“Yeah, yeah, we will,” Lina said. “I’m sure Kitty and Blackie will give us a shout out if they need to put us into the game in the next few days. But dammit, we deserve a little fun. And there’s nothing more fun than throwing a party.”
They gathered around the kitchen table while Lina and Mai made everyone sandwiches for lunch. Elain tried to keep up her end of the conversation, but now that she was back in Arcadia, another issue kept creeping to mind.
My dad’s brothers were paid off by Abernathy.
Who did she know to trust? Who else could have been involved?
It explained why neither Asolo nor Boyd Pardie had been more vocal following the murder of their mates, something she always thought was…odd. To say the least.
If it’d been her, she would have been screaming loud and long to any and every wolf with the slightest bit of power that she could find.
Like, oh, say, Daniel Blackestone, friend of their youngest brother, who was only the fricking leader of the largest fricking wolf clan in fricking North America.
Considering how much her father had already sacrificed for her, she didn’t want to burst his bubble about reconnecting with his brothers. Unfortunately, she hadn’t yet figured out a way to talk about it to anyone else without tipping her hand and revealing how she’d come about the information.
I could use the “Seer Says” excuse, but that will get really lame really fast, and that’s something I need more proof for anyway.
Carla reached over and laid her hand over Elain’s. “Are you all right, sweetie?”
“Yeah, just tired and…” Use the ready excuse. “Tummy.”
Her mom smiled. “Gotcha. Wish I could offer more support and advice for you, but these two girls are our go-to resource for pregnancy advice.”
Lina smiled. “Lots of ginger ale and soda water.”
Mai shrugged. “I was eating road kill for a while, so I’m not much help.”
With that image in mind, it pushed Elain over the edge. She was up and bolting for the power room at the end of the hall, the closest bathroom.
“Greeeat,” she heard Lina tease behind her.
“Sorry,” Mai said apologetically. “I wasn’t thinking.”
* * * *
Fortunately for Elain, her guys didn’t turn as overprotective as she’d feared. Three days after her return, she needed to run to the grocery store and Brodey offered to go with her.
But he didn’t order her to take him.
And she had missed her bonehead.
Smiling, she hooked her arm through his. “Yeah, come with me. That’d be nice.”
His green eyes crinkled at the outer corners from amusement. “We’re going to try, but you will have to cut us some slack if we get too clingy.”
She laughed, throwing both arms around his neck and kissing him. “I know. Thank you for admitting it.”
“They say admitting you have a problem is the first step.”
She nuzzled noses with him. “Who says I want you to stop altogether? Just don’t get crazy unreasonable.”
When they returned from the store, there was a strange car heading down their driveway and into their yard a short distance ahead of them.
Now what the fuck?
She noticed Brodey had tensed behind the wheel. He put a restraining arm out. “Stay here.”
“Is that an edict? Because at least in the open, I can run.”
He glanced at her, his gaze narrowing before he let out one of those sighs.
One that told her he knew she was right and wasn’t going to outright admit it.
“Please stay back by the car,” he said.
“Thank you.”
Brodey got out, as did the driver of the other car. Elain slipped out and stood there, partially shielded by her door and waiting for a sign from Brodey.
Then he hugged the guy and waved her over.
Must be safe.
Brodey wore a quirky grin as he slipped his arm around her shoulders. “Babe, you know how you were wanting to meet more of our brothers?”
“Yeah?”
“Let me introduce you to Brighton Lyall. Brighton, our mate, Elain Pardie-Lyall.”
The man strongly resembled her men in height and shape of his face, but he had brown hair instead of black, and his soft brown eyes were closer to greenish hazel than Cail’s.
“Hi,” she said, shaking hands with him. “Wow. What a surprise.”
She felt an odd vibe from him that she couldn’t readily identify, but his mischievous smile traveled all the way up to his eyes.
“I hope you don’t mind me coming around uninvited like this.” He spoke with a soft British accent that made her long to ask her men to use their Scottish brogues again.
Brodey rolled his eyes. “Shut up, dude. You damn well know you have an open invitation and always have.” Brodey reached out and punched him, hard, in the shoulder. “And she’s our fucking mate, asshole. Stop with the flirting.”
Brighton let out a laugh. “Can’t blame a bloke for trying now, can you?”
“Yes, we can,” Ain rumbled from the front porch. But as he walked over, he also wore a smile. When he joined them, he gave Brighton a hug. “Been a long time, brother.”
“Yes.” He looked sad. “Too many years.”
“So what brings you here?” Elain asked.
“Ah.” He turned, reached into his car, and emerged with a card, which he handed to Elain. “Belated blessings, and all of that.” He shrugged. “And it was time to relocate. I liquidated everything I had in England and jumped the pond, as it were. Time to form a new identity here in the States. Thought I’d try living near my little brothers.”
“Didn’t like the weather in France with Monroe, huh?” Brodey asked.
“More like he didn’t like Monroe,” Ain finished, his lips curved in a delicious smile.
Brodey snorted. “Nobody likes Monroe.”
