“The tattoo works to keep her in line, then. Pain, but not permanent damage?” Leo asks, burping the almost-sleeping baby.
Mari is so beautiful, with soft pink lips and long black lashes resting on rounded cheeks. Completely untouched by the words her Rio is speaking. Nix hopes she’ll always be without the stain of the darkest things that seem to follow Nix around.
“That’s twisted,” Rowan chimes in, scooching down into the nest and holding his arms out for Mari. “Come here, baby girl.”
“So we’re going to the Guild tomorrow, as if nothing happened? We know she has nefarious plans for Gray, and that she knows he’s been holding back,” Luca asks.
“But she doesn’t know we know that,” Finn adds, lying down beside Rowan and smoothing Mari’s hair. “So, business as usual. We’ll talk to Nimue and Ignatius tomorrow.”
“Sh—oot,” Grayson exclaims. “I forgot. The bad guy knows they’re here without authorization. Both of them seemed happy about how much trouble that was going to cause.”
“Dammit, I should call Ignatius now. Give them a chance to clear out before they get into too much trouble. Maybe get your Dad on it, too, Leo. So we have a plan.”
“How bad could it be?” Luca whispers, pulling Nix down beside him and sliding his smooth thigh over Nix’s hips, soothing them both.
“A reprimand for sure, but worst case…extradition probably,” Leo says, phone in hand, texting his dad a heads-up. “Even though we’ve been working on this for weeks. Fucking bureaucracy.”
They’re all in the upstairs nest, and for a minute, Nix wants to fetch the sweetly sleeping Rosie and Skye from his little room. Wants all eleven of them piled in tight, where he can put a finger or a toe on each person he loves. But Skye hasn’t taken to the family nest yet, and once they wake Rosie up, she’ll be awake until nap time at ten AM, no matter what anyone does. So, letting her sleep is the best idea for a non-scream-filled morning. Especially for Jamie and Rowan, who are on Dad duty.
“Try to sleep, baby boy,” Jamie says, soothing Nix with a hand on his calf.
He’s almost asleep for the second time that night when Gideon groans. “What is that stink? Shit. Did anyone remember to clean up the puke?”
“Sorry.” Nix gets out amidst a chorus of tired whispers of, “Not it!”
As quiet as they’re trying to be, it’s enough to wake their sleeping beauty.
“Dammit,” Gideon groans.
Nix chuckles, following Gideon out of the nest. He pulls the cleaning supplies out from under the sink, adding an extra trash bag for the paper towels. It’s his stinky mess, and he’ll clean it up.
As he scrubs the hardwood clean in the glow of the bathroom light, he listens to his mates whispering about the girls, tomorrow, and even what Gideon might make for breakfast. He wishes that the mess with Dahlia and her zealous plotting would be as easily taken care of. Nix’s wolf won’t settle, as if he knows something big is coming. He is already thinking about how they’re going to protect Grayson tomorrow.
Maybe it’ll be easy.
Maybe Dahlia will come clean, and they can face whatever it is she and the creepy guy want head-on.
But he doubts it, because when has it ever been that simple for them?
Grayson
The ringing of Jay’s phone from somewhere on the other side of the nest pulls Grayson from a sleep that had been, thankfully, devoid of dreams. Groaning, Grayson rolls into a warm spot to rub his nose in a pillow that smells like Leo and home. Like the rest of his pack, Jay is nowhere to be seen, but the sound of the shower and Nix’s giggles tells him his Alpha is in the nest’s bathroom.
The music cuts out after three rings, going to voicemail, and doesn’t ring again.
After he and Nix had crash-landed into a pile of crap in Kirwan’s kitchen last night, Grayson had thought it might be hard to fall back asleep. But his Alpha had pulled him into his arms, his pine scent convincing Grayson’s wolf—as it always does—that everything is going to be alright.
Something about strong arms and experience convinces his wolf that there’s nothing they can’t handle together.
Glancing at his own phone, he sees it’s just after seven. He’s had three hours of sleep. It won’t help him keep on an even keel at the Guild, but he’s not soul-deep exhausted like he had been before they’d destroyed the foci.
Still, he can’t go into the Guild with this level of focus. He has just enough time for a run to Common Grounds to get his blood pumping, and if he can catch Gideon before he goes to Ruckus, Grayson might get him to join him and foot the bill.
It’s not that Grayson can’t pay for his own coffee and breakfast sandwich—it’s that Gideon is happy to do it, and Grayson likes it when Gideon is happy.
He’s sitting on the side of the nest, gathering energy to look for his running shoes, when he hears Leo’s steps in the hallway. He slides into the nest room on socked feet, cheeks flushed and a frowning mouth kissed red.
“Shit, shit, shit. Where’s Jay?”
