Out of Smoke and Ashes

  Liam, who’d finally managed to grab a pair of boxers, shouldered into the small room with them. “What’s wrong?” he insisted.

  “What does this mean?” Carla asked.

  Ain and the other two appeared in the doorway. He had his cell phone in his hand. “It means I’m calling Jocko and Lacey right now.”

  * * * *

  Lacey didn’t sound happy to be awoken that early, especially when Ain wouldn’t tell her what the problem was. Jocko also expressed his displeasure in some colorful words, but he picked up Lacey on his way over and in twenty minutes they were knocking on the front door of the cabin.

  When they walked in, Carla was sitting on the couch, still in her bathrobe, flanked by Elain and Lina and Mai, also still in bathrobes.

  Lacey’s eyes widened before she started laughing. “Congratulations!”

  Jocko, once he followed Lacey’s line of sight and thinking, also burst out into peals of rolling laughter. “Lad, this is what ye rolled us outta our warm beds for? I ought to box yer ears for it.”

  “Oh, be nice,” Lacey chided him. She walked over to Carla and leaned in to hug her. “They obviously didn’t expect it.”

  Ain fought the urge to growl at both his elders. “Glad you both think this is funny, but a little clarification for us would be nice.”

  “Boyo, he claimed her.” He looked at Liam, “Yes?”

  Liam, standing behind the couch and directly behind Carla, nodded.

  “Then again, congratulations. Can I go back to sleep now?”

  “Jocko, please,” Ain said.

  “What do ye want me to say?” He waved his hand at them. “They’re mated. Happens all the time.”

  “People do not age backward every day,” Elain said.

  “They do if they’re mated to a strong Alpha wolf like Liam.”

  Lacey nodded. “No, it’s not that common, because let’s face it, most older people are usually in a relationship and that would be against the Code. This is unusual, but definitely not unheard of. Liam and Carla were both single and available.”

  Mai let out a little eep! as she clapped a hand over her mouth.

  “Ye have something to say, child, spit it out,” Jocko said.

  She looked at Elain and Lina, who both nodded. Then she turned to Carla. “I told them I’ve been having dreams about pregnancies.”

  Carla’s eyes widened as Jocko started laughing again.

  “I…I can’t get pregnant!” Carla protested. “I’ve already gone through menopause!”

  Lacey added her laughter to Jocko’s. “Did you ever have a partial or complete hysterectomy? Or a tubal ligation?”

  “No.”

  “Then I guess you’d better think about getting back on the pill or using condoms,” Lacey said. “I would suggest contacting Dr. Alberto ASAP and talking with her.”

  “But…” She looked up at Liam and back to Lacey. “But…how could this happen?”

  Jocko heavily dropped into a chair. “Seriously? If I have to explain the birds and the bees to ye, someone’s gonna have to make me breakfast. And give me coffee.”

  * * * *

  Elain’s men, apparently sensing Elain, Lina, and Mai were in no state of mind to be cooking, took over kitchen duties. Within ten minutes the smell of bacon and eggs filled the cabin.

  Elain didn’t know if she’d ever loved her men more in her life as she did right then.

  Lina had given up her seat to Liam to go take care of the Beasts and rouse her men, who’d been exhausted and slept through the commotion. Someone went out to the RV to wake Zack and Kael, who pulled up short when they walked into the living room.

  “Holy crap!” they said as they got a look at Carla.

  Carla burst into tears and pressed her face into Liam’s shoulder.

  The two men rushed over. “No, no, sorry,” Zack said. “Poor choice of words. Mom, you look great!”

  “They said I might be able to get pregnant!” she wailed.

  Elain spotted the smirk Kael tried to hide by covering his mouth with his hand.

  “Go ahead and laugh, boyo,” Jocko said. “We all have. She’s just having a wee bit of trouble wrapping her mind around it still.”

  Blackie and Callie burst into the cabin. “What’s wrong? Jocko wouldn’t…” His voice trailed off as he pulled up short and stared at Carla. Callie, who’d nearly plowed into him when he stopped, also spotted Carla.

