Page 147 of Trick Knot Treat

The silence gets thicker. It gets brittle. It gets dangerous.

“So…they’re leaving? Are our kids leaving home? No! I forbid it!” Mulch shouts.

“Yes. They have a pack and-”

“Who are they? I want to meet them! Not just anyone gets to have them. This isn’t right, you should have told us!” Sterling demands, stabbing his finger in the air in fury. His scowl is black and furious.

“I am telling you,” Dad roars.

“Who are they? What do they do? Are they good people? Where the fuck is Sunshine Cove?” Rash shoves Sterling out of the way and comes over to me. “I want to meet them. I won’t hurt them, much.”

Dad sets his beer down and gets off the chair. “Pour me something stronger, Khione. It’s going to be a night.”

“This just isn’t right! And who the hell did you match with?” Digger turns on Harvest. “What’s her name?”

“His name,” Harvest says with a gleam of fury in his eyes.

Digger narrows his eyes. “Who is he?”

“His name is Gian, and he’s a lawyer.”

“A lawyer?” Digger scoffs. “A paper-pusher?”

“I really wouldn’t say he’s that at all.” Harvest leans against the wall lazily, watching the pack of upset middle-aged men.

“No, you don’t get to do this. We’re like family. You don’t get to just run off and only give us a howdy-do,” Lane says flatly.

We’re surrounded on all sides, and we are losing. But I know they will come around. They love us, and they want us to be happy. So, when they calm down, they will see reason.

“We aren’t running off; we’re coming back. I promise you.”

“You’re leaving. When? Next week?”

“Oh, shit,” Dad mutters, he downs a shot and pours another one.

I glance nervously around. “No, uh, we’re going back tomorrow.”

The explosion is deafening, and then it really kicks off. The argument goes on for well over an hour. Dad ends up yelling at several people, and Harvest has to break up a couple of fights.

I stand there, sniffling. Guilt tearing me apart.

Looking at each face, each person who was there through all my highs and lows, childhood, teens, when I presented as an omega. Hell, Gaff sat with me and held me while I cried. He is the reason I am okay with who I am.

“Why are you crying?”

I look up into Teddy’s face and sob. “I don’t want to go either, but they are my pack. They need me. I need them.”

He lowers his eyes, and I can see him thinking for a long moment. Then he turns and bellows. Everyone stops shouting.

“There’s no good shouting. It’s done. We’re just upsetting the kids. You only get one chance at forever. Let that fickle bitch, fate, have the kids. Let ‘em grow up in sunshine and be happy. Who are we to begrudge them?” he roars. “If we love these little shits, we want them to be happy, right? Does it matter where or with whom?”

The bikers get quiet, sullen, but they stop fighting us.

Teddy pulls me into a hug. “We’ll visit.”

“You'd better.”

“You’ll come back for celebrations.”