Chapter 24
Tyler
Three days until the blood moon, and I was crawling out of my skin with indecision.
We’d agreed to have everything figured out, but I felt further away from my resolve than ever.
I was willing to let Emery turn me, yeah, but I couldn’t stop wrestling with the question of who I would be doing that for.
Hudson’s warning about it being a decision that would lead to resentment filled my mind constantly.
No matter how hard I churned it over in my head, I only knew two things for sure anymore.
The very last thing I wanted between me and the guys was resentment, and the thing I wanted most—desperately and unequivocally—was them.
But my notice at the office was up, and I had to put my inner turmoil on hold for a different kind of dread.
Facing my father.
I decided to wait until the end of the day to head over to the three-story office building on the north side of town.
There was no way Dad was going to let me keep my Porsche.
I was surprised he hadn’t had it towed already, to be honest. So, I intended to park the car beside his reserved space in the lot and leave my keys on his desk along with my access badge.
Emery offered to come along and drive me home, even escort me just in case I ran into any trouble, but I didn’t want him or Hudson anywhere near my father and his surveillance systems. If he got wind that the men I’d been shacking up with were on his property, he’d likely call the cops on them.
Hell, I wasn’t even sure what kind of reception I was in for, stepping onto the premises of Hargraves & Hutchins, out of business attire in one of Emery’s t-shirts and some old jeans of mine.
My heart was hammering against my ribcage as I paced the sidewalk, reaching for the glass double doors to the lobby. I glanced at my phone, making sure the cab I had ordered was already on its way to get me the fuck out of there.
“Tyler?” the front desk clerk called over the marble tile, making me jump and nearly drop my phone.
I blew out a breath, my hands shaking as I met the woman’s eyes. “Hey, Ange. Dad around?”
“Uh… no, I think he went home for the day,” she said, glancing me over as she reached for the phone. “Do you still work here? I haven’t seen you in weeks.”
“Last day.” I held up my badge with a weak smile, my nerves calming at hearing my father was gone. “No one told you? I figured I’d be the office scandal for sure.”
That got a laugh out of her, and she shrugged. “We put two and two together. Your father’s been on the warpath, and you haven’t been around, but you know how he is about his personal matters.”
“Yeah,” I scoffed, striding past the front desk and swiping my badge to access the offices for the last time. “Gotta keep up that shiny, perfect Hargraves image.”
“Ty,” she called after me in a hushed tone, and I whirled back to her. “Is it true you’ve been staying at the Garland house with Hudson and Emery Evans? Chelsea told me you and Emery were… together at Gracie’s a couple weeks ago.”
“Chelsea?” I raised a brow.
“Yeah, she’s the desk clerk over there,” she whispered, leaning closer to me. “She said he kissed you and then you both went to a room with one bed.”
My face morphed into a glare. “I paid her a hundred bucks to keep that quiet.” With a groan, I ran my hand through my hair, then waved dismissively. “Whatever, I don’t even care anymore. Yeah, Hudson and Emery are my… well… I think they’re… my boyfriends. We haven’t really put a name on it yet.”
Angie’s mouth opened wide as a positively giddy light overtook her eyes. “Oh—my—god! That’s so cute! Two guys?! And your childhood best friends, too. Oh, it’s like a Hallmark movie!”
Gritting my teeth, I held out my hand to hush her. “Okay, okay, keep it down, Ange. Dad’s gonna find out eventually, but I’m hoping to put that off as long as possible. Preferably after I learn taekwondo or jujitsu.”
Or possess fangs and superhuman strength.
She pressed her thumb and index finger together, running them over the seam of her lips. “Your secret’s safe with me. Good for you, though!”
“Thanks,” I chuckled, quickly exiting the conversation toward the nearest elevator. I jabbed the button to the top floor, then dropped my forehead against the wall as the cabin went up, muttering to myself, “He’s not here. Just get in, drop your shit, and get back to the guys.”
Turning off the elevator, I passed by my own office.
My name had been removed from the door. Through the window next to it, it appeared as if everything had been recently cleaned, and all of my personal touches disposed of.
I swiped my key card over the reader, getting a red light and a disapproving beep. “Wow. Thanks, Dad.”