  She, however, let out a happy squee! and ran to throw her arms around Carla. “Congratulations, Mom!”

  Carla burst into tears again.

  Blackie slowly stepped forward. “Is…everything okay?”

  “No!” Carla yelled. “Everything is not okay! I can’t get pregnant. I’m too old to get pregnant!”

  Elain watched as Blackie seemed to survey everyone’s reaction. She gave him credit for keeping his calm. He knelt in front of her and took the tearful woman’s hand. “First of all,” he gently said, “let me offer my congratulations to both of you. Before you leave, we’ll get the council together to have a recognition.” He offered her a kind smile. “And secondly, let me offer that my aunt, who was a human, was almost ninety when her and my uncle had their first pup.”

  Carla’s eyes widened and she burst into tears again.

  “Not helping, boyo,” Jocko snarked.

  Blackie tried again. “I didn’t mean it like that. Mom, please, it’s all right. She was fifty when she met my uncle, and her aging reversed like yours did when they mated. He’s an Alpha wolf, too.”

  Elain struggled with an intense battle to not stick her fingers in her ears and react the way Blackie had to Kitty and Wally’s mating.

  “This is a good thing,” he tried again. “Very few people get a second chance like you are. Think of all the things you never thought you’d get a chance to do in your life. You’re going to get those chances.”

  That seemed to get through to her. The whole time, Liam had sat beside her, his arm protectively draped over her shoulders. She looked up at him.

  “I’m sorry I’m being like this. It’s…it’s just such a shock.”

  He gently smiled at her. “I know, love. It’s all right. I’m not going anywhere.”

  “I’m just…overwhelmed right now.”

  “It wasn’t the best of circumstances,” Blackie said. “I’m just glad we had a happy ending.”

  She looked up into Liam’s face. “As am I,” Liam said.

  Elain got up and went to the kitchen to check on breakfast. She slipped her arms around Ain and hugged him where he stood at the stove, tending to bacon.

  “I love you,” she mumbled against his back.

  “Hey,” Cail joked. “What are we? Chopped liver?”

  She smiled and hugged him and Brodey. “Love you guys, too.”

  Ain glanced over his shoulder. “What brought this on?”

  She gathered them close and looked up at Ain. “I know we had a sort of rocky start, but thank you for the way you did it. I know we had no clue I was a shifter then. Thank you for being patient with me.”

  His expression softened as he turned to kiss her. “We love you, babe. You were the perfect one for us. I couldn’t rush it.” He shot a glare at his two brothers. “Even if these two here nearly fouled it all up by trying to be sneaky.”

  “Hey,” Brodey said. “If it wasn’t for us, you would have given up because you assumed she was married.”

  “Yeah,” Cail said. “It’s a damn good thing we were sneaky.”

  Ain nodded. “Yes, you two were right and I was wrong. Happy?”

  Brodey hooked an arm around her and pulled her in for a kiss. “Couldn’t be happier, bro.”

  Cail grabbed her next and kissed her. “That makes three.”

  She laughed. “Make that four.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “Oh, the Maine wolves, even before dear ole Daddy pulled his little stunt, are no friends of Rodolfo Abernathy. They probably have a bounty out for his head or hide by now.
They won’t rest until they have proof he’s dead.”

  “How can you be so sure?” Marston asked.

  She smiled as she draped her arms around his neck. “Because I took out a little insurance on the matter, just in case his own self-created asshattery wasn’t enough justification for Blackstone to order him dead. Do you know what happened to Paul Abernathy after he lost the challenge to Elain Pardie?”

  “No. I would suspect Rodolfo killed him.”

  “Bingo.” She stood on tiptoes and kissed him.

  He couldn’t help letting his hands snake around her waist, pulling her tightly against him. “And how would you know this with any great certainty?”

  “Ah, there’s the best part. I followed them. And I got the whole thing on video, as well as pictures. And I took GPS coordinates with my phone and went back later and dug him up and took even more pictures. And I mapped it.”

  He smiled. “Let me guess. Somehow, all this information wound up in Blackestone’s hands?”

