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I wrinkle my nose at her blunt statement. But once again, she’s not wrong.
“Anyway,” she continues. “Maxim heard I was coming to town and reached out. I think he’s hoping my presence will cause some ripples with Vee. So be sure to give her a heads up that I’m here this time.” She pushes to a stand and pats my chest. “We don’t want any repeats of last time, do we?”
She smiles at Davis and heads to the door. “In case it wasn’t clear, I’ll be at that dinner on Wednesday. I’ll bring Ariana, my alpha, but still a good idea to tell her.”
I nod my understanding. She slips out the door, closing it gently behind her.
I turn to face my brother, meeting his glower with one of my own. “We can not take her to our parents’ house, Jacks.”
I run a weary hand down my face and drop into the chair Yasmin was sitting in, heedless of her floral scent dripping from it. I already smell like her, so what does it matter? Before we see Vee tonight, I’ll need to run home to shower and change, anyway.
“We don’t have a much of a choice.”
Davis’s scowl deepens. “We do have a choice. We can choose to not go.”
I pin him with a look and tilt my head. “We have to play along, just for a while. We’re almost ready. And if he says one wrong fucking thing, we’ll move forward.”
Davis shakes his head. “I’m not worried about that. I know we can destroy him if we need to, but what about the effect it’ll have on Vee? She’s sick, Jacks. What if she relapses? What if all the progress she’s made recently vanishes from just a single dinner with our parents?”
I take a deep breath and settle back in the chair, splaying my legs. It’s possible. I’d be a fool not to consider the possibility. “Vee’s stronger than we give her credit for. I think the last seven years have proven that a thousand times over, Davis. I know she can handle this.”
He frowns, then sighs. “Fine, we’ll tell her about the dinner and give her the choice to go. If she says she doesn’t want to, then we don’t force the issue. Deal?”
I want to argue. I want to take Vee there and prove that we’re a united front. That she’s with us. That we’re with her. I don’t want to hide her away, not again. She’s ours and I’m so fucking proud of that. I want to show her off to the world.
But Davis is right. If she’s not ready for that, if she wants to be cautious and take her time, then that’s what we have to do.
“Deal.”
I wait until after we’ve made sure Vee has eaten a full meal to drop the bomb about Maxim’s request. She’s still too skinny, even though she’s getting healthier, but I don’t want to risk her losing her appetite entirely by discussing the man we just found out paid to keep her out of town.
Davis keeps giving me meaningful looks that Vee sees and frowns at, but doesn’t push. At least until we’re settled on her couch with dessert—cherry cheesecake. She pins me with a don’t bullshit me look and prompts, “Okay, tell me what’s going on.”
I have to shove aside the instinct to tell her there’s nothing for her to worry about. I did that before and it exploded in my face. So instead I move to the coffee table and sit in front of her, while Topher and Asher cuddle into her sides.
“There’s two things I need to tell you. Well, one thing to tell you and one thing to ask you, really.”
She eyes me warily with her pretty hazel eyes and leans forward to slide her cheesecake onto the table next to my hip. Then she folds her hands primly in her lap and meets my gaze dead on. “Okay, tell me.”
“First, Yasmin’s in town.” She stiffens and all expression wipes from her face, like a rabbit in the presence of an apex predator. I keep talking so she’ll see it’s nothing to worry about, truly. “She’s in town to see some omega specialist. She and her pack—who she is happily mated to—are thinking of having children and they’ll need a little extra help with that because they're all women, Vee.”
She blinks at that, and then her brows lower. “Wait. What?”
Asher leans over and kisses her temple before picking up the thread I’ve dropped. “Yasmin is gay and happily mated to an all-female pack.”
I watch as realization dawns on her face. “You were her beard. She was using you to hide that from her family.”
I nod and pick up her hand, running my thumb over her knuckles. “Yes. Exactly. We would have told you that day. It was our plan to have you two talk. But then-”
“Then I ran away.”
“Understandably, pipsqueak.” Ford says moving to stand behind her. He reaches down to gently massage her shoulders, working out any remaining tension.
“She came into the office today,” Davis says, sitting next to me on the table. “With Maxim.” Vee stiffens all over again. Davis picks up her other hand. “We didn’t want you to hear it from someone else and think it was anything worth worrying about.”
Her brows narrow again. “That sounds familiar.”
I chuckle at her pissed off tone, but stop when she turns her glare on me. “In this case, with Yasmin, it really is nothing to worry about.”
