Page 30 of The Beta’s Heart (Five Fangs #5)

Tyler

It took a few months to coordinate our schedules and organize a trip to the Blue Rock pack so we could meet Ray Hawkins, but we finally took off from the Five Fangs airport one sunny, cold day in late January.

During the long plane ride, Ash and Peri found something to argue about and were happily chirping away like a pair of hens, so I shut my eyes and thought about all the questions I had for Ray, including if he had known Bram’s dad. It was a long shot, but there was no harm in asking.

After I’d had time to process everything about my family, I’d invited Bram over and explained how we were related. The two of us had always been friends, but knowing we were cousins strengthened our bond even more.

“I’m so happy!” he had cried all over me as he’d tried to squeeze the air out of me. “A part of my dad’s family still exists, and I’m lucky enough for it to be you!”

“Same, Bram.” I’d hugged him back just as hard, a little giddy from the sheer happiness radiating from the small omega.

“I wish we could have grown up together,” he’d whispered in my ear, “but you would have hated living at my house after Dad died.”

“We should have grown up together,” I’d grumbled. “Your mom shouldn’t have kept that a secret. It was like she wanted to keep us apart!”

Then I’d apologized—as did Peri—for being so oblivious about what was going on with Brenda.

Bram being Bram, he’d waved our apologies away, saying he should have spoken up or allowed Yolanda to do more when she’d begged him to.

“But it’s all over, and I’m happier than I’ve ever been in my life!” he chirped, his hazel eyes sparkling as he smiled. “Especially since I have my Rue.”

That’s right: Gamma Reuben Ford ended up being his mate, and it delighted me to have my cousin mated to one of my best friends. Now Bram had someone to encourage his dreams and guard his inner peace, and Rube had someone to help him through his trauma and give him a renewed purpose in life.

They were thriving as they started a new, happier chapter in their lives, and they weren’t the only ones.

In November, Dr. Alonzo York and his mate, Paul, had adopted Rook Harrison, who was hesitant to accept them at first, which was understandable. No one knew what he was, including Rook himself, and he’d already been abandoned by his birth parents and lost his foster parents and siblings in the sickness. He had slowly come around, though, and opened up to the couple, and the Yorks were over the moon to have a child to call their own.

A month later, David Johnstone had finally succumbed to his grief, and I’d held his sons’ hands as his coffin was lowered into the frozen ground, offering what comfort I could. They had made peace with his passing during the years that their father had been in a coma, but saying a final goodbye had hurt more than they thought it would. They’d cheered up, though, when Rook had asked the Yorks if Zach and Austin could join their family, and Paul hadn’t hesitated to say yes.

Then, the week after Christmas, Charlie Nelson and Misha Popov had tied the knot. Misha formally adopted Sawyer, Dawson, and Honor, and they’d all moved into his house since it was more spacious, leaving the O empty.

And I pray it stays that way, I murmured to myself, even though I’d had mixed feelings about seeing the front door close for the final time. I had a lot of good memories from my years in that house…

“Ty?” My mate’s soft voice in my ear brought me out of my thoughts and back to the present, and I glanced down at her with a raised eyebrow and a quiet hum. “We’re getting ready to land.”

“Already?” With a tiny smile, I pecked her forehead. “Thanks, Sunshine.”

Like our own alphas and many others in the kingdom, Alpha Alphonse Riggans had discovered that owning a small propeller plane could make a huge difference to a pack, so he’d bought a field bordering his territory and installed a runway and small operations center with an attached garage and called it Blue Rock’s private airport.

Our plane landed smoothly on the relatively new tarmac, and Jason Guthrie, our pilot, let us know when it was time to disembark.

“Now, Jason, you’re free to do whatever you want. Alpha Riggans has a car for your use, so take it and do whatever you want until it’s time to leave,” Ash told him as they shook hands. “You got the pack credit card, right?”

“Yes, alpha, but I don’t imagine I’ll be spending much.”

“As much or as little as you want, but it’s all on our dime. Hell, make it a little vacation for yourself! But don’t let me find out later that you paid for so much as a stick of gum, you hear me?”

“Yes, alpha.”

“And don’t get eaten by any gators, either.”

“Yes, alpha.”

Giggling at Mr. Guthrie’s wide-eyed nodding and Ash’s unusual seriousness about something so silly, Peri led the way down the steps and I followed, stepping out into the sweltering heat. The air wrapped around us like a suffocating blanket, thick and humid. I was already wiping sweat from my brow, and I wondered why in the world anyone would choose to live where you needed gills to breathe!

“This ain’t right,” Peri muttered. “It’s freaking January, not August!”

