Chapter Fourteen
“For fuck’s sake, pumpkin, get some clothes on.” Dad slammed the door shut. Staying outside with, Betty could only assume, her mother.
Betty could hear muffled voices as she scrambled for her clothes like a child caught in the middle of playing doctor with the boy next door. She cringed. Not again. She was going to get an earful. No matter what her age, her dad would always treat her as if she were still five.
Ken tugged his T-shirt over her head and it fell mid-thigh. “Your dad?” He sounded stunned and looked pale.
“Betty Marie Newman, you should know better.” Her mother’s voice rose on the other side of the door.
Betty felt nauseous.
Running his fingers through his hair, Ken strode to open the door. He paused. “How do we look?”
“Like we just had rough sex.”
“I wonder why,” he hissed. He threw the door open and extended his hand to her father. “Ken Birch, sir. Beta for the New Port Pack.” Ken transformed into the professional businessman he claimed to be.
So far, she’d seen him unconscious in a dog cage, pedaling a boat, and deliciously naked. She hadn’t experienced this part of him.
Dad’s face was so red his ears glowed. He eyed Ken’s hand as if looking for a poisonous barb before grasping it. She heard knuckles crack, but didn’t know whose. “Beta, huh?”
Her mom pushed past the men, her arms extended for a hug from Ken. “Soulmates!” She tugged him against her ample chest and kissed his cheeks. “Oh, I heard the stories.” She winked at Betty. “So don’t be so shocked, Chuck.” She rubbed Dad’s shoulder with force.
Betty didn’t know who was praying harder for a hole to open under their feet and swallow them whole—her, Ken, or her dad.
Mom eyed Ken’s bare chest before patting Betty’s behind. “Nice job, honey,” she whispered.
“Mom!” Her mother tended to forget how good shifters could hear. There was no point to a whisper in a pack.
Both men twisted to stare at Mom.
She cleared her throat. “Let’s go find you some better clothes before your father has a stroke.” She grabbed Betty’s hand and led her to the stairs.
Ken’s eyes popped, pleading for her to stay, as they followed her and her mother across the room. Dad still gripped Ken’s hand, knuckles white.
Before Betty moved upstairs, her mother spun toward the guys. “Be nice, Chuck,” she snapped in her drill sergeant voice.
Dad dropped Ken’s hand.
Betty could trust in him to not kill her mate now that Mom had given the command. She might be human but she’d been dealing with shifters longer than Betty had been alive. Dad wouldn’t cross Mom. She wasn’t sure anyone would. Betty swore Mom swallowed razor blades to keep her tongue so sharp.
Once inside her apartment, she covered her face with her hands. “How did you get here so fast?”
“We drove all night.” Mom went straight to Betty’s fridge. “Stop fretting. Your father’s seen you naked before.”
But not while straddling her boyfriend and playing tug of war with his zipper. Oh, that breakfast burrito wanted to come back up. Betty sat on to the sofa and stuck her head between her knees. She couldn’t think of a worse way for Ken to meet her parents.
Well, she guessed they could have caught him between her legs, if they had arrived two minutes earlier. Silver lining…
“Betty!” Mom clapped her hands sharply. “Clothes on.”
She jumped to her feet, head spinning, and hurried to her bedroom closet. All the outfits the girls had brought yesterday cluttered every available surface space. Ugh! She tossed silk and satin over her shoulders until her fingers touched cotton. She changed into fresh panties and a bra before pulling on a pink sundress.
Below her feet in the waiting room, ominous silence thundered. Please, don’t break my furniture, Dad. An empty pit formed in her belly. She needed them to like each other. They were the two most important men in her life, after all.
Her knees weakened and she dropped onto the edge of the bed. She’d known Ken twenty-four hours and he had made it to the top three people in her life. That was a record. This time there really wasn’t enough air in the room. Betty gasped, her chest heaving faster and faster, but it felt like nothing moved in her lungs. Her heart raced and her head spun.
“Your fridge is empty. I’m going—” Mom halted at the entrance. She crossed the space between them, pinching Betty’s nose shut and folding her in half so she was forced to hold her breath.
She struggled and broke her mother’s hold, coming up for air in one big gasp instead of the guppy breaths she’d been taking.
“You haven’t hyperventilated in years.” She cradled Betty’s face in her hands. “Slow and deep, just like we practiced.”
“Soulmates.”
“Yes.” She stroked her hair and hugged Betty tight. “It’s exciting.”
“Human…”
“I know. I’ve discussed it with both your dad and the alpha—”
“Alpha!” She jerked from her mother’s grasp. “Which alpha?”
“See, you’re breathing better already.”
“Mom, answer me. Tell me you didn’t say anything to Chris.” Her ex-boyfriend didn’t need to know anything about her new life. He’d been a controlling jerk with daddy issues.
“Your father had to say something. We needed permission to come to New Port. The fastest way was through the alphas. So technically, we spoke with both.”
She leaned against her mother, head resting against her bosom. “Ken thinks I should be able to shift since we’re soulmates.”
“Your dad and the alphas agree.”
Betty had abandoned Ken to the mercy of her father. As shifters, Ken was more dominant and much stronger, but come on, he wasn’t about to knock out his future father-in-law.
