Chapter Five

When we got home, Dirk was waiting on the patio by the front door, drinking something. Heath was stepping outside with a tray as I lifted my hand to wave, not wanting to yell. Heath's smile as he put the tray down on the small table next to Dirk made one spread across my face.

"Thank you for finding her, Landon," Heath said, his eyes still on me.

"I didn't find her for you," Landon said with a snort before he smiled at his father and went to sit across the table from Dirk. I was surprised not to find any hint of a lie in that sentence, but not surprised enough to think about it too long.

"I just went for a walk. Niko and I had dinner, but we got done before the pack meeting." I kissed Heath's cheek as I tried to step around him to see what sort of snack he put out for Dirk. His arm wrapped around my waist, and I was forced to watch as Dirk took a massive bite out of half a sandwich. Landon grabbed the other half and started in on it as well, leaving nothing else on the plate except a glass of water.

"And you didn't want to be cooped up waiting on us to get done," Heath said, filling in the reason I went for my walk.

"Yeah, and walking is good for thinking. Nice of you to feed them while waiting on me. I keep telling you that you can use the bar's kitchen if you want food?—"

"That was my sandwich," Heath said, his smile tightening, but I knew he wasn't angry. It kept Dirk and Landon from interrupting because they wanted the food. It was a noble, if annoying, sacrifice.

"Oh, my condolences," I teased, poking his stomach. "How was the meeting?"

"We're doing it," he said decisively. "The pack house, which, in this case, will have werewolves on shift living there. We haven't figured out that part, but the basic plans and ideas are settled, and I already know who to speak to about the land." I could tell how excited he was. He loved building, loved development. It was one of the main components of his work. "Can I show you the plans?"

"Absolutely." I gestured to the door, knowing he would have those plans inside. He looked at the werewolves on our patio.

"Hey, if either of you needs Jacky for anything, now is the time," he said, snapping them out of their single-minded effort to make his sandwich disappear. Dirk stopped eating, chewing fast to get a chance to say something.

"You had dinner with Niko today?" he asked, as if he had been barely paying attention when I had said it only moments before.

"Yeah. What's up?"

"Can…" His lips thinned as he pressed them together, concentration taking over his expression. "Can you tell him that I don't need to see him every other day?"

"No," I replied with a smile. "You're an adult. He's an adult. You've known each other for a long time. You tell him."

"He's just?—"

"No. I'm not getting in the middle of that ever again." I started walking toward my door. "He's your father. Handle it."

"Jacky!" Dirk called out as I opened the door, Heath chuckling behind me.

"You heard her," Heath said before closing the door behind us. I saw everything piled on my dining room table and went to sit down as he locked the door.

"Come on! I know he's being nice, but it's a lot. I live with my mate, and Niko is always coming over!" Dirk complained outside the door as Heath continued to chuckle before he sat next to me.

"Have a nice evening, Dirk!" I called back. "Thanks for talking to me, Landon. Drive safe!"

"Come on. I told you she was going to say that." Landon's patient voice wasn't raised, but my ears were some of the best in the supernatural world. I listened to them walk away and their truck start. It wasn't until I felt them pass the bar that I focused on my fiancé.

"Tell me all about this pack house," I ordered, smiling at him as I put my chin on my hand.

"Well, it's going to be a gathering space, not a home, so we're not going to have proper bedrooms. I am going to put a basement, though, with some living quarters for anyone who might need to crash there. I'm talking a barracks situation. I don't want to build a mansion across the street, so this area will be underground, and it won't be overdone or fancy. It's also for security. If we're attacked, the basement will be the safe room or rooms, depending on the situation."

"Explain that a bit more to me?" I asked, frowning until he brought out a rough sketch with the title of BASEMENT written on it.

"There will be a small hallway leading to three large rooms. One of those will be the weapons locker." The rooms were all the same size but fortunately labeled. "We're installing a nice security system for that, but you probably won't care."

"No, I won't," I agreed. "I know you're going to secure it properly. Does this mean…"

"That your security building won't have so many firearms anymore? Yes. We're going to remove the bulk and leave only bare necessities in there for Dirk or whoever might need to grab something to protect themselves. Landon and I are also going to place the majority of our personal firearms in there as well. We'll figure out how to organize it later in the plans. Moving on." He pointed at the next room, this one labeled BARRACKS. "This will be where a werewolf or anyone we trust can stay if they don't have arrangements or need our protection." He pointed to the last room. Its label said it all. HOLDING CELLS. "This one is… well, you remember where I put Ranger in my last home."

"Yeah…" I nodded, remembering the little closet that had been turned into a cell. I looked closer, seeing the lighter dashed lines. "And those are different cells, yeah? Three of them?"

