Chapter 12 #2
“You’re right.” Cole leaped in when he saw the chance.
“They shouldn’t, and Eve isn’t going to.
I understand that there are concerns, but Brianna had a very good point.
We’re already involved. It’s already begun, so we can’t just duck out now.
I will keep you all informed, and I may be asking some of you for assistance.
I just wanted to make sure everyone understood what was happening. ”
The two seconds of silence that followed were a great relief, but they didn’t last.
“There’s one thing that I don’t understand.” Aunt Phyllis thumped her cane again. “What exactly is going on with you and that Nia girl?”
“What?” Cole had become so wrapped up in the dragon debate that he’d thought he was safe from having to discuss Nia.
Phyllis had already grilled him about who she was, but she’d waited until he’d asserted his power as Alpha to turn it around on him.
Had Brianna told someone about the kiss he and Nia had shared at the bakery?
“What?” she repeated. “Don’t you ‘what’ me like you don’t know what I’m talking about! I saw the way you were looking at her when she was busy with her little playing cards.”
Shit. He thought he’d been more careful than that. Then again, Phyllis hadn’t done much at the barbecue besides sit back and watch everyone else. It was one of her favorite pastimes, especially when it gave her leverage against someone else.
“And her, too,” Phyllis went on. “Any time you turned your back, she was watching it.”
Cole risked the briefest glance at Brianna. Her face had turned to stone, and she was staring at the middle of the table. She looked mortified. Cole doubted she’d told anyone. At least part of his secret was safe, but it wasn’t going to save him from the rest of the pack.
“You’re the Alpha,” Deb told him. “You don’t need to be running around with some young lynx! How old is she, anyway?”
“Well, Brianna was born when he was eighteen,” Sandy pointed out.
Bob let out a low whistle. “Eighteen years younger?”
Phyllis stabbed a crooked finger in the air. “As the Alpha and the chief of police, you need to be a stellar example. There’s no room for you to act like a typical male, chasing after whatever girl wiggles her hips at you.”
Brianna’s cheeks reddened, and she sank slightly in her seat.
Cole was just as mortified, but everyone expected him to answer to all these accusations. “First of all, this isn’t like that. Nia and I are fated.”
He gave that a moment to sink in. Rachel and Linda gave him sympathetic looks, but Phyllis looked like she’d just sniffed a jug of sour milk.
“Awkward,” Scott mumbled.
“Yes, it is,” Cole admitted. The truth was out there now, and all he could do was make sure everyone actually understood what was happening before they started drawing too many of their own conclusions.
“Though whatever relationships I do or don’t have are my personal business, I recognize that as the Alpha, anything I do can affect everyone else.
For the moment, nothing is happening between Nia and me.
It’s not a simple thing, and there’s much to discuss. ”
“There shouldn’t be anything to discuss at all, considering she’s young enough to be your daughter,” Sandy pointed out.
“I’m aware of that.” Cole was clenching his jaw, and it was starting to ache. “It isn’t like I had any choice in the matter.”
“It’s simply unheard of,” Phyllis insisted. “You can’t be with a girl like that.”
He refrained from reminding Phyllis that Nia was a woman, not a girl. Cole knew how it would sound, and it wouldn’t help his case. He hated that he should even have to make this case. “Are you upset about her age or that she’s a lynx?”
“Both!” the older woman insisted. “We can’t have a lynx as the pack Luna, and she’s far too young!”
“I believe my grandmother—your sister—was much younger when she became the Luna,” Cole pointed out. “No one ever complained about her. In fact, everyone still talks about what great leaders my grandparents were.”
“Pssh!” Phyllis turned away from him. “That was different. Those were different times.”
Cole stood. “I’d also like to remind the rest of you that, as excited as we all are when we meet our fated, we don’t have any say in the matter. Sandy, I’ve heard you tell the story many times about how ugly you thought Louis was when you first met him.”
The indignant fire went out of Sandy’s deep blue eyes, and she suddenly looked a little smaller in her chair. “He was beautiful on the inside. May his soul rest in peace.”
“And as for Deb and Bob, the two of you argue so much that it must be your favorite pastime. If we didn’t know you as well as we did, we’d think you’d be splitting up. But no, at the end of the day, you know you’re meant to be together,” Cole asserted.
Bob gazed fondly at his wife and mate. “I do love you.”
“Oh, shut up,” she grumbled.
Cole noticed the smile on Rachel’s face before he turned to their great-aunt.
“Phyllis, do we need to discuss the fact that your mate was a gun runner for one of the most well-known gangsters in the area when he was in his twenties? Everyone looks back on that now as though it’s romantic, but it wasn’t at the time, was it?
I believe it took the two of you quite some time to work everything out. ”
The crone scowled at him, her eyes narrowing and her lips twisting up. Her knuckles went white where she gripped her cane, and she even thumped it against the floor, but she didn’t try to argue with him any further.
“It isn’t any different for me. It isn’t any different for Eve, either, but she’s got it quite a bit worse than the rest of us do. I think we could all use a bit of perspective.”
Rachel and Linda both nodded. Deb and Sandy exchanged a look, but they didn’t reignite the argument. Plenty of uncertainty lingered in the room, and Cole noticed a few of his opponents looking at Brianna to gauge her reaction, but he was back in control.
“All right, then.” Cole looked each and every one of them in the eye.
“I’ve always welcomed everyone to share their opinions, but I dare you to go against me.
Over the generations, my family and I have done a lot for the community and the pack.
That commitment hasn’t changed. Are we in agreement that we’ll be helping Eve? ”
“Aye,” Rachel said, her voice strong and clear. The rest of the ayes came swiftly afterward.
“Thank you. Let’s review a few plans, then, making sure we don’t get lost in the details.” Cole sat back down, feeling as though he’d just come through a harrowing battle in which he could’ve lost everything he’d ever worked for.
Considering the tension that radiated from Brianna, he still could.