Grinning at her, I linked our fingers together and walked her to where two men waited for us near the operations building. When we reached them, I drew her a little behind me. Even knowing one was Ray Hawkins and the other Alpha Alphonse Riggans, I wasn’t going to ever take the slightest risk with my precious mate.

Ash greeted them first, as was proper protocol when one alpha visited another’s territory, and I studied the strangers as he shook their hands and shared our names.

Alpha Riggans, who I knew was in his mid-twenties, wore his dark brown hair in long dreads and had a square diamond earring in either ear. Tattoos covered the caramel skin of his arms, and his smile was easy, his voice calm, and his posture relaxed—a vibe that perfectly matched Ash’s.

As for Mr. Hawkins, he was a broad-shouldered man with a shock of straight brown hair going gray, greenish-brown eyes, and far more facial hair than most shifters could manage to grow. His beard was liberally sprinkled with gray and, combined with his longish hair, gave him a bit of a wild look. I knew he was forty-one, the same age my dad would be if he were alive, and while not as visibly relaxed as his alpha, he definitely didn’t look as tense and anxious as I felt.

As Alpha Riggans volunteered to be Mr. Guthrie’s guide to the area for the rest of the day, Mr. Hawkins studied my face, then a small smile flickered across his lips.

“You look like your dad,” he murmured. “You have your mom’s mouth, but that nose and golden hair and those blue eyes are all Beta Hunter.”

“Do you have any photos of him, Mr. Hawkins?” Peri asked, tugging on my shirt sleeve and reminding me that I was still hiding her behind me. “Ty doesn’t even know what he looks like.”

“I sure do. I went through all my albums and pulled out some and had copies made for you and Alpha Ash to keep.” To Mr. Hawkins’ credit, he didn’t seem bothered by the fact that I wasn’t moving. “And call me Ray.”

“Thank you, Ray.” I took a small step to the side, still mostly in front of her, but he could at least see her face now. “This is my mate, Peri.”

He wisely didn’t try to shake her hand, for which I was thankful. I was too wound up with excitement and nerves to be on my best behavior and, as usual, River was feeding off my emotions. It wouldn’t take much to push him into a tantrum. Fortunately, Dove was singing to him and telling him little stories, which was distracting him for now, and I sent her a wave of love and gratitude through our bond.

“I’m honored to meet you, Peri,” Ray said in a soft voice, as if he could sense that I was on a hair-trigger.

“Same. I’m excited to get to know you!”

As soon as Ash extracted himself from Alpha Riggans, we grabbed our luggage and packed it into the back of Ray’s SUV, then waved as Mr. Guthrie drove off with Alpha Riggans, the two of them getting along like a house on fire.

“I hope your pilot knows what he’s in for,” Ray snickered. “Alpha will make sure his tour ends at his favorite shifter bar, where they’ll smoke cigars and drink Coke until they pass out.”

“So long as he’s sober enough to fly us home when we’re ready, he’s welcome to have the time of his life,” Ash said with a wide grin and shrug.

Ray drove us to a rather fancy white house with black trim that sat on a swath of flat green grass and was flanked by live oak trees dripping with silvery strands of Spanish moss.

“Little grandiose for me,” he chuckled as if he read my mind. “But my late mate, CeCe, was a gamma, and we could afford the house of her dreams, so how could I refuse? Now I rattle around it like a BB in a boxcar. My son died with CeCe, or maybe I’d be a grandpa by now.”

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Ash and I said at the same time.

“No use crying over what you can’t change,” he muttered, and we wisely left it alone after that.

As soon as he parked, we climbed out of the vehicle and headed inside, which was just as ostentatious as the outside, and Peri oohed and awwed at every fancy detail.

Ray led us to what was obviously his sanctuary, a smaller, square room with comfy recliners and a flat-screen TV, a faint tang of tobacco smoke lingering in the air and probably soaked into the shelves of books lining the walls.

He motioned for us to sit down, and we chatted for a few minutes before he brought up the reason for our visit.

“So, you wanted to know more about your fathers. I’m proud to say Beta Hunt and Alpha Gabe were my best friends growing up. They were good men, and their deaths were a tragedy on many levels.”

He paused, the weight of his next words almost tangible.

“They’d both already found their mates and had you two pups by the time I met CeCe and moved down here. That was about six months before Dark Woods was invaded. Soon as I heard, I raced back to help, but it was little more than a graveyard by the time I got there, and all I could do was help sort the dead. There were too few survivors to name every face and make sure they were buried under the right tombstones. It was a grim job, but a necessary one.”

“Did you find my father?” I asked, leaning forward on the edge of my seat, same as Ash was doing. “Or Ash’s?”

