“Put me down, you caveman,” I teased, tickling his side until he let go. “I need to go get ready so I can see our potential packhouse.”
Cade was smiling so big that I knew he had something up his sleeve. I gave him a quick hug before rushing upstairs to change.
Once everyone was ready, I grabbed my things and led the way to the door. As soon as I turned the knob and pushed it open, I was met by flashing cameras and people yelling at me.
“Lana, do you need help? Do you feel safe with these deltas?”
“Lana, can you tell us what Sutton did to you? The world wants to know. We’re on your side.”
Before I could say a word, I was snatched backward. The guys pulled me safely back inside, closing the door with a sharp thud.
We all stood in stunned silence for a moment before Cade jumped into action again.
He pulled out his phone, the coach’s voice filling the silence.
“Hello?”
“They found out where the hockey house is,” Cade said instead of greeting him.
Coach cursed. “Is she okay?”
He looked down at me. “Yeah. A little shaken up, but alright.”
“Fucking vultures. What do you need?”
“We can’t even get out of our house.”
“I’ve got a buddy on the police force. Let me call him and make sure he can step in and keep our team safe. That’s private property so we can at least get them for trespassing.”
“Thanks, Coach.”
The wait was awful. It took thirty minutes before the flashing lights filtered through the curtains.
The police quickly cleared them out, and we used the distraction to climb into one of the SUVs. Thankfully, this one was tinted, keeping prying eyes off of us.
The reality of how big this was getting truly sank in. It wasn’t isolated to one game, but had escalated across the entire AHA.
“Everyone let it go,” Wilder said firmly. “This was an exciting pack day. We are going to stick to our guns, and we are going to keep focused on our omega and our pack. Fuck everything else for now.”
“Agreed,” I said, shaking it off before snatching Cade’s phone and turning on a playlist.
Soon, we were belting out some car karaoke, even Lennon joining in, making me laugh.
As we passed the arena, I could see the protesters outside. People were holding literal picket signs, the word delta written in blocky letters, crossed off with a big red slash.
They were chanting something, but Cade sped up, refusing to let us hear whatever it was.
“You would think that omegas who had dealt with this kind of bullshit before, wouldn’t be out here trying to suppress the deltas too,” I said, anger burning through me.
“Nope,” Lennon said, turning on another song full blast. “We aren’t focusing on them. I know you know the words toBarbie Girl. Belt it out, princess.”
When he sang the words for Ken, I lost it. Just like that my pack had made sure that I didn’t sink into despair, and they were working hard to make sure they didn’t as well.
The reality we were about to face was troubling, but this was the united front that they promised me as a pack. The reason they bonded early.
Cade turned down the music. “It’s a bit further away from the arena. We’d definitely have to drive into practice and work.”
“If the packhouse is worth it, I wouldn’t mind. We’re still closer than I was in the city. What’s it like?”
