Brandi (26 page)

Lars laughed at her declaration, but covered his mouth when Fallon gave him a look. When Fallon turned to look at her again, Brandi could practically hear his brain gears grinding as he tried to be careful about what he said to her.

Her bad-ass days might be behind her, but her work had made her what she was. Maybe all she was going to keep was agent attitude and the ability to kick ass when necessary. At the moment, she was certainly contemplating the best way to torture a couple half-panther half-asshat co-workers.

Fallon crossed his arms and smiled. “I think you should discuss what happened with your… wait. What do you call Gareth now that you are
officially
mated?”

Brandi crossed her arms to mirror him. She wasn’t surprised they knew. She was just surprised to be taking their knowledge so calmly. Not caring they noticed was probably a good sign.

“What do I call my mate? Let me see. So many names come to mind. Why don’t you help me pick a suitable one this morning? Tell me what Gareth did with the bear hybrids.”

Fallon chuckled. “I would love to help you pick a name for the great Gareth Longfeather. I think you should call him…
hero
. What he did, he did for you… or because of you. Either way, you would approve. You have been a good influence on him, Brandi.”

Brandi released a pent-up breath. “Right. I get it. You’re not going to tell me what he did. So fine… I’ll just ask Gareth myself… as soon as the coward stops hiding in the bathroom.”

Lars burst out laughing. Fallon chuckled again, but soon followed his mate in laughing too.

Brandi was just to the point of growling at them both when Gareth padded into the kitchen in his sock feet. As typical, he drew her attention. This morning her stomach tightened in awareness. Damn the man for being so sexy. After last night, she was totally obsessed with having sex with him.

“Lars was feeling better by the time everything was over so I had him fly Jon and the rest back to Colorado in the Osprey. We were delayed only for the time it took Jon to make them all change back to human form. Finding clothes for seventeen large naked people was the hardest part. Nothing was going to fit Jon at his new size, but he said he didn’t care. He went home wrapped in a sheet. Fallon and I told the storekeeper they were a nudist colony that we had arrested. We used my credit card for all purchases so Sheldon will never know.”

“Let me see if I’m getting this straight. No Diane. No bear hybrids. And a very sick agent. How upset was Sheldon when you went back empty-handed?”

“Well, he wasn’t… because we didn’t. We took him one dead bear hybrid partially autopsied and a dead drugged guard. He was happy enough with those… just kind of sad about his sister. But I also think he was secretly happy she escaped. You can never tell with him. He doesn’t reveal much.”

“Danger Brain Diane is connected to Lane Nelson… sleeping with him among other things. She may even have worked for him once. She bragged to me about it. We never got far enough in our conversation for me to tell if Lane was feeding her info or she was feeding him. Either way, Lane could be a future problem for Sheldon. Does that mean we have to kill him?”

“Will you hate me if we do?” Gareth asked.

Brandi sighed. “No. But it just seems a waste. He was a decent handler up until he left me with Randall Crane.”

Gareth shrugged. He was jealous, but maybe it was a good sign she wasn’t wanting her old lover dead.

“Instead of killing him, Fallon and Lars can chip him. We can also cap his teeth with microphone transmitters. His secrets will be recorded round the clock. If Lane Nelson makes contact with Diane Crane, Sheldon will know about it as soon as it happens. The monkey hybrids are the sharpest people I’ve ever seen about handling Intel.”

Brandi snorted. “Seriously? There are monkey people?”

Gareth snorted as his head popped out of the small refrigerator and turned in her direction. “Monkey hybrids make way more sense than werewolves, don’t you think?”

Brandi laughed at his logic, even though the reality beyond the joke still bothered her. How many other hybrid species were there? Did she even want to know?

Her stomach growled loudly as she watched Gareth retrieve two triple-sized roast beef sandwiches and bring them to the small table. Fallon scrambled from the chair to let him sit across from her.