"I'm not going to put people in cages they can't stand up in, but we need a secure place for hostiles we might want to question. Ranger ending up in one at my house was insane circumstances, but with… with the way Fenris turned out, and the ever-present threat of Callahan losing his patience about my independence, we need something."

"Of course. So how does this work as a safe room?"

"The basement door will have a bunker door. Each of these rooms will have a bunker door. Lines of defense. Once the building goes into lockdown, each door will close in five seconds and lock, giving people time not to be in their way. For anyone stuck in the hallway here, there's going to be a small closet of supplies under the stairs. Each room will have a closet for supplies." He pointed to each little dotted line area and sighed. "As much as I would love to just build a clubhouse, I also have to be practical about the safety?—"

"I know. This isn't scary. It's a lot, but we need a lot," I said, smiling. "Every single one of those werewolves deserves a safe space they can run to and feel secure in. This will be that. Now, tell me the fun stuff."

He smiled again and did just that. Two stories tall, with game rooms with computers, dart boards, big TVs, and more. A kitchen they would keep stocked or let people bring what they needed to cook in at any time. Every pack member would have a unique code to get into the building and enjoy the stuff, all covered by Heath and Landon.

"The parties the pack could throw…" I said, chuckling.

"That's just the inside. We're going to build a little back from the road and try to keep some tree coverage, and with that, we'll make a backyard space with multiple grills, maybe a pool." He brought out a new drawing, showing the main building and some ideas for a yard behind it. I could see it already. Carey's next birthday party was going to be memorable if she wanted to do it at the pack house.

"I haven't seen an actual meeting room yet," I pointed out as he put that drawing aside.

"That's right. It'll be done in the main room downstairs. The couches and everything are a great place to have them all. I didn't want to stuff them into a boardroom-style situation. Pack meetings have official discussions, but when I need to tear a werewolf down, I'll use my office." He grabbed the first floor drawing again, pointing to a room. "A proper office so they can also get ahold of me while I'm working but don't need to be in and out of your home all the time. I know you haven't really complained, but I think you deserve to have some peace over here."

"Our home, but I'll let that slide," I teased, smiling. "Can I bother you over there?"

"Oh, don't you worry. You'll have a code for everything," he promised, leaning closer.

I kissed him. I wasn't getting locked out, not that I had worried about it. He was right. Whenever there was anything happening, good or bad, I had werewolves walking around my house, eating all the food. I loved supporting the pack, but I was excited to have a tiny bit of distance again. The pack house was still close enough to the center of the territory for my warnings to lock down to work, and that was important, too.

"You'll be able to have family over and keep an eye on which werewolves they may or may not see," he continued after the kiss.

"It'll cut down on the potential threat of violence, that's for sure," I said, chuckling. "I know everyone is trying to get along, but there's been a few toes stepped on with Niko's arrival."

"Oh, I know," Heath said, laughing as well. "They were told, but that warning didn't really sink in until they saw him, huh?"

"It was certainly a scene," I said, groaning. There had been some posturing, some poorly considered comments, and even a couple of shoves, but it settled down in one evening as Heath and I laid down the law for both sides. With Landon and Dirk backing us up, both levelheaded, and Dirk's relationship to Niko in the open, it all worked out. Niko tried to stay away from the pack, aside from the obvious werewolves with certain last names, and the pack was told not to mention him to anyone. If they weren't Dirk, Landon, or Heath, then they didn't get to contact him in any way except through me, and they had to clear it with Heath first. Niko wasn't the only thing the pack was required to stay hush-hush about, and they didn't put up any fight about it. We all moved on, and the next day, the pack acted like there wasn't a second werecat in the area.

"Well, that's all of that…" Heath pulled all the drawings together, ordered them, then put them in a neat pile with several other things he had stacked on my table. I had no doubt they were work-related for him, but I didn't get nosy.

"Want to watch a movie with me?" I asked him, and his response was exactly what I wanted. He got up and took my hand, pulling me to the couch. We cuddled as he found one of our shared favorites and hit play. I could hear music from Carey's room, keeping one ear open for anything else as Heath's hand moved lower.

"She's not asleep," I whispered.

His hand moved up to my stomach again without needing me to say anything more. Once the movie was over, however, he scooped me up like I was already his bride and carried me to our bedroom.

I had no complaints or warnings as he slowly underdressed me. I took my time doing the same for him, reveling in how this attractive man in peak form was always coming to bed with me. The touches were soft, leaving goosebumps on my skin as he drove the need between us higher. Our lips only brushed together, never fully committing to the kiss, as we toyed with each other, seeing who would finally escalate this into what came next. Once the teasing and tension became too much, I pushed him onto his back and made sure the night would be imprinted on my skin and his, like every night we'd shared together already was.