Aden would allow no one to hurt his family.
• • •
JUDD slid away his phone and walked back into the sunshine of the newly green play area outside the den, the snow having melted away about ten days earlier. Drew was no longer watching over things. The other man had shifted and was currently buried under a pile of pups in wolf and human form, all intent on beating him in battle.
Judd wasn’t the least surprised when a breakaway group came to attack him. He allowed himself to be taken to the earth, squirming bodies all over him until they pinned him down and howled victory.
Holding one of the smaller pups against his chest as he sat up after he was set free, he put the girl gently on the ground. She raced off to play with the ball again, while Drew, still in wolf form, shook himself as if setting his skin in place, then padded over to sit on the ground beside where Judd had taken a seat with his back against a large rock.
It was over fifteen minutes of comfortable silence later that Drew walked off to shift back into human form, returning dressed in his jeans and white T-shirt. While changelings saw nudity as a natural part of life, they weren’t exhibitionists. Certain rules of behavior were scrupulously followed—by everyone but the smallest pups. Seeing a naked pup gleefully running through the den was a familiar and amusing sight.
“Your Arrow friends?” Drew retook his earlier position, his legs stretched out and face tilted up to drink in the sun, lake blue eyes closed. “They figure out who tried to take two of them out?”
Judd shook his head. “It’s the changeling involvement I’m having trouble understanding.” Drew already knew the facts of what had taken place; Judd had been clear with Aden that though he was more than prepared to help the squad, he wouldn’t withhold information from his alpha and other senior packmates.
“Can’t say I blame you.” Drew opened his eyes, focused on the pups again. “Human and Psy was a weird enough combination, but all three?”
“It doesn’t seem to fit the natural order of things.” Except for rare pockets like in SnowDancer, where all three races had connected, their world was not a functioning triumvirate. “BlackSea in particular seems the least likely pack to be involved in a conspiracy.”
“Yeah, they’re pretty standoffish.” Drew’s laid-back voice was suddenly granite hard as he said, “We know every group has its bad apples, so it’s probably not BlackSea as a whole.”
Judd knew the other man was recalling the SnowDancer traitor who’d wanted to brutalize the woman who was now Judd’s mate. “Brenna handled him,” he reminded Drew. Both Drew and Riley were protective of their sister, sometimes forgot that she could take care of herself. “Where’s Riley?”
A snort. “Mercy is, like, seventeen months pregnant. Where do you think?”
Mercy was more like six months along, but Judd got the point. “She’s displaying more patience with his overprotectiveness than I would’ve expected.” The DarkRiver sentinel had no tolerance for anyone “mollycoddling” her, as she’d put it. She was still on active duty, though on the advice of the pack healers—both SnowDancer and DarkRiver—she’d scaled back her physical exertion.
Judd might have been surprised at what she continued to do if he hadn’t seen other soldiers do exactly the same. Changelings were physical beings and bed rest was only ever advised if there were medical complications. The majority of pregnant changeling women remained highly active almost to their due date.
“Love, Judd.” A grin on Drew’s face. “She’s kinda crazy for my brother. Crazy enough not to throttle him when he invites himself along on her shifts.”
Judd understood in a way he wouldn’t have before he mated with Brenna. It was a knowledge he wanted for all his Arrow brethren, but it wasn’t something he could teach—his squadmates had to experience the dawning wonder and beautiful agony of it themselves. They had to choose to step outside the Arrow black walls of their existence . . . or be lucky enough to find a man or a woman who cared enough to batter down those walls.
“I haven’t actually seen Mercy recently,” he said, his mind on the woman who’d smashed through his own defenses and claimed him. “Brenna was asking how she was.”
“Aside from the belly, she looks and acts exactly like the same old Mercy.” Drew’s grin grew wider. “Riley swears she popped out overnight—word from the healers is that she might not go all the way to nine months.”
Judd came to attention. “You’re not concerned?” Premature births could be very dangerous even with all the medical technology at the world’s disposal.
“We get more multiple births than the other races,” Drew reminded him, “so a lot more babies end up preterm. The healers are used to handling it, and the babies are usually much healthier than Psy or human babies born prematurely.”
“Psy preterm babies are the most at risk.”
A slap on the back. “Good thing any pups you and Bren have will have changeling blood.”
Judd tried imagining Brenna with child . . . and succeeded. There was no block now, no fear of what kind of a father he might be. One day, when they were both ready, he would hold his and Brenna’s child. For now, he’d help watch over both SnowDancer’s and the squad’s young. “I’m nearly afraid to ask how you know so much about gestation and birth,” he said to Drew.
“Because I have a brother who’s been barred from the infirmary in both packs unless he’s bleeding or Mercy’s giving birth.” Drew’s shoulders shook, the wolf in his eyes. “He’s chewed the ear off both Lara and Tamsyn.”