“I saved your bears from Sheldon, even though it’s probably temporary. It’s going to be hard for them to learn to cloak what they’ve become. As much as I want to, I can’t save the world for you, Brandi. But I will stand by your side if you feel you have to try to do it. I’ll limit my cynicism to a couple days a week so you won’t want to kill me so often.”

Brandi laughed, but her gaze was glued to him while he lifted his sandwich to his mouth. Gareth was steady, irritatingly steady at times. But he was also capable of change. He proved that most by letting Jon and Susan go instead of taking them back to Sheldon. If someone as jaded as he was could change, maybe that meant she was capable of changing too.

“You’re right, Gareth. I want to save the world. But my unwilling conversion into a werewolf has enlightened me about the need to save myself too. I’m starting to think maybe the best thing I can do is save three wolf hybrid children no one else wants to help. If that’s my life choice, will you stand by my side and help me do that?”

Gareth stopped chewing and swallowed. He nodded solemnly as he held her gaze. “I was already going to take care of the children, even if I ended up sucking at it as a single parent. I’ll admit to secretly hoping Jesse and Marilyn let me con them into helping until their grandkids start coming along.”

He dropped his gaze back to his food, took another bite, chewed, and swallowed before speaking again. “And if you got pregnant last night, which is a possibility because of your heat cycle, we’ll figure that out too. Mating was inevitable, but I had planned on being careful. You wouldn’t wait until I retrieved the condoms I bought.”

Brandi blushed. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t in the mood to talk. I thought you were just trying to slow things down by making unnecessary conversation like you sometimes do.”

“Want to tell the cats what color underwear I have on? They’re getting an earful about everything else this morning.”

When Fallon and Lars laughed at Gareth’s chastisement, her face flamed. She shrugged and sighed, deciding she deserved to be embarrassed. And Gareth deserved to be told the truth.

“I wasn’t all that worried because I don’t even know if I can get pregnant. Ariel thinks our nanos are programmed not to let conception occur. Matt wants children with her and it hasn’t… okay, you’re right about the cats hearing too much. I’m shutting up now. We can discuss this at home.”

Bowing her head, Brandi attacked her sandwich, tearing into it with large bites. She was beyond starved.

Gareth stopped eating and studied her bowed head.
Home
, Brandi had said. On her own and without his prompting.

“I don’t really care what Fallon and Lars are hearing. I only care about what you’re feeling. I’ll take anything and everything that comes from life with you. That’s what being a mate is all about. I love you, Brandi. It really is that simple for me. I wouldn’t change a moment and I certainly wouldn’t change you. I’ll prove that to you again tonight.”

Just thinking about tonight sent nerves rippling through her. Brandi stopped chewing and rubbed her chest. There was an ache in the middle of it. Every time she looked at Gareth this morning her insides clenched in happy desperation. She wanted a hug from him so bad it was all she could do to keep her ass planted in the chair.

Gareth made her needy… and emotional. In short, he’d changed her so much he’d ruined her. She sure hoped Ariel was right about those changes being a good thing.

Gareth frowned at Brandi’s pained expression. “Indigestion from eating too fast? I’m really sorry I forgot to feed you last night.”

Brandi shook her head. “No. I believe it’s love I’m feeling. It feels a lot like heartburn though, don’t you think?”

Gareth snickered at her lack of romance, but nodded. Maybe there was hope for him after all.

Chapter 20

Brandi looked out the window and snorted. “Why are you whistling? We’re signing up to raise four year olds who read minds. God only knows what else they can do. It may be years before we see any real privacy again.”

“It will be a little cozy for a month or so, but only until they get the kid’s addition to the house finished. It’s not like there are a lot of buildings being built in Wasilla. Carpenters from Anchorage are coming tomorrow. I already approved the plans they faxed. If it goes well, they’ll have the outside framed in a couple of weeks. They’re using Jesse’s blueprints. With the addition being a two-story, it’s not like it will even take away much of the back yard. Not that I care. I hated mowing anyway.”

