Cassidy
The dining table is loud and full of energy. Normally, this kind of environment would send me rushing to my nest with overstimulation, but the rules are different when it’s your pack.
I love this energy, this feeling. I love being surrounded by their chaos, being involved in their jokes.
I love that we’re all together.
Plates clink against the wooden table. Silas nudges the serving bowl of roasted potatoes towards Harlan before he can grumble about not reaching it himself.
Evander’s already helping himself to seconds despite only finishing his first plate about thirty seconds ago, and Isaac is sipping at his wine, above it all.
“You’re a bottomless pit,” Isaac says as Evander grabs another helping of roast potatoes.
Evander flips him off. “I have a fast metabolism.”
“You have no self-control,” Isaac counters.
“I’d argue that’s an entirely different issue,” Harlan says, causing Silas to snort into his drink.
I duck my head to hide a smile, cutting another piece from my chicken. I’m still eating my first plate, but nobody’s commented on how slow I am compared to them.
They’re not watching how much I eat or lecturing me to have more.
Isaac’s knee brushes mine beneath the table for barely a second before settling against it again, the familiar butterscotch and caramel of his scent easing a tension I hadn’t realised I was carrying.
My heart does a funny little flutter. He doesn’t look at me, just keeps eating while his thumb absently traces across the back of my hand where it’s resting in my lap.
With my parents back tomorrow, I know nights like this are going to be fewer once family obligations start taking over again. I’m not looking forward to it, even though I’ve missed them.
“What are you staring at me like that for?” Isaac demands, and I look up to see my beta staring Evander down.
The alpha shakes his head, smirking as if he knows something Isaac doesn’t. “No reason. Just admiring.”
Isaac grimaces as Harlan laughs loudly. The sound settles a tension in me, and I smile.
Silas is sat at the head of the table and leans back in his chair with a content sigh. Where Isaac and I have wine, the other three are drinking scotch.
Noticing he has my attention, Silas gives me a smile before raising his voice. “So.”
Four heads lift.
“So?” Harlan echoes.
“I’ve been thinking that it’s time for us to organise a proper family dinner,” he says.
My fork freezes halfway to my mouth. A proper family dinner?
Is what we’re doing now not enough? Are we not enough together?
“I don’t think he means pack, shortcake,” Isaac says gently, giving Silas a meaningful look.
“I didn’t,” Silas confirms. “I meant with our extended family. We could have a dinner party.”
“A dinner party,” Evander says flatly.
Our extended family?
As in, my parents?
I blink across the table, my stomach giving an alarming little swoop as the food in front of me suddenly loses its appeal, my own scent thinning with the nerves.
Evander scratches the back of his neck. Isaac studies his wine glass with sudden, intense concentration, his scent turning noticeably quieter.
Even Harlan, who always has something to say, looks horrified.
I was nervous that everyone wouldn’t like me, but clearly, I have more to be worried about with how unhappy the guys all are about this topic.
“Oh,” I manage faintly.
Silas raises an eyebrow. “Why is everyone acting like I’ve delivered a death threat?”
“I mean, you didn’t really ease us into it,” Evander says.
Silas’s frown is comical. “I thought I did it quite gently.”
“You absolutely did not,” Harlan says.
“I’d argue—”
“You’d lose,” his brother says firmly. “You sprung it on us, and you know it.”
Isaac doesn’t even look up, and I have a feeling his sudden reticence is from our talk last night about his family.
Silas raises a brow. “Okay, then. I’m sorry I didn’t try harder to make it easier on you all. We can leave it.”
Despite myself, a laugh bubbles out of me at his pout. Out of all my mates, Silas is the one I’d never have expected this from.
And it’s so adorable on him.
“What’s funny, shortcake?” Isaac asks with a grin.
I shake my head, waving him off, aware I couldn’t explain it even if I tried.
It wouldn’t even be funny if I had to explain it.
“So, if you’re laughing, does that mean you think the idea is absurd?” Harlan asks. “Or do you think we’re stupid for being annoyed?”
I shake my head quickly. “I don’t think anyone is stupid or absurd. I’m… I don’t know. I’m a little nervous about it, but not completely anxious? So, maybe… I don’t know?”
Silas’s expression softens almost immediately. “I’m very glad you’re not anxious because I never intended for that to be the case. I thought it was time to meet your dads, Cass, and presumed this was the best way to do it.”
His eyes meet mine for a second, and even without a bond between us just yet, I swear, I can feel his love for me.
Wow.
“That probably is better than just having your parents over, shortcake,” Isaac says, nodding at Silas. “You’ll work yourself up a lot more otherwise.”
“More than having everyone over?” Evander asks with a snort.
