Gilbert (11 page)

“Don’t want to hear it, bro,” Isaiah said around a mouthful of bacon. “I like him, though. I’m glad he’s your mate.”

“Me too.” Bae smiled at him and tapped a chair. “Have a seat.”

Gilbert did and Bae’s smile turned into a grimace. “I haven’t been able to reach anyone, Gil, and I’m really scared. I don’t want to freak Jihu out. He told me about the shots, and I checked him over. He seems healthy, I can smell his cat. He’s too thin but a steady supply of food will help with that, though I don’t think he’ll ever be chubby since he looks a lot like me. And I think when the drugs are out of his system, he’ll be back to his feline self. Can you link with him mentally?”

Gilbert shook his head. “Can’t sense a thing like that, but I thought Josiah said not everyone has a strong mental link. Maybe we won’t.”

“Josiah was talking about wolves, though,” Bae pointed out. “So that might not be the case with other shifters. I think you and Jihu will have an intense bond like Isaiah and I have.”

“I hope so,” Gilbert admitted, turning his gaze to Daniel as the baby slurped down the last of his formula. Gilbert shifted him onto his chest and began to pat his back. “Burp for me, baby boy.”

Bae coughed and gave him a crooked grin. “Well, it doesn’t have to be a burp, just as long as he passes the gas in some manner.”

Gilbert narrowed his eyes at Bae. “Burp, Daniel, be a good boy and save the other ways for getting rid of the gas bubbles for your Uncle Bae.”

“You’re mean.” Bae sniffed. “I want to go look for my father and the rest of my family from the lepe. And find the other children my father produced.”

Gilbert blinked and pulled back a little. How the hell had Bae gone from baby gas to that?

“I can’t sit here and do nothing, and if Chung-Hee killed my father or anyone else in my family, I’ll…” Bae hissed and glared at Isaiah. “Yes, I can and I will. I don’t want to be some wicked avenger, but I will take my family’s loss out of Chung-Hee’s hide. I will kill him, Isaiah, if that is what I have to do. You will
not
do it for me.”

“But you’re a doctor, you heal, not harm,” Isaiah argued, leaning close to get in Bae’s face. “You can’t take a life like that, Bae. It’ll tear you up.”

“It won’t. I’m not all goodness and light and all that shit.” Bae’s voice had taken on a cold tone that made Gilbert’s blood run cold. “I can and will put an end to Chung-Hee’s madness, and if that means taking his life, then so be it. If that means leading the lepe, God help me, I will hate it but I will take it over. Maybe I can help them, teach the shifters how to live without having to be controlled.”

“No,” Isaiah snapped. “You won’t. I
know
you, Bae. Right now you’re hurting, you’re angry and scared, and you aren’t thinking clearly.”

Bae stood up so quickly his chair fell over. He stepped back and wore a fierce expression as he snarled at Isaiah, “Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do, what I am or am not feeling. I can let my leopard have its way just as any other shifter can do. I don’t have to be civilised all the time.” He turned and stormed off, heels pounding the floor so that the wood vibrated with the force of his anger.

Gilbert looked at Isaiah. “He’s…really pissed off, Iz. I don’t know if you should keep arguing with him.”

Isaiah stood up and stretched, then rolled his neck, popping it in a cringe-inducing way. “I won’t let him do something he’ll be haunted by, Gil. You know Bae. He’s hurting, and he is going to be upset about snapping at me, but I wanted him to. I want him to get some of that poison out of himself before he does something he can’t undo. Now, do me a favour and call Grandma Marybeth.”

“Aw, Iz,” Gilbert whined, just as Daniel belched loudly. Gilbert pulled him back and goggled at him. “Geez, little dude, that had to feel awesome.”

“Gil, focus,” Isaiah said. “I know Grandma can be chatty sometimes, but she’ll round up some of our cousins and send them to help. Plus, if you don’t call her and Mom and Dad soon to tell them about Jihu, your ass is grass, man. Dead, brown, crunchy grass.”

“You make no sense at all,” Gilbert muttered. “Dead, brown, crunchy grass. Whatever.” But Iz had a point. Gilbert would never hear the end of it for having waited this long to tell his family about his mate. He would be on everyone’s shit list for a year if he didn’t get it together. “Fine, but I’m calling Mom first. She gave birth to me so she gets priority calls.”

“She’s in Mongolia, her and Dad both, visiting Tim and Otto, remember?” Isaiah pointed out.

Gilbert sighed and tried to calculate the time difference. It was around nine or ten at night in Dalanzadgad, or was it a fourteen-hour time difference? And was that before or after Daylight Savings Time?

