“I suppose we do,” she laughed.
“From the looks of it, we may even be in-laws one day,” Leslie laughed, nodding toward their children, who were now babbling back and forth happily. Leslie looked past Ella and saw that Sable and Hannah were winding down, just sitting in their walkers half nodding off.
“Wouldn’t that be something?” Mari laughed.
“I’m going to see if I can’t get my mini-pack to lay down for a nap.”
“I should probably do the same. Hopefully, we’ll talk again soon.”
“We certainly shall,” Leslie replied, getting up and picking Ella up from the walker.
She carried her over to a large playpen that was empty and laid one of the blankets down on the bottom, putting Ella down on it. Despite being giddy with Charlie only moments before, she was already fading away behind heavy eyelids. Leslie retrieved Hannah and then Sable, putting them all down and clipping their video monitor inside the corner of the pen. Though there was a rotation to keep an eye on babies whose parents had to leave them unattended, she still liked her own monitor on the girls.
With them settled in for a sleep, she went to find Gladys, one of the older shifters who was in charge of overseeing the play area. She and her husband, Gus, had been born into the pack in different families and fallen in love as children. All these years together and they were still happy, though their constant playful bickering would lead anyone who did not know them to think otherwise.
“Gladys, the triplets are asleep in the corner playpen over there. I’m going to step over to the kitchen to see what they are up to in there. I’ve got my monitor on, so if they wake up and I don’t see them, just hit the button on the side to notify me.”
“Will do,” Gladys said.
Leslie left - the monitor clipped to her jeans. The panic button feature was designed so that a caretaker in the room could warn someone else there was a problem. Normally, if you were outside the room, you’d just hear the babies stirring or even crying. Sometimes, in louder settings, though, the shrill buzzing sound the panic button made would send a much more noticeable warning. It was a comfort in a setting like this to have it as a backup.
Making her way to the kitchen, she opened the door and looked around. There was a mixture of men and women making everything from baked beans to coleslaw in various areas. Stainless steel appliances and countertops gleamed and the tile floors sparkled. It was a far cry from the small crusty room she had seen when she first came here. Tucker had not only had it enlarged when he knocked down walls on that end of the club to one side of the play area, he had purchased all new appliances and put in a walk-in freezer. It was all clean and streamlined.
Nearby was a door that led out to a large deck he had also redone to accommodate a larger number of people, replacing old wooden planking with fresh new pressure treated decking that would last much longer. There was a large grilling section just off the deck nearby, with a three-grill station of brick and rack fire pit grills. Several of the men stood there, drinking beer and watching the meat erected on spits. It was already smelling delicious, though it had a while to cook yet.
“Ah, there’s my beautiful wife,” Tucker said as she stepped off the deck and headed toward him.
“Charmer,” she teased.
“That I am. Where are the rest of my beautiful girls?” he asked.
“Sleeping it off in a playpen,” she told him, tapping the monitor clipped to her belt.
He glanced down at it, a smile spread broadly across his face, but it quickly faded. Instead, he looked angry and then he was running toward the club. Not sure what was happening, Leslie unclipped the monitor and looked at it, seeing nothing. The girls were all still lying flat on their tummies, snoozing happily. What had set him off? She clipped the monitor back to her belt and turned to follow him, assuming he was headed toward the daycare.
Halfway across the front lobby, as she approached the door of the daycare, the shrill notification from the monitor began sounding and she unclipped it to look at it again, but the girls were all still sleeping. Still, her blood ran cold as she lumbered as quickly as possible through the doors, making a beeline toward the playpen. When she arrived, nothing seemed amiss and she stood there, confused. Then, she happened to glance out the window behind her and her heart stopped.CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN“Gladys, get the council to come to the back exit. Now!” she barked.
She didn’t wait for a response, heading for the door herself. Tucker caught sight of her from the corner of his eye and barked at her.