“When it’s just Cassie’s parents, she’ll be beside herself trying to make everyone happy at the cost of her,” Silas says simply.
He knows me so well, and in such a short space of time. Sometimes, I think he understands me better than I do.
His words shouldn’t hurt, but they do.
Isaac’s thumb strokes slowly over my thigh beneath the table, the steady contact grounding me while Evander abandons his dinner entirely to glare across at Silas. His extra roast potatoes are forgotten on his plate.
“Don’t,” I say, shaking my head so quickly my hair brushes my shoulders. “He’s not wrong.”
“Doesn’t mean he gets to be a cunt about it,” Evander says, leaning his forearms onto the table as he stares Silas down as though his gaze is warning enough.
“I’m sorry, little moon, I didn’t mean to be so callous,” Silas says, but I wave him off, not expecting an apology for my own sensitivities.
“With all of our people there, we’re managing them ourselves, and it’s a bit less intense than a one-on-one for the first pack introduction,” Harlan muses. “I don’t hate it.”
Silas smirks, even when Evander and Harlan flip him off.
Isaac’s concern brushes softly against the bond—not overwhelming, just steady enough that I can lean into it instead of my own spiralling thoughts.
“My parents are back this weekend, so it would be nice to organise it before they leave again,” I say, biting my lip. “Who else would be there?”
“I’m not inviting my family,” Isaac says firmly, setting his wine glass down with a quiet click.
“Okay,” Silas says with a nod. He reaches for his scotch, taking an unhurried sip like this isn’t a big deal.
Isaac lets out such a tiny breath that I don’t think anyone else notices.
I do.
His shoulders drop barely half an inch, but it’s enough for me to notice.
Enough to tell me he’d expected to have to defend himself, and I’m so grateful to the rest of our pack to not make it an issue.
My chest aches so much it almost hurts.
Evander reaches across the table to squeeze Isaac’s forearm, his chair scraping lightly over the wooden floor.
But before anyone can comment, he takes the attention from his best friend.
“So…” he says, rubbing the back of his own neck now. “Mine are… complicated.”
Harlan huffs a laugh, clearly aware of who Evander’s parents are. “That’s one way of putting it.”
Evander grimaces. “Yeah, well. I don’t think introducing Cass to my dads should be first on the family tour.”
“They’d make a terrible first impression,” Isaac agrees with a laugh.
Silas nods thoughtfully. “What about Emme?”
A smile immediately tugs at Evander’s mouth. It’s impossible to miss how his entire face softens whenever he talks about his sister. “That works. Inviting Em and Dellan would be a great idea.”
“And her pack?” I ask, thinking of having another friendly face in Sterling.
Evander nods. “They’ll all show up. Dellan’s the best distraction, too,” Evander says.
Harlan groans. “Unless you’re in your thirties and already a disappointment to your parents for not being mated, in a pack, or having babies.”
I gasp, instinctively reaching for Isaac’s hand. Babies?
I stare down at my plate, my appetite having disappeared entirely.
I… I absolutely want children. I do.
One day.
Not now.
I’m twenty-one. I’m barely an adult, barely figuring out the working world, never mind preparing for… that.
Harlan gives me a soft look. “Don’t panic, my luxury. That’s not something we’re discussing tonight.”
Embarrassment flares through me, and before I can get hold of it, I feel reassurance from Evander bloom through the bond, his scent softening with it.
“Let’s make a deal that we don’t even discuss that for at least… a year,” Silas offers, giving me a careful examination. “And let’s go back to party planning.”
“Party?” Isaac asks, a little roughly. “I thought it was a dinner.”
“Dinner party, same thing,” Silas says with a shrug. “Obviously, our parents will be there.”
Harlan mutters obviously under his breath, and I giggle again before shrugging slightly.
“My mum and dads will come. Maybe we limit it there?”
“What do you mean, limit it there?” Evander asks. “Other than Em and my dads, that is my family. At least, the ones I engage with.”
I frown a little, resting my fork on the edge of my plate, when Harlan and Silas echo that sentiment, but with their parents.
“Oh,” I say, carefully. “Okay, so, bad news, but I come from a huge family. I’m talking the one that needs to hire a wedding reception hall to fit us all in properly for family events.”
Isaac pales, turning to face me properly. “Really?”
I nod, wincing a little. “Mum’s side isn’t too large, and Dad’s side is manageable-ish. Papa, though, well, he’s part of the Carter family, and… well, they don’t stop growing.”
“Oh, lovely, more alphas to threaten us,” Evander mutters.
My entire body freezes, and I hold my wine inches from my face as I stare at him.
My brain takes a minute to catch up.
“Wait, what?” I ask, surprised.