Chapter 26 Paradise, After All #2
Ronan resumed. “Your phones will be returned after the media files are removed.”
Tessa frowned. “You’re wiping our phones?”
“Only photographs, recordings, and messages from the relevant time frame.”
Dad’s face reddened. “That is illegal.”
“So is exposing an entire hidden species and inciting panic,” Ronan said.
Dad opened his mouth.
I touched his arm. “Dad.”
He looked at me and I shook my head once. This was not the fight to pick. Not right now. Not with Ronan still deciding how much of old law he was willing to burn.
Dad leaned back.
Barely.
Ronan’s gaze softened by one degree when he looked at me.
That was something.
“The official story will be a private security breach tied to Silas Thorne and his people,” Ronan said. “They were armed. They took guests hostage. The resort isolated everyone until the threat was contained.”
Grant’s voice was thick from his swollen nose. “And the wolves?”
Ronan looked at him and Grant looked away.
“No wolves,” Ronan said.
Dad made a disbelieving sound. “People saw wolves.”
“People saw trauma,” Cormac said. “Rain. Blood. Poor visibility. Costumed attackers if necessary. Large dogs. Fear does half the work in memory before anyone lies.”
Aunt Linda tapped the table. “The dog part is plausible. Henry has always been dramatic.”
Henry, beneath the table, wagged at his name.
Tessa leaned toward me. “Are they going to Men in Black us?”
“No,” I said.
Ronan paused.
I looked at him. “No.”
“We do not erase memories,” he said.
I narrowed my eyes. “That pause was too long.”
“We do not erase memories,” he repeated.
Cormac added, “We have tried alcohol with moderate success.”
“Cormac,” Ronan said.
“What? It is a family meeting. Families value honesty.”
Aunt Linda smiled at him. “I certainly do.”
Sava looked between them and sighed with the full weight of a woman who had seen too many things and now had to witness flirting.
Ronan moved on. “You may leave the island today if you choose.”
My mother’s head lifted. “Cassie too?”
“No,” Sava said before Ronan could answer.
I stared at her. “Excuse me?”
“You are not leaving medical care today.”
“I have been bitten by a werewolf, hunted, kidnapped twice, and publicly mated. I think at this point leaving medical care would be the least alarming decision I’ve made.”
“You are bleeding into my bandage.”
“Your bandage is dramatic.”
“Your hip is dramatic.”
Ian’s hand closed gently over mine and I looked at him. His face was very still, but through the bond I felt the quiet plea. Rest. Please.
I sighed. “Fine.”
My mother looked at Ronan. “What does mated mean?”
Of course.
I slowly turned my head toward her. “Mom.”
“What? I think it is a fair question.”
“It is a terrifying question to ask at a table.”
Marianne DeMarco had the nerve to look prim while surrounded by werewolves. “You are my daughter.”
Aunt Linda leaned back in her chair. “Marianne, give it up. There is no wedding this weekend.”
Before I could decide whether to laugh or crawl under the table, Ian answered.
“Techincally, there was.”
Everyone looked at him.
I did too.
“What?” I said.
Ian’s thumb moved once over my knuckles. “A mate bond is closer to marriage than dating.”
My mother’s face changed immediately.
So did my father’s.
I stared at Ian. “That was convenient.”
He looked at me, and for one absurd, beautiful moment, the corner of his mouth lifted.
“It is also true.”
“Extremely convenient truth.”
He shrugged.
Isan Holloway actually shrugged.
I pointed at him. “Do not think being handsome and recently emotionally resurrected means I am letting that slide.”
“I would never assume that.”
The bond carried the lie.
I gasped. “You are absolutely assuming that.”
His eyes warmed.
My mother, meanwhile, had perked up like someone had offered her a replacement centerpiece. “So there are vows?”
“No,” I said.
Ian said, “There can be.”
“Ian.”
He looked far too innocent for a blood-covered werewolf who had been nude in front of my family twenty minutes ago.
Aunt Linda slapped the table. “I knew I liked him.”
Tessa looked at me across the table, pale and exhausted, but smiling for the first time since the courtyard. “This is officially the weirdest wedding weekend I have ever attended.”
I looked at her ring. So did she and the smile faded.
Grant sat at the far end of the table with a cloth held to his nose and a resentment so thick it practically needed its own chair.
Ronan followed my gaze and his expression cooled.
“Grant Walker,” he said.
Grant stiffened. Two wolves stepped closer to the door and Grant’s face lost what little color it had regained.
“You will be escorted from the island on the first boat,” Ronan said.
“You will not contact Cassie. You will not contact Tessa except through legal channels for the purpose of returning property or resolving any financial matter tied to the canceled wedding. You will not speak of this resort, this pack, or anything you believe you saw.”
Grant swallowed. “You can’t just threaten me.”
Cormac tilted his head. “It sounded very much like he could.”
