Lowlander Silverback (Gray Back Bears #5)(38)

Not yet. Someday she would give Kong a baby, but not yet.

She raised her beer with the rest of them.

“C-team,” the Gray Backs chanted.

“C-team,” she murmured just a second later, baffled on where the toast came from. They weren’t C-team to her. They were the finest, most caring people she’d ever had the pleasure of spending time with.

The Gray Backs were A-team.

“Last one in is a hairy monkey!” Willa yelled pointing at Kong. She cackled and took off into the river, beer held high and sloshing.

Kong snorted and ran for the waves with the rest of them. All but Beaston and Aviana, who lowered baby Rowan to a blanket they’d spread out.

“You aren’t swimming?” Layla asked the wild-eyed Beaston.

He cradled the baby gently in his lap and rocked back and forth. Never taking his eyes from Rowan’s face, he said, “Creed said I could protect our little dragon today. Don’t want to swim.”

Aviana’s black, shiny hair twitched as she cocked her head at her mate with a tender smile.

“Kong won’t drink. I won’t either. Not today.” Beaston looked up at her with those clear, demon-bright green eyes. “We both have something important to protect. I have a gift for you.” He leaned over and pulled a leather sheath from a canvas satchel beside him. He dipped his gaze back to Rowan, but held the fine leather sheath up to Layla.

“For me?” she asked, baffled. “What for?”

“Because girls like things that match.”

“Oh.” She took the knife and sat down beside Aviana, then unsnapped the clasp that held the blade into place and gripped the smooth wooden handle. When she unsheathed it, her heart stuttered at how fine the knife was. She didn’t know much about them, but this looked to be very high quality, from the tapered edge of the blade to the polished silver that had a soft wave in color she’d never seen before. And etched onto the blade near the hilt was K + L.

Aviana leaned forward and pointed to the inscription. “All of the women in the Gray Backs have one just like it. Easton is very good at making knives. He made this one especially for you.”

“K + L?”

“Kong and Layla,” Beaston murmured, still rocking Rowan. “You’re good to your bones. A good match. A love match. Not like with Kong’s shit people.”

Tears stung her eyes as she looked back down at the gift in her hands. “Thank you,” she whispered. “This is the nicest gift anyone has ever given me.”

Beaston nodded, looking pleased, and Aviana hugged her shoulders as Layla snapped the knife back into the sheath and tried to get her emotions under control. She’d sworn she wouldn’t cry today, but two minutes on the sandy river bank, and a tear slipped down her cheek.

But this wasn’t the sad kind she’d been leaking for Mac.

This was the happy kind, so it didn’t count.

****

Kong sat by the fire, watching his mate laugh and splash around with Willa, Aviana, and Georgia in the middle of the river. The glow of the bonfire collided with the blue, full moonlight that danced across the dark water, illuminating her grinning, beautiful face.

Damn, today had been good for his animal. Watching Layla cut loose had settled some of his uncertainty. He would keep her safe no matter what. He had to. She was too important to this world for him to fail.

“You look like shit, man,” Matt said with a grin, plopping down in the sand beside him and jerking his chin at Kong’s mangled chest.

Kong huffed a laugh and looked pointedly at the crisscrossing scars that formed a spider web across Matt’s entire torso. The scars he’d gotten from a government facility as a kid. “Now we match.”

Matt fist bumped him and leaned back on his locked elbows, his eyes on Willa. “Twinsies,” he muttered.

“Spill it,” Creed said low as he dropped down in the sand on the other side of Kong. “You’ve been jumpy all week, and now you can’t even have a beer? This isn’t over, is it?”

Kong swallowed hard and shook his head, wishing with everything he was that his answer could be different.

“Why is Fiona obsessed with you?” Creed asked as he snapped a twig into small pieces.

“Because she’s bad and needs to be cut down,” Beaston said from Matt’s other side as he watched Gia suckle Rowan at her breast. “Fiona is a bad tree. Rotten. Rotting all the trees around her.” He swung that eerie, knowing gaze to Kong. “She wants to rot you, too.”

Sometimes Beaston made more sense than anyone Kong had ever met.

“Fiona wants offspring from me,” he said low so Layla wouldn’t hear. “She’s ready to breed.”

“Barf,” Matt muttered.

Kong huffed a surprised laugh. He really couldn’t imagine bedding Fiona without his animal convincing him to strangle her.

Creed leaned back on his arms and stretched his legs in the sand. “So what’s our play? Clearly she is going to come for you at some point.”

Kong sifted sand through his hand and shook his head. “Not our play. My play. I can’t put you at risk. This one is on me.”

“And how do you see that working out?” Creed asked. “What is a realistic end result of going to war with your people alone?”

“Death,” Beaston murmured.