  “Uh-huh. Want to know the best part?”

  “Do tell, my evil little vixen.”

  She giggled. “He was dumb enough to do it on their land. If he’d waited five minutes, he would have been in the state forest, out of the Clan’s territory.”

  Marston let out a snort of amusement. “No kidding?”

  “No kidding.”

  He glanced at the door leading down to the basement. “So now that they have proof he committed a murder on their lands, they are totally within their rights to kill him. The whole kidnapping of a Clan Council member’s mother-in-law notwithstanding.”

  “Yes.”

  He grabbed her by the back of the neck with one hand and dug his fingers in, enjoying the way her body undulated against his as her need built. Crushing her lips under his, he growled as he felt his cock harden against her. When he broke their kiss he grazed his teeth across the flesh of her throat, making her whimper even as he smelled how wet she now was.

  He rumbled into her ear, “Let’s go downstairs and give Daddy a show, why don’t we?”

  She looked into his eyes and he felt his own wolf struggling to the surface at the glazed passion reflecting back to him. “Will you make me beg to suck your cock first? In front of him?”

  He grinned. “Absolutely, my slutty little mate. And if you’re very good, after I’ve put a load into your cunt, maybe I’ll be able to get it up a second time and make you beg me to put another load into your ass.”

  She grinned. “Promise?”

  * * * *

  Daniel propped himself up on his elbow and watched Callie sleep. Last night had been a sweet, nightmare-free sleep for her. He didn’t know if it was because of the heavy caning he gave her before bed as punishment for disobeying the intent of his order to return to him after Carla’s rescue, or sheer exhaustion from the events.

  But tonight, he could already see the early signs setting in. Restless, the occasional noise or whimper, all the indicators were in place.

  He thought about his talk with Baba Yaga just a few days earlier before they returned from Florida.

  It felt like years past, with everything that had happened that week.

  Fortunately, lots of happy endings.

  Not to mention he now had a bear of a brother-in-law.

  He carefully got out of bed so as not to wake her and went to his office, closing the door behind him. In the contacts on his phone were the two numbers, the one Lacey had given Callie…

  And the special, private number.

  He heavily sat in his chair and, after a few minutes of debate, he called. With each of the three rings, he felt his heart race a little more.

  Then the rich, British voice answered. “Hello, Daniel.”

  He swallowed. “Hi. Uh, sorry to call you so late.”

  “This sounds rather important. But first, I take it your loved one is safe?”

  “Yes. Thank you. I’m not exaggerating when I say we couldn’t have done it without you.”

  “My pleasure. I’m glad I could be of assistance. So what may I do for you tonight?”

  “I…uh…” Nut up, Blackestone. “My wife’s older sister gave me a little cryptic nugget and I think she meant you.”

  “Oh?”

  “Yeah.” He detailed Callie’s nightmares, the progression of them throughout the past several months, and his discussion with Baba Yaga.

  How even edicting Callie hadn’t helped her recall them in the morning.

  “So, that’s all I’ve got,” he said in conclusion.

  After a moment, Ryan spoke. “I take it you’re concerned these nightmares she’s experiencing may be of importance as to what’s going on, and not merely some personal annoyance.”

  “Exactly. I mean, if you know what’s going on and can tell me it’s just some weird idiosyncrasy, I’ll thank you and apologize for wasting your time.”

  He didn’t like the low, serious tone of Ryan’s voice. “I think,” Ryan quietly said, “we both know you wouldn’t be calling me if you didn’t think it was serious.”

  “Yeah.”

  Ryan sighed loud enough to be audible over the line. “I need to do a little research into the matter. I’m not sure if this is something I’ll be able to help you with, or if I’ll have to call in some help from others. If she were simply mortal-born, I could easily help. However, she isn’t. It might take me a while.”

  “Thank you. I’m very grateful for your help.”

  “Don’t thank me yet. Neither of us might like what we discover. There have been some disconcerting developments on my end as of late. I am not sure yet if they have any bearing upon your kind or not. I was under the impression that it was simply a personal issue, a grudge against me, but perhaps I came to that conclusion too swiftly.”