“Alpha Gabe was dead on the front line, and Beta Hunt lay next to Luna Kristy.” Ray’s face hardened, his eyes distant as he dug into the painful memory. “Your mom was one hell of a fighter, Alpha Ash. Even pregnant, she wasn’t going to sit in no safe room while her man fought for their lives and their pack.”

“Pregnant?” Peri gasped, one hand latching onto Ash’s forearm, and my eyes flew to his.

“I knew about that.” Ash patted her hand and gave me a tiny nod. “I overheard Royal and Julia Price talking one day. They said Mom was going to have a little girl who they planned to name Amalie.”

“After that, I searched among the living for my best friend’s sons,” Ray went on. “For you . Alpha Ash, you would have been two. Beta Ty, you weren’t even that old yet. Alpha Jay Carson and his luna took you in, Alpha Ash, which made sense since they were your blood kin. Beta Ty, your mom escaped with you and fled to the Moonset pack with most of the other women and children.”

“What about Seymour?” I nearly stuttered saying his name. “My uncle?”

“Seymour? Is he still alive?” Ray sat up, his eyes wide and intense. “I didn’t think he made it! He was shot in the head, and the triage deltas on site said there was nothing they could do. Last I knew, they were transporting him to Moonset’s clinic so he could be comfortable until he passed.”

“I’ll … tell you what happened to him later,” I said, swallowing hard. Peri’s hand found mine, her grip firm and steady, and Ash, sitting on my other side, placed a comforting hand on my shoulder. “Before she died, my mom said that she knew she could count on you to help us.”

“If either of you had nowhere to go, I was fully prepared to take you in,” he said, obviously misunderstanding what I was saying. By ‘us,’ I’d meant my mom and me, and he was still talking about Baby Ash and Baby Tyler. “That was the vow the three of us made. Me and beta and alpha. If something ever happened to either of us, we’d take care of the surviving family. I even told Alpha Jay and Bekah to get in touch with me if they ever changed their minds or needed help.”

“I wish we could have met you before now,” I said sadly.

“Same,” he sighed, “but I’m a selfish man, I’m sorry to say. It hurt too much to be around my best friends’ sons and know that was the closest I’d ever get to either of them again, so I kept my distance. Besides, I knew you were safe with your families.”

“Are you aware that Uncle Jay and Aunt Denise died in the sickness?” Ash asked him. “And my cousin Jayden and I went to live with Royal and Julia Price at Earthshine?”

“The king sent out notices when an alpha or luna died, so yes, I knew, and I’m sorry for your loss. Both Alpha Jay and Bekah kept me updated on y’all till then, but everything fell apart during that dreadful year. I lost my mate and nearly my wolf and myself. When Bekah stopped contacting me, I assumed you both had also passed in the sickness, Beta Ty. I was ashamed, so very ashamed, when I learned you’d grown up alone in an orphanage. It broke my heart. I’d failed Beta Hunt and you.”

“I’ve had a great life at Five Fangs,” I assured him. “I promise you didn’t fail me. I grew up with lots of friends, the alphas treated me like a little brother, and, best of all, I found my mate there. Her mom and dad have welcomed me into the family with open arms, and I’m happy as can be.”

“Good,” he murmured. “I’m glad.”

“I would like to hear more about my dad, though, and Ash would, too. Roger Poe has been telling us about our grandparents, but he didn’t have many stories about our dads, and I’d love to know them when they were alive and happy.”

“Oh, I’ve got plenty of stories!” Ray’s sad expression softened, a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “Your fathers were quite the characters, and I fell right in with them. Heh! Let me tell you about the time we decided to take a road trip into New Orleans at Mardi Gras…”

#

Peri

The afternoon sun streamed through the windows of Ray Hawkins’ cozy study, casting long shadows that danced on the walls. Tyler and Ash sat on the edge of their seats, their eyes locked on Ray, who was about to start his third story.

Curled up on the couch beside my mate, I rested my hand on his leg, feeling the tension in his muscles, but knew that all I could do was what I was doing: Being close, offering support, and sending him wave after wave of love through the mate bond.

Ray’s love and admiration for his two best friends radiated from him. It was clear that the three men had been more than friends, just like my older brothers, and I was sure seeing their sons was helping Ray as much as he was helping Ty and Ash.

“I remember this one time,” he began, “we decided to go on a camping trip up in the mountains. We were young and full of reckless energy. The kind that only youth can supply.”

I could almost see it through Ray’s words and fond memories—three young men, brimming with life and laughter, in the midst of some wild adventure.

Goddess, just like Wyatt and Jay and Ash , I thought to myself with a little smile. Posy calls them the Three Musketeers, but if only she knew what they were like before she met them, she’d call them the Three Demons on Crack.

