Chapter Twenty
Kye
R ian apologized to all of us. The way he approached Max was what told me how sorry he was, exactly.
He slinked into the kitchen the next morning, when only Max and I were left. Brodie was outside, Ben had gone to work, and Carys was having her therapy session on the laptop in her room.
Rian stood by the doorway, looking at Max who had immediately tensed where he sat at the table.
I leaned my butt against the sink and watched.
“Max, can I talk to you?” he asked quietly.
Max’s eyes flicked to Rian, then to me. The conflict was clear on his face. It was also clear to see he would’ve wanted his brother there.
“Do you want me to stay?” I asked him, and he nodded, relieved.
“Yeah.”
I smiled. “Need me closer?”
At his timid, sheepish nod, I walked over to the table and pulled the chair next to him. I sat down close enough for our thighs to touch, then took his hand. “This good?”
“Yeah, thanks.”
“Anytime.” I squeezed his fingers.
I glanced at Rian, who seemed shaken by the proceedings. It was as if he hadn’t realized how much of an impact his yelling had really left.
He came closer hesitantly. The movement was so unlike him that I felt bad for him.
“To think I got to nearly two hundred years and don’t know how to control myself,” he said in an apologetic tone. “That’s not an excuse, though.”
I squeezed Max’s hand again.
He cleared his throat, then said, “No, it’s not.”
“I’m so, so sorry, Max.” He sat down across from us and lowered his gaze. I could see the battle in his body language. “There’s… There’s something going on that I can’t talk about yet. I need to process it first. It’s nothing bad, but it’s made me confront some things in my past and there’s more of that coming when I finally know how to express all that. Turns out the past never stays in the past.” He grimaced. “Again, not an excuse. But it’s been heavy on my mind, and then with the whole donor thing being up in the air at the same time….”
We were all quiet for a minute or so, then Max sighed. “Look, I have triggers. Yelling and sudden movements are some of them. Someone stepping close to me quickly is another one. You can probably imagine why, given that I grew up in this house.” Before Rian had time to reply, Max went on. “I understand being overwhelmed and snapping. Hell, I do it sometimes, too. But… you’re genuinely one of my favorite people in the world and my brain had put you in the safe category. Having you yell like that… it’s… it’s going to take a bit for me to get back to where we were.”
Rian seemed a bit sad, but understanding. “If there’s anything I can do to help you, let me know. I’ll try my best to be better. To do better.”
Max reached over the table and Rian gave him his hand. They squeezed fingers, then Max let go again.
“I’m not afraid of you,” he said firmly, looking directly at Rian.
Something in Rian relaxed, then. He let out a shuddering breath, as if that had been his greatest fear. He sucked his lower lip into his mouth, then nodded, his eyes brimming with tears.
“Good,” he managed to say. “That’s good.”
“Max?” Carys called from upstairs. “Can you come talk with my therapist about our school plans?”
“Sure!” He got up and almost touched Rian’s shoulder, but ended up giving him an apologetic smile and left the room.
“They’re going to get their GEDs together,” I explained, even though Rian likely knew already.
“It’s good. They’ll have peer support,” he said, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. “Like I’ve told them, I’ll cover whatever costs they have for their education.” Then he snorted at the ancient laptop Max had left behind. “I’m gonna have to fix that.”
I shook my head and smiled. “I’m shocked.”
He then turned to me. “Are we okay?”
I frowned. “Why wouldn’t we be?”
“Last night went okay after Brodie returned to you?” he asked, expression shrewd as hell.
“No, it didn’t. It turns out I got jealous,” I admitted with a shrug. “We talked it out. It wasn’t rational.”
“Matters of the heart rarely are.” His tone and expression suggested he was talking from experience.
“I’m fine. We’re fine. All of us, I mean.” I smiled.
“If that changes, let me know. Maybe I shouldn’t feed from Brodie anymore.” He tilted his head, watching my expression. “It was the feeding, wasn’t it?”
I snorted, amused. “Yeah. I didn’t expect it to be an issue but apparently it really was.”
“I get that.” Then he seemed worried. “You do know there’s nothing like that between—”
I lifted my hand to stop him. “I know. It’s okay. If I feel bad at any point, I’ll let you know, I promise.”
A different kind of vulnerability entered his gaze. “And the D/s?”
I immediately shook my head. “No, no. That’s totally fine. That I can understand. I’ve had nonsexual scenes before. My logical brain can logic it.” I grinned. “It’s the stuff I couldn’t understand before I saw the after effect.”
He grinned. “I’m going to assume you’ve never donated blood, then.”
“No. Well, except for the medical kind of donating for other humans.”
“If you ever want to—”
“No. I think I’m fine. Let’s just say that there’s no inter-pack feeding unless someone volunteers. Holden maybe.”
And there it was. His name made Rian blink rapidly a couple of times, as if that was the only reaction he couldn’t hide fast enough.
