Bleacke's Geek (Bleacke Shifters) (13 page)

Ken felt a little ill for more than one reason and tried to act nonchalant.

Dewi smiled. “Don’t worry. He’s not practicing to empty them into you.”

Ken forced a smile. “I’m not worried about that. I’m worried about how he’s feeling.”

Badger apparently couldn’t stifle his snort of amusement, even though he tried to disguise it as a cough.

Dewi made a noise at Badger that almost sounded like a growl. “What is
your
problem?”

Badger snickered as he shook his head. “Sorry, lass. I’m not used to having someone sensitive around who’s worried about others’ feelings is all.”

“What is
that
supposed to mean?” she indignantly asked.

He turned, poking a pudgy finger at her in the air. “Listen to me, Dewi. I couldn’t love ye more if ye were me own flesh and blood. But do ye not remember second grade?”

Dewi blushed and looked at the counter. “Yes,” she mumbled.

That piqued Ken’s interest. “What? What happened?”

When it was obvious that Dewi didn’t want to say, Badger piped up again. “I made her wear a dress to school for picture day. I got a call from the principal’s office a couple hours later. She’d beaten up a boy who’d told her she looked nice.”

Ken tried to process that. “Was he picking on her?”

Badger shook his head. “No. He was genuinely complimenting her. The teacher even told him it was a nice thing to say.” He snorted. “Then Little Miss Princess here beat the crap outta him.”

Dewi looked like she wanted to crawl under the counter. “I was only seven, for crying out loud,” she mumbled. “And I didn’t hurt him. Much.”

“Yeah, but it also ensured boys stayed away from her for the rest of grade school. And most of the girls, too.” He turned back to the stove. “I had to send her to a two-week charm school when she was ten to teach her to act like a lady.”

“I hated every minute of it,” she grumbled.

“Well, ye ran around like a wild heathen half the time. I needed someone to help tame ye.”

Dewi looked so miserable that Ken couldn’t help but laugh as he walked over to her and hugged. “I take it you passed charm school?”

“I had to,” she grumbled. “Badger threatened to make me wear skirts and dresses all the time unless I did.”

“And to her, that was a fate nearly worse than death,” Badger said with a snicker.

* * * *

Beck returned to the house a few minutes later.

“There ye are,” Badger said. “Dinner’s almost ready.”

“Okay, thanks.” Beck said a quick hello to everyone before stepping into the kitchen, leaning past Badger, and putting what looked like a gun case into one of the cabinets. “I’ll be right back,” he said. He went upstairs, presumably to his room.

Ken looked at Dewi. She probably didn’t need their nifty new mindreading skills to know what he was thinking.

“It’s a nine millimeter,” she said as she got off the stool and walked around the counter. She opened the cabinet and withdrew what did, in fact, turn out to be a gun case. In a practiced move, she popped the magazine, cycled the round out of the chamber, and then presented it butt-first to Ken to hold.

“It’s okay,” she said with a smile. “I want you to hold it. See how it feels in your hand. It’s probably the first gun I’ll teach you on.”

He felt a little nauseous, but he took the gun from her and held it like she told him to. After a moment, she took it back. “I know you don’t like guns, but you need to learn how to handle one. For my peace of mind, if nothing else.” She reloaded the gun and returned it to the case, and the case to its hiding place in the cabinet, behind a couple of boxes of macaroni and cheese. “But remember, don’t go touching any gun unless I’ve told you it’s okay.”

He threw her a mock salute. “Yes, ma’am.”

Badger had himself a belly laugh. “He’s gonna keep ye in line, I can see it now,” he teased.

Beck returned to the kitchen. “What’s so funny?”

Ken studied the man’s expression. It looked like Beck would rather be somewhere, maybe anywhere else, but that it wasn’t anything personal. The shifter wore a practiced, perfectly schooled look on his face. Anyone else probably wouldn’t notice anything wrong, but Ken sensed that maybe his intuition and powers of observation had gotten a lupine boost the same way his vision had.

Badger hooked a thumb over his shoulder in Ken’s direction. “Our newest pack member, there. Believe it or not, lad, I think she’s met her match.”

Beck smirked. “Well, if you can hold your own with her, more power to you, buddy,” he said to Ken.

The four of them sat and ate in relative silence once the food was dished out. Ken watched the three shifters eat, engrossed by the sight. They…well, they wolfed down their food. Not rudely, but intently, each one bent over their plate and shoveling it in relatively fast.

Finally, Dewi glanced at him, then sat up. “What’s wrong? You’ve hardly touched your food.”

He shook his head. “Nothing’s wrong. I was just…fascinated.”

Badger looked up. “Sorry, lad.” He sat up and wiped a drop of sauce from his chin. “We’re pretty intent on our food.”

“So I see.” He picked up his fork again. “I didn’t mean to be rude, it’s just…” He felt his face go hot and red as he realized what he’d been about to say.

