Elain knew without looking that it was Brighton. She felt heat fill her face and hoped that he hadn’t been standing on the other side and listening to them.

  Brodey got up and cracked open the door, then stepped out and shut it behind him. After a moment of discussion, Brodey opened it and stuck his head in.

  “Brighton wants to come say good-bye.”

  “Sure.”

  Brodey opened the door all the way and stepped in, allowing Brighton to follow.

  “Eh, sorry about the fast timing and all, but just received a call from my realtor that we can close sooner than I expected. I have a lot of things to do, items to retrieve from storage, all of that.”

  The words were out of her mouth before she could stop herself. “Do you need any help?”

  “That’s very sweet, but no. I’m paying movers to handle it for me. But once I’m settled, I’ll let everyone know and we’ll have a barbecue housewarming party, right? Probably next weekend, before we’re all off to Maine.” He smiled, but where before it seemed filled with mirth, now Elain wondered what emotions truly lurked behind her brother-in-law’s eyes.

  And she still couldn’t bring herself to touch him, to read him.

  Especially not with her baby girl in her arms.

  After a final good-bye, Brodey followed Brighton out, closing the door behind him. A few minutes later, another light rap sounded on the door, and Elain sensed it was her mom.

  “Come on in.”

  Her mom wore a grin as she slipped inside and closed the door behind her. “Did you hear?” she whispered. “Ding, dong, the ding-dong’s gone!”

  Elain had to chuckle. “Maybe Lina will come do some sort of sage ritual or something in his room.” Elain still didn’t want to tell anyone the truth about the baby monitors yet.

  Besides, the only proof she had that Brighton had tampered with them were the monitors and Baba Yaga’s word about them. The old
monitors had already been tossed in the trash and hauled down to the curbside bin and were long gone.

  “Your father will be absolutely tickled when he hears about this.”

  “I think I’m going to ask the guys about building a small guest cottage on the far side of the yard for future visitors we don’t want staying in the house.”

  “Even that would have been too close for comfort.” Her mom ran her hands up and down her arms. “Don’t think I don’t know what Lina’s plan was yesterday afternoon. She wanted me and the babies nowhere near Brighton, and in the company of a dragon and a whatever Zack is to keep an eye on us.” She examined her left index finger. “And Luke’s going through a biting phase I need to talk to her about. I had to use your trick and growl at him to make him back down.”

  “You’re not a wolf.”

  “But I am a mom, and it freaking hurt.” She held up her finger, where Elain spotted the marks. “Dang near broke the skin, little bugger.”

  “They’re going to be a handful.” Elain blanched. “What about BettLynn?”

  “Oh, Mai brought her over for me to watch so she could take a nap, and it’s the craziest thing. Those two hellions treat that baby like she’s fine china. I don’t think them being rough with her is ever going to be a problem. It’s like they sense they have to be gentle with her.”

  Twenty minutes later, Brighton was gone and Elain had moved out to the sofa so she could talk to her mom while her mom made them breakfast. Connor and Joss were dozing on a blanket on the floor, in front of the TV, flanked by Jasper, Juju, and Bea. The three dogs were wonderful babysitters.

  Brodey had returned to the house from seeing Brighton off and was about to say something when his cell phone rang. He pulled it out and frowned. “Yeah, Rick?” he said by way of greeting.

  Five minutes later, he’d thrown on work clothes and was headed over to Lina’s to help the two dragon men through another new-rancher crisis.

  “Looks like it’s just us girls this morning,” her mom said as she brought Elain’s plate out to her. “And with your father and me in our house, it’ll be even quieter here for you.” Carla settled on the other sofa. “Not that I haven’t enjoyed and appreciated this time with you, but I think all of us are ready for our own spaces now.”

  “Agreed.” Ellie lay asleep in her carrier, on the floor next to Elain. “Close enough to be a minute away, literally, but not underfoot of each other.”

  “I’m beginning to think Lina ‘joking’ about having our own private school here on the ranch is not a half-bad idea.”

  “No kidding,” Elain said. “They’re all close enough in age. Then we wouldn’t have to worry about them accidentally revealing stuff.”

  “How’d Ain, Brodey, and Cail deal with that?”

  “Scotland, over two hundred years ago. Wasn’t exactly an issue.”

  “Ah. True. We should ask Mai.”

  “Does she know about Brighton’s departure?”

  “I’m sure she does. Micah and Jim weren’t real thrilled with him, either.”

  “Was everyone kind of keeping their true feelings quiet about him because of me?”

  “No, not just because of you, honey. We all wanted the brothers to have time together. But when it comes to family, let’s be honest. Your father lived in isolation for over twenty years to keep you safe. If sides have to be picked, pretty much everyone here is going to pick his side over Brighton’s. Even your men would probably pick Liam over him, if push came to shove. Liam can’t lie to me. It broke his heart walking away from you and Maureen, and he holds that guilt close to his heart. Brighton appears to have no concept of what that kind of love feels like.”

  “Brodey said Brighton admitted it was his own feelings, not Dad’s fault.”

  “Well, then maybe that’s personal growth on Brighton’s part. I, for one, feel more comfortable with Brighton not living here.”

  Elain had to admit the very air of the house felt lighter. She thought about getting up and walking down to his room and trying to “see” something by placing her hands on the bed, except her mom short-circuited that idea.

