Chapter Sixty-four — Trinity
CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR
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TRINITY
“It’s good to see you,” Edgar said through the screen. “And I owe you a massive fucking apology.”
“You really do,” I said. “But more for insinuating that I wasn’t good enough to write the story than anything else. I would have looked into it, anyway.”
He sighed. “Me saying that pushed you further than you might have gone otherwise. I really am sorry. You still have everything?”
When I’d taken the article to him, I’d had it printed. And though I didn’t really want to think about everything that happened, when we scheduled this a couple of days ago I went through and put in the final touches, including the now aftermath.
The truth had been blown wide open. Every company involved in the cover-up and that contributed to the pollution was being sued on top of government fines for breaching their contracts.
Between that, public opinion, and whatever havoc Aiden was wreaking behind the scenes and wouldn’t tell me about, none of the companies would make it another six months.
“Just emailed it over. I’d love it if you’d include Tracy in there as either a contributor or a researcher. She did a lot of the heavy lifting on this, and it’s not fair that she not be mentioned.”
She literally died because of this story. Her name deserved to be there along with mine. Maybe even more than mine.
“Of course.”
Now, for the next bit. I took a breath and glanced over at Theo sitting next to me, out of frame. He squeezed my hand, pushing encouragement through our bond. “Edgar, there’s something else I want to talk to you about.”
The two lazy days we had since the heat were everything I’d ever wanted.
Just enjoying each other, playing with Cinder, and whatever else I wanted to do.
The thought of going back to work and editing other people’s articles made me sick to my stomach.
I loved writing, and I loved chasing down a story.
I didn’t like doing it for other people.
“What’s up?”
I cleared my throat. “I’ll always be honored that you picked me to step up into the features editor role after Tracy died. It’s a huge vote of confidence, and having that job helped me find my pack, for which I can never thank you enough. But…” I shook my head. “God, I fucking hate it.”
Edgar burst out laughing. So hard that it made me laugh, too.
“I hate all the admin stuff, and I’m not good at it. I barely feel like I’ve dug us out of the hole Tracy left, and that’s not going to get better. I’m happier as a writer. If you don’t want me to stay at the magazine as only a writer, I understand, but I can’t return to that role.”
I watched him wipe tears from his eyes from laughing.
“Fuck, you got me with that one.” He continued to laugh through the words.
“You and I are in agreement. You’re talented, Trinity.
One hell of a writer, and I should have trusted you on this, but I’d already been planning to talk about downsizing your scope. ”
Lifting my arms in victory, we burst into laughter again.
“I’ll happily keep you on as a writer if that’s what you want. Or, if you want to be more freelance, that’s fine too. I have a feeling after this article goes out that you’ll be in demand at much bigger publications than this one.”
“Thanks, Edgar. I honestly don’t know. It might take some time to figure out.”
“Do what you need to. Now get out of here. I’ll get the piece ready for release. It’s going to blow the doors off this place.”
“And maybe make room for some new kind of content?” I asked, giving him a look.
Edgar rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah.”
The video call ended abruptly. That was Edgar for you. It wasn’t rude, it was just him.
“That went way better than I thought.” I collapsed onto Theo’s shoulder.
He started to purr. “I knew you could do it.”
“It’s such a relief. My desk doesn’t have to be a graveyard of sticky notes anymore. And I won’t forget things people have told me that I forgot to write down. I can let my brain do its thing and focus hard on what’s in front of me.”
Gently shifting me upright, Theo stood and stretched before pulling me up with him. “All that is true. And, for the record, you don’t have to work at all if you don’t want to. We have more than enough money.”
I made a face. “The five of you really want to find out what it looks like when I have nothing to do and become bored? Because I promise, you don’t want that.”
He fought it, but broke into a smile anyway. “Brooks might want to see that.”
“And everyone calls me the masochist.”
Smacking me lightly on the ass, he pushed me toward the hallway. “Go get dressed. We’re leaving in thirty minutes.”
“Do we have to?”
Aiden appeared in the doorway to the kitchen, a half-eaten apple in one hand. “If we don’t, your father is going to buy climbing equipment and scale the walls of this building.”
My heat had taken four days, and we’d rested for two. Today was a week since everything happened. Fear clawed up my throat when I thought about it, but I had an appointment with a therapist early next week. Not the same one Brooks was seeing, but a colleague who came highly recommended.