Rolling my eyes, I stomped away toward the end of the hall where the largest office in the building lay behind giant glass double doors. My insides twisted as I laid eyes on Dad’s assistant, Jeremy, tapping away on his keyboard with his usual snooty demeanor.
The moment I walked through the doors, he cleared his throat without taking his eyes off his monitor. “You may leave your things with me, Mister Hargraves.”
Ignoring the man, I walked right past his desk to the large door that was made to blend into the wooden paneling. “I’d rather leave them where I told my father I would, thanks.”
“Mister Hargraves Senior gave me explicit inst—”
“Cool story, Jer,” I droned, gliding into dad’s office like I owned the place.
Technically, I would have, if I wasn’t certain Daddy Dearest was going to cut me off completely the moment he learned I was in a polyamorous relationship with two men.
Judging by the emptiness of my old office, he very well might have already.
I tossed my access card and my car keys onto the massive oak desk, taking a glance around the room. Some gaudy and likely overpriced art was hanging on the wall behind the expensive leather desk chair—right where a picture of my father and me after my college graduation used to hang.
“Classy,” I grumbled, glancing out into the parking lot through the curtain wall windows. My heart shot into my throat, seeing another car parked beside my Porsche.
Dad’s BMW.
“Fuck!” I hissed, whirling toward the door, only to slam right into a broad chest and the pungent scent of the aftershave that lived in my nightmares.
“I’m surprised you actually had the balls to show your face.” Livid, dark eyes that only resembled mine in color drilled into me, slick with judgement. “I was fully expecting you to mail your things, not waltz back in as if you aren’t the biggest disappointment this company has ever known.”
“Heard you were gone for the day,” I attempted to growl, but my voice shook, giving me away. I took several steps back, glaring up at him. “Bet you told Angie to say that, huh?”
“My own son won’t even return my calls,” my father said, quiet and dangerous as he moved right into my space.
“What sort of father would I be if I didn’t use all the resources at my disposal to make him see reason?
” His eyes narrowed, his lip twitching in a way that made my skin crawl.
He balled his fingers into fists, and I set my jaw, ready for whatever he threw at me.
“Though, from what Angela has told me, it seems you’ve lost your perverted little mind entirely. ”
I sucked in a shaking breath, staring him down. “You don’t know what you’re—”
“I—am—speaking.” Spit flew from his lips with every word, his cheeks reddening as he got right in my face.
“You… are going to pick your things back up off my desk. You are going to drive your worthless ass back home. You will never see those predatory influences you’ve been staying with again, and tomorrow you’re getting on a plane to Utah for a three-month stay at a prestigious therapy center to treat your… affliction.”
My whole body shook, not from the fear the man usually instilled in me, nor the way he’d trained me to jump on command since I was six years old.
This was rage. This was fury like I had never known, pumped from the deepest parts of my heart where every harsh word and brutal beating I’d ever received lived, locked away and waiting for that exact moment.
I looked my father dead in the eyes, leaning closer, my face an inch from his. “No.”
He jerked back as if I’d slapped him. The sight alone, that look of total confusion at such a simple word, filled me with a sense of power.
“Excuse me?” My father spat. He lunged forward, grabbing my shirt at my chest, hauling me so close the spittle flying from his lips hit my face.
“I gave you everything you have, you ungrateful little shit. You will do what I say to the letter, or so help me—” He jerked back suddenly with a hiss, eyes wide as he clutched his hand. “What the hell?!”
I glanced at his hand where the skin blistered, red and boiled in a perfect line right across his palm. Before he could lay his hands on me again, I dove under his arm, slamming through his office door.
“Tyler!” he roared after me, nearly taking the door off its hinges as he barreled into the reception area behind me. “Get your ass back here, boy!”
The stairwell door crashed into the wall with the force of my shoulder. I leapt down the stairs, taking them multiple at a time until I reached the ground floor, running into the lobby area and out the front door. I grabbed my phone, checking for my ride when I didn’t see my cab waiting.
The front doors of the office opened behind me, my father stalking toward me in a murderous rage. “Enough of this!”
Tires screeched across the parking lot, and like a bright ray of hope, that rusty blue Impala pulled up to the sidewalk. The passenger door flew open, Hudson’s eyes wide as he slid up against Emery to make room. “Get in!”
I threw myself into the seat, slamming the door shut, giving my father one final look of contempt as Emery peeled out of the lot.
