Chapter Twenty
Two days later
Lucky
Seeing Ford in his kitchen, making a fry-up to end all fry-ups, Lucky had never been happier.
The bank holiday meant a rare Monday without classes or the dreaded Professor Juniper, and now he had both his mates to spend the day with.
And it was so…domestic. Chase leaned his hip on the counter, sipping from a coffee mug, while Ford focused on the eggs spitting in the frying pan.
Seeing them like that, in his space, inspired Lucky to ask for the impossible.
“Papa, could we have the weekend together?”
His papa raised an eyebrow and lifted his cup of coffee.
“That could be arranged. If a certain alpha of legal age will host, and swear to your safety from the moment you leave this house, I won’t call in certain favours to hold him responsible.
” The way he looked at Ford, it was clear someone would get in serious trouble if anything happened to Lucky.
“You got a deal, Papa. Ain’t gonna let nothing happen to my flower.” Ford wasn’t fazed by the threat as he dished up the eggs to add to his plate of toast. “You can take my badge if anything does.”
Standing from the table, his papa bent to kiss Lucky’s cheek. “You can pack your things when you get home from campus on Friday and take them with you when you go to the bonfire.”
“What bonfire?” Lucky asked, meeting Chase’s equally confused gaze.
Ford sat at the table and stabbed the corner of a piece of toast into a fried egg.
“Friday night. Figured we should have a real date, but a weekend is golden.” He munched on his toast and removed his phone from his back pocket.
“I’ll text you the address and you can invite your friends.
Your omega friends are fine, long as they’re staying on Heatwave. ”
“Not a problem.” A smart omega would never be around adult alphas without the protection of Heatwave.
Lucky checked his phone, then tucked it into his back pocket just as the front door opened.
Confused about who could be visiting so early without even knocking, he headed to the open door, and froze, stunned to see Pip running towards him.
Lucky crouched to hug Pip and say hello.
Wynna Walker swept a summer hat off her head to lay on the arm of the sofa, then dropped her handbag to remove her light cropped jacket. “I’m glad you’re all here, as a certain agent has been avoiding my phone calls.” She glanced beyond Lucky to the kitchen, where Ford was draining his coffee cup.
Lucky released Pip from their hug and asked, “What are you doing here?” He stood and looked between Pip and Wynna, the latter of whom pointed beyond Lucky, to where Pip was already approaching Ford’s chair.
Ford ruffled his hair. “How you feeling?”
“Better.” Pip edged closer, touching his fingers nervously to Ford’s knee. “Are you better?”
“Yeah, I’m feeling better.” Ford held out his hands. “Climb on up.”
Pip practically fell over himself to grasp Ford’s hands and climb onto his lap, where he wrapped his arms around Ford’s neck and held on tight, like he never wanted to be anywhere else.
“What you hesitating for? You ain’t heavy.” He grabbed his cup for another drink of coffee while Lucky stood dumbfounded in the archway to the kitchen.
Wynna slipped past and took Lucky’s seat at the table, discreetly pushing away his coffee cup when his papa handed her a fresh cup. “I hoped we’d find you here.” She sipped and complimented his papa on the coffee, comfortably taking command of the room.
“Good guess, Tiloo,” Ford approved, though the words made Chase choke on his coffee.
He stared at Ford, with Pip in his lap, like he’d become unrecognisable. Lucky couldn’t take his eyes off them as Ford whispered a secret conversation with Pip, who was unusually talkative.
“You got plans today, Boss?” Stretching, like Pip’s weight against him meant nothing, Ford laid his elbow over the back of the chair. “We ain’t got plans. We can keep Pip if you want a day off.”
“A day?”
Pip peeked out from the hug to face Wynna. “Please, Tiloo?”
Wynna instantly surrendered to Pip’s request and pleading eyes. “When will you bring him home?”
Ford handed Pip a piece of toast. “When’s your bedtime, monster?” He lifted another piece of toast for a bite. The way Pip’s eyes lit up said he’d asked the right question.
Wynna waved her hand, dismissive but fond. “Have him back by six.”
“Done.” Ford took another sip of coffee.
Lucky’s heart squeezed with affection when Pip offered the last piece of toast, which Ford accepted.
This would be his family. Legally. Forever.
His papa and Wynna visiting for grandparent time, Pip as his legal son, with Ford and Chase helping him divide parental duties.
He’d never been more sure of their decision.
