Page 2 of Old Secrets

“I detect a certain amount of irritation from my wife,” he stated, raising a brow. “Mellisa and Amelia won’t be back for several hours. I’m sure that’s enough time to crank the AC for a while and enjoy some quality time in bed.”

The ploy, however tempting, wouldn’t work on me. Not this time. “You can hold that thought until I have finished questioning you, Mr. Jake Thomas.”

“What crime have I committed today?”

“None. Not yet. But I want a straight answer on why the pack has become, if anything, more hostile since we left. Either you’re slipping or I’m improving at reading the pack bonds, but you’re protecting Mellisa and Amelia from a lot of bullshit. You’re also dodging calling your mother.”

“I’m sneaking phone calls with my father,” he confessed.

Oh. “I guess that makes two of us, then.”

We stared at each other, blinking as we thought through the ramifications of us having independently communicated with Jake’s father. It made some things easier for me to handle, though.

If he was talking to his father and things were still such a mess, there’d be no easy reconciliation. I could work with a challenge, but had his family ventured over the brink to the land of no return?

No. Everyone still lived.

“All right. What is the actual problem with you and your mother?”

“Puppies,” Jake announced.

My eyes widened. Over the winter, we’d discovered I ticked like a Fenerec, and it took Jake work to convert me from infertile to a raging ball of hormones determined to have one or more children. In what would become a rather rough challenge for us, the more docile I behaved, the better the luck Jake had in inducing my fertility. Docility meant I struggled to nip him at all, as I tended to want to nuzzle more than put my teeth to work.

There would be no unexpected children for us, something I both appreciated and regretted.

“I don’t see the problem,” I admitted.

“She doesn’t have at least two grandchildren yet. She wants grandchildren. She’s annoyed I haven’t called her with a progress report on when she’s having grandchildren. I slipped on the last call,” he admitted.

I slapped my hand to my forehead. “All this fuss is over children you told her we wouldn’t be having until after we figured out when I went from the equivalent of a Fenerec’s puppy stage to a fully fledged adult of my species?”

“I mean, I’m fairly sure you zipped right through your puppy stage. You haven’t grown an inch as a fox, you’ve filled out, and your hormones are stabilized, although I’m puzzled because you seem like you’re still in season. All I have to do to make you fertile right now is give you a shoulder rub as part of our foreplay.”

I shrugged. “I like shoulder rubs.”

“You melt into a pliable puddle, Karma. You not only melt, but you use your saddest eyes on me if I don’t hurry up and get the show on the road. Then you lure me into doing all the work because you’re beautiful and use those sad eyes on me ruthlessly.”

I laughed because it was true. “It’s your fault. You showed me how good of a time I have when I behave. But if you want some romps, I’ll try to figure something out.” In a way, I’d gone from one extreme to another, skating from accepted levels of violence to alarming levels of submissiveness. I assumed it had something to do with my species. “Are you telling me all this drama is because we haven’t had children yet?”

“Basically.”

“I’m surrounded by idiots.”

He grinned. “You’re sensing my mother’s frustration, which is tripping Mason’s trigger, which is annoying my father. The pack is perfectly happy having a fox, but my mother has gone from interfering in the wrong way to trying a little too hard on other fronts. She knows I’m avoiding the conversation. And anyway, I haven’t completely dodged her. I’m dodging talking to her when you might catch me, because I don’t want you pressured into feeling like everyone wants you to have kids.”

“And here I was convinced this would be a nightmare to resolve, nothing was going right, and so on. Do I have to call your mother myself?”

“Please don’t. She’ll ask when we’re having kids.”

“And I will tell her that we will have kids when I learn how to use my teeth, as I went from being a biting psychopath to a melty puddle of nuzzling affection. If I could make my teeth work rather than just trying to nuzzle you to a near-death state, we’d probably have a kid with another on the way by now.”

Jake chuckled. “The Inquisition doesn’t let pregnant women do any field work after the first trimester, but packs love watching the kids of successful operatives.”

That was good to know. In the time since leaving Baltimore, we’d hunted information more than people, and I’d found the chase for knowledge to be appealing. “It’s been a year, and we’ve actually made some twisted form of progress on the Greenwich case—in that the group has gone underground. Them going underground means they aren’t snatching kids or trying to kill people, myself included. But why?”

“Honestly, I’ve been concerned they’re waiting to snatch our victory out of our hands at the last possible moment. Why do the work when we’re doing the work for them?” Jake huffed. “The latest batch of paperwork concerns me, though.”

“The table hasn’t collapsed yet. I’m sure it’ll be fine.”