Chapter Twenty-two
Asher exhaled through his teeth. Watching Caleb's pack master, Felix, touch his mate's stomach had been harder than he had expected. He wanted to blame it on being so long in the forest, not having to share anything with anyone, except the wolves. And he wasn't exactly sharing Caleb, but that is almost how it felt as Felix slid the ultrasound probe over his slick tummy.
"Do you want the good news or the bad news?"
"Bad news? Why is there bad news?" Caleb asked, tightening his hold on Asher's hand.
"Not exactly bad news," Felix replied. "I can't tell the sex. It is a little early and they aren't in a good position."
"Well that isn't that bad. Hold on. They?"
Felix smiled. "Yep. They. You are having triplets."
The only reason Asher did not faint and fall over was because of the hold Caleb had on his hand. Triplets? Three babies? His brain, so long in survival mode, made the necessary calculations that an extra two babies would require in the woods. What if one of them became sick? What if two of them did? What if they left the homestead for a bit and wild animals got into their supply of formula? How would he care for his children? His mate?
"Asher? Asher!"
Asher blinked, pulling his attention back to his mate who had been obviously calling his name for a while. "Are you okay?" Caleb asked with a slight tremor in his tone.
Instantly, Asher felt horrible. He'd been freaking out on his own, instead of freaking out with his mate like he should have. "I am fine, my boy, just calculating how much more fish we will need." He tried to make it sound like the joke it sort of was, but was unable to mask all of his new worries. One very disturbing fact was becoming clear. They could not return to the homestead anytime soon. Not until after Caleb had the babies and they were all checked out. At that point, winter would be coming and he would not force his mate and three children to live in a tiny, drafty cabin so he could get some peace and quiet. He looked at Felix with a little bit of resentment. They would be staying with Caleb's pack for a lot longer than he ever wanted to. Asher would not voice any of this out loud though. It would be rude to Felix and would cause undue worry and concern in Caleb.
"I could help you," Caleb replied, his voice shakier than Asher liked.
"No way, you'll be too busy relaxing with your feet up, mate. Don't you worry about anything. I will take care of it all."
That included coming to terms with a changed life.
***
As much as Asher was trying to adjust to this new city life, he would never become comfortable with just how loud The Den was. There were the noises of production coming from the kitchen, the shouted orders from wait staff to kitchen staff, bartenders to waiters. The mechanical noises, fryers bubbling, doors opening and slamming shut. And the whole time, above it all was the constant drone of civilization, patrons talking and laughing with one another, cars outside zooming down the street with their music turned up way too loud.
If that wasn't all bad enough, there were the stares that he received from the other shifters. He could ignore them, of course. Though, ignoring them became more difficult when he and Caleb had been placed at the head of a large table for a dinner in their honor.
Even in the shifter world, Asher was an oddity. It wasn't that there weren't many lone wolves, but none of them lived quite as isolated and for as long as he had. The pack members stared at him, furtively whispering behind their hands as if everyone in that room didn't have super hearing.
They were kind to Caleb, though, doting over him like a long lost prince. His mate sat beside him and all of Caleb's friends sat at the large table on his side. Asher spotted the other three pups he'd chased down the mountain in a huddle at the end of the table. One of the girls stared at Asher with an openly hostile expression. Asher smiled, showing his teeth.
The girl startled and turned away but the one she was with straightened and stomped toward him. "We don't appreciate what you did," she said with more oomph in her voice than Asher would have expected. "But we do thank you for taking care of Caleb and mending his body. Though that is something that totally could have happened in a hospital if you had let us take him with us." The girl whirled away, flinging her hair as if it were the final word.
Caleb leaned in and whispered in his ear. "You sort of deserved that."
"I did."
"Everyone here is in awe of you," Caleb said.
Asher could not agree. Everyone there looked at him as if he was an exhibit at a freak show.
"So, how do you keep your food through the summer? In the winter, it wouldn't be that hard, I suppose. It must snow a lot that high up the mountain," the shifter on Asher's right asked him.
It took Asher a while to try to remember his name. He was one of the shifters who had gone up to rescue Caleb. Glenn.
"I dig," Asher replied. "Holes," he clarified.
Glenn nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, that would do it, dig a deep enough hole and it will be cool. Unless you dig too deep," he said, laughing.
Asher grunted.
"So, uh, when did you go up there?" Glenn asked, shooting a furtive glance at Caleb.
Asher's sweet mate. He'd most likely asked his pack mate to strike up a conversation with him so he wouldn't feel left out. "Many years ago. I would say around seventeen." Asher made an attempt at answering more thoroughly for his mate.
A grisly old shifter who sat next to Glenn turned his head suddenly. He was by far one of the oldest shifters in this pack which made sense after Caleb had explained what this pack had gone through previously. This shifter had long hair that was every color between black and white held back in a ponytail. He bounced a little girl on his knee. "Seventeen years ago, you say?" he asked contemplatively.
Asher nodded. "About."
"And where did you come from?"
He shifted uncomfortably.
"Asher doesn't like to talk about—" Caleb began.
Asher gave his hand a light squeeze, trying to convey that while he appreciated his mate trying to help him not be comfortable, that it wasn't necessary. "My pack was one state down, in Bolden."
Asher did not expect his response to make the old man's eyes open wide. "Bolden? Did you? Are you the one…?"
"Daryl, what are you talking about?" the shifter next to the old man asked. He was clearly an alpha, tall and tan. Asher tried to remember who Caleb had said he was mated to, but there were so many. Too many to keep track.
"I'm just, I mean, we are sitting at the table with a legend," Daryl replied.
The table grew quiet as everyone stopped their own conversations to stare at Asher and Daryl.
"What are you talking about?" Caleb asked.
"You were too young then to remember, Caleb. A pack to the south had gotten into some dirty dealings and then one day, it was like a phantom had gone in and wiped them off the face of the earth. Everyone was glad of it. That pack had nearly started an epidemic, stealing shifter children in a three state radius."
Asher had no idea his old pack had reached so far or had such a wide area of impact.
"They stole children?" one of the pups asked.
Asher nodded.
"It was like something out of a horror movie. One summer, shifter kids just started disappearing. Folks didn't know what to think. Even up here, we created a security detail for the pups, escorting them from school and back. It got really bad. And then, stopped. After the fear settled and people started asking questions, people rushed down to the pack in Bolden to find their kids and make them pay. But the adults were gone, all of them."
"How did you know they didn't just pick up and settle down somewhere else where people weren't so scared?" Glenn asked.
"Because of all the blood."
The room looked in Asher's direction silently. He sat straight, refusing to fidget under their scrutiny. "I did what I had to do," he said finally.
"And you've been up that mountain ever since?" Glenn asked though the question felt rhetorical. "Wow, Caleb."
Asher wasn't sure what the sentiment meant, but Caleb puffed with pride and slipped his arm over Asher's shoulders. "I know, I'm so lucky, right?"