I don’t often get to eat with others.

He started eating. Dewi reached over and touched his arm. He looked up and met her gaze.

“We’re your family now,” she gently said. “You’re one of us.”

Badger and Beck both nodded. Badger said, “Yer part of the pack now, lad. Ye’ll never be alone again if ye don’t wanna be.”

Beck added, “And we take care of our own.”

Ken knew if he started crying they’d probably humor him, but he really didn’t want the additional hit to his ego. He sniffled it back. “Thanks. I appreciate it. It’s…just going to take some getting used to.”

Dewi smiled. “The wolf thing?”

“No. The family thing.”

* * * *

Ken gave Beck credit for trying to draw him into their circle. Badger must have filled Beck in a little about his history at some point, because the shifter seemed to steer clear of certain topics. Ken could swear he mentally felt Beck stepping around conversational minefields.

“So, what drew you into teaching computer science?” Beck asked.

Ah, a subject he didn’t mind talking about. “My mom got me my first computer when I was in junior high. I was hooked. I wasn’t good at sports and didn’t have much interest in them anyway, but I was good at computers and programming.”

“How long have you been teaching?” Dewi asked.

“Full time, for three years. But I was an assistant prof and grad student teacher before that.”

The conversation rambled back and forth between them all. He asked Dewi about what she did, but she seemed reluctant to give him any gory details that she apparently felt might upset him.

He gave them all a lot of credit for trying to make him feel like one of the family. For the first time in years, he truly did feel like he was totally accepted and wanted.

He offered to help with the dishes, but Badger shooed him and Dewi out of the kitchen. “Go play, ye two,” he said with a grin. “Beck’ll help me.”

Dewi didn’t give Ken a chance to object. She grabbed his hand and led him out the back sliders onto the lanai.

She wrapped her arms around him, smiling up at him. “Playtime.”

* * * *

Dewi could stare up at him for hours and never get bored. She wanted to memorize every hair on his head, stay wrapped up forever in his arms.

She knew she’d have some words to eat next time she saw Trent and Peyton. She remembered ragging on her two older brothers when they met their mates, picking on them in evil little sister fashion for their moony eyes and the way they practically drooled over their women for the first few months.

Badger had warned her that one day, she, too, would understand.

Now, she did.

“What do you have in mind for playtime,” he said, “or should I be afraid to ask?”

She giggled. “Don’t worry. I won’t hurt you. Although I don’t promise not to bite.”

He smiled. It bothered her that worry lines drew small creases in his face. He shouldn’t have anything to worry about, ever again. She wanted to fill his days and nights with so much happiness that those lines disappeared forever.

“I don’t think I stand a chance against you regardless,” he said.

She took him by the hand and led him outside and across the backyard. Late in the day, they still had about forty minutes of good light left, not that darkness was a problem for her eyes. “I want to show you something.”

He looked a little ill. “The shooting range?”

“No, something else. I really think you’ll like it.”

Without hesitation, she threaded her way though pine needle-covered paths she had committed to memory. Ten minutes later, they emerged into a small clearing.

His eyes widened. “Wow. This is neat.”

She wrapped her arms around him from behind as he stared the small spring-fed pool approximately twenty yards across. A stream softly bubbled away from it, curving out of sight into the woods. “I love it here. It’s one of the reasons Badger picked this property. There was a small stream on the compound back in Idaho. I used to go there to sit and think or to just be by myself.” She sat, gently tugging on his hand to urge him to join her.

He made himself comfortable on the grass and she laid down, resting her head in his lap so she could look up into his brown eyes. “I’m sorry this is all so overwhelming for you,” she said.

He stroked her hair. His every motion felt tentative, as if he feared she’d bolt from him. “It’s okay. I’m starting to get a handle on it. I think.”

She laced her fingers through his and brought his hand to her mouth. Slowly, she ran her lips up and down each of his fingers before she clasped her other hand over his and held it to her heart. “I’m yours,” she softly said. “Only yours, for the rest of our lives.”

* * * *

He wanted to believe it. “I think that’s the part that I’m still struggling with.” He smiled down at her. “What does that say about me that I can come to grips with the wolf stuff faster than I can the fact that a beautiful woman is in love with me?”

“I think it says I’m glad you only had stupid women in your life before me.”

“Can I ask you something?”

“You can ask me anything.”

“Last night in the pub, you asked me if I was married or single. Why did that matter?”

“Because if you weren’t single, no matter what I felt for you, I would have walked away.”

“And if I was gay?”

She shrugged. “If you were single and interested, I would have had to think about it.” She nibbled on his hand, making his cock hard again. “If you were totally not interested, I would have made myself walk away.”

Who was he kidding? Just having her within ten feet of him made his cock hard.

“Well, lucky for both of us I was straight and single.”