230
Tony
"What?"
I narrowed my eyes at her neck and tugged her collar aside. It looked fresh, so either it had happened within the past two days or her werewolf healing wasn't working well due to all the stress.
"Alpha is just..."
I smirked and let her go. "Just?"
She cleared her throat. "He wouldn't be so upset if you two would just come home and do as you're told."
"I'm a grown man, Eliza," I said. "I don't have to do a damn thing I don't want to."
"You will not curse at me."
I met her gaze. "Fuck off."
She gasped and flinched back. I hoped for just a moment she saw in my face something that reminded her of my father.
"If you don't come back and fix this, you're of no use to the pack," she said, her voice filled with determination. "I asked alpha for a chance to change your mind before he struck you both from the pack records."
I blinked. Her words echoed through me. Surprise, maybe, but maybe something else too. A fear that didn't feel like mine.
"Struck from the pack records, hm?"
"You'll be disowned," she said. "Banished. You'll never be able to come back to Blue Moon, ever. What would you do without the pack, Tony? You can't live among humans and expect to--"
"That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard," I said looking at her. "I pulled Chance Industries out of the red and into the black. I made sure that everyone could eat, that the funds were managed, and there was money to clothe you and the rest of the pack. I made it so that every woman in the pack didn't have to work anymore than taking care of the kids of the pack. Matt made sure the Estate was maintained, updated, and managed so there was always food available."
I shook my head. "The better question is if he cuts Matt and I loose, what will you do without us?"
She went pale. I glanced to her neck. "I suppose at the rate he's going, it won't matter. He'll kill you and everyone else like he almost did."
She gasped, a frightened little thing and I turned, shaking my head.
"Do I want you to suffer? Do I want those kids to cower in fear or not know where their next meal will come from? Of course not. I'm an asshole, not heartless."
"Then--"
"But you chose his terror, his tyranny over our grace, and that's something you all will just have to live with."
I paused for a moment, my gaze fixed on the city around us as people wandered around, seemingly unburdened. A couple walked with their son between them and I almost smiled.
Ginevra, Quillan, and I could be like that, free from pack nonsense, my father, and the whole ridiculousness of the supernatural world.
"Tell your alpha to do what he feels he must," I said and looked back at her. "I'll call a moving company to grab the rest of our things."
"Wait! It'll be on your head when--"
"It really won't."
I got into my car closing the door behind me. She tugged on the door, trying to open it as I cranked up the car.
"You don't know what you're doing! You're making the biggest mistake of your life!"
I glanced at her. "You're wrong. I'm just not rescuing you from yours."
She froze, and I pulled away from the curb, leaving her standing there. I didn't watch her shrink in my rearview mirror.
I clenched my fists around the steering wheel as my eyes pricked with tears. It had meant everything to me. Eliza had raised me in a way that she hadn't raised Matt, but as I thought about it, it hadn't been enough.
Our mother had been there. She would have been there more if our father hadn't always been calling her. How Matt had the time with her to learn to make ravioli, I didn't know, but even I had memories with her that were warmer, brighter than any moment I could think of with Eliza.
I swallowed, trying to parse through my memories. She had been there. She had looked out for us, but had she been looking out for us because that was her duty to the pack or because it got her closer to Oren?
I didn't know. My head hurt thinking about it, too.
In the end, I wasn't even sure if it mattered. I'd just drawn the hard line in the sand. Now, all I had left to do was see what happened next. I couldn't get tangled up in our father's craziness or the pack again.
Quillan deserved better, and after everything that's happened with Ginevra, there was no way I could even imagine that going back to Blue Moon was the proper thing for him.
When I got back to the penthouse, I heard Matt and Quillan laughing. Quillan let out a shriek of glee as I entered the living room as he spun Quillan around.
"Daddy!" Quillan called.
My heart skipped a beat as Matt set him down and let him run to me. Quillan threw his arms around my legs in a tight hug. I set my briefcase down and pulled him into my arms, taking a deep breath of his scent. He rumbled and curled tighter into my arms. I nuzzled him gently and looked over at Matt.
His eyes were darker than usual as if he hadn't slept in days, and he looked noticeably thinner. Thinner than he had been the last time I'd really looked at him. He'd been wearing sweatshirts and large t-shirts, but it was really noticeable now in his tank top.
My brother seemed to be wasting away. Was he sick? Was he taking something? I winced. I didn't know of a drug that could hurt werewolves. I didn't even think that Matt was the type to get addicted to anything. Was the separation hitting him harder than I thought?
Was whatever he was one of the reasons that we couldn't use the mind link any longer? Concern gnawed at me as I wondered how best to ask. Did I even have the right to ask?
Was now the time?
"I'm glad you two seemed to have been having fun."
"Uncle Matt's the best!" Quillan said. "He said maybe I could go back to school soon."
I looked at Matt, who smirked. "There's a supernatural daycare nearby. We saw it while we were out taking a walk."
My lips twitched. "Well, I guess we'll have to see."
"How'd it go?" Matt asked. "Suit and tie shiny enough?"
"I... got the job. He's not a regular human. I think he may have met Dad."
"How unfortunate."
"I start soon, but I also ran into Eliza."
Matt scoffed. "Let me guess, money trouble?"
I nodded. "She also mentioned that we'd be struck from the pack records, disowned, and banished. I told her I'd send a moving company."
Matt scoffed his expression a mix of amusement and something that looked like relief.
"Already taken care of it," he muttered. "Moving company should be arriving here soon with our stuff."
His words left me feeling relieved yet puzzled. "Why would you do that without talking to me first?"
Matt's eyes met mine, and there was a weariness in his gaze that hadn't been there before.
"If you have a problem with it, you can have them take your stuff back, but I can't go back there."
A spike of panic went through me. "What are you saying, Matt? It's our pack?"
Matt cocked his eyebrow and said nothing for a moment. "I don't think we should talk about this in front of Quillan."
I looked at Quillan in my arms and nodded. I set him down. "Think you can go entertain yourself in the living room for a minute?"
He looked at me and then Matt warily before nodding and heading off. I heard the television on.
"We never talked about never going back," I said. "All this is temporary until--"
"Until what?" Matt asked. "You went out to get a job at another company, came all the way to this city, to eventually go back? Well, you can go back alone. I doubt Ginevra is going to want to step a foot into that house, let alone take Quillan."
I flinched at that and looked at the floor. I hadn't thought about that.
"I don't think he'll disown us."
"I don't care if he does," Matt said. "I plan to cut ties anyway."
My eyes bulged. "Matt--"
"After everything that's happened?" Matt shook his head. "I'd rather go live in a crappy apartment somewhere pinching pennies. They're going to end up doing it anyway."
"They'll change their minds."
"So you went to get a job to do what? Put some pressure on them?" Matt jerked his head back. "And Quillan? You going to let him be around them?"
"If we're alphas again, we can get him to leave."
Matt blew out a breath. "You want to be alpha again? After everything they've done? You wat to go back to that?"
He shrugged. "Your plan."
"It's the right thing to do."
"Glad you have a bigger moral compass than me," Matt said and turned. "I'm not going back."
"Why?"
He went silent and set his jaw. "I have my reasons... not just because of Ginevra and Quillan."
I narrowed my eyes. "Is it because of whatever you're taking?"
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