Beaufort Creek Shifters (10 book series)
Daddy’s Innocent Mate Chapter 3

Elias

"I just don't see the point," I said while hammering a nail in place. "It's pointless. It's useless. It doesn't get anything done, right?"

Wendell snorted while plucking a nail from the many perched in his mouth. Probably not great for his teeth, but great for getting things done quickly. The man was a beast with tools, and he hammered in about five nails without blinking. Did he breathe when he did something like that? Couldn't tell.

Anyway, it got the job done. There wasn't much use trying to guess whether he blinked, or breathed, or whatever. He did what he needed. That was enough.

"Gets in the way." His voice was thick with irritation. "Can't imagine why I'd agree to something like that when I can get a woman anywhere I want."

I pointed my hammer at him. "See? You're talking reason there. I'm glad Isaiah and Troy are happy in their nuptials and shit, but I have a bucket list to get through." "You still going skydiving?"

"Uh, yeah, dude. You still coming with?"

He smirked while rummaging through his toolbox. "Yeah, friend. Of course."

That was my boy-he was always up for a good time in the clouds. Nothing like a little injection of adrenaline to get the mind off an annoying thing. And that annoying thing was barely worth mentioning. Except for the hot a*s attached to that annoying thing.

Music droned on from somewhere in the house. We were working on the neighborhood structures to make room for the dozen or so people who had abruptly showed up on our pack land. Though I wasn't complaining much about that, considering it had brought my son home to me. Plus family.

But not Geraldine. I set the hammer aside and wandered toward the window where we had just installed a new pane. She's never coming back.

People in this pack knew precisely the ache it caused to think of those lost. The other pack wasn't without its casualties, yet it didn't have the same impact. Their losses weren't dangled in front of their eyes the way they were for us. For we had the possibility of survivors-the Beaufort Creek pack didn't.

That was infinitely worse than watching my pack get slaughtered. I would have preferred witnessing their deaths because then I would have had the closure necessary to keep going.

Myrna had come back. Why couldn't Geraldine come back? At the very least, why couldn't her body surface somewhere at the bottom of the cliffs or on the beach?

Agitation sat on the horizon. I heard Wendell put down his tools and felt his hand on my shoulder a few seconds later. Pack mind-it was like hive mind but better. We knew each other's emotions, and we could respond however we wished. Our alpha taught us well in that arena. It didn't matter what was going on. We always stopped to help a fellow pack member.

Wendell squeezed my shoulder. "I get it."

"I know you do. I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry. Just let it pass."

I closed my eyes, listening to the hollow thump above us and the thin voices floating through the boards. If I focused on those distinct vibrations, I could figure out who was talking and what they were talking about. Which didn't interest me as much as thinking about Francine.

For some reason, that made me feel weird.

"We should go biking on the beach this evening," Wendell suggested. "Get your head out of your a*s."

"It's not up my ass." But I couldn't help laughing at the statement. "It's just stuck in the past, my man."

Wendell sighed. I knew that sound. He was trying to root around in his brain for something sufficiently comforting. Though it wasn't his job to keep up my spirits, he took it personally when one of us wasn't feeling right. The same happened with Troy and Isaiah. We were close like that.

A cloud shifted over the sun and cast a dim shadow over the neighborhood. The gloominess matched my mood, and I cracked a smile, letting the satisfaction of it steal my attention instead of some kitty shifter with a bratty attitude. That was better than trying to reconcile my past and my present. It wasn't like Geraldine was ever going to come back. But if she did, I wanted my heart open.

Or at least to leave the door cracked.

The footsteps I heard on the porch were loud without a front door to separate us from the outside. With Wendell still holding my shoulder, I turned to see who was walking inside. My kid stood bashfully in the mostly finished living room with his bag slung over his shoulder.

I checked my watch. "It's not time for you to be out yet."

"Miss Elwyn sent me here."

"She did what? For what?"

He crunched into himself while hovering toward the doorway. "I, uh...I was running a lot. I couldn't stop running and she got upset. So, she sent me here." "How'd she know I was here?"

"I knew you were here."