  “I even changed the sheets in his room already. Threw everything into the washer, including the pillows. Opened the window, too, to air it out.”

  “Oh, thanks.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing. I feel bad that you did all that work.”

  “Nonsense. It felt good to do it.”

  Elain suspected if she did go in there, she’d now get more of a reading of her mom’s energy than Brighton’s. Plus they’d had so many guests rotate through that room, including Mai and her men, Zack and Kael, and others, that it likely wouldn’t give her an accurate vision.

  Who am I kidding? I don’t want to know.

  It was the same reason she’d refused to touch him to try to read him.

  She hoped if Brighton was going to do something “bad” that either she’d have sensed it by now, or Lina or Mai would have had a dream about it. But going to look for trouble wasn’t something she even had the energy for at this time.

  Especially when it felt like she barely had the energy to do more than take a nap.

  * * * *

  About an hour after Brighton left, Mai walked in, a two-legged BettLynn riding on her hip.

  Elain started to say something to the young mother before she got a look at her expression. “What’s wrong?”

  Mai set BettLynn down on the floor, where the baby sat up and giggled as the dogs surrounded her, sniffing and licking her face, their tails wagging.

  “How do you know something’s wrong?” Mai asked as she slid into a chair at the kitchen table.

  “You look like I feel. Horrible.”

  Mai propped her chin in her palm. “Really bad dreams last night.”

  “How bad?”

  “Cockatrice-nuclear-bomb bad. Again.”

  “Oh, shit.” Elain lowered herself into another chair.

  “You’re telling me.”

  “Any new clues yet?” Mom asked.

  “No.” Mai looked morose. “I really wish I had a better handle on these powers I’m supposed to have. I feel useless.”

  Elain took a deep breath. “Sorry about Brighton.”

  Mai lifted her head. “What?”

  “That he made everyone so uncomfortable.”

  Mai waved it off. “He wasn’t chasing me, I didn’t have to eat road kill, and he wasn’t trying to kill me. I’m good.”

  “Yeah, but I didn’t think about…” Elain pointed at BettLynn. “I never did the math that what Brighton was doing all those years might make things uncomfortable regarding the princess.”

  Mai leaned back in her chair and shrugged. “I think I was more on edge because of Micah and Jim. You know someone’s a little off when a human can sense trouble. Micah’s normally on edge around people he’s not comfortable with anyway, but when Jim said Brighton gave him the willies, that’s when I paid attention. Do I really think Brighton would do something to hurt one of the babies? I can’t imagine any wolf of this family doing that.”

  “Rodolfo,” Elain and her mom said together.

  “That’s different. He was batcrap crazy.”

  “So’s Brighton,” Elain said.

  “Not in the same way.” Mai played with her coffee cup, then glanced out to the living room where BettLynn had giggled over Juju and Bea’s antics. “Was I uncomfortable? Yeah. Was it a Seer thing? I don’t think so. I think it was more my guys, and the fact that Dad and Mom are Dad and Mom to me. Brighton so blatantly hating Dad—”

  “Blatant?” Elain asked.

  “It was blatant to me.” Mai hesitated. “Wait. Maybe that was a Seer thing, then.” She let out a yawn. “I don’t know. The past couple of weeks, and especially the past few days, I feel like I can’t get a handle on anything.”

  Mai was about to say something else when Lina walked in, sans the Beasts. BettLynn immediately shifted and rushed over, her clothes dropping off her
along the way.

  “Sorry, Princess,” Lina said, looking down at her when BettLynn sat at her feet. “They’re at home, taking naps.”

  BettLynn growled at Lina.

  Faster than Elain had ever seen Mai move, the young mother was up and out of her chair and into the living room, staring down at her daughter, growling at her.

  BettLynn’s ears flattened back for a moment before she finally dipped her head.

  Mai scooped her into her arms and hugged her. “Good girl,” she said, kissing her daughter on her furry forehead.

  In Mai’s arms, BettLynn shifted back into two-legged form, her diaper now askew.

  Elain laughed. “You finally got the hang of the Alpha mom growl, huh?”

  “Yeah. Took me long enough, but I got it.” She carried BettLynn back over to the blanket to get her dressed again.

  When Mai rejoined them in the kitchen, she studied Elain for a moment before retaking her seat. “You look as exhausted as I feel,” Mai gently chided.

  “That’s because you’re pregnant,” Elain said without thinking.

  Mai started laughing, which then trailed off into a sick-sounding burp. “Wait, what?” she whispered.

  Crap. Well, those beans were now spilled. Might as well stir the pot. “Pregnant.” Elain looked at her. “You know. With child? Micah’s.”

  “But…how?”

  Elain arched an eyebrow at her.

  “I mean I know how, but how do you know?”

  Elain leaned back and tapped her temple. “Seer.”

  “I thought I was the one to have the pregnancy dreams.”

  “I notice you don’t doubt me.”

  “Yeah, because you’re a Seer.” Mai slowly shook her head. “But I’m on the pill!”

  “You forgot to take it that morning.” Elain closed her eyes. “Opportunity knocks, and apparently so does determined Alpha wolf sperm.”

  “Elain!” Carla chastised.

  “What? I’m not saying anything that’s not true. Micah’s a strong Alpha. It’s like übersperm.”