“Now, we were all set up for a peaceful weekend in nature,” Ray leaned back with a chuckle. “But then, things went sideways when alpha had this brilliant idea to cook dinner over an open flame and, of course, managed to set the whole camp on fire, tents and all.”

“Something you and Wyatt and Jay would do.” I couldn’t hold the thought back this time as I cut my eyes to Ash.

“Yep! Sounds like the apple didn’t fall far from the tree!” he said proudly, puffing out his chest.

“No way.” Tyler snorted, trying to stifle his laughter. “They actually set the whole camp on fire?”

“Yessir! Alpha had this wild grin on his face as he tried to put it out, beta was running around with a bucket of water, and I was trying to salvage what little food we had left. It was chaos! Hahaha! One of the best nights of my life!”

“I wish I could’ve known my dad,” Ty said wistfully.

“I wish I could remember mine,” Ash added. “Uncle Jay said I cried for ‘Tamā’ for nearly a year after, but I don’t remember anything about him or Mom.”

“Tamā! That’s right! Almost forgot.” Ray’s eyes brightened as he chuckled. “Your gramma was from Samoa, and she had all of us pups calling our dads Tamā! Hahaha!”

“Was Robert Merriweather one of your friends?” Ty asked. “He was my mom’s brother.”

“Bekah’s brother?” Ray scratched his whiskery cheek as his eyebrows drew together. “I remember talking to him a time or two at pack functions. I think Bekah once said he had a son, her nephew, who was right about your age, but I’m afraid I can’t tell you much about that side of your family.”

“That’s okay. I’m mostly asking for my cousin, Robert’s son. His name is Bram, and we’re both the last of our families.”

Ray nodded, offering a few comments on how devastating the sickness has been, then—Goddess bless his heart—said what I knew both Ash and Ty were longing to hear.

“Alpha Gabriel and Beta Hunter loved you boys so much. You were their pride and joy. They spoke about you all the time to anyone who’d stand still long enough to listen.” Clearing his throat, he added, “You would have loved them, too. Alpha was always the first to cheer you on, even if he was the one losing, and beta was the steady, reliable one, there to pick up the pieces before you even knew something was broken.”

“You hear that, baby?” I whispered, squeezing my mate’s leg gently. “Your dad lived. He had friends who loved him, who still love him, and he loved you.”

Tyler turned to me, his eyes bright with unshed tears, and I could tell he couldn’t talk right now, so I said it for him.

“Thanks for sharing, Ray. It means a lot to both of them.”

“They deserved to know. Their fathers were incredible men.” Ray looked from Ash to Ty. “Even though they’re not here now, I see them in the two of you, and I’ll tell you the Goddess’ own truth, boys. Your dads would have been proud of the men I can see you’ve become.”

When Ty sniffed, I wrapped my arms around him, and he swiveled and buried his face in my throat, his breaths hitching and his sorrow breaking my heart. At least I had memories of my mother to comfort me and could still hear her voice when I concentrated on recalling it. All Ty had were some photos and Ray’s stories.

“Do you remember my mom?” Ash asked with a tremble in his voice. “Uncle Jay used to tell me lots of stories, but they were mostly about her as his little sister. Can you tell me anything about her when she was the luna? When she was my mom?”

As I rubbed my hands up and down Ty’s back, I wished Ash hadn’t insisted on leaving Posy at home. He needed someone to hug him right now, too, but he’d been a stubborn ass and convinced her that he would be fine on his own.

Later, he’d told us that he was worried about her missing school since it was already a huge source of stress for her. She’d also assumed more of the luna duties, and everything was taking a toll on her. When I’d suggested that Posy might like to come along simply to take a break, Ash had shaken his head, sending his dark curls bouncing.

“It would be emotionally draining for her. That’s hardly a break, Sissy. Besides, she’s always right here.” He’d tapped two long fingers over his heart. “Everywhere I go, she’s with me.”

Stupid moose! Bringing tears to my eyes with his sappy self!

You hanging in there? I linked him now.

I’m fine. Concentrate on Ty. This is all fresh for him, but I made peace with this a long time ago, Sissy. Talking about them actually helps me, I promise.

So I did as he said and comforted my mate while Ray spun the few stories he had about Luna Kristy Mitchell, his voice soft with affection.

Wonder if we can set up a frequent flier program between the Blue Rock airport and ours? I thought whimsically. I can see us flying down here often from now on.

A video call would be cheaper, sure, but couldn’t compare to actually being in the same room with their last connection to their families. I wasn’t sure if Ray realized it or not, but these two weren’t ever going to lose contact with him again.

And somehow, I didn’t think he’d mind at all.