Elain slipped her finger under the envelope’s flap and opened the card. Inside, she found three prepaid AmEx gift cards for $500 each. “Brighton, thank you so much, but you didn’t have to do this.” She hugged him.
“No, I wanted to. I insist. And if you don’t need it and wish to regift them to someone in need, I understand and give you my full blessings.”
“Aw, that’s so sweet!” She hugged him again. When she stepped back, she felt a wave of irritation from Ain and Brodey. “What?” she asked them. “What’s up?”
“Nothing.” It looked like Ain had to force himself not to roll his eyes. “We’ve got one more guest room. After that, anyone shows up, they’ll need to sleep in the RV or the barn.” He turned and headed for the house.
Brodey headed for their car to get the groceries. “I vote for giving him the barn,” she swore she heard him snark under his breath.
* * * *
Yes, Brighton had wanted to relocate. But when he heard his triplet Alpha brothers, who everyone swore would never be able to find their One, sent him a wedding invite, he immediately grew concerned.
He was even more concerned to find out she was the daughter of Liam Pardie.
He’d hear a lot about Pardie over the years. Especially how he was a criminal and in cahoots with Rodolfo Abernathy.
Worse, the mates of Pardie’s brothers had recently been murdered.
As had a Lyall cousin’s mate.
He knew his younger brothers thought he was an idiot, made fun of him, but they hadn’t visited Europe or elsewhere in the world for more than a brief time in over a century.
They had no idea the machinations humming below the surface in regards to the cockatrice threat. There were threats all over the world—and perhaps even beyond—that his brothers knew nothing about.
Ever since their sisters’ murders, he knew Ain had been a changed man, in some ways for the worst. He knew what Ain had done, even if Ain had never admitted it to another soul.
That was why he couldn’t understand why his brother would suddenly fall under the spell of the
daughter of a rapscallion like Pardie.
Not like he could outright confront them over it, either. Apparently their new bride was now the Maine wolves’ Seer.
Proving a dubious connection to the cockatrice threat would be difficult, but his gut told him he had to do it.
For their sakes, if nothing else.
* * * *
Brodey didn’t know what the hell was up with their brother, but he couldn’t believe it was anything good.
Not where Brighton was concerned.
He loved his brother, but Brodey suspected what little good sense was left in Brighton’s skull was ripped out the day their sisters died. Ever since then, he’d acted different, and not in a good way.
Then again, losing their sisters all at once to a cockatrice had taken a heavy toll on all of them, especially Ain.
He wouldn’t ask Ain to order their brother to leave, but he damn sure wouldn’t have Brighton getting Elain worked up, or Carla, when they were pregnant.
At the first mention of alien spores in their drinking water, or government abductions, he would personally boot Brighton out on his ass, brother or not.
I don’t have time for his bullshit right now. I know Mom and Dad made the rest of us promise to look after him, but dammit, I have a family to consider, too.
* * * *
One of the ads in the classifieds had been an elderly couple looking for a live-in caregiver two townships over. Aliah called and set up an appointment to meet with them.
She’d go straight for the jugular and play on their sympathies and hope they hired her. A cash position, in a private home, would be perfect.
Knowing it might backfire as being too schmaltzy, she opted for claiming her baby’s father was a drug addict who’d abandoned her, and she had no idea where he was. She even offered to work for less money, knowing that once she was in her later pregnancy and had the baby that she might not be able to do as much for them, or might even have to quit.
They bought it lock, stock, and barrel.
The husband was seventy-four and had severe arthritis, severely limiting his ability to do things or even drive. The wife was seventy-two, and while able to drive, wasn’t comfortable doing so at night or in the winter anymore. Their only son had died of a heart attack three years earlier, and they weren’t on good terms with their daughter-in-law.
Other than the husband’s younger sister and her family, they had no other relatives close by and didn’t want to give up living in their home.
Aliah would help them out around the house, do the driving, and help them with daily tasks. When it came close to time for her to have her baby, they would have another conversation then.
Based on the looks on their faces, she suspected they would want her to stay and be a substitute daughter.
Which was fine with her. It meant a place to stay for the winter, at least, money in the bank, and close proximity to the Maine wolf Clan compound so she could plan.
It also meant a base of operations from which to figure out how to best leverage the spellbook. She already knew she didn’t want to sell it outright to Carl, not from the way he sounded about it.
That would be foolish. It could be worth sooo much more than what she could get from him.
And it would be a way to string him along until she could figure out a plan.
Chapter Twelve
Elain was delighted at the chance to hear about her men’s childhoods straight from their older brother. Over dinner she sat, enchanted, as Brighton wove tales of them growing up together in Scotland.
Earlier, when Cail had returned home from errands to find their brother now in residence, Elain had sensed him tamp down on minor irritation as well.
Once they bid everyone good-night and headed for bed, Elain turned on them. “Okay, what gives?” she asked, feeling a little irritated at her guys.
Ain shook his head and kept his voice low. “Babe, we love Brighton. All of us do. But he’s a little…”
“Tetched,” Cail offered. “That’s what Mom called it.” He pointed a finger at his temple and circled it. “Fruit loops.”