  He felt something deep inside him run cold. “Crap.”

  “Indeed.” He went silent for a moment. “Is this the best number to reach you at?”

  “Yeah. It’s my cell. You can text me, too, if you need to.”

  “Very well. It might take me some time to get back to you. Days, possibly weeks.”

  “I understand. I just appreciate anything you can find out.”

  “Again, don’t be so quick to thank me, Daniel,” Ryan warned. “Good night.”

  “Night.”

  He ended the call and stared at his phone. Until actually meeting Ryan face-to-face, he’d been able to willfully ignore his overall place in the Universe despite having Callie as his mate.

  Now, he realized even though they were big fish in their own pond, in the universal scheme of things they might be far lower on the food chain than he’d like to admit.

  And that was not a thought that imbued him with warm and fuzzy feelings. Not when he knew what creatures like the cockatrice were capable of.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Daniel convened the Clan Council the next evening for a special recognition ceremony for Carla and Liam. After three more days of hunting for the cockatrice nests, Lina and Kitty both concurred they needed more information and were just wasting their time.

  They hadn’t found any trace of Marston, either. Or of Abernathy’s daughter.

  “We need to go home and regroup,” Lina said. “We might as well head back to Florida. We’re not doing any good here right now and everyone has lives to get back to.”

  “Agreed,” Kitty said. No one missed the playful glance she sent to Wally. “And with winter weather coming to the Northeast, the cockatrice will likely be hunkered down until spring. That’s their usual methodology.”

  Wally let out a yawn. “I could spend some time in bed.” He winked at Kitty.

  Daniel rolled his eyes. “All right, please, this is my little sister. Save that crap for when you’re alone, would you?”

  Wally hooked an arm around Daniel and pulled him in close, rubbing his knuckles in the wolf’s hair. “Aww, such a good big brother you are.”

  “Holy crap, stop mauling me, dude.” He pulled free and ran a hand th
rough his hair. “I’ll have my mate neuter you.”

  Callie held up her hands. “Unless that’s a direct order, Sir, I’m not going near him.”

  “So,” Jocko said, “I take it ye might be moving up to our neck of the woods then, Walter?”

  The bear shifter nodded. “Yes, sir.” His gaze returned to Kitty. “I think Maine’s a great place to settle down.”

  “Okay,” Lina said, a finger on her chin. “Riddle me this? Will you two be having wears or bolfs?”

  Daniel stuck his fingers in his ears. “I’m not listening.”

  Kitty leaned against Wally and grinned up at him. “I dunno. We could call them beowolfs.”

  Everyone groaned, except for Daniel, who left the room muttering, “I’m not listening. I’m not listening!”

  Lina turned her attention to Callie. “And what, pray tell, will Oscar and Gigi have if and when they have offspring?” Once the search for Abernathy’s body had been called off, Oscar had been strangely absent, last seen in the company of Callie’s older sister.

  Callie snorted. “A handful of trouble.”

  * * * *

  Late that afternoon, Lina pulled Carla, Liam, and Elain aside. “We need to go talk before we leave tomorrow,” she told Elain.

  “Where? And about what?”

  Lina just cocked her head at Elain.

  After a moment, she got it. “Right. Let’s go.”

  Lina left the babies with Jan and Rick. They drove over to Lacey’s, where Lina led the way up the porch.

  Lacey opened the door before Lina could knock. Jasper tried to stick his head through the door, but she moved to the side to block the dog’s escape. She smiled at all of them. “Go on down there. Like I told you before, feel free to use it anytime you need it. The path is always open. Please stop in before you leave, though. I’ve got some banana nut bread in the oven now.”

  “Thanks,” Lina said.

  “Where are we going?” Liam asked.

  Elain sadly smiled. “A special thinking place.”

  In silence, Lina and Elain walked arm in arm down the path with Carla and Liam following them, their arms around each other’s waists. When they reached the trail leading down to the isolated beach, Lina took the lead and they were soon all settled together in a small circle on top of the rock.