Page 56 of An Uncertain Claim

“Nathan!” Peyton exclaimed as she jumped to her feet. “What the hell?”

“I’m fine,” I forced out through my clenched jaw. My eyes swept over the mess on the ground and then Peyton’s feet in strappy sandals. “Don’t move, baby, I don’t want you to step on glass.”

She looked like she wanted to argue, but one glance at her footwear and she reluctantly sat back down.

“Go ahead and finish while I take care of this,” I suggested as I walked to the small bathroom attached to my office. As I walked, I had a stern talk with my wolf until he calmed down. Once I reached the bathroom, I turned on the water and hissed when it hit the cuts. The wounds were shallow, but I washed them thoroughly to make sure they were clear of any shards since they were already healing. When I returned to the room, Poppy and Tanner were emptying dustpans of glass and ice into the trash can. Peyton was wiping down the chair—thankfully leather so it wouldn’t stain—and then she crouched down, clearly about to get on her hands and knees. “Peyton,” I called sharply. “Don’t even think about it.”

She rolled her eyes, but then she almost pitched backwards as she tried to stand. Her stomach wasn’t big, but I’d still noticed it throwing off her equilibrium at times. I barely made it in time to catch her before her head hit the table. “Damn it, Peyton. Do you always have to be so stubborn?”

“Usually,” she said with a shrug after I scooped her into my arms. “Pretty sure we covered that subject when I first arrived.”

“For the love of…you’re going to be the death of me,” I grunted.

“Nah, you’re like a million years old, you’re probably too petrified to be killed.”

Tanner snorted as he made his way back to the couch, and Poppy muffled her laughter as she strode from the room with the trash bag in her hand.

Shaking my head, I sat in Peyton’s chair and set her on my lap. “Let’s go back to what you were saying before.”

She eyed me skeptically and said, “You didn’t handle it so well last time.”

“Peyton,” I growled impatiently.

“Okay. While I was with B, he was ranting and muttering a lot of the time. Most of it didn’t make sense to me, but there were a few comments that I filed away because they seemed like something that might be useful down the road.” She began playing with the ends of her hair as she continued. “He called our baby ‘shifter spawn,’ and ‘the thing’ inside me. So, clearly not a fan of kids.

“But he had a bit of an obsession with the fact that I was pregnant. He mentioned my tainted DNA, but that only seemed to be a small part of why he wanted to kill meandthe baby. Like he was going to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.”

My hands tightened around Peyton, but I contained my rage so I wouldn’t hurt her.

“He said that the world didn’t need any more shifter kids. That ‘children should be neither seen nor heard’ and he was ‘going to rid the world of another unwanted kid.’ As far as we know though, he hasn’t killed any children. So—”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Tanner breathed, his face twisted in disgust. “He considers himself the equivalent of birth control?”

The fury continued to build inside me. I wanted to hunt the psycho down and rip him apart. Starting with his dick.

Peyton had unknowingly settled back against me, and I buried my face in the crook of her neck, taking in her honey and clove scent. Everything about my mate was sexy as hell, but her natural scent calmed me. I’d been surprised when the realization hit me a few nights before. I always slept better with Peyton next to me, but when she was wrapped in my arms or sprawled across my body, I wasn’t plagued with dreams. In fact, I rarely dreamt at all. My wolf purred in contentment, happy whenever Peyton was near, even more so when she was in my arms. He seemed just as addicted to her scent, too.

“I’m cooking up some theories about it all, but I’d like to talk to someone who specializes in the type of psychological disorders that usually affect serial killers. They can probably help me fill in my theories by connecting everything with the way the bodies were found.”

“What about Dana?” Tanner suggested, but I shook my head.

“She knows a lot about this shit, but she learned it all by paying careful attention to the details of each of her cases. She has no formal training in psychology.” I scratched my beard while I thought through my contacts. With my other hand, I played with the long strands of Peyton’s hair. “Jax’s cousin Everleigh is a psychotherapist. Her reputation is stellar. I’m sure she’d help us out.”

Tanner looked at me with a meaningful raise of his eyebrows. “Is Jax available to contact her?” Tanner was well aware that Jax was helping his mate, Rowan, with a problem and it had them jumping realms. When he was in the other universe—Jude’s domain—we had no way of contacting him, unless we went through Jude, since Rowan worked for him at E.V.I.E.

I focused for a minute, scanning the pack web for Jax’s presence. When I didn’t feel him, I shook my head again. “Jase can give her a call. I’ll send him a message when we’re done.”

“Fabulous!” Peyton replied, then she tried to climb off my lap, but I wouldn’t let her.

“Stay,” I commanded her before looking at my Beta.

Tanner sighed and stood. “I know, I know. Out.” He dragged his feet but was gone a minute later.

“Nathan, I swear on my nine lives that if you tell me to stay one more time, I’m going to put a collar on you while you’re sleeping and feed you dog food.” Peyton was glaring at me with a fierceness that would have had a lesser man digging his own grave to avoid her wrath.

I held back my laughter, but a smile still tipped up the corners of my mouth. My wolf made a barking sound that resembled a laugh. He didn’t understand her words, but he loved the sass in her tone.

“Good grief. You drive me insane sometimes.”

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