Antonio’s name flashes across the screen and my stomach drops to my feet.Shit.He knows I have training today and he wouldn't call unless something was wrong.
My fingers fumble as I rush to answer, bringing the phone to my ear, my heart lodged in my throat. Is our little sister okay? Did Raul do something?
“What’s up?” I ask as soon as the call goes through.
“Where are you?” His voice is tight, and my panic increases tenfold.
“Training,” I tell him.
“Can you get away? Somewhere quiet where you can be alone?”
My brows furrow. He doesn’t sound upset, just…tense.
“Already am. I’m in the locker room. I needed a breather. What’s going on?”
“Sit down.”
“Bro—” I cover my apprehension with a laugh. “Get to the point. Who died?” I joke, because if anything had happened to Sofia, he would have told me by now.
“Raul.”
What? I stumble back onto the bench and clutch the phone to my ear, hunching over as I stare at the ground. There’s a ringing in my ears. Antonio is still talking, but I can’t make out his words. I catch pieces of what he’s saying but none of it is making any sense. “Missing. Found at...drunk...got in a brawl…rogue...”
I shake my head to clear it. “He’s dead. You’re not fucking with me right now?”
There’s a beat of silence. “Dad is dead.”
I haven’t heard him call Raul “Dad” since Mom left, and for some godforsaken reason, hearing it makes my insides twist into knots. It hurts. A physical pain I can’t describe. And all because a fucker who needed to die finally did. My wolf whines, feeling the loss deep inside our soul.
“Don’t call him that. We haven’t had a dad in years. If Raul died, good riddance. We knew it was going to happen one way or the other.” At least this way, Des won’t have to hunt him down. My best friend won’t have the stain on his soul of having to take down his friend's father.
“Fine. We’ll skip over the tears and heartfelt trip down memory lane. But we have a problem?”
I snort. “No. We just got a solution to our problem. A big fucking one at that.” There’s movement on the other line already, like he’s stepping into another room.
“We have Sofia,” he reminds me.
“What about her? She’s safe now. We don’t need to worry about that fucker hurting her anymore.” I rub at my chest, trying to alleviate some of the ache. Maybe that collison with Cameron was harder than I thought. I can’t think of another reason for feeling this way all of a sudden.
“No. Now we have to worry about Mom taking her.”
Hold on a minute. “You can’t be serious.” She’s our sister. Our blood. We’re family. You don’t take family away. Mom walked out on us years ago. She didn’t give a shit about us when Raul was leaving bruises behind. Why the hell would she get involved now?
“I’ve already gotten a phone call. When the HPED were called after a server at the bar found his body, they ran his records and Mom was still listed as next of kin and his emergency contact. She’s already been notified and she already tried calling me. I haven’t spoken with her. I let it go to voicemail. But from the sounds of it, she wants Sofia.”
“She has no right. She left the Pack. Left us. She’s got zero claim on her.”
He exhales a harsh breath. “I know and I agree, but she’s arguing that we’re not equipped to care for her. I have a meeting with our Alpha later. We’ll figure something out. We have to.” I can hear a thread of panic in his voice. This is serious. Sofia can be taken from us all because our deadbeat father got himself killed. Will this man never stop ruining our lives? He even has to do it from the goddamn grave?
“How are we not equipped?” I ask, needing to know what we’re up against.
“For starters, you’re still a juvenile, not even eighteen yet.”
“So? You’re not. You have a job. You can be her guardian.” I don’t understand what the problem is.
“I have...” he hesitates before gritting out, “a history of violence.”
All the blood drains from my face. “That was three years ago. They can’t—”
