Chapter 34 Winnie
Winnie
Rafe hands me my helmet, toothy grin firmly in place.
But there’s something underneath it. The grin doesn’t quite meet his eyes, and I wonder about it while I put on my helmet and manage to swing my leg over his bike.
I’ve gotten better at getting onto the enormous machines, and I’m pretty proud of myself for it.
We start off, and as Rafe drives, one hand is constantly coming back to squeeze my thigh. At first, I thought it was a sweet gesture, but as we drive, I’m starting to suspect it’s his own form of nervous habit.
“Are you okay?” I ask into the helmet speakers.
“Of course, Dulzura. Why wouldn’t I be?” he replies. Again, there’s something about the statement that doesn’t quite ring true.
“It’s okay not to be,” I remind him. “Meeting my family can be a lot.” I hear the sigh through the speakers, and he leans forward to take a turn before answering.
“Nick’s family was the last family I met,” he confesses, and my heart cracks a little. “They didn’t exactly approve of me.”
“What did Nick do?” I ask.
A low chuckle comes through the speakers. “He told them to fuck all the way off. He didn’t see them again after that. They didn’t even come to the funeral.”
The regret there tears my heart out.
“You know that’s not your fault, right, Rafe? Nick chose you. Nick loved you.” I try to keep the pain from my voice and know I utterly fail. I wish I’d known them together. I wish I could erase the deep sadness radiating from Rafe.
Then I ask the question that’s been nagging at me.
“Do you blame Corbin?” My hands feel when his chest inhales and exhales.
“I’d be lying if I said that in my insane grief at the time I didn’t turn my anger on him.
After he left, I deeply regretted it. I know that some of my shit at the time pushed him to leave.
I was just so angry. And so fucking heartbroken.
I still am, a lot of the time.” His voice is thick with tears.
“But no, I don’t blame him anymore.” I squeeze him tight.
So tight. I’m basically trying to squeeze the sadness and pain into my body at this point.
“It’s okay, Dulzura. I’m okay,” he says, squeezing my thigh again, but this time in a less absent way than before.
“I really do think my family will love you, though, Rafe,” I assure him.
“If they’re anything like you, I’m sure I’ll love them too.”
We ride a little more until we take a corner and the house comes into view.
My family’s house is a large New England colonial in the countryside near Traverse City.
It sits on several acres featuring a pond and a forest. Flowers grow all over the property.
There are at least a dozen cars scattered across the driveway—each of my siblings, their significant others, and their children. The house is completely packed.
The guys park their bikes, and I can see little faces poking out of the windows, attracted by the sound of the motors.
Kelsey and Katie, my youngest sisters, come to stand on the front porch.
They’re twenty-one, twins, and complete fraternal opposites—but with their arms crossed in the same posture, they give the illusion of identical.
I pass my helmet to Rafe and glance at the other alphas. They look confident, not scared at all.
Boy, they’re wrong.
“Hey,” I say as I walk up to the youngest twins.
“You’re late,” Kelsey points out as she hugs me.
“Late for what? It’s not like this is a dentist appointment,” Katie says as she pulls me into her own hug.
“This is the Blackline Pack,” I interrupt, gesturing to the alphas behind me.
Katie and Kelsey pause to look. They don’t ask questions.
I called ahead to my parents. I told them I’d found my scent-sensitive pack.
I told them they’re tattoo artists. That one wears a mask and that I expect everyone to mind their own business.
Demands aren’t really my thing, but when I make them, my parents listen.
My mother is a psychologist specializing in family dynamics. Boundaries are her bread and butter. My father’s a pediatrician.
“Nice bike,” Katie says.
“It’s a motorcycle, not a bike,” Kelsey corrects her.
“What in the frick is the difference?” Katie asks.
I sigh, gesture for the guys to follow, and go inside, leaving my sisters to their squabbling.
“If they aren’t fighting, they’re probably not breathing,” I tell the guys.
Gage chuckles. It’s been good seeing him come out of his grouchy shell. Ever since my heat spike after the spider incident, he and Corbin have been working together more and more.