I grumbled while shrugging off my buddy and marching toward the doorway, urging my kid to follow me. "Well, we're going right back, and we're going to talk to Miss Elwyn about why she thought it was better to send you home than to deal with you." "No, Dad. I just want to help with the house. Can I do that?"

I breezed past him. If he didn't want to come with me, that was fine. But I wasn't going to let this slight get out of hand. Somebody had to talk to that woman. It looked like it had to be me.

Ignoring my son didn't feel good. But it felt like the only option left. He was just a kid, and he needed to learn how to stand up for his needs with his caregivers and teachers. Lots of shifter kids had high energy levels. Francine was more than aware of that fact and should have been happy to accommodate him.

Geraldine wasn't like this, I thought, marching across the line separating our properties. She never hesitated to make sure that Archie had what he needed even when we weren't getting along.

The school building came into view. Then the hallway leading to the main classroom. A few short minutes later had me standing over Francine's desk with a chip on my shoulder and an empty classroom at my back. Francine hardly moved an inch. She had her smug nose pointed into a book about fifteenth-century France. "Yes, Mr. Shaw?"

"I want to talk to you right now about why Archie was sent home."

"I'm sure Archie told you the conditions under which he was sent home. You understand, don't you?"

I huffed angrily. "I already told you he needs a lot of exercise because he has a lot of energy. What part of that didn't you understand?"

Laughter and shouts echoed faintly from outside.

I pointed to the windows. "Are you serious? You sent him home during recess?"

"What part of me running a tight ship didn't you understand, Mr. Shaw?"

This woman grated my nerves. Did she really expect me to just accept this treatment of my kid? She clearly didn't care about him. "You have a lot of nerve challenging me."

Francine adjusted the round frames on her nose, tucked a bookmark into her book, and gently set the book aside. Her eyes flickered to the windows overlooking the playground and, once again, ire melted right out of her features like it had never been there. However, the moment her eyes met mine, it came back with a sharp vengeance. "You're interrupting my reading time, Mr. Shaw."

"I don't give a crap what I'm interrupting," I snapped. "You'll keep Archie here, and you'll make sure he's got enough time for shifting and running."

She stood calmly and walked to the door adjacent to the windows that led to the playground. When she popped it open, the noise outside intensified. She called out over the ruckus, "Shannon, will you be a dear and come here, please?"

An older kid, must have been in her teens or something, walked up to the door with a book clutched to her chest. She glanced between the two adults in the room-the ones giving off such strong vibrations that she was probably too timid to ask about it-and then lowered the book slightly.

She focused on her teacher with a soft smile. "Yes, Miss Elwyn?"

"Could you explain in your own words to Mr. Shaw here what happened before I sent Archie home?"

What a joke. Was she really trying to yank another student into this? Good thing Archie wasn't here. He'd have had a panic attack just experiencing this whole thing.

Regret jolted my solar plexus just thinking of how I had almost dragged my kid into this. No, that wouldn't have been right. I was glad he'd stood up to me. That was pretty much what this whole thing was about too. He was learning quickly.

I squared my shoulders to retain my confidence. If Francine wanted to make a whole show out of this, then I was game.

Shannon looked at me. "Archie was running around the group while we were reading, and he stepped on my tail."

I glanced at Miss Elwyn whose features reflected that of a good teacher-and nothing less.

Embarrassment replaced the regret in my gut.

"He stepped on Inez," Shannon explained, pointing to a particularly small girl on the swings. One of the kids was gently pushing her.

I shrank back a bit. That girl was barely four or five years old. What was Archie thinking?

"And then when we kindly asked him to stop running, he growled," Shannon continued, to my disappointment. "Then Archie said if he couldn't sprint, he wouldn't do anything else, and he knocked over the book tower." "Where's the book to-?"

I shouldn't have asked. There was a huge mess of books right next to the door where I had just stomped into the room, some of the pages ripped where the books were lying face down with their spines bent toward the ceiling. I felt like hiding. My kid had never in a million years acted this wild.

