The food was impeccable.The scenery was gorgeous and the farm was a peaceful haven. Exactly the opposite kind of place I expected Damon to take me to, but perhaps that was the point. He would keep shifting, changing and defying definition. Or maybe this was just a lucky guess. I didn’t know him, didn’t know much about his family, and I was finding out just how little I did know. Unfortunately, that meant the food was like ashes in my belly, my stomach churning uncomfortably right up until we left in the early afternoon.
“When were you going to tell me?” I asked him in a low hiss after we said our final goodbyes, crunching over the gravel to get back to the bike. “When were any of you going to let me know what the situation was?”
“What, and give you another excuse to run?” Damon asked, grabbing his helmet and then shaking his head. “I can’t speak for the others, but I can tell you why I didn’t.” He settled back against his bike, looking like some MC romance wet dream as he stared at me. “Because we were still getting to know each other. Because we were half fucking maddened by the realisation that our mate was right there in the city. Because we were all fighting like cats and dogs, squabbling about what to do and how to get you to see us as viable partners, fathers for the cub, but mostly this.”
He glanced back at the house, giving his family friends one last wave as they turned to go back to their house.
“The Bradshaw pack are bloody nice people. Always have been. My mum comes from this area and she knew them growing up. Because they act like reasonable human beings and treat their loved ones well, they can’t imagine the way I feel about Dad. Fuck Dick Morrison,” he said with a vicious ferocity. “Fuck what he thinks about anything. He’s a miserable old cunt and I’ll be fucking damned if anything he has to say has any bearing on the way I run my life. Now, Lily, love…” Damon stepped right into my space and thrust his hands in my hair. “Don’t let gossip ruin a great day. I brought you down here to escape the bullshit.”
Problem is, the bullshit always finds you.
Chapter 42
“I need to go to Evie’s school,” I snapped at Jasper and Damon as soon as we returned to the shop. When I looked at my phone, I saw missed calls from the school and Sophie, and then Carmen, and that’s when I knew shit was about to get real, again. “Where are my keys? Where did I put my fucking keys?”
“I’ll drive,” Jasper said, digging around in my bag and producing them, then walking over to the front door to flip the closed sign.
“No, I—”
“Yes,” Damon said, staring now, his face gone pale. “What’s happened? What could’ve gone wrong in one day?”
Everything, that’s what he didn’t seem to understand. And I didn’t explain. I played the voicemail from the school first, my heart sinking as I heard the principal’s clipped tones, then when I heard Sophie’s and Carmen’s messages it was as though it ripped out of my chest and dropped down to the floor to splatter everywhere. I finally nodded to Jasper, the two men escorting me out to my car, then they piled in as I got in the passenger side.
Evie had been caught fighting in the yard. This was the cardinal sin in primary schools, I found. Bullying, harassment, more insidious, scarring types of shitty behaviour didn’t seem to get the same response as bloody fighting, and my daughter had a temper and the strength to back it up. Back at her old school, it’d resulted in a group of boys who’d taunt her every chance they got, the sight of her losing control amusing them, right until she smacked them in the nose. I couldn’t even be mad when their parents shot me accusing looks and demanded something be done. I would’ve freaked if it was their sons beating up my daughter, but… I felt a familiar swirl of contradictory feelings of remorse and anger, right as I strode in through the very nice wrought iron gates to see Carmen there waiting for me.
“We’ll put this down to the emotional upheaval of her father, her fathers, becoming part of her life,” she said, eyeing Jasper and Damon. “And mention the fact she’s going to group therapy several times a week.”
“It’s that bad, is it?” I asked, my jaw locking down as I stared into her eyes.
“It’s different in private schools,” she said. “Legally, a child must have access to an education, but it doesn’t have to be here.”
“They… They want her out?”
Low growls came from the two men behind me, both stepping closer as a result.
“I wouldn’t do any of that inside,” she said sharply. “They’re already talking about her needing to go to a regional school with other alphas. Let’s go in and talk to the principal and see what can be done.”
Ben and Reedwere waiting in the reception area when we arrived. The lady at the front desk was eyeing them with alarm, something that only grew when she saw the other two alphas enter the room. I could see why. They seemed to fill a space that was made for small children, not four massive men. Reed sat there silently, still as a stone, while Ben paced back and forth.
“What’s happened?” he asked me. “No one will tell me anything.”
“Sophie contacted Ben when I couldn’t get a hold of you,” Carmen explained apologetically.
“As I said,” the woman behind the counter said, trying for authoritarian and failing utterly. “You’re not down as a primary contact.”
“That needs to change,” I said, raking a shaking hand through my hair. “Ben is her father…” I looked around the room. “They all are.”
“But…” The woman’s eyes widened, but she dropped her gaze hastily and then started taking down each man’s details.
“Ms McGregor…” The principal emerged from his office, looking all starched and officious in his button-down shirt and slacks, right up until he saw the state of his waiting room. “Mrs Forrest and…?”
“Ben Morrison.” He strode forward then, holding out his hand for the principal to take and for a second the man just stared before daring to shake it. He winced at Ben’s firm grip before he was introduced to the rest of his brothers.
“I’m afraid my office isn’t big enough to hold a discussion with this many people,” the principal said smoothly. “Perhaps if just Ms McGregor and Mrs Forrest came through?”
“No can do,” Ben replied, just as firmly. “You’ve got classrooms. Christ, you’ve got a whole gym here, haven’t you? Find a space where we can talk, but first, where the hell is my daughter?”
Sitting quietly in the sick room I was told. That’s where I wanted to be, not dealing with this over the top bullshit, and when Ben grabbed my hand, I knew he felt the same. But that can be the scary thing when you deal with schools. People whose children are no problem, who sail through their education without incident don’t ever see this side of schools, because in the end they are institutions, and those running them are the ones with power. Loco parentis, someone had explained to me at a party, when they were doing their first year of their education. In place of the parent. While I was out patting alpacas, people, people outside of my family group, had made a decision about what to do about Evie.