This was what he wanted his future to look like.
* * * *
Chase
Xavier was thrilled to have Pip for the day and insisted on taking him to the library, where he had to drop off paperwork for his volunteering job. Since Pip wanted Lucky to go with them, that left Chase alone with Ford.
While Ford dropped onto the sofa like he was half dead, Chase took the armchair opposite. “What made you come over today?”
“After I left yours yesterday, I nipped into headquarters and heard your mam screaming blue murder on the phone. Once the yelling were over, I knocked and went in. Your mam was about to break down, and I ain’t good with that shit.”
“She was on the phone to Hana?”
Ford rested his elbows on his knees. “Seems Hana still has custody for one more week. She’d dumped Pip at your mam’s house but nobody was expecting him, so no one were home. A maid came back, because she forgot her glasses, found Pip sitting alone on the front step and panicked.”
Chase would have dropped everything to pick him up, if he’d known.
Anything was better than being left on those front steps, forgotten.
His father had done it countless times during his childhood—promising to be home, then running late at a meeting.
He’d walked two miles home every day for a week without anyone knowing until that Friday, because he’d forgotten that was the maid’s day off and no one would be there to let him in.
He could still remember being barely twelve, sitting on the steps for an hour, then walking for twenty minutes in the pouring rain until he reached Grant’s house.
His parents had called Wynna and she’d come to collect him, sobbing when she’d promised Grant’s mother that it would never happen again.
Wynna had bought him his first mobile an hour later, put her number on speed dial and made him promise to always call whenever he needed her, then he’d been made to tell her how many times it had happened.
Chase remembered the steel look in her eyes, thinking that she might file for a revocation, she was so mad.
He wouldn’t have blamed her if she had. Nolan had put his kids in danger and gotten away with it, and no one would have questioned Wynna Walker for choosing her children over her alpha.
Hana’s reason for the revocation was just selfish. She was sick of playing the role of a mother and this was her way out.
“Chase?”
“Sorry. Remembering stuff.” It wasn’t the same. Chase had been accidentally forgotten about in the midst of his father having ‘better’ things to do, whereas Pip had been heartlessly, shamelessly abandoned on the family doorstep.
Ford raked a hand through his hair, clearly troubled.
“Wynna told me she was gonna pick him up, but she weren’t in no state to drive.
I took her, but she didn’t say a word the entire drive.
” No doubt his mother had been plotting her next step, busy spinning wheels and juggling consequences.
“When we got there, Pip was distraught. He was sobbing, then your mam started, and it was a mess. I took her to work, left Pip playing with some younger kids we’d rescued recently, and made her tell me everything.
I got the story about how she’d not long got off the phone to Hana before the maid called.
Your mam was raging that Hana hadn’t said a word about Pip being alone, like she’d already forgotten him,” Ford explained, shaking his head at the sorry state of affairs.
Chase could feel his eyes welling up, his heart hurting for Pip, who had never done anything to deserve this. “Since Hana’s made it clear she doesn’t want her own son, what about Patrik?” He should be asking his mother about this, but after what Ford had just said, he didn’t want to upset her.
“He’s claiming that without the bond with Hana, he can’t keep his job, which means he’ll lose his apartment and can’t afford to raise a child with Pip’s ‘needs’.” Ford even used air-quotes.
“Fucking Azrah, all he ‘needs’ is to be loved!”
Ford stood and crossed to Chase, crouching in front of him. “Breathe, meda. Ain’t no point you breaking apart. The monster’s ours now and he’ll be safe.”
The first tear fought past his defences, but Ford wiped it away.
“I can’t―” He stopped, because there was no point saying that he couldn’t understand what the fuck Hana was thinking, because she clearly wasn’t thinking about anyone but herself. “What the fuck is wrong with my family?”
Ford laughed, swiping a thumb under Chase’s eye. “Too much money and power, but not enough love. Thank fuck you came out good.”
Chase rolled his eyes, not surprised that Ford would be charming when he was at his most broken. He was about to thank Ford for not caring about his family name, for never judging him based on what his family had done, when the front door opened, letting in a cacophony of noise.
“You were quick.” Ford stood, seamlessly hiding Chase from view so he could swipe at his eyes.
Xavier ushered Pip inside. “A neighbour gave us a lift to the library. Then I just had to drop my paperwork in the office and they drove us back. Turns out they were returning a book!”