A high-pitched squeal signals my mother has spotted us. A tall, lithe omega with graying hair worn in short silver curls steps around from the front sitting room. My mother is the most elegant woman I know. People tell me I look like her, but I’ve never seen it.
She wraps me in a hug, and behind her I see my father—a broad, bald alpha man. My parents found each other before my father joined a pack. He always says he never felt he needed anyone else as long as he had my mother.
“Let me look at you! Have you been taking good care of you—” She cuts off, sniffing the air.
I tense. This is what I’ve been dreading. I can’t hide my changed scent from her.
“Did… did you pack bond?” she asks, confusion on her face.
Because it would’ve been rude to tell her everything over the phone, I did the polite thing and waited until I got here. But I’m chickening out by the second and wishing I’d just been a coward and sent a group family text.
“I didn’t pack bond,” I say evasively.
Zeke’s hand finds my lower back and he steps up to my right.
Gage shifts to make room but stays close enough that I feel his support too.
Zeke sends soothing waves of calm down the bond.
I try not to let my nerves bleed into it.
Corbin stands to my left, and Eli and Rafe take up the space behind us.
My mother furrows her brow, and my father gets up from his chair to join us in the entryway.
“Then what—”
“There was an accident,” Zeke starts, unintentionally drawing my parents’ attention to him. My father scents the air and looks from Zeke to me.
“An accident?” he growls, now spotting the single bite mark at the base of my throat.
“At the club where Flora was having her bachelorette,” I explain. I go through the whole ordeal, from beginning to end, with Zeke adding small details. Corbin has his arm wrapped around me, and Eli, Gage, and Rafe have crowded in closer.
By the end, both of my parents are looking furiously at Zeke, and I wonder if I explained it wrong.
“So you bit our daughter. Just like that. Do you know how dangerous that could be?” my dad barks.
“Dad—” I try, but another voice cuts through.
“Bit? Who got bit?”
James, my older brother, joins the fray. He’s as tall as my father but slighter, and with a full head of hair. James is the only alpha out of my siblings.
“Your sister,” my mother says, pointing at Zeke like he’s a rabid animal. “By this young alpha. Apparently at your other sister’s bachelorette party.”
“That’s not—” I try again.
“What about my bachelorette party?”
Flora appears from the direction of the kitchen. She’s the most like our mother in my opinion—tall, lithe, all elegant angles and high cheekbones. The microbraids in her hair reach her mid-back.
“Why wouldn’t you tell us Winnie got bit at your bachelorette party?” James demands of Flora.
Flora’s eyes practically bug out of her head. “What? No she didn’t. She came, didn’t really enjoy anything”—I scowl. Flora and I don’t enjoy the same things—“and then left early. Didn’t you, Winnie?”
“No. He bit her,” my mom says, and Zeke flinches at the accusing finger.
“No!” I practically shout, and everyone falls silent. “We bit each other. I probably bit him first! Why doesn’t anyone listen to that part? I bit him. So if you want to blame someone, blame me.”
I’m breathing hard now. My hands shake. Corbin takes one, bringing it to his mouth for a soft kiss. Every single eyeball in the house is trained on us.
Besides those in the living room when we arrived, I can see more cousins and siblings peering around doorways and over the stairway banister.
“Shoo!” my father barks, and the eyes scatter back to their corners.
My mother looks much calmer when I face her.
She takes my father’s hand. “What’s done is done. I want to speak to my daughter alone for a minute. Gentlemen, if you’d like, you can leave your coats in the guest room just through there.”
The alphas look to me. I nod.
Zeke slips my coat off, kisses the top of my head, and heads off with the others.
“Are you all right?” my mother begins.
The question brings such an unexpected swell of love to my throat that my eyes sting.
I nod. “I am. They’re really nice. I know they look a little rough, but they’re very kind, and—” I pause. She lifts one eyebrow. “I think I’m falling in love with them. They’re my mates.”
“So you said. All right.”
“All right?” my dad echoes, disbelieving.
“All right,” Mom says firmly, turning to him.
Dad takes that in and sighs. “All right.”
He gives me a bear hug before returning to his spot in front of the fire. Flora and James shrug at each other and slip back into the family chaos.
My mother wraps her arm around me and steers me toward the delicious smells of the kitchen.