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“What? I helped make them. Half of it is mine,” he said, giving me back half of my half. I rolled my eyes as I sat up and pulled my shirt down, then gave the money back to Melissa.
“Congrats on guessing right. Maybe Maya can take you to buy something with your winnings while we’re away,” I told her.
Her eyes lit up at that, but then her jaw dropped when Markus, Alexander and Gabriel gave her their parts as well. She gave me a big hug and then ran out screaming.
“I’m going to buy ice cream and a proper sketchbook!”
“Well, that’s the show, folks,” Dr. West said, then pointed at the door. “Now out so I can finish my consult.”
Markus
Aboyandagirl. I could see Atlas doing flips in my head and howling with happiness. What more could I ask from my mate and our Moon Goddess? I felt like a million bucks.
We were headed to Mexico tomorrow, and Celeste wanted to cook for the pack house tonight. I wasn’t keen on the idea, but it was hard telling her no, especially after that news, so instead, I asked Melissa to help her with the promise of bringing her back a few gifts from Mexico. I’m pretty sure she would have done it, anyway. She flocked to Celeste anytime she had free time, and Celeste loved spending time with the young girl. I was eternally grateful she had someone with her while she was mad at the rest of us.
We were all packed and ready to go, but I had a few more things to go over with Danny and Evergreen before tomorrow. I asked them to look for any information on the pack we were visiting. As much as I wanted to trust Celeste’s long-lost relatives, I was unwilling to go on faith. Not when I was taking my mate and pups somewhere I was unfamiliar with.
We had a meeting scheduled with them after lunch, but I helped Celeste do some quick prep for dinner beforehand. She was making pot roast, so she asked me to carry the big pans full of meat into the ovens so they could begin cooking. Atlas and I were quite pleased to help with the heavy lifting, though I suspected Celeste was asking to placate my overprotective instincts by the way Dad smirked at me when Celeste gave me a thank-you kiss. Whatever, I would take any pity thank-you kisses as long as they came from my mate.
Evergreen was staying in the pack house while he finished all the security upgrades and would remain here until we were back in case we needed quick action. He had his own apartment in the pack house, but considering the software security was a new branch of the company, he liked installing everything himself despite having a whole team of employees learning from him. Eventually, he would have to settle down and learn to trust them. I needed him home, working that brilliant brain of his on new technology, but for now, I was letting him do things his way. It never hurt to show off the kind of genius the man had to new clients.
“Gentlemen, what have you found?” I asked as we sat around the conference room. Our office was currently being finished, and Evergreen would be setting it up with some fun new gadgets.
“Quiet, as far as I could see,” Danny said, and Evergreen nodded in agreement.
“Their finances are up to par. They have less than three hundred pack members. They’re quiet and like to keep to themselves. There aren’t many packs nearby, so they have no conflicts that I could find. In fact, they gather with a few packs during the full moon, so they’re not a hostile pack. I couldn’t find any debts, and according to my satellite info, they are an agricultural pack that supplements their income from tourism. They live off the land, but they do have some modern comfort such as full utilities, cars and I even found an internet connection in the main pack house. Other than a couple of incidents with the law for lack of driver’s license by some pack members, nothing to note. I dug as deep as I could.” Evergreen read off his tablet.
“Any information on rogue attacks or local crime I should be aware of?” I asked.
“Nothing out of the ordinary. There’s no record of rogue attacks, but I can’t be sure. As I mentioned, they mostly work the land, so they don’t keep their day-to-day on a computer.” I could see the distaste in Evergreen’s face when describing their lack of technology. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the man without a device in hand.
“And you confirmed with them that we will arrive tomorrow?” I asked.
“Yes, I spoke with Alpha Diego via Zoom yesterday. He will have some of their men pick you up at the airport.” I nodded in acknowledgment.
“Anything else? Danny, do you have anything else I need to take care of before we leave?”
“No. We’re all covered. Should be okay,” he answered, so I turned to Evergreen, who pulled out a package from under the conference table.
“This is an encrypted laptop and a mini satellite dish. You should have a signal from nine to noon local time. I’ll monitor messages and phone calls coming in and out of the pack. If something feels off, I’ll message you through the encrypted laptop. I'll connect it to their network and keep it online until you've read the message.”
“Is this not a little extreme?” Celeste asked. “We’re supposed to be going in good faith to meet my relatives.”
“For normal people, yes. For me, no. When protecting not only my alpha but my luna, the pups and our beta, I’d rather not risk it. You will be isolated, alone with nothing but a few warriors and in a different country,” he explained, and I saw Celeste’s skepticism turn to warmth and understanding. “Speaking of, I know you're mostly fluent, Luna, but I’ve installed a translating app on your phones. It should work while offline. In the event things don't go well, I’ve also stuffed an emergency envelope in the lining of the laptop case. It’s got ten thousand dollars in Mexican pesos, fake passports, and contact information for an associate of mine living in Mexico City that I know we can trust.”
“This is why I pay you the big bucks, Evergreen. Thank you. I hope we don’t need all these measures, but I will feel better having it with us.” I stood up and patted him on the arm. “See you at dinner. Celeste is making pot roast,” I said, and his eyes brightened. As a traveling bachelor, he rarely got home-cooked meals and had become another aficionado of Celeste’s cooking.
“Tuli,areyousureyou’re okay?” I asked her again as we got ready for lift-off. Celeste was next to me on the plane, unusually silent and fidgeting in her seat.
I felt her nerves all morning, but they'd been increasing the closer we got to the airport hangar, and they spiked significantly when we boarded the plane. I wasn’t sure what the problem was, and she kept insisting she was fine. It wasn’t the usual nausea that had plagued her for a few weeks, which was thankfully getting more infrequent. And I knew she wasn‘t scared of the trip. If anything, she’d been talking about how excited she was to meet her mother’s remaining relatives.
Celeste nodded but gripped the seat as the plane started moving forward, and I suddenly felt like an idiot when everything clicked in my head. Celeste had never flown before. I put my arm around her and pulled her as close as possible. She grabbed my shirt and held on until we were in the air and the flight stabilized. Once the fasten seatbelt sign turned off, she finally started relaxing in her seat.
“Sorry,” she said as I unbuckled my seatbelt. I smiled over at her and kissed her forehead. It was only a three-hour flight to Mexico City. We’d arrive in time for a late lunch in the city before we were driven to the pack house, so I pushed the armrest up between us and got comfortable. We were in for a long day.
The stewardess came by and offered us some refreshments, and I made sure to order whatever Celeste ordered. In this enclosed proximity, I wasn’t going to risk whatever I ordered giving her nausea. Gillian, Zack, Gabriel and George, who were used to being around pregnant Celeste, did the same while the others ordered different things. It was all going well until someone two seats behind us decided to have a snack, and Celeste’s over-sensitive nose caught the smell of sour cream and onion chips. I felt the wave of nausea hit me through the bond before she bolted for the little bathroom.
Gabriel growled behind me, and I watched with a little amusement as he snatched the chips away from Mateo before I headed for the bathroom, where I could hear Celeste throwing up her breakfast, my drink in hand. I heard the water running before the bathroom door opened, and I passed her the iced tea. She quickly drank it down, then rested her forehead on my chest while I rubbed small circles on her back.
