Page 79 of Legally Mated
“My daughter,” Laine said, passing the paperwork out. “And I’m babysitting for a friend while they’re at an officeparty.”
“Overnight stay?” the guard said,bemused.
“I’m not driving them back in the middle of the night,” Laine said, inserting just the right amount of impatience into his voice. “And their parents are going to be way too drunk to want them backanyway.”
The man sniffed and it was plain that he thought Laine was an irresponsible parent to take his daughter to the enclave. Laine was pretty sure that not taking her there would be theirresponsiblemove.
That had been a tense phone call, convincing Brenna that April would be okay at the enclave. Not that she could stop him—he wasn’t taking her outside the state, and there was no good evidence that he was taking her into danger. But she’d been angry and Laine had ended up being something of an asshole, a thing he avoided doing as much as possible. It was better for April if her parents got along and this wasn’t goingtohelp.
What did help was that April was excited to go to Midwinter Moon and she was as tenacious as both her parents. So Brenna had given way, though not entirely gracefully, and now April was in the back seat of the car putting princess jewelry on little Ann, and avoiding Pip’s attempts to master the foam pirate sword that Jack had—correctly judging her style—brought back for her from the dollarstore.
The guard looked over his paperwork again, as if hunting for some small error in it that would let him deny Laine entry, and then, with a grunt, handed it back in the window. “Keep a close eye on them,” he said sternly. “They get crazy in there at full moon. All sorts of howling and fighting. You might want to spend the night inyourcar.”
“I’m sure I’ll be fine,” Laine said coolly, and then they were through the gate and he could work on loosening the tension grinding his teeth together. “You kids ready for full moon?” he called into the back seat, trying to watch the rough track that Mercy Hills called a road and peer at the children in the rear view mirror at thesametime.
“Do you really howl?” April asked, looking at Pip. Laine hid a smile—his daughter had already figured out which of the two was more likely to spill thebeans.
“Of course we do,” Pip said, in a tone that said April was being silly. “Lady Lysoonka likes to hear her children sing.” She stabbed the back of the seat in front of her. “I can’t wait to show this to Chambers. He makes fun of me ‘cause Papa is omega, but he won’t do it any more if I have a sword.” Her words smacked of pure childhoodsatisfaction.
Holland and Bax were waiting for them at the main building. They went for the doors of the car like they’d been practicing, and had the three children out onto the grass in notimeflat.
And then Garrick was there. Laine got out of the car and stood beside it, letting Garrick make thedecision.
“Hi,” the shifter said, and jammed his hands in hispockets.
Okay. No PDAs then. “Hi. We gotthemhere.”
“Yeah.”
They both knew it was going to be far from smooth sailing, but that was tomorrow’s trouble. Tonight was Midwinter Moon and soon Midwinter Wolf would be coming to all the good little pups in the enclave. It was a night for celebrating and forgetting yourcares.
April came running around the end of the car and grabbed his arm. “Holland says we can go play video games over at Bax’s if you say it’s okay. CanIDad?”
“Sure,” Laine said, and accepted her excited hug. “Behave yourself! And look after Ann andPip,okay?”
“Daaaad,” she complained, but she grabbed the hands of Raleigh’s pups and then all three ran off inBax’swake.
“So that’s your daughter,” Garrick saidsoftly.
Laine nodded, gazing afterthepups.
“You know I don’t want pups, right?” There was anxiety in Garrick’s voice, but only athread.
“That’s fine. I don’t have time for more than one.” Laine looked over at Garrick. “I don’t want you for anything otherthanyou.”
Garrick nodded, still watching the pups, but his lips curved up into a smile. “Good. That’s all I’masking.”
Laine’s heart sped up and he opened his mouth to ask if Garrick meant that Laine had been forgiven, then shut it again. It appeared to have been a wise choice, because Garrick moved over to stand beside him and gave a jerk of his head. “Come on. We can go help out with the house for Raleigh and the pups.” He headed off toward the other end of the Park, to where a trail led out through thetrees.
Laine followed him, keeping a careful distance and tried not to feel disappointed when Garrick didn’t close it onhisown.
“We’re putting him in one of the old houses,” Garrick said as they walked into the shade of the ring of trees that made up the center of the town. “Quin is talking about starting to tear them down as we get the new ones built, but Abel wants to fix them up with some of the housing money and preserve them as part of our history. Don’t talk to either of them about it unless you want to be trapped in the middle of an Alpha level appellate argument for a couple of hours.” They broke out through the trees at the head of a double row of small Craftsman style houses. “Right now, they’re in kind of rough shape, but the one we’re putting Raleigh inisn’tbad.”
Laine could tell which one it was by the steady stream of people going in and out the door, carrying buckets and cloths and pieces of furniture. A group of women came from the other direction, each one carrying what looked to Laine like clothing. The followed the others into the house, presumably to put the clothes in place forRaleigh’suse.
“This is amazing,” Laine told Garrick. “You don’t see this outsidewalls.”
“It’s pack,” Garrick said proudly. “Come on. I’m sure there’s cleaning tobedone.”
