Free A Bleacke Wind (Bleacke Shifters Book 3) by Lesli Richardson Page B

identify almost at birth. A Prime’s true powers usually gain strength and are triggered when a wolf comes of age, when hormones and everything else kick in. There really is no other wolf like Dewi. We’ve talked to packs all over the world. She’s unique.”
    There wasn’t just a hint of brotherly pride in Peyton’s tone. It was a full-on crystal-clear certainty.
    “Apparently,” Trent said, “she really didn’t want to wear the dress Aunt Collette bought for her. Best she figured going by the clock, she was only outside a minute or two. In fact, Dewi had started to cry because she was alone. When Aunt Collette went back inside and tried to put Dewi into her warm, snuggly jumper that she liked, Dewi let her do it. Then she clung to Aunt Collette for the rest of the afternoon in a way she usually didn’t. I think Dewi felt guilty about doing it to her.”
    Peyton continued the narrative. “Badger, being a Prime, and being far older and stronger than Dewi at the time, was able to counteract her toddler Prime tantrums. That’s when I realized I didn’t dare risk anyone else raising her. Especially with her being so strong. I needed someone who had the time and ability to control her. I would have done it if I wasn’t the pack Alpha, but the pack had to come first.”
    “Aunt Collette loves her, too,” Trent added. “Don’t get me wrong, we all do. I think it broke her heart a little when she realized she couldn’t raise Dewi full-time. Aunt Collette’s a beta, and you heard what Dewi did to her. Dewi would have chewed her up and spit her out as she got older.”
    “Metaphorically,” Dewi muttered. “You make me sound like I was some sort of hellion.”
    There was a moment’s pause before Peyton, Gillian, and Trent burst out laughing. “You were ,” they all said in unison.
    “Not a bad one,” Peyton added. “Don’t get us wrong, we love you. You are who you are. But I had to do what had to be done to make sure you were taken care of. Also, I was worried about you. We didn’t know who had…” He didn’t finish.
    He didn’t have to. He meant they didn’t know at that time who had murdered their parents and attacked Dewi. “We suspected a Prime,” he said. “Only another Prime would have had a chance against Dad and Mom both. So I knew I needed a Prime to protect you. If it hadn’t been for Badger, I would have sent you out of the country to a distant cousin in Scotland I knew I could trust.”
    “How did she not overpower Beck when she was a kid?” Ken asked. “He’s not a Prime.”
    “Badger,” the other three wolves said in unison.
    Peyton continued. “Badger worked with her, kept ordering her to obey Beck when she was a kid, to respect Beck’s authority and not to use her powers against him like that. And it helped that Beck was an Alpha.”
    When Ken had first met Dewi and found out that she’d been sent away as a kid to live in Florida, he’d felt outraged on her behalf. He’d felt like her family had basically abandoned her.
    The more he learned about Dewi as a baby, and the circumstances surrounding her childhood, the more he realized how much her family truly loved her.
    They’d taken a horrible situation and done the best they could. He couldn’t fault them for it now that he understood.
    “I guess I owe you all an apology,” Ken said.
    Peyton frowned. “For what?”
    “I really didn’t understand the full ramifications of all of this when Dewi first told me about being sent away to Florida as a kid. I get it now. I can’t fault you for what you did or why.”
    “We appreciate that,” Trent said. “It wasn’t what we wanted, but at the time we knew it was the only course of action to keep her safe.”
    “And,” Peyton said, “I didn’t want her challenging me for the pack.” He arched an eyebrow at Dewi. Ken noticed how she reddened in the face. “The last thing I wanted to do was kill my little sister because she was too stubborn to take a knee to me as