Once Shannon was dismissed, Francine shut the door leading to the playground. Silence resumed around us, thickened by the tension of the situation and the fact that a kid had given me strong testimony against my usually calm child. Despite the evidence and explanation, I felt a strong urge to defend my child. He was just a kid, for crying out loud. He was a traumatized kid. He needed the understanding and guidance of someone who would give him the right kind of patience. I turned to Francine, realizing she would never live up to those conditions. "Did you try to talk to him? To figure out what he needed instead of sending him home?"

"Mr. Shaw, I have nine other children who were disturbed by his behavior. We were more than willing to accommodate him until he destroyed the classroom's property. He should have explained this to you when he reached you."

I fumed. "Didn't you think it would be important to call me?"

"I did call. Twice, in fact."

"My phone didn't ring."

But the claim landed flatly between us when I checked the pesky device and found that Francine had indeed called twice, like she said.

She'd even sent a text saying Archie was on his way home.

Son of a bitch, I thought. She's never going to let me off for this shit.

I shoved my phone into my pocket and stood firm. "You should have waited. You should have let me come in and talk to Archie."

"This is an awful hill for you to die on, Mr. Shaw."

"Stop calling me that."

Francine planted her palms on her desk and glared at me over her specs. "I've been more than generous with my patience today. I don't appreciate you or your child disrupting my classroom's routine, destroying our things, and then making demands after firing shots."

Rage bubbled in the silence. Part of me was bothered by the fact that I was arguing with Archie's teacher. All my thoughts about Geraldine had rotted at the root, planting me firmly in the present with Francine's very real and very palpable anger. Anger that was growing by the vine.

"You've done nothing but cause chaos here," she said through gritted teeth. "You can either discipline your child appropriately and get him the care he needs outside my classroom, or you can remove him entirely from the class!"

That hospitality from the Beaufort Creek pack didn't last long, did it? Blake had assured me that Archie would get the best education and care available in Beaufort. It would be much better than sending him to a public school or trying to tackle his education at home. Troy had backed that statement.

I was starting to feel like maybe I was just being lied to by both alphas for having little to no options.

Francine stared me down while I tried to pick apart the crap in my brain. My alpha didn't lie to me. He couldn't lie to me. It was physically impossible for that to happen. And since Blake was also my alpha, he couldn't lie to me either. Francine didn't appear to be the best option for my kid, and Archie didn't seem to be taking to her, so why was I pushing so hard for him to be in this classroom?

Tapping erupted-Francine's finger had partially shifted. "Did you hear me, Mr. Shaw?"

"Heard you loud and clear, Miss Elwyn," I shot back.

"So, what will it be?"

Some of the kids on the playground were peering in our direction. They hadn't approached the glass, and I didn't think their hearing skills had developed enough to hear the specifics of our conversation, but I was sure our glaring and agitated stances were drawing their attention. I didn't want to cause any further disturbances.

But for some reason, I couldn't stop myself. "He's staying in your class. You'll make the necessary adjustments for him."

"Well, this is quite a sight, isn't it, Blake?"

The sound of my alpha speaking made me straighten up and flip around. "Troy."

"At ease, soldier," Troy joked. He gestured to Blake who was wearing an equally knowing smile. Were they up to something? "We've got news to share."

"News?" Francine and I said the word at the same time, sending an electric shock to my heart and then to the rest of my body.

I hated it, yet I loved it.

I hated that I loved it.

Troy and Blake stepped into the room with Isaiah trailing behind. An anxious Wendell lingered in the hallway with Archie at his side. I didn't like the looks of this at all.

"I'm so glad you two are getting everything out in the open," Blake remarked. "It'll make the transition into mating much easier."

I froze.

Did he just say mating?

Francine audibly swallowed and then retracted her partially shifted nails. "Sir, there must be some kind of mistake. Did you just say we're-"

"Mates," Troy finished for her. "Yes, you're mates now. Blake and I agreed it would be best."

I gaped at my alpha. "But you don't...you didn't...have you...?"

The jumbled mess of words that came out of my mouth didn't make sense to me or anyone around me. But I knew one thing was crystal clear.

If this woman and I moved in together, we would rip each other apart.