“What do you think?” Kolby spat out with such venom that I took a step back.
Jacob placed a hand on Kolby’s chest, trying to hold him back, but just because he was the youngest didn’t make him the smallest. Kolby had sprouted up so he could look me straight in the eye, something the hadn’t been able to do five years ago.
“Pa died of a heart attack over a week ago, not that you’d know.” Kolby shook his head with disgust. “You never even check in with yourrealfamily.”
“Kolby,” Jacob growled, pulling our younger brother back by the collar.
My brows furrowed. “A heart attack? Pa?” I let out a chuckle of disbelief. “No way. Not in this lifetime. He’d never let himself go out like that.”
“It’s true.” Jacob nodded solemnly. “Ma said the doctors had warned him time and again the last few years, but he wouldn’t listen.”
“But why wouldn’t she have told us sooner?” I glanced between the two of them. “Did they tell you anything about this before?”
“No, ma said pa didn’t want us to worry for nothing.” Jacob gave a sad smile. “You know pa, always thinking of everyone else. Never wanting anyone to see him struggling.”
I dragged hand through my braids, nodding. “Yeah, I could see that.” I paused for a moment to register the information.
My pa and I’d never really gotten along. He was the more serious one who put everyone’s happiness before his own, while I’d been more of a free spirit. I’d rather have been running wild in the woods than sitting in on pack meetings.
When I bond myself to Kyren and told them I was going to Georgia with him, pa had been livid. He’d called me all kinds of irresponsible, that I was abandoning my family and duties. But all I heard was the steel bars of the cage they were trying to keep me in closing in around me.
A part of me thought I’d get to make things up with him before he died. Now, I’d never get that chance.
I breathed out a breath. “So did you have a funeral already?”
It’d been a week. They could have been waiting for me before they had the ceremony. It shouldn’t be too hard to get a flight back to Utah. Kyren had a lot of connections that made getting around much easier than flying commercial.
Maybe if I offered to bring the two of them along with me, it’d make them see that being bound to a vampire wasn’t as bad as everyone had no doubt told them it to be.
Jacob just stared at me, then Kolby barked a laugh.
“I told you. I. Fucking. Told. You.” He smacked his hands on his thighs and shook his head. “This mother fucker had no intentions of becoming pack alpha. We waited for nothing.”
My gaze shot between the two of them. Suddenly, everything registered. They hadn’t come to just tell me pa had passed away. No, they’d come to bring me back. To shut me in that cage that pa had tried to do all those years ago. Well, that wasn’t going to happen. Not now, not ever.
“Tate,” Jacob began softly, glaring at Kolby, “you’re the eldest. You’re next in line to be alpha. It’s always been this way.”
I shook my head, waving my arms in front of me. “No way. I defected, remember? Vamp lover?” I gave a lopsided grin as I pointed a thumb at my chest. “That makes you next in line. Not me.”
Kolby snorted. “Doesn’t work that way, asshole. Pa never announced Jacob or me as the next alpha. That means you are it.”
My face pinched in confusion. “Why would he do that?”
Jacob shrugged. “I think he always held out hope that you’d come back. Take up the family mantel and all that.”
My mouth gaped open slightly. “But... I’m blood bound to Kyren. That’s for life. Didn’t he understand? I can’t ever break that bond, evenifI wanted to. Which I don’t.”
“You don’t understand—” Jacob tried to plead with me, but Kolby grabbed his arm.
“Forget it, Jake. He’s exactly like he’s always been.” Kolby shook his head and stepped away. “Only thinking of himself.”
“That’s not fair,” I shot back, but they were already walking away. Jacob shot me a look full of sadness and regret.
Well, I didn’t have getting blindsided by my family on my bingo card for this year. What else could possibly go wrong?
Chapter 10
Jack
