I look around, expecting to see at least one of Cassian’s other three fathers, and hoping to see either Luca or Ian, but it’s just the seven of us crowded around the kitchen table.
“Looking for the rest of your pack? It seems as though my mates have stolen them.”
“My dad, Colin, and Ian met Graeme at the pack house this morning. They’re working on the security and wards.”
“And one of Cass’ other dads, Roman, is showing Luc this classic car he’s restoring. If you’re very lucky, Junes, you might just get him back in a week or so?” He shoots me a cheeky wink as he sets a white chocolate mocha in front of me and then elbows Ellie to scoot over.
“Scootch, Belly.”
Ellie groans. “It was so peaceful here when you weren’t.”
Melissa rolls her eyes. “Actually, you could have cut the tension with a knife. The whole pack was on high alert while the boys were off rescuing you. I’m glad they got you here safely.”
“Oh, I was sofuriouswhen my son told me you were being terrorized by that horrible Radcliffe boy,” Bethany swears.
I pause, my mug raised halfway to my mouth. When I told my father that Rad was terrorizing me, that he’dchokedme, my father had asked me what I’d done to invite the young alpha’s ire.
“My… my father thought I had done something to deserve it.”
“Your father is a terrible man,” Simon mutters. “Saints, he’s basically an overblown caricature of a cartoon villain. All he needs is a monocle and mustache he can twirl.”
“He won’t be happy about any of this,” Gerard says, speaking for the first time.
“He hasn’t reported her missing,” Simon mutters, tapping away at the phone in his lap. He looks up with a bright smile. “I’m hacking every police department between here and Greenwich.”
“Of course you are, dear,” Bethany says fondly.
“My father won’t report me missing until there’s a ransom note—or a body. But once he finds out what I’ve done, hewillretaliate.”
“If he does, we’ll do whatever it takes to ensure you’re protected,” Gerard promises. “We have the best attorneys in the world and enough connections and influence to bury your father if we have to.”
“I don’t intend for it to get that far,” Cassian says. “I’ve already asked Jack to come tomorrow. I’m granting him the exclusive.”
“Use my study. He’s shot interviews with me in there before and knows how to set up the lighting and sound equipment.”
“Just make sure he doesn’t come too early, teddy bear,” Bethany chides.
Teddy bear?Simon and I exchange a smirk. Saints, it’s adorable. It’s ridiculous. I’m never letting Cassian hear the end of it.
“We’re having a proper Yule breakfast as a family, then opening presents first. Unless you want to invite Jackie for that, too. I’ll need to know his size and preferred fit in sweaters, though, if that’s the case.”
“Oh saints, Mom,” Cassian groans. “You don’t have to get Jack a present.”
“That boy needs a good sweater, Cass. He may be an amazing journalist, but he dresses like he haphazardly rolls through his closet every morning.”
“Mom,” Cass protests.
The two of them are still bickering good naturedly when one of Cassian’s fathers, who must be Roman, enters the kitchen, followed by Luca. Roman stoops to give his mate a kiss, but Bethany bats him away.
“Shower first. No kisses when you’re covered in cargunk,” she scolds, but she’s smiling.
Luca looks sheepish, his pale cheeks pinking with a faint blush, and he gives me the most careful of pecks on my cheek, careful not to get a single smudge of engine grease on me.
Luca steals the last bite of my abandoned pancakes, gives me a wink and excuses himself to go shower.
Simon passes me the smartphone he’s been fiddling with. “Your first Yule present, since I tracked yours to the parking lot by the omega residences and found it in pieces. Your sister did a number on it, but someone properly motivated still could have gotten data off of it. I bricked it and then broke it down for parts.”
“Genius,” I say fondly as I tap in my pass code. It’s the same as it was on my old phone—the one I’m pretty sure all my men know by now, and the moment I swipe it open, I’m greeted with my old phone wallpaper, a silly selfie Simon, Luca and I took at the private Yule celebration Simon arranged for us last year.