Gilbert groaned and nuzzled Daniel’s hair. He smelt so good! “Fine, I’ll call Grandma.”

“Get to the part about her having a new great-grandson as soon as possible,” Isaiah advised. “She won’t be so mad then. I’m going to talk to Bae and see if he thinks his vet tech, Aubrey, will be able to dog sit for us. Maybe if we pay her enough money…” Mumbling to himself, Isaiah left the kitchen.

Gilbert heard the shower still running. He took his phone out of his pocket and mentally prepared to call Grandma Marybeth. She was the most formidable person he knew, and Gilbert loved her to death, and he was also wise enough to be a little scared of her, but he knew when it came down to it, Grandma Marybeth would always be on his side. And very soon, she’d be on Jihu’s and Daniel’s, too.

Chapter Nine

Jihu walked into the kitchen again after checking on Daniel, sleeping in his bassinet.
How such a tiny being could have such a huge impact on so many people
—
like Jihu, Gilbert, Bae and Isaiah.
Jihu knew they were all in love with the little boy already. Bae…Bae had beamed at him, had made Jihu feel wanted and like a family member, not a stranger. And he’d taken to Daniel without hesitation. So had Isaiah, teasing him as if he’d known Jihu forever. Jihu was delighted and mortified all at once.

Now, though, he scowled because Gilbert was scowling as he tried to get a word in with whomever he was on the phone with.

“But—” Gilbert snapped his mouth shut, only to try again. “I didn’t—” This time Gilbert ground his teeth before making another attempt. “I was going to—” Gilbert slumped and looked at him with a desperate expression. “Grandma, please—”

Grandma? That’s his grandma? Is she bitching at him?
Try as he might, Jihu couldn’t hear her, so she must not be yelling. He remembered the way one of the women at the centre where he was raised would scold them in a calm voice that left them devastated. Jihu would have preferred to be yelled at.

“He has a son—a baby,” Gilbert blurted out, so quickly it sounded like one bizarre word. “Daniel. Daniel Lee Warren, Grandma.”

Gilbert’s expression lightened and either his grandma began to chill or he just talked over her as he described Daniel. Bae sat down beside Gilbert and heard a thump coming from one of the rooms. He jumped up, concerned for Daniel. He only got to the hall when the thumping turned rhythmic and it dawned on him what was going on. His brother and Gilbert’s brother were having sex.

Hard, frantic sex from the sound of it. And now he could hear them, their voices, low and rough, though he couldn’t make out the words. Jihu turned right back around and ran into the kitchen, hot and turned on and a little freaked out by that. He supposed most healthy men would be turned on by hearing sex-sounds, but it was still his
brother
and that was just gross.

“Grandma, I’m not really sure—yes, ma’am.” Gilbert held the phone out and mouthed ‘sorry’ to Jihu.

Jihu looked at the phone in confusion. “What?”

“She wants to talk to you, insists on it, and telling Grandma Marybeth no is never wise.” Gilbert tipped the phone towards him and Jihu took it. If this went bad, he would find a way for Gilbert to make it up to him.

“Hello, this is Jihu Warren.”

“I know who you are, Jihu, and I’m sure Gilbert told you who I am, especially since I heard him tell you.”

The woman on the phone sounded too young to be a grandmother, but what did Jihu know? “Yes, ma’am, I do know. You’re Marybeth.”

“
Grandma
Marybeth. Daniel can call me GG when he’s older, of course, because Great-Grandma Marybeth is quite a mouthful for a little child.”

“Yes, ma’am, thank you,” Jihu replied, wondering if he should be more intimidated than he was. Marybeth—Grandma Marybeth—sounded like a sweet enough lady to him.

“You’re very welcome. It’s clear to me that you have good manners. I like that in a man, and especially in my grandsons. Boys these days aren’t nearly as considerate as they should be. So, Gilbert explained what is happening, and I would like to offer you and him, and Daniel, a home on my property. There’s a nice two-bedroom cabin, quite large, really, that my granddaughter no longer lives in. I would love to have you all living here. And there’d be plenty of help with Daniel, and protection. Think about that. Levi and Lyndon are here, and Oscar and Josiah, as well as my daughter and son-in-law. And myself. We can protect Daniel, and you, and each other.”

That sounded good to Jihu, but he wasn’t sure how Gilbert would feel. “I certainly appreciate the offer and will discuss it with Gilbert as soon as I’m off the phone. One of us will call you back with an answer shortly.”