Ronan didn’t blink. “If you make yourself a problem, we know where you live. We will happily add your corpse to the others.”
My mother gasped.
Dad said, “Jesus.”
Grant stared at Ronan and Ronan stared back. Grant was many things. Charming when it suited him. Selfish always. Cruel in the soft, polished way of men who thought consequences were for people with less money.
He was also a coward. That part of him recognized the truth immediately.
He nodded.
“Good,” Ronan said.
Tessa looked at Grant with no softness left in her face. “Goodbye.”
His mouth tightened, but he didn’t answer. The wolves escorted him out and no one stopped them.
Aunt Linda waited until the door shut before saying, “I never liked him.”
My mother looked at her. “You said he had nice teeth.”
“That is not the same as liking a man.”
Tessa started laughing. It came out broken. Then harder. Then with tears.
I reached for her across the table, and she grabbed my hand.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“No.”
“Cassie.”
“No. We are not doing the thing where you take responsibility for an emotionally beige man with nice teeth.”
She laughed harder and cried at the same time.
“Emotionally beige,” Cormac murmured.
Aunt Linda leaned toward him. “You’re enjoying this.”
“I enjoy accuracy.”
“Do you enjoy dinner?”
The table went silent again and Cormac blinked.
Sava muttered, “For fuck’s sake.”
Aunt Linda smiled sweetly. “I meant generally. Once you are done bleeding.”
Cormac looked at Ronan. Ronan stared at him as if daring him to create one more diplomatic issue.
Cormac looked back at Aunt Linda. “Generally, yes.”
Aunt Linda’s smile widened.
I leaned toward Tessa. “Aunt Linda is getting a werewolf boyfriend.”
Tessa whispered, “Do we call him a nice wolf?”
I lost it. My laugh pulled at the stitches so sharply that Sava cursed and Ian nearly stood.
“Do not make me regret joy,” Sava snapped.
“Sorry,” I gasped. “Tessa just called Cormac a nice wolf.”
Cormac looked faintly pained. “I object to nice.”
Aunt Linda patted his good arm. “You’ll recover.”
By afternoon, the resort had become less battlefield and more controlled disaster.
The bodies were gone from the courtyard.
Not cleaned, exactly. The rain and the staff had done what they could, but nothing about that place would feel like a wedding venue again for a very long time.
Ronan’s wolves moved through the halls with grim efficiency.
Council members gathered in small, furious clusters and stopped talking whenever Ian approached.
That part was almost fun.
Almost.
Ian didn’t leave my side unless Sava physically forced him to. Even then, he stayed close enough that I could feel him through the bond like a warm hand pressed to the center of my chest.
My family took turns being strange about him.
Mom brought him tea, then seemed embarrassed by her own impulse and told him not to read into it. Dad stared at him for a full minute before asking, “Can you turn into the wolf whenever you want?” Ian said yes. Dad looked like he regretted asking, then asked six follow-up questions.
Tessa hovered near me until I told her if she didn’t stop looking guilty, I would bite her myself. That made Ian look up sharply.
“Kidding,” I told him.
His eyes warmed. “I was not worried about you.”
Tessa muttered, “Cool. Good. Love that.”
A few hours later, I found her in the hall outside the dining room talking to one of Ronan’s younger wolves. His name was Evan. He had soft brown hair, a split lip, and the cautious politeness of someone trying very hard not to frighten the woman who had seen him turn into a wolf earlier.
Tessa was holding her phone.
“So you’re exchanging numbers,” I said.
She jumped.
Evan straightened like I had caught him stealing .
Tessa lifted her chin. “He helped get Henry out of the courtyard.”
“Ah.”
“And he apologized for the hostage situation.”
“That is a low bar, but I appreciate it.”
Evan looked miserable. “I didn’t personally participate in the hostage taking.”
“I assumed. You have nice wolf energy.”
His brows pulled together and Tessa’s mouth twitched.
I looked between them. “Sorry. Are you getting numbers from a nice wolf?”
Tessa went bright red. “Please stop saying it like that.”
“I do not know another way to say it.”
Evan cleared his throat. “I can give you space.”
“No,” Tessa said quickly.
I stared at her and she glared at me.
I lifted both hands. “Fine. I am leaving. Enjoy your nice wolf.”
“Cassie.”
I walked away laughing quietly, one hand pressed to my side.
Ian waited at the end of the hall.
“You are pleased,” he said.
“My sister is exchanging numbers with a werewolf less than six hours after canceling her wedding. I am many things.”
“Concerned?”
“A little.”
“Amused?”
“Deeply.”
“Hypocritical?”
I stopped. He looked down at me, face solemn, but the bond gave him away. He was teasing me.
Ian was teasing me.
The man had nearly died, shifted into a giant murder wolf, confessed a permanent mate bond in front of my family, and now he was making jokes with his face barely moving.