“Yeah, let’s spare Liz from that particular visual.”
Cinder slept in an upside-down ball on my bed. An adorable little chirp came out when I scratched her belly. “And to think you could be living on the street right now. Instead, you’re practically a princess. You picked the right car to hide in.”
She stretched, yawned, and went back to sleep, proving my point.
Stop procrastinating, Rin.
The last thing I wanted to do was have this conversation with my dad, but I had to. Not about us, that was fine, even if I was nervous, but about the rest of it. How he’d left me behind and how it made me feel. It was past time.
I chewed on my lip as we pulled into the drive. Nerves made my leg bounce and my fingers fidget. In the end, it didn’t matter. Telling Dad and Liz wouldn’t have any effect because we were already bonded. But I really wanted them to be okay with it.
Logan picked up my hand and wove our fingers together. “It’s going to be fine, wildfire.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Mom just wants us to be happy, and I’m sure your father feels the same way about you.”
“Yeah.”
He lifted my hand and kissed the back of it over my hand chain, then turned my wrist to kiss the lock. “It’s okay to be nervous.”
“Good, cause I feel like I might throw up.”
Aiden pulled to a stop and turned from the front seat. “I’d prefer it if you did that outside the car.” In our bond, I felt the way he reached out to me, teasing, distracting me from the crippling nerves.
“Not to self: get fake vomit to put in the car for when I need to piss you off.”
The way he tilted his head made me shiver. “When you need to piss me off?”
“How else will I get you to carry me off and have your way with me?”
Aiden laughed and shook his head. “You don’t have to piss me off for that, violet. I’ll do it whenever I damn well please, and you know it.”
I made a face when he turned his back, making my other Alphas snicker. Brooks was the one who lifted me out of the car. He flicked my nose gently. “Just remember that being a brat to distract yourself is still being a brat. There can still be consequences.”
“Consequences?” I scoffed. “When I have all of you wrapped around my fingers?”
A soft growl that made my Omega stand up and pay attention. “Careful, baby. It’s been a long time since you were spanked, and there are four of us who didn’t participate in that who would like a chance.”
All I did was smirk. “Noted.”
Logan climbed out of the SUV. “Let’s get inside before they watch us out the window and this becomes a story we don’t get to tell.”
All the nerves came rushing back. Just coming up to the door of this house made me a little queasy.
It was okay because they were with me, but I didn’t like it here.
Triggers lurked in the corners, and having to see Val, Matt, and even Paige was hard.
Now that I wasn’t alone and was allowing myself to be more open, I could fully admit how much I hated this house.
They knew it, too. They were all on edge, and not because we were here to reveal our relationship.
Dad opened the door and pulled me into an immediate hug. All softness and warmth. “It’s so good to see you. You’re okay.”
“I’m alive. Whether I’m okay is a different question. I’m getting there.”
He hugged me harder, and I hugged him back. Dad had faults, and there were things he needed to hear, but I never doubted that he loved me. Even if he didn’t always know how to show it.
“Cecil let them get inside,” Liz said from behind him, laughing. “You’ll smother her to death.”
Dad still held me a little longer, and I savored it. I missed his hugs. Liz hugged me too. “I’m glad you’re safe,” she whispered.
“Me too.”
They ushered us into the living room. The rest of Dad’s pack were currently elsewhere. I didn’t think they were here. I hadn’t seen their cars outside.
“What’s this I hear about you getting a cat?” Dad asked.
I pulled out my new phone and the many, many photos of Cinder I already had. “She snuck into Aiden’s engine when we went down to see Logan surf. She was too cute, and we couldn’t leave her there. She already thinks she owns everything.”
It was only when I held out the phone to Dad that I realized how silent the room was. What did I say? I risked a glance at the rest of them. Their bonds weren’t panicked at all, but the energy was off.
“That was nice of you,” Liz took my phone and started flipping through the pictures. “To go down and watch him surf.”
Oh. Oh.
I’d said we.
Oops.
Well, that was why we were here.
Liz pulled Dad down onto the love seat and showed him the pictures. “She’s adorable.”
Logan cleared his throat. “Mom, Cecil, we have something to apologize for.”
Dad frowned. “What’s that?”
