“Why don’t you fill us in on what happened?” Fen said.
I leaned forward and then felt Reed’s hand take mine. He nodded to me, gaze intense as he stared. I rubbed my thumb across his knuckles and turned to the rest of the table to recount what we’d learned.
“So,you want to teach Evie how to fight?”
When Blake said the words, I felt stupid. The logic seemed twisted at best, but Ben and the rest of the pack all nodded enthusiastically.
“That’s actually something we do with the alpha boys we deal with,” Ryan said. “Haze puts the families through a boxing bootcamp.” Haze grinned slowly as I stiffened. “We’re perfectly capable of teaching an alpha kid some skills and discipline, but what we find works best is when you do the teaching with our guidance. For most of our clients, it’s about forging that bond. Teaching the foster parent or auntie or uncle, or whoever the caregiver is, how to parent the child in a way that will help their nature flourish, but not in a way that hurts others.”
“You’re going to teach me how to parent my daughter?” My back went ramrod straight as I stared down the table. “Have any of you got kids?”
“Well, no—”
“So what the hell are you going to be able to teach me?” I snapped. I’d found Riley and her pack helpful and sympathetic, right up until now as all the goodwill evaporated.
“Lily is a damn good mum,” Jasper added in a sharp voice, the others growling their agreement.
“No one’s disputing that,” Riley said, holding her hands out.
“So why are you here?” Haze sat back in his chair, arms crossed, a lazy smile on his face and didn’t I just want to wipe that off. He snorted in response, as if he could read my damn mind. “No one’s making judgements about who’s a good or bad parent. I’d fight anyone who’d try and tell me the people in our programs are bad caregivers.”
He sat forward, resting his elbows on the table.
“They’re just like you. People who’ve found themselves in circumstances they wouldn’t expect to. People who’ve used everything in their toolkit and then found they need something more. We’re that something more. We developed this program by consulting with different alpha groups, the psychology team here, as well as some of the best social workers in town. We kept having kids come in the door with problems far greater than just genetic issues, and we all felt helpless as they walked out of here again, no better than when they came in. We do this because we fucking give a shit, about your kid and all the other kids we work with and the people who are just trying to do their best to love and care for them.”
He blinked then, the silver slowly fading from his eyes, and as it did, they flicked around, looking down the table at his brothers and his mate, almost embarrassed. Riley reached out then and took his hand and I watched Haze bring her fingers to his mouth and place a kiss there.
“I need help.” Reed’s admission was stark, simple. “I don’t know what the fuck to do as a dad. I had five dads who were amazing and then four died and the other one turned into a raging dickhead.”
“Fuck, yeah,” Damon muttered.
“What do I have as a role model?” Reed continued. “A controlling old prick who’s more focussed on staying in control of a shitty little town than looking after his own family. You can help me be a good dad and look after Evie? You can stop me from hurting her somehow…?”
I just stared at Reed as his voice trailed away, his eyes boring into the tabletop.
“I’m in,” he said finally.
“Me too,” Jasper said. “It’d be nice to have some guidance. Make sure we’re doing it right.”
“Yeah, count me in as well. Being the family fuckup is only cool when it’s driving my dad nuts,” Damon said with a grin, but that quickly faded. “But I can’t fuck up when it comes to Evmonster.”
“We’re all in,” Ben said decisively. “We’ve walked away from our family, our home, and the only jobs we know how to do, for Lily and Evie. We were always going to do whatever it takes to make our pack functional.” He turned to look at me now. “Leaving all those years ago was the biggest mistake I’ve ever made, but I’ve learned from it. Every step I take is with my mate and my cub.”
“Goddammit…” We turned around to see a flustered Riley grabbing a bunch of tissues from a box on the table. “This is why I stick with hard science. Genetic reports don’t make me bloody cry.”
“You’re soft, omega,” Fen said, which should’ve come out harsh, but instead was delivered in a gentle, intimate tone. He actually looked inordinately pleased at her reaction, sneaking an arm around her and rubbing his hand on her shoulder.
“You’re in safe hands with us,” Ryan said. “I can’t say you’ll always like what we do, but I think you’ll be happy with the results. Now, what about your brother, Logan?”
If you’rethe parent of a primary school child, you’re probably like me and have an encyclopaedic knowledge of every damn movie Disney has put out, because you’ve seen them over and over and over… So as we walked up to the elevator of the hotel Logan was staying in, I had the song,We Don’t Talk About Bruno, fromEncantoplaying inside my head. Except of course, I swapped Bruno for Logan.
“Why do we need to get him involved at all?” Damon asked, slouching against the back of the elevator, then scowling at the rest of us. “He’s been a fucking dick—”
“He’s part of this pack,” Ben said. “We’ve gotta know if he’s in or out.”
“He’s Evie’s father too,” I said, forcing the nice, rational words out like good adults do. “I’m OK with supervised sessions where the Taylor pack dictates what he does. They assured us they’d step in if he was acting dickish. But just so we’re clear, no contact outside of the corporation and none with me, ever.”
“Never?” Jasper asked, eyes going wide.