Silas #6
Silence settles over us all again, the candles flickering between the unmoving glasses, and this time, I want it to last forever.
I want the audience to fuck off so I can drag her across the table, settle her in my lap, and cover her in enough of my scent that nobody could mistake where she belongs.
So I can show her how much her words mean to me. She hasn’t found her confidence for herself yet, but she’ll use every scrap of it to defend us—our pack, our future.
“The hard part, though, love, is that you’re talking about finding yourselves, but what worries us is whether this will last,” Darwin says carefully. “What is your plan for the future?”
“To continue discussing decisions together as a pack and making the choices that are right for us,” I say.
His brows pull together, but this time, it’s my dad who interrupts.
“That’s not a plan, Son. That’s a philosophy,” Adrian says darkly.
The admonishment lands as badly as it can. Cassidy stills across the table, exhaustion taking over her features.
There are only so many times a person can defend their future before it starts to feel like they’re asking permission to live it.
Evander’s thumb brushes slowly across the back of her hand, his scent warming around her. Isaac quietly slides her untouched water a little closer, trusting her to reach for it when she’s ready.
Harlan’s stare turns murderous once more, his entire body angled towards Cassidy despite glaring at our parents.
“We know what we’re building together,” I say firmly, keeping my eyes on Cassidy so she can hear every word as much as everyone else at this table. “A future. How that looks is down to us, and us alone.”
I finally look back at our parents.
“Respecting us doesn’t mean agreeing with every decision we make, but it does mean trusting that the five people living this life are the ones who get to make it. If you want to be part of our lives,” I continue evenly, “you’ll respect that. If you can’t…”
I let the sentence fade, leaning back beneath the weight of every gaze around the table and leaving the silence to finish it.
I’m not going to force threats upon them. It won’t work when they think they’re doing what is right.
But the boundary has been placed, and no matter how hard it is, I’ll uphold it.
Cassidy’s eyes glisten, but she doesn’t look away from me. The pride shining back at me steals every remaining thought from my head.
She’s worth every fucking boundary I’ll ever have to draw.
Across the table, Harlan finally exhales, some of the tension leaving his shoulders since this interrogation began.
Darwin’s gaze shifts away from me, settling on his daughter instead. His eyes settle on Evander’s hand over hers.
I’m not sure if he sees how Isaac has quietly moved every drink, every piece of cutlery and every comfort within her reach without being asked.
Harlan hasn’t taken his eyes off anyone who’s upset her, standing guard in the only way he knows how.
Hell, Cassidy’s fingers are still intertwined with mine beneath the table, her thumb resting over my pulse as though she’s soothing me, too.
“I’m sorry, duckling,” he says quietly. “We’re not trying to belittle you, no matter how it’s come across.”
“I know,” Cassidy whispers, giving him a small smile. “I know you all care.”
I bite back a gasp of surprise. She didn’t apologise.
She didn’t fucking apologise.
Warmth spreads through my chest, sweet fig softening through the scent I’ve held too tightly all evening.
Vivienne reaches across the table but pauses before touching her daughter, apparently thinking better of it.
“We’re excited for you, lovebug,” she says softly. “We’re also worried because everything seems to have changed so quickly, and…” She sighs, giving her a half-hearted smile. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“And, CeCe, you absolutely do not need the next twenty years of your life mapped out tonight,” Elliot says firmly. He looks decisively around the table. “I think every concern raised has been answered.”
Nobody argues with him, and I’m grateful for it. He gives me a small nod.
“None of you need that level of planning. But by the sound of it, Silas, you’ve got a good head on your shoulders.” His smile grows. “You’ll keep them all in line.”
Finally.
Someone at this fucking table has some sense.
Celeste lifts her wineglass, looking first at Cassidy before glancing around the rest of us. “I’d suggest we leave the professional crisis management to the people at this table who actually do it for a living.”
Dad inclines his head, a sneer on his lips. “If we must.”
It’s about as close to surrender as I’m getting.
Emmeline smiles sweetly at the parents.
“Maybe we should let them enjoy being newly mated,” she says viciously. “Rather than making them feel as though they’re presenting a business proposal.”
Sterling snorts into his drink, and the sound breaks through the tension.
Not entirely, but enough that even I can breathe easier. Cassidy finally does, too.
Vivienne leans back in her chair, gives a reluctant nod, and lifts her wineglass, signalling the start of the ceasefire.
Conversation begins again in hesitant threads around the table, cutlery moving cautiously against china as though nobody wants to make too much noise.
Someone asks Paxton about work. Celeste redirects Vivienne towards wedding plans because someone in her family is getting married soon.
Sterling immediately starts trying to make Cassidy smile again by taunting Evander.
Cassidy finally reaches for her water once she realises nobody is paying her too much attention. I’m annoyed this conversation was brought up at dinner, though, because she doesn’t touch her food.
I know she’s barely eaten today because of her nerves, which only angers me further.
Isaac quietly slides her bread plate a little closer anyway, just in case.
Harlan still looks ready to fight every parent in the room, but now all of that fury is directed at his dinner, his knife cutting through the food with unnecessary precision.
The three of them trusted me to carry the answers, whilst they carried her.