“Yeah, I guess we’ll see,” he said dismissively.
“You wanna talk about it?” I asked.
When he looked at me again, he shook his head minutely. “No. But thanks. If that changes….”
“Hey Kye? Can you come in, too?” Carys called out.
“Duty calls.” I got to my feet, then went and gave Rian a sideways hug.
“I’m going to go shop for expensive electronics,” he announced, making me laugh.
“Alrighty. See you later.”
A couple of days later, Alpha Ramirez’s baby was well enough that Holden took the afternoon off work to go with Brodie. Since Holden had run with their pack before, it was apparently polite to go make friends and allies with the Ramirez pack. I stayed home, wanting to host Alpha Ramirez and her immediate family and enforcer beta—much like Holden was for Brodie—at a later date, given today went well.
Ben, too, was off work, and about an hour after Brodie left to meet Holden in town to continue to their visit, Ben and Max decided to do a perimeter check.
What made it extra fun was that they shifted to do it. I assumed there would be much frolicking in the woods during this “perimeter check,” but chose not to embarrass Max. Ben wouldn’t have minded the teasing, but his brother was more sensitive, and I didn’t want to hurt him.
They dashed out of the house and ran toward the path, nipping at each other like puppies.
Chuckling, I closed the door behind them and went to read on the couch.
All of our fireplaces were now in working order, and the warmth was welcome already, let alone later when actual winter arrived.
Rian was upstairs, but Carys joined me, halfway dozing off in the other corner of the couch with her feet on my lap. She was still tired from the therapy session, which had taken a lot out of her even though it had been mostly positive.
She and Max were going to study together, and her therapist was supportive and very happy with their support system in general. Max was even considering therapy after talking to her and seeing that therapists weren’t scary, especially if you found the right one.
Twenty minutes after when the guys left on their patrol, I heard a vehicle. Carys was almost asleep, and grumbled when I got off the couch to go check.
Something inside me was immediately twitchy.
“Rian?” I called out, and with unnatural speed, he made it down the stairs and stood next to me in the hall.
“This is not good,” he said quietly as he peered through the side window. “Two cars.”
“Nudge her awake, I’ll go out.” I reached for the drawer where we kept the handgun and tucked it under my shirt in the back. I knew it wasn’t exactly the safest, but it would be there if I needed it.
Rian nodded, deferring to me with ease I hadn’t quite expected.
I took a deep breath, opened the door, and stepped onto the porch.
There were five of them in total. They’d arrived in two beat-up trucks, which seemed like the norm around people who looked like them.
All were unkempt. The one the others deferred to was in a marginally better condition. His clothes were cleaner, his hair shorter.
“How can I help you, gents?” I asked as I stepped to lean my hands to the porch railing.
“You the human bitch that took over from your sister?” The lankiest of them all spat out, getting a glare from the leader of the group.
He cowed and stepped back, and I grinned. I knew who these people were, of course. In a way, after Holden and Brodie had told us about the weirdness with Sheriff Gerrell, we’d been waiting for something to happen.
“What kind of wolf do you call yourself, taking instructions from a human? Didn’t your former Alpha teach you better?” I snarked, smirking when another one, likely the other beta, tensed and swayed toward the house.
“We came to make an inspection,” the leader said, taking a few steps forward and attempting casual with his hands in his pockets. “Where’s your guard dog?”
I tilted my head as if I was confused. “We don’t have any dogs, you must be mistaken?”
He snorted, and the two humans behind him with the betas chuckled.
“You know what I mean. Alpha McRae . Where’s he?”
Now this made me smile. “Oh, you aren’t that stupid. We both know very well where he is.”
“Maybe so. We also heard you have plenty of electronics and a girl here. Valuable stuff now that the meth is gone.”
The foursome behind him all smirked, clearly very impressed by their leader.
I didn’t take the bait, because I wasn’t afraid of them. “Really?”
He took a couple of more steps closer and tried an evil or threatening smirk, I wasn’t sure really. “Your guard dog ain’t here. What do you think you can do if we decide to come in.”
This time I laughed out loud. “I don’t need my Alpha, my mate here.”
“Dog fucker faggot bitch,” spat one of the humans behind him.
The fact that the betas were with these guys now spoke volumes of their self-worth, really.
“And why is that?” the leader asked, sneering at me.
“Oh, I have them.” I nodded toward the two healthy wolves who had sneaked out of the woods behind them. “And them.” I pointed my thumb over my shoulder at the door.
Rian and Carys stepped out. Rian in his full vampire face was a fearsome fucking sight. He was grinning with his fangs fully showing, his long vampire claws flexing as he crouched ever so slightly, ready to pounce.
But the kicker was my sister—I needed to have a talk with Rian about what was suitable protection for her, really—who came to stand on my other side and racked a shotgun, then aimed it squarely at the asshole’s head.
