Oscar shifts, moving to stand beside me. Neither of the fighting alphas pay us any attention as I dip my head to listen to his murmured words. “He can’t stay here anymore.”
Glad to see we’re all in agreement. “Someone needs to tell him that.”
We both look at Theo again. I can count the lines of strain on his face that weren’t there six months ago. He glances at us before facing Charles again, but his dad is already ready, hiswords a verbal whip against Theo’s face. “Brettwould have done the right thing for this family.”
Both Oscar and I step forward without a thought, our shoulders tensing. Theo’s face darkens. “I think we can all agree that he was a far better son than me. But my answer is the same, regardless of how you try to use my dead brother against me.”
Shit. I can hear the pain beneath his words, but as I look at Charles, all I see is disappointment and anger.
Bracing, I lift my hands in an attempt to restore some sort of calm. “Nia called me. You’re scaring her.”
“Stay out of this.” Charles snaps the words at me without looking, his lip curling in the familiar sneer he wears whenever he’s forced to be around me at all. “This is family business.”
“Jake is family.” Theo steps back, shaking his head. He looks as though he’s been sucker-punched. “And did you not hear that? You’re scaring your daughter.I’mscaring her.”
I step up next to him. Oscar does the same on his other side, the three of us facing Charles. He eyes us with clear derision. “Do you realize the opportunities you’re throwing away to align yourself with a small-town pack? This isn’t the future I wanted for you, son.”
Ouch.
Oscar flinches at that. Charles sees it, too, but he keeps his eyes on Theo. “College brings opportunities you’ll never have here. And you act as though I’m forcing it on you, when we both know that law school is all you ever wanted. This was your plan, not mine.”
“My plans changed.” Theo’s words are hoarse. Tired. “They changed when Brett died and my family fell apart. I reassessed my priorities, because that is what you do for the people you give a fuck about.”
He shakes his head before glancing at Oscar. Oz nods, already moving for the door. “I’ll pack a bag.”
He’s probably had one packed for weeks for both of them. He’s only here for Theo and Nia.
“You can’t leave.” Charles begins to protest again. “Your mother needs you.”
“No. You just don’t want to lose your grip on me.” I can hear the frustration, the anger, edging every word as Theo enunciates them, trying to get Charles to understand. “I chose my pack. I choose my own path. I’ll stay here for another year to help mom, to help Nee. Hell, to help you too. But I am not Brett. I’m not going to step into his shoes.”
Charles stiffens. “And what about the girl?”
If we were tense before, it’s nothing to the coiled violence that rolls through the dining room at his words. Theo’s face pales, and I can feel my spine lock straight. “What about her? She’s gone, hasn’t she? And good fucking riddance.”
I agree with every word, but they still make my heart twist inside my chest. It twists and flips and squeezes until the pain is almost all I can feel.
Kennedy Traylor is gone. Taking the answers we need with her and leaving a fucking train wreck in her wake.
Not that she’d give a shit. She made that perfectly clear when she abandoned us. When she killed Brett.
“Fine,” Charles says finally. His expression flickers, but it clears before I can work it out. “Go, then. But remember your obligations. Your mother and sister deserve better than to be forgotten.”
Theo’s jaw tightens. “They are notobligationsto me. This isn’t good for any of us. It was always the plan that we’d come back and build the pack after I finished college. We’re just moving the steps around.”
Oscar steps back inside, two duffel bags in his hands. His expression is blank, carefully measured as always. Charles glances at him. “You too? After everything we’ve done for you?”
I can almost hear the blow land. Oscar’s face tightens. “I’m very grateful, sir.”
Charles huffs a small, disbelieving laugh. “Clearly.”
Oscar wears his pain more stoically than Theo ever has, but Charle’s derision clearly pains him. “I’m sorry if you feel that I don’t appreciate everything you and May have done for me—,”
Charles dismisses him with barely a glance. “So that’s it, then.”
“For now.” Theo holds his father’s gaze. “But I’ll be here often, checking on them.”
There’s a quiet warning in his words.
