Chapter 372 Chapter 372
Konner stopped and stood by the window; Terah was outside standing on the shore of the lake. Snow was falling around her, and she just stood there with her face raised to the sky. She wore no jacket or shoes, he noticed. The cooler temperatures wouldn’t bother her, at least if she were at full health they wouldn’t. He frowned and debated on going to explain that to her. His kind didn’t get cold and sick normally, but she’d been deprived of basic health needs her whole life.
She opened her arms out and lifted her face to the sky again and he was struck by the image of the snow in contrast to her jet-black hair hanging down her back. In many ways, she was as pure as the first snowfall before it touched the ground.
“The cold doesn’t bother her?”
Konner jumped and turned to see Calum standing beside him. He’d been so caught up in watching her, that he hadn’t heard him come into the office. “We like cold.” He felt like he should explain why he stood here when he was supposed to be doing other things. “She’s never been in the snow.”
“There’s a lot she’s never done.” Calum smirked, “like bake.”
Konner grinned, “yeah that was something to walk in on.” He looked toward the door, “Shaelan with Rae?”
Calum shook his head, “no, she’s mumbling over the manuals for some of your medical equipment.”
Looking out at Terah once more, he forced his feet to turn and go back to his desk. “I feel like she’s our best chance to both those babies surviving.”
“She’ll move mountains to make it so.”
Konner couldn’t help noticing the expression of pride on the man’s face when Calum spoke of his mate. “We’ll all help.” He motioned to the chair and then went around the desk and sat down. “I didn’t realize until my aunt told us that birth used to be in the water.” He leaned back in the chair and exhaled, “which makes sense really, that they were.”
“Shae was eyeing up your pool in the middle of your house, so don’t be surprised if the birth happens in it.”
Konner shrugged, “whatever it takes.”
“She was on the phone with one of our midwives for an hour, discussing water births.” Calum rubbed his hand over his jaw, “most of our kind wouldn’t be comfortable with delivering in the water, so this will be new ground for many.”
“It makes total sense, now, birth in water.” Konner had berated himself in the last few hours over his own stupidity. “We can’t find our mate unless we’re in the water, same with conception, so the baby being born in water—” He shook his head.
Calum didn’t add anything, just looked at the open folder on his desk. “Have you gotten anywhere with that?”
Konner looked down at the creased papers in front of him. “No,” he picked up the top page and looked at it again, “puzzles aren’t my sort of thing.” He jerked his chin to the door, “Reeves is going over it though and if there’s a key to figuring it out, he’ll find it.”
Calum grinned, “he didn’t even notice I walked by, he was mumbling to himself.”
“He’s better with something to keep his brain busy.” Konner smirked, “life is awkward for him, but thinking,” he nodded his head slowly, “that’s his happy place.”
Calum reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. “Devin wants me to call him, Rayne is demanding an update about the babies.” He smirked as he looked at his phone.
Konner leaned on the desk, “we can call him now. I’ve been wondering if he’s heard from Fallan as well.
Calum nodded and tapped his phone a few times and then set it on the desk. It was answered before the end of the first ring.
“That’s a record, you are calling back this fast.”
Calum smirked at the prince’s tone. “I’m here with Konner, he needed to call you as well.”
“Right. I spoke to Fallan,” he stopped, there were voices in the background, “which I’ll get to in a moment. Rayne’s right here, I’ll put you on speaker.”
“Calum?” Rayne sounded like she was yelling into the phone, “are you with Konner? Are the babies okay?”
Konner didn’t know how Rayne knew, but with the urgency in her tone, he wasn’t going to question that. “I’m here with Calum. The babies are fine, Shaelan did an ultrasound, and everything appears to be fine with their health.”
“Oh good.” She must have been holding the phone because it sounded like she exhaled into it, “if you need anything, anything at all you call us.”
“Thank you, I think we have it well in hand now that Shaelan is here.”
“Yes. She is amazing.” She said something away from the phone, “how long do we have to be here Calum? I don’t like being tossed into a helicopter and tucked away safe.”
Konner gave Calum a questioning look.
“I thought you’d like visiting with Shae’s clan now that things have settled down.”
“Of course, I’m happy to see them, but don’t you think you should share evacuation plans with us before we’re whisked away?”
Konner had no idea why the plans were up to Calum; he’d be asking if the opportunity prevailed.
“It was only a backup plan, Rayne...”
“Which I do not approve of. I should be at Arcadia, not roaming these mountains.” Devin said something quietly in the background, “we need to be with our people, helping, not sitting on a mountain top like some sort of shifter Buddha statue for all to look at,” from the look on Calum’s face, this outburst wasn’t normal for the princess, “I want off here, I want to meet those babies when they’re born and you are going to make that happen or I’m going to borrow Mari’s fork.”
There were muffled voices for a moment. “I’m sorry about that.” It was Devin now. “She went to go see Billie.”
“How are Billie and Dale doing?”
Devin cleared his throat, “your guy is losing his mind, mostly, impending fatherhood I think.”
Calum nodded, then leaned closer to the phone, a look of concern on his face. “Is Rayne all right?”
Devin snorted, “no, far from it.” He cleared his throat, “She’s uh,” he blew out a breath, “her, um,” another loud breath, “I’m going to need a week or so off from official duties soon.” His voice was clipped.
Calum smirked and nodded his head slowly. He looked like he wanted to laugh, “you’re welcome to use the cabin if you need.”
“Yeah, uh, that might be a good idea.”
Konner raised one eyebrow at Calum, who in turn held up one finger telling him to wait for an explanation.
“Okay,” Devin sighed, “I spoke to Fallan, she’s confirmed, two locations where the tanks were not used for fish enthusiasts and we’re waiting on two others, the rest have all been vetted and are for normal people that like a lot of fish.”
Konner sat straighter in the chair, “where are these locations?”
“Four locations, four different states, so it’s going to be a clusterfuck figuring that out because we don’t want to alert the others if we hit one.”
Konner stood up and leaned over the desk. “We’ll need four teams.” He looked up to see Calum’s amusement was gone and in its place was a hard-calculating look. “Have you brought the teams in on it?”
“Not yet. I just found out a few hours ago, I told her to keep it to herself because Raymond and the Alliance headquarters are up to their ass dealing with the windfall of Tomas’ crew we’re dropping on them lately.”
Konner spun around and looked at the maps on the wall. “If you send me the details of where,” he glanced at Calum, “Calum and I can start coming up with plans.”
“All right, I’ll deal with the teams once we know more.” He sounded calmer when talking about this than he had about his mate. “There’s more, Cal, you’ll be interested in this too,”
Calum tilted his head and looked at the phone, “Fallan’s contacts found two members of Deacon’s clan—or new clan,” he paused for a second, “I didn’t ask details, Konner, I can’t officially be part of that, but we may need a few to go retrieve them, they can’t get out on their own.”
Konner nodded and looked at Calum, “Deacon’s a good operator, he’ll be best to take to do that.”
“I’ll leave those details up to you two, I’m currently being strangled by red tape and protocol to keep the teams in place for when we figure out the encrypted records.”
Konner looked at the office door, the longer Reeves had his head working on that, the better their chances were to figure it out. “I have one of mine working on it as well.”
“There’s a lot of brains trying, so someone will figure it out.”