I straightened myself from my casual lean and reached my hand to grab my gun. I took the safety off, but kept it aimed at the ground.
The growling from between their vehicles where the brothers had moved was low and menacing.
“Did you know that werewolves who do a lot of drugs can’t shift as easily as sober ones? I bet these guys couldn’t do it if you gave them ten minutes. There’s also the fact that while wolves are stronger, vampires are the fastest.” I beamed a smile at the asshole. “Do you wanna see how fast exactly?”
He was starting to realize they were outnumbered, if not in actual numbers, then in power balance.
“Was this really your plan?” I asked, cackling. “To come here to what, intimidate us?”
He backed away slowly, as if we couldn’t see him doing it. His men started to get into the trucks, dodging the brothers as best as they could.
Ben and Max were growling and snapping their jaws at them, which made the humans especially alarmed. When they squared off with the old betas, they swiftly herded them apart from the vehicles and started to push them toward the side wall of the house.
“Hey, hey, we’re not here to cause any trouble,” one of them said. “B-Ben and Max, right?”
Ben snarled viciously in response.
“Y-you know your dad—”
Max cut him off by leaping at him, flattening him in the ground and snarling in his face.
“The sheriff said—”
“Shut the fuck up!” The leader bellowed, now at the driver’s side door of his truck. “Get in or you’re running!”
Max let the sorry excuse of a beta to get up and they rounded on the duo again, watching them scramble back to the trucks.
“In case anyone asks, you do not underestimate the McRae pack,” I called out to the leader. “But please, come try again. Could’ve been a fun evening, eh?”
Cussing up a storm, he practically leaped into the seat when Rian gracefully jumped from the top of the stairs to the hood of said truck, as if it was nothing at all.
Seeing him crouch there, tilting his head in a way a predator would while observing a prey made me grin. Carys giggled.
“Stop playing with your food!” I told Rian.
The men in the trucks couldn’t get away fast enough. Rian stepped down from the hood as soon as the truck rumbled into life, then cheerily waved at them with his still elongated claw-tipped fingers.
The brothers chased the trucks away, vanishing from view where the road dipped down into the curve.
Rian turned to us. “Girl, put that shotgun away, it’s not even loaded.”
Carys giggled and went to do as told while I put the safety back on the handgun.
“And you,” he continued, pointing at me with a regular index finger now. “I would never eat anything that revolting.”
“My apologies,” I said, bowing theatrically.
The guys trotted back into view with their tongues lolling out of their mouths.
“Did you call or message Brodie and Holden?” I asked Rian.
“I wouldn’t have, but I knew he’d get really upset if I didn’t. I’m pretty sure the only thing keeping him from getting ticketed for speeding right now is the deputy sitting next to him in the truck.”
“Fair enough.” I handed the gun to him and leaned down to pat the brothers on the head. “You did so good, guys. I’m proud of you. Your Alpha will be too. I don’t know why you came back early, but I’m glad you did.”
Ben lifted a front paw then, and I could see there was a smear of blood in the light gray fur.
“Oh, that’d do it. Go shift and I’ll meet you with the first aid kit.” It was obvious now that he was limping, but he hadn’t been moments before, which told me he’d been hiding it from our visitors. “And don’t start, you might heal fast, but I’ll still clean it anyway. Try and fight me, I dare.”
Max let out a little chuffing sound and they vanished inside. Whether the chuff was about amusement or to tell his brother to obey, I couldn’t tell. I wasn’t that fluent in wolf yet.
I followed them at a more sedate pace and went to get the first aid kit. I sat at the kitchen table and opened it, waiting for Ben to appear.
I was waiting for the adrenaline to hit me, to get shaky maybe, but that didn’t happen. I felt normal.
Half an hour later, I had Ben patched up and we were all sitting by the kitchen table, figuring out what to make for dinner, when we heard the familiar rumble of Brodie’s truck.
The Alpha who burst in through the front door had red eyes and was barely hanging on. Holden’s eyes were glowing beta yellow, but he was more analytical and seemed calmer.
Before I had time to do anything but stand up, Brodie had his hands on my shoulders as he looked at me from head to toe.
“I’m fine. We’re all fine,” I assured him, the last word muffled by his chest I was suddenly squished against.
I heard Holden ask the others questions, but I was content hanging onto my mate, squeezing him back.
“We’re okay, I promise, Brodie. They won’t be coming back.”
“We were scary AF,” Carys piped up.
There were chuckles, but Brodie stayed silent. Then he pulled me away from the kitchen and through to the family room, then sat on the couch.
I straddled him and attached myself to him like a koala. We needed a moment, that much was clear.
“You’re not going to lose me,” I whispered into his ear. “I love you, and I’m not going anywhere.”
He buried a choked up sob against my neck, and I held him together while he gradually relaxed.
My sweet, sweet Alpha. I was so in fucking love with him.