“Can I come in?” Chuck asked.
He then realized he was still blocking the way into the rescue. He stepped back and let him inside. “Can I have my hand back?” The guy had a grip. No broken bones though. He’d seen Ryota break a man’s hand once. The guy had been a jerk.
He hooked his thumbs in his belt loops and maintained eye contact. The muscles in his back twitched, ready for a fast shift if Chuck tried anything. He had just caught Ken in the act of fucking his little girl. In his shoes, Ken would be postal.
Chuck was built like a linebacker. A touch of gray in his goatee and around his ears. Otherwise, he looked strong like an ox. Blue ink lined his arms and neck. Not colorful tats like Betty’s. These were old shifter tribal symbols. Nice ones too.
“I like your ink.”
His eye brows shot up and he glanced at his arms. “Thanks.”
“Same artist as your daughter’s?”
“Nah, she used a new age vampire to do the work.”
Ken nodded, not sure what a new age vampire was. New Port didn’t have many bloodsuckers. The pack didn’t tolerate many in their territory. “Sorry about…” He pointed to where Betty and he had been on the floor. “I didn’t know you were coming for a visit.”
“Betty didn’t say anything?” Chuck shook his head.
“We’ve been distracted.”
Chuck narrowed his eyes. “I bet.”
“Not like that.” He held up his hands. “Peace.” He laughed. “That was our first time and—”
“On the fucking floor in a public area! Your first…” Chuck’s face went purple as his hands fisted.
“No!” Ken ducked, faster than the older shifter, as Betty’s father swung. “Easy, Chuck. Don’t make me hurt you.” He tried to keep his voice low so the girls wouldn’t hear.
Chuck’s eyes shifted and claws formed from his fingertips.
What if those sweet old ladies returned from walking? Ken couldn’t have an out of control shifter in the rescue. He stopped Chuck’s next punch, caught his fist in his hand and squeezed.
Chuck’s eyes widened, jaw dropping open as he sank to his knees. A hand held many nerve endings. Pain was a useful tool to snap a shifter back into the reality of their situation.
He held Chuck’s fist a few seconds longer until he saw the werewolf part of him fade away.
He blinked and diverted his gaze from Ken’s in submission. “Beta,” he spoke in a gravelly voice full of resentment.
Ken knelt and offered him his hand. “You can call me Ken. Think we can start over?”
The front door behind him opened and the room filled with the sounds of excited barks. “We’re ready for the next batch, Betty,” called out one of the dog walkers.
He and Chuck jumped to their feet. Ken gathered leashes from the women, passing some of the dogs to Chuck. “She’s busy with her mom. I’ll gather the next batch. Any specific dogs?” The leashes tangled around his legs as his very distant cousins did their best to tie him and Chuck in knots together.
“Any of them but the Great Danes. Betty walks them herself.”
He shuffled to the back room, dragging the yipping pups. He was glad to see Chuck wasn’t doing any better.
“The yard is fenced.” Chuck pointed to the side door leading out of the kennel area. “Let’s put these mutts out there. We’ll sort ’em out after.”
He followed Chuck’s lead. He knew his daughter’s home better. Ken’s memories of the kennel were still fuzzy.
It took four hands and a few choice swears for both werewolves to untangle the leashes, collect more dogs, and bring them out to the ladies.
“How does your daughter manage this by herself?”
Chuck snorted. “You really don’t know her well.”
“No, but I mean to.”
Betty returned. “Oh.” She halted at the bottom step in a pretty pink sundress that really shouldn’t have made him think such inappropriate thoughts in front of her dad. “Thanks, guys.”
“We like what you did to the place, Betty. The view is much improved.” The older women stared at him pointedly.
Only then did he realize he still didn’t have a shirt on.
Betty tossed him his T-shirt and waved bye to the walkers. “I’m going to help Mom find the coffee.”
“Let’s go sort out those dogs, son.” Chuck patted his shoulder before heading him to the kennel room.
He pulled on his shirt, unable to stop his smile. What a story he’d have to tell his grandkids.
Chuck was checking dog tags to the names on the kennels, one dog at a time, while Ken made sure water bowls were full.
“You’re sure about being her soulmate?” he asked.
“I wouldn’t lie about such a thing. I’m one hundred percent sure.”
Chuck grunted. “You never know what a shifter is willing to do to get into a pretty girl’s pants.” He closed the dog kennel door. “But I see how you look at her.”
Ken nodded. “I’d never do anything to hurt her.”
“I spoke with my alpha before I left Riverbend. If she doesn’t learn to shift, the packs will kill my baby girl. I think you did enough harm.”
“Your alpha told you that?” Shit, word was spreading too fast. He thought he’d have more time before the other packs found out she couldn’t shift.
“He didn’t have to. She can’t shift, boy. A human soulmate isn’t possible. You should have known better than to blab.” He crossed his arms.
“You came to protect her.”
“Damn straight. What are you going to do?”
“Try to teach her to shift.” He shrugged. “Or die trying.”
Chuck gave him a sharp nod as if not expecting less from Ken. “You get started. Alphas aren’t known for their patience.”