“I wouldn’t know. I’ve never mowed a yard in my life,” Brandi said flatly, turning to glare when he veered off the road. “But I can drive and way better than you obviously. You’re too easily distracted.”

Gareth laughed. “I’m always distracted around you. And I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who hasn’t mowed a yard.”

“Why do you even have to mow here in Alaska? It snows most of the year. Couldn’t you just turn your cattle loose in your yard for a while. They eat grass, don’t they?”

Her question made him laugh. “My dull, easy life was over the moment I laid eyes on you. It’s a shame what a man will put up with for great sex.”

“You mean
stupendous sex
,” Brandi corrected.

“I would actually call it
world record breaking sex
,” Gareth declared. Her pleased laugh made his smile so wide it hurt his face. “When you’re happy, I feel like the luckiest werewolf in Wasilla.”

Brandi snickered. “Changing your mind about that is going to be as easy as 1, 2, 3 here shortly.”

“You might be surprised. This move might be so right and so easy that you’re going to immediately feel it in your gut.”

Brandi rolled her eyes. “Kent is combative. Aggie is sneaky. And Stewart has prophetic dreams like I do. They bicker and fight and plot better than most agents I’ve known.”

Gareth shrugged. “We’ll call Grandpa Sheldon if we need more help than we can find in the pack.”

Brandi nodded and sighed, fighting butterflies in her stomach. “What if they decide they don’t like me for a parent? What if I let them down like my parents did me? What if…”

“Stop,” Gareth demanded, pulling the truck into the driveway. “Just stop.” He turned to look at the woman he loved. “And stop chewing your lip. Never let an alpha, even a tiny one, see your nervousness. They will use it against you every chance they get. Be an unflappable beta. Be calm and unmovable… except in bed.”

“You’re more obsessed with our sex life than I am.”

“I’m a guy. I want it all the time… and I mean all the time… not sometimes…
all the time
. And you’re the first woman in two hundred years who’s ever given me all I wanted. So yes—I’m obsessed.”

Brandi grinned at the compliment. “Really?”

Gareth smiled. “Yes. Really. I told you that last night.”

“I thought it was the world record breaking sex talking.”

“It was,” Gareth said softly. “But that didn’t make it less true.”

Her mouth diving for his knocked him against the door of the truck. Brandi’s kiss spun out as her hands worked around him to hug. He growled in her ear, his fangs descending. “Bad timing,” he whispered.

Brandi pulled back to look at him. Her fangs gleamed in the twilight. She nodded and reluctantly moved away.

“If this giddy feeling is love, I think I like it,” she said.

“It is. Now come on,” Gareth said, his throat tight with emotion. “Let’s go see if they want us. For all we know, they might have decided Jesse and Marilyn would be a better bet.”

He laughed at the terror showing on Brandi’s face as she lifted her chin. He was going to get to watch her open up and the children grow up. After all his time alone, he wasn’t sure how he’d gotten so lucky.

They both turned to the door as three tiny bodies tore out of it. A tired, but smiling Marilyn trailed behind them.

Brandi slid from the truck and laughed as they skidded to a halt. Aggie and Stewart hugged her legs. “Move. My turn,” Kent finally demanded. She was squeezed hard when Kent flung himself at her. “You came back.”

“Of course I came back. My job is done. Hopefully I won’t have another one for a good long while.”

Kent pulled away and stepped back. “So have you made a decision about us?”

Brandi snorted. “Yes,” she said, saying nothing more. She grinned at Stewart. “You were right about the bear people, Stewart. They weren’t scary, just sad. Gareth sent them all home, so they’re not sad anymore.”

Stewart backed away and started jumping around in joy, yelling how much he liked being right. She looked over at Gareth. He was watching Stewart with the same kind of happy gaze so often turned in her direction lately. The man wasn’t perfect, but he was perfect for her. She looked at the children. He would be perfect for them too. Maybe Gareth could make up for her shortcomings.