“What’s so special about my son?” I asked.
Travis ignored me, playing with the baby. Caeden’s growl forced his attention back to me. “You’ll find out soon enough.”
I swallowed thickly. I didn’t like the sound of that.
“Tell me now,” I whispered. “I want to know why Beau is so important.”
“Beau? Is that the name you’re going with? Pretty crappy if you ask me,” he shrugged. “I’ve been calling him Laurence.”
“You named my baby?!” I shrieked, the high decibel making the glass on the windows shake. Beau began to cry.
“Look what you’ve done, Sophie.” Travis shook his head and began to comfort the baby. I should have been the one comforting him. Not Travis. This wasn’t okay with me at all. But I still didn’t know what to do. Attacking Travis would result in hurting Beau, and Travis was smart enough to know that. He held the advantage here. “You should really keep your voice down. Laurence is sensitive to loud noises.”
“His. Name. Is. Beau.” I seethed, my fists clenched at my sides. I’m sure my face was turning bright red with anger. I was so pissed off it wasn’t even funny. At this point I was pretty sure I could kill Travis with my bare hands alone—that was how angry I was.
“Once again,” he kissed the baby’s cheek, “Beau is a really shitty name and you should reconsider. The Prince deserves a strong name.”
“Prince?” I swallowed thickly, raising a brow in confusion.
“Yes, the Prince.”
“The Prince?” I was so confused with Travis’ gibberish. For once couldn’t he just spit out whatever it was he had to say?
He rolled his eyes. “Oh, sweet Sophie, you are so incredibly dumb. Long ago, back when humans were just beginning to stand on two legs, the Book of Legends was born and it foretold of a Prince. A wolf prince, born to the two most powerful Alpha’s to ever grace our shifter history, and blah, blah, blah. I think they got that part wrong though. I mean, y’all are the crappiest Alphas I know, but whatever. The elders said it was you guys.” He shrugged, glancing back down at the baby. “The firstborn son of these Alphas, you two,” he pointed at Caeden and then me, as if we needed clarification, “would have powers unlike any shifter out there. His powers are far advanced from ours. He can run faster, see better, he’s stronger, and even as a wee wittle baby,” his voice went all high pitched and squeaky, “he can shift.”
“What? That’s not possible,” I gasped.
“That’s what I meant when I said you’d find out soon enough. Since he’s so small, he can’t control his shifts so they happen sporadically. One time he didn’t quite transform all the way and he was half in human for and half wolf. I think I got a picture on my phone. It was hilarious!”
I shook my head at the strangeness of the conversation. Travis was speaking to me like we were old friends having a chat over coffee—not like he’d tried to kill me twice.
He was a strange dude.
“Alright, so he can transform,” I said, “that doesn’t explain why you want my son.”
Travis chuckled, the sound sharp and grating, sending shivers down my spine. “Did you miss the part where I said he was powerful? Y’all are dumb, but even you two should have figured out by now that I crave power.” He stood, stalking forward. He surprised me by stopping to lay the baby in the crib. I let out a sigh of relief I hoped he didn’t notice. We could attack now without worrying about hurting the baby.
“But you told me that you and the elders want to expose yourself to humans, that you want to start a war. How is a baby going to help you accomplish that?”
Travis shrugged. “He might not be able to help us now, but kids grow, and I can hone his powers to my advantage.” He shoved his hands in his pockets, the picture of ease.
“To your advantage?” I whispered, picking up on the fact that what he said had no mention of the elders.
Travis smiled slowly, his grin reminding me of a villain in a comic book. “Yes, my advantage. After you delivered the baby, I didn’t need them anymore because I had everything I needed. Let me tell you, they begged for their lives. It was pathetic really. So you don’t need to worry about them anymore. I’ve already taken care of them for you. And no more elders mean I can create a whole new order. I will be King and your son will be the Prince. And you two will be dead.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” I said slowly, shaking my head. “And I think that you’ll find a wolf protecting her cub is very hard to kill.”