“See that you do,” Grandma Marybeth said. “Remember, children need families, and you have one now, a big one. Welcome, Jihu, to my family.”

“Thank you.” Jihu’s eyes burned, a sensation he was truly getting tired of. He needed to stop blubbering all the time. He straightened up and held his chin high. “Thank you very much, Grandma Marybeth. Take care.”

Gilbert took the phone and said his goodbyes then disconnected the call. “What do you think about it?”

Jihu knew Gilbert meant the offer just made to them. “I don’t even know where she lives.”

“In Holton, or right outside of it, rather, on several hundred acres.” Gilbert’s face had a dreamy look on it. “There are mountains, Jihu. Mountains and forest and it snows, and man, I love going there. When I was a kid, I’d beg and beg to go to Grandma Marybeth’s so I could shift and run. And she’s right, we’d be safer there, or at least, there would be more people to have our backs. They’d sure love having a baby around again, too.”

“It sounds pretty wonderful,” Jihu admitted. The potential to have so much freedom was very enticing. “I will leave it up to you. You know your grandma and the others who live there. Could you handle being around them?”

“Yeah,” Gilbert said after pondering it a moment. “I could. I get really lonely, or I used to. I told you I’m not a people person, but with family, it’s all good. I get along fine with my cousins there.”

Jihu considered that then nodded. “Okay, you can tell her we will do it. I’m going to go check on Daniel again now that I don’t hear our brothers having sex.”

Gilbert shuddered. “Ick. Brothers shouldn’t be allowed to do that.”

“But we’re their brothers,” Jihu pointed out.

Gilbert raised his eyebrows and asked, “And your point is?”

Jihu knew he was being teased again, so he put a little extra zing in his mock-huff, and added a flounce as he turned and walked off, making sure he shook his bottom and gave Gilbert a good show.

The dog whistle—or cat whistle, that was what it should be in Jihu’s opinion—his little booty dance got him put a smile on his face.

Daniel was still sleeping, his bow-shaped lips parted and glistening. Every time Jihu looked at his son, his heart ached with the strength of his love. Perhaps his heart was growing, expanding to fit in Daniel and others. Jihu hadn’t loved anyone before, he’d never had the chance, but he suspected he’d be loving Gilbert—and his family, eventually. He thought of Grandma Marybeth and Isaiah, and Bae and Ye-sun and Chul. Jihu’s heart was going to be a very full, content organ.

A slight noise behind him had Jihu bristling before he heard Bae’s soft exhalation. Jihu gave Daniel one last look, felt the warm tinglies all the way to his feet, then he turned and walked to where Bae stood right outside the door.

“Was afraid we woke him up,” Bae said, his cheeks going dark. “We, uh, we aren’t used to having to think, you know. About things like waking a baby.” Bae’s gaze went to Daniel and Jihu could see the longing in his expression.

“Go ahead, he usually sleeps through being picked up, but if he wakes, that just means we get to see his beautiful eyes.” Jihu moved aside and Bae came in but stopped in front of him.

“Thank you, Jihu. For many things.” Bae placed his palm on Jihu’s chest for a second then he darted over to pick up Daniel, cooing and humming at the baby.

“He’s totally in love with him.”

Jihu wasn’t surprised to see Isaiah standing in the hall now, his skin flushed the tell-tale pink of fading arousal. Isaiah gave him a sheepish look then turned his attention back to Bae and Daniel. “Seriously, I think Bae needs some babies. I hadn’t thought about it, but—well, maybe I’d like a few of them, too. Daniel’s just…” Isaiah shook his head. “I don’t even have words. He’s going to have every one of us wrapped around his little finger.”

“Jihu! Isaiah!”

Gilbert’s bellow startled them both, and the fear in his voice was unmistakable. Bae’s curse rang out as well and Jihu and Isaiah both ran for the living room, where the other men, and Daniel, were.

Jihu darted over to Gilbert and looked at what his mate was glowering at. The television was turned to a news channel, and images of the Colorado forest fire were being shown on the screen. He saw the aerial map, a flash of before the area of the fire and now, after the land had been burnt, smoke and scattered flames still coming from the seared landscape. Something pinged in his brain, and Jihu’s stomach dipped.

“Oh my God, is that—” He looked at Bae, who was trembling, cuddling Daniel to him as Isaiah held them both. “That’s your lepe.” The very place Jihu had escaped from was almost dead centre in the photographs still on the TV.
Had been almost dead center
, he thought, because nothing was left now, not the building he’d been held in, or the cabins he’d seen when he’d arrived or when he’d escaped. All that remained was blackened trees, if even that.