I retreated to an armchair in the corner. Aiden gave me a look that told me he knew what I was doing, but he wasn’t going to call me on it. At least not this second.
“The day we came over and you introduced us to Trinity, we’d already met.”
Now both parents looked confused. Liz brought my phone back to me. “How?”
“It was chance,” he said with a shrug. “Trinity doing some reporting at an event we happened to be at.”
I covered my mouth with my hand to hide my smile. That was certainly one way to put it. And we all agreed that our parents knowing we met at a kink club was fully off the table.
Liz looked like she was trying to put things together. “Why wouldn’t you tell us that?”
“We were still trying to figure things out,” Brooks said. “It was complicated.”
Dad seemed to lock onto that. He didn’t look happy. “Why?”
Logan looked at me and smiled. “We’re Trinity’s scent matches.”
All the atmosphere vanished from the room. Both Dad and Liz’s mouths dropped open in sync, and it would have been hysterical if I wasn’t terrified.
“After the break-in, moving Trinity in with us wasn’t only to help her.
” Theo leaned forward on his elbows. “It was an opportunity for us to get to know each other and tell her the truth. We didn’t want to wait until she had a heat.
And we knew that this might be strange.” He gestured between us and them.
Liz laughed and flopped back on the couch. “I thought you were seeing each other, but I didn’t see the scent match coming.”
The look of shock on his face when Dad whipped around to look at her was priceless. “You knew?”
“No.” She chuckled and placed a hand on his arm. “I suspected when they called me after Trinity’s… incident. Logan sounded different talking about her, so I thought things might have changed between them. But this? Didn’t see it.”
Dad looked a bit stunned. Honestly, I couldn’t tell what he was feeling. I had to know. “Are you okay with it?”
He looked over at me, as if he just remembered I was in the room. “I mean…” then he shook his head as if to clear it. “Are you happy? Are they treating you well?”
I couldn’t stop the smile that broke out on my face. “I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy.”
Our bonds surged with everything from love to pure Alpha satisfaction. I felt them all looking at me, but I kept looking at Dad. He needed to know that I was serious.
“After everything that happened, I went into heat. It’s true. They are my scent matches. Even if they hadn’t been, I was already in love with them. But they are, and—” I turned my neck so he could see Aiden’s bite on my neck. “I hope you’ll be happy for us.”
He stood and pulled me up from the chair, wrapping me in yet another hug. “Of course I’m happy for you. That’s all I’ve ever wanted is for you to be happy, and I think you haven’t been for a while.”
“I am now.”
“Good. Good.”
Liz was waiting to give me another hug. “Welcome to the family,” she whispered. Then, at full volume. “I’m still marrying your dad, though.”
Laughter filled the room. “That’s why we thought it might be weird, but we met before we knew how we were connected, and we didn’t grow up together. It was meant to be.”
This time when I sat down, I tucked myself between Logan and Brooks. The way they immediately made room, keeping me close, had Dad looking at them with a kind of awe.
“Will you have a ceremony?” Liz asked.
I shook my head. “Probably not. I’d rather go on one hell of a honeymoon.”
“We can make that happen,” Aiden said. “Anywhere you want.”
The front door opened to reveal Val and Matt, Paige following close behind. Val’s face soured immediately upon seeing us. She was going to like the news even less.
“Oh. Company.”
Dad bounced off the couch with a big smile. “Turns out Trinity scent matched with the Breaker Pack. They came over to tell us the good news.”
Val’s smile was so brittle it could break. “That’s nice. We’re tired, so we won’t bother you.”
Logan scoffed under his breath. “Nice try.”
I leaned into him and shrugged. “What else is there?”
“The truth.”
“Yeah…”
A hand landed on my thigh. Brooks. They’d asked if I wanted to talk about everything that happened during this visit, and I hadn’t been sure. I still wasn’t sure. We were in such a nice, warm bubble. And yet it wasn’t true, because everything else that needed to come out was under the surface.
Liz asked Dad about something and distracted him.
“I think I can do it,” I said in the quietest whisper. “At least part of it. As long as you’re with me.”
Brooks squeezed my thigh. “We’re with you.”
“Dad,” I cleared my throat. “I have a couple things to talk to you about. I’ll just use the bathroom first.”
“Sure.”
I washed my hands and stepped back out of the bathroom and nearly smacked right into Val, glaring at me.