EJ chimed in, “I heard Frank got them to drop the charges on said girlfriend.” Emmett answered, “He did. Grandpa Frank liked her quite a bit. He said she seems familiar, but he can’t put his finger on why yet. It’s bugging him.”
I fished a little, “This girl must like Keaton quite a bit.” Emmett laughed and told us, “I think she does. She believes shehad an adrenaline rush because she lifted and dragged Keaton out of his car, then got him into hers.”
I asked Emmett, “Did you meet her?” Emmett shrugged, answering, “No, we didn’t. We had to get back here, once we’d established he was ok. Keaton’s keeping his new girlfriend a secret.” I said, “Not very well. You know she’s his girlfriend.”
Emmett laughed, “I’ve known that he liked her since he went back to school. My little brother loudly declared with his whole chest he was going to date the new girl. Keep in mind, I already heard from a little birdie that there was a new girl in school Keaton was sweet on.”
I said, “That must have all happened very quickly.” Emmett agreed, “It did. I got a link the girl’s first day of school and then I was up there less than a half hour later dealing with an incident between him and Lisa where my little brother declared his intent to date said new girl.”
I asked, “Why aren’t you just asking the obvious question?” Oden snorted, “I don’t know. The girl is obviously Channing’s mate.” Channing was Keaton’s wolf. Emmett replied, “I’m giving my little brother some space because I know why he feels so protective of their relationship.”
EJ swirled his drink then asked, “Why is he being protective of their relationship?” I linked him, “You know the answer.” EJ replied, “Yes, I’m curious if Emmett knows the girl is likely his brother’s mate.” Honestly, he had to.
Emmett said, “It wasn’t a secret none of us liked Lisa. From what I’ve gathered, this girl always liked him but has been skittish around him because of said ex. I had to punish Lisa over a fight she got into with this girl.”
I winced, “A she wolf versus a human?” Emmett chuckled, “A supposed human who has been taught to fight quite well. She came away with a bruised eye from letting Lisa slap her. There was also an incident with rogues and Isla that this woman foughtoff. We had to keep Isla out of school so Katie wouldn’t ask questions about her healing.”
I questioned, “Did you say supposed human? Also, what was your little brother’s reaction to finding out Lisa slapped Katie?” Emmett answered, “Keaton’s reaction when he found out about the fight confirmed a lot, that I’m sure you yourself suspect about Katie.”
I said, “That doesn’t explain why Keaton isn’t telling you about Katie being his mate. He has to know that you know.” Emmett said, “I think he’s afraid we won’t like her. It hurt Keaton to fight with us over Lisa. Even when we weren’t arguing about her, it hurt him that they didn’t have our approval.”
I snorted, “Your already like her.” Emmett agreed, “I do. I think Keaton just wants our relationships to be tension free for a while. He has fallen quite quickly for Katie, and he might be a bit gun shy as well wanting to make sure it works out between them before bringing her around.”
EJ snorted, “You do realize we’re all saying she’s his mate. That’s literally the only way this works out.” Emmett shrugged, “Keaton was in a relationship with Lisa for years. Plenty of people date before they meet their mate. Not everyone is lucky like we are, EJ.” Evasive, but we didn’t call him on it.
I snorted, “No joke.” Everyone winced around me. We all knew I should’ve been just like Emmett and EJ, but I wasn’t. We all stopped talking when a loud, angry growl hit the air. Tristan and Jason stiffened. I asked, “Wasn’t that…?”
Jason interrupted, “My dad. Yes, it was.” Emmett looked over at his dad and asked, “Correct if I’m wrong, old man, but wasn’t that the typical protecting my pup growl we just heard?” Chase answered, “Yes, it was.”
I stared at Tristan and Jason retreating forms knowing the growl wasn’t about them. I snarled, “Melanie.” My wife linkedme in the next second and I popped to her. I was surprised Hastein was here, but I wasn’t upset about it in the slightest.
Next time, Egres was coming to the Summit. He could bring a date with him for all I cared, but someone was staying with Melanie. My mate was a trouble magnet. I joined the fight and linked Phil, “Who THE HELL are these people?”
Phil replied, “Gamma Thurston and Beta Eugene from Dark Moon Pack in Nashville. They obviously aren’t a forgotten pack because they are here, but clearly they aren’t great people either.” I replied, “Why don’t we just take Nashville out? Have a whole ‘kill them all and ask questions later’ deal.”
Phil said, “Because some are like my source and friend’s pack down there. We could just ask Melanie who the bad ones are.” Gage linked, “Don’t make the let’s just wipe people off the planet face!” I growled, “They attacked my mate!” Gage reasoned, “Just the one pack and they have pups ready to take over.” That was true. We really needed to discuss this with my mate.
I linked EJ, “Get your ass out here before I kill someone by exploding their heads at the Summit. While Dylan would love every second of that; it probably wouldn’t be good.” EJ was teasing Melanie in the next minute.
I linked him again, “Do me a favor and put your shield around my wife so I can know, for five minutes, no one can get near her.” EJ snorted, “Oh sure, make Ladybug get mad at me. I’ll be the bad guy, but only because you’re my little brother and I love you.”
I told him, “You have the shield, not me. If I had it, I’d do it.” EJ retorted, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Your mate is in my shield.” I felt myself relax a little bit. Dad linked me, “There’s another fight? Jesus Christ. I’m coming.” He was out of breath, and I hadn’t seen him in the longue. Which meant he was with mom.
Dalton linked me, “Can we just have some of these fights when I’m not like literal minutes from getting laid?” I replied, “Ithink your twin feels the same.” Both Dalton and Dakota were disheveled. What should concern the men we fought was the look of fury on Paige’s face.
If Corbin thought Paige was good, then she was. I’d seen her in action too. I didn’t think you wanted to piss that woman off, and these men had clearly done so. They all started screaming after she cast a spell on them. EJ winced and covered his junk.
I linked my brother, “Paige is not going to do it to you.” EJ replied, “I know, but one can never be too cautious.” I rolled my eyes at him. I didn’t want to leave Melanie, but I needed to talk to these guys. The battle of what to do warred within my gut.
My mate offered to go to the gym. I linked Wesley, “Melanie is going to the gym. Do you mind watching her?” Wesley answered, “Buttercup is with her parents, so it’s no problem.” I knew that. It’s why I had linked him.
We gathered up the sad, pathetic excuses of men and popped them to our dungeons. I asked, “What the hell were you people thinking? What the fuck was that?” Hastein answered, “They propositioned your wife, cousin. Even after she told them she was mated and married. They had not heard Ashley Griffen was Melanie McAlister. Her father did not care for what they were saying.”
Drake snarled, “Didn’t care for it? They told her my daughter she had daddy issues! They didn’t care that they are older THAN MY FATHER! I’m so sick and goddamn tired of grown ass men acting like fools trying to have sex with my daughter, who doesn’t want them.”
Dad linked me, “You can’t really fault him for that. That would piss me off too.” I said out loud, “You dared to try and take my mate? Has everyone lost their damn minds?! Did my reputation fall apart and I was unaware? I don’t have a reputation for being overly nice. Do I?” They all whimpered.
Beta Eugene told me, “Ashley Griffen isn’t your, Melanie McAlister is….” I interrupted, “Conners. Her name is Luna Melanie Conners.” Beta Eugene paled stammering, “Of course. We hadn’t heard that Ashley was Melanie. How the hell does that even work?”