“He seemed perfectly nice to me.” Well, she had to admit she couldn’t shake the odd feeling she got from him, but other than that, he’d appeared very charming. Even Mai had confided in Elain that she thought he was nice.
Two Seers can’t be wrong, right?
“He is nice,” Brodey said. “He’s just a few french fries short of a Happy Meal.” He took her hands in his. “You have to understand something. We’ve spent most of our lives indulging him.”
“Back in World War I,” Ain said, “he insisted that the US government had figured out shape-shifters were real, and were going to lock us up in breeding colonies to use our children as weaponized soldiers, so we should move back to Scotland immediately.”
Cail snorted. “Remember how in the 1930s he wanted us all to pack up and move to the Falkland Islands? Said cockatrice were getting ready to spread the Black Plague throughout Europe and the US, but wouldn’t be able to get there.”
“Oh my god,” Brodey said. “I forgot all about that one. The one that always cracked me up was how he said Hitler’s entire cabinet was made up of cockatrice.”
“And then,” Ain said, “when computers and the Internet came along? Holy crap.” All three of them burst out laughing. “We started getting e-mails from him with every conspiracy theory you could imagine. We actually sent him a tinfoil hat one year for Christmas.”
She scowled. “That was mean.”
Brodey snorted. “He actually thought we were sending him something helpful.”
“Babe,” Cail said, “you have to understand. Even our parents humored him. When we joked about him taking one too many headers off a horse, we weren’t kidding.” He glanced at his brothers. “Although after we lost our sisters, he really seemed to take a dive off the deep end…”
A sudden, nearly overwhelming wave of sadness washed over her from her men. She had to turn the tide or risk bursting into tears herself. She squeezed Ain’s hands. “Okay, I get it. We humor him. I’m sorry.”
Ain pulled her in for a hug, Brodey and Cail flanking her, encircling her with their love. One day, she knew she’d need to hear the story about their sisters.
But not tonight. They had too much to celebrate to focus on old grief.
They had plenty of new grief to deal with on a regular basis as it was, although she would admit that with the exception of her stomach, life had appeared to settle down.
Maybe Ryan was right.
“It’s all right,” Brodey said. “We’re just so used to him and his goofy damn ways, we don’t even think about it anymore. It’s like white noise to us and our other brothers. But he is…special.”
“That’s one word for it,” Cail muttered.
Elain poked him in the chest, hard. “You say the ‘R-word’ around me,” she growled, “and you and I will have an Alpha knock-down, drag-’em-out to rival any you guys have ever had between each other.” Elain didn’t tolerate anyone using the word “retarded” around her, especially around Mai.
Goddess help anyone who might ever utter it in reference to BettLynn. Elain knew she’d be tempted to rip them limb from limb.
“No,” Cail quickly said. If she wasn’t mistaken, he protectively clamped his thighs together. “I wasn’t about to say that.”
“Good.”
“I’m not an idiot.”
All three men froze before bursting into laughter. She’d seen the thought they’d all simultaneously had—Brighton.
“Just, for me, please be nice to him while he’s here,” she said.
“We will,” Ain assured her. “But being nice and humoring him are two different things. If he comes up with some sort of off-the-wall bullshit and tries to get you to buy into it, I’m booting him out of here.”
She started to protest when he kissed her, not only silencing her but making her forget what she’d been about to say, much less what they’d even be
en talking about in the first place.
He had that effect on her. All of them did.
And then they were all naked in bed. That happened a lot, too, around her men. Her clothes seemed to magickally fall off.
Especially now.
Although their grand plans to fuck her whenever and however they wanted had been tempered by her bouts of morning sickness. Not that they were complaining, because their joy over their impending fatherhood more than made up for it.
Thankfully, Elain’s nausea usually abated by nighttime. And that would then leave her hungry…
Or horny.
And she’d already had dinner.
She knelt over Cail and wrapped her fingers around his cock. It was already semihard and completely stiffened as she knelt over him and sucked it into his mouth.
His hands tangled in her hair. “Ohhh, baby.”
Ain was a little faster than Brodey and knelt behind her. He reached between her thighs, his fingers finding and playing with her clit. That drew a moan from her that made Cail’s fingers tighten against her scalp.
“Oh, yeah, baby!” he gasped. “Ain, whatever the hell you just did, do it again.”
He did, again and again, easily finger-fucking her as her juices flowed. Brodey crowded in close and reached under her from the side, his fingers finding her clit. Between Ain’s hand fucking her, and Brodey’s skilled fingers tweaking her clit, it wasn’t long before she had handfuls of the sheet and was moaning around Cail’s cock as the first orgasm hit her.
“That’s it,” Brodey said. “You just keep doing that and we’ll take care of you.”
Although, she wouldn’t have to keep doing it for long, because Cail’s cock stiffened even more between her lips, giving her the familiar signal that he was ready to explode. And seconds later, he was, his grunt rolling through her as she swallowed the hot jets of cum his balls pumped over her tongue.
Ain pulled his fingers from her pussy and replaced them with his cock. He took slow strokes at first.
“Harder,” she begged as Cail pulled his spent cock from between her lips.
“As you wish.” His fingers clamped down on her hips as he started fucking her, hard and fast.