When my dad’s face vanished from the rear-view mirror, a strangled sob came out of me. I couldn’t stop trembling. My vision turned cloudy with tears.
“You’re okay, baby.” Hudson’s hand was on my back, rubbing slow circles. I hid my face in my hands as the tears broke free, and Hudson pulled me into his arms, his voice broken as he whispered into my hair. “You’re safe. We’re going home.”
“He was—gonna send me away—” I choked, sobbing into Hudson’s chest and wetting his shirt, “—to some straight camp in Utah.”
“He’s not taking you from us, Ty.” Emery’s hand gripped my shoulder as he wrapped an arm around us both. “Breathe. We’ve got you now.”
I stayed like that the whole drive home, wrapped in their arms. My body tingled with a strange, post-traumatic ache, but the dark rot in my chest that had been eating me up at the thought of facing my father was finally gone.
A weight I’d carried for years, lifted with a single word and my act of defiance.
The crush of gravel beneath the tires told me we were back at the house, and I lifted my head, meeting Hudson’s eyes. “How… How did you—”
Hudson’s eyes sparkled with his smile, and he placed a hand over my chest where his pendant hung beneath my shirt.
“We were up the road getting dinner from Duke’s.
We were going to drive by and check on you, just in case, and…
I felt something. Like… your heartbeat racing as if it was my own. I just told Emery to drive.”
Suddenly, I remembered the way my father’s hand had burned when he grabbed me. A shape exactly like the pendant. “It… burned him.”
“What?” Hudson’s eyes widened.
“He grabbed me… must’ve grabbed the necklace too, and it… burned him. I saw the blister.” I searched his eyes with a swallow. “What… does that mean? Is he a—”
“It’s not silver.” Emery tugged the chain out of my shirt, taking the pendant in his hand to prove his point once again. “See?”
“It’s gotta be some kind of protective magic…” Hudson whispered, furrowing his brows. “When it burned the wolf that attacked me, that’s exactly how it happened. He grabbed it, and it seared his hand… like it was trying to stop him from taking it.”
I lifted the pendant out of Emery’s hand, smiling as I met Hudson’s eyes. “You saved me.”
“You saved yourself, Ty.” Em said with a grin, brushing my jaw with a calloused knuckle. “I caught the tail end of your talk with dear old dad. Had to strain my ears, but… you stood up for yourself. I’m proud of you.”
“You heard me?” I breathed, staring at him in disbelief. “Over this loud ass engine from three blocks away?”
Em shrugged, his smile softening. “Your voice and Hudson’s are easier for me to home in on. Just like your scents.”
A warm flutter lit my chest as I beamed back at him. I blew out a breath. “He’s not going to stop. Even if he gives up on trying to get me to come home, he’ll still try to make my life hell. Probably both of yours, too.”
“Then we’ll leave,” Hudson said immediately, looking to both of us in turn.
“We were already talking about it. The more I learn about the Garlands, the more I want to abdicate and let their magic dissipate. I can get by with my blood magic if I need to. Keep it secret or even bind it again if it becomes a problem.”
“Or I could just—” Emery dragged a thumb across his own neck with a click of his tongue.
“Yeah, that’ll end better than being hunted for Hud’s magic, Em,” I scoffed, rolling my eyes. Lacing my fingers into Hudson’s, I asked, “You’re really okay with that?”
“Taking off across the country with my sexy guys?” he chimed with a glowing smile. “Sounds like a dream.”
“I’m in,” Em said, ruffling Hudson’s hair. “You pick the place, and we’ll just go.”
“Two days until the blood moon.” Hudson nodded, taking Emery’s hand as he squeezed mine.
“I’ll abdicate. Finally sign those papers for the realtor, grab what I need, pack up Hissy, and we can start driving.
I’ve got access to all the old family accounts, and once the house sells, we’ll have more than enough to get a place somewhere.
Or we could just travel. Whatever we want. ”
“I can leave the shop to Vinny for now,” Em muttered, stroking his beard. “He’s a bit green with the books, but he’ll do fine till I can decide what to do with it.”
My heart overflowed, listening to them plan, and those stupid tears came back, but for an entirely different reason. A month ago, Emery and I were terrified that Hudson was going to leave, and there we all were, hyping ourselves up to leave Felcove behind forever.
Together.