Miller talks to Teddy quietly for a few minutes before he comes back over to Kelly and me. “I’m really sorry about all this, Sam. The situation sounds…complicated. Still, I’m happy for you, and you Miss Kelly.” He nods again to Kelly. “We’ll file the report as a false claim and if Joseph calls again, we’ll talk to him. I appreciate your patience.” He nods to me one last time beforesnagging Ross’s arm—the idiot is still staring at Teddy, gaping like a fish—and leads him back to their patrol car.
Kelly slips free from my hand and goes back to Teddy, rubbing her face against his chest and wrapping her arms around his waist. I give one final wave to the patrol car before leading my pack back inside.
I immediately go to let Jake out. He hangs his head, looking sheepish and doing his full body wag up to Kelly, circling around her before leaning heavily against her with a huff. I look into the bathroom and see he shredded the shower curtain and chewed up the toilet paper. I can’t really blame him, since he was trapped in the bathroom and upset. I just hope this doesn’t result in a trip to the vet to have his stomach pumped…again. Damned dog will eat anything that gets near his mouth.
Chapter 11
Settling into the couch next to Kelly, I give in and turn my phone back on. I shut it off when I walked out of the community center earlier. Which ok, my bad that Brice called the fucking cops. I mean, I wouldn’t have heard the—I look down at the screen—twenty-five missed calls.
That just seems excessive.
And fifty-two text messages, does Brice have no free time…wait…shit…some of them are from Mom.
Well fuck, why did he have to call them.
I do a quick run-through, Brice starts out as angry, demanding I come back, then asking me to return, then asking if I’m ok. Then Mom, he must have called her when I didn’t answer…Fuck my life.
I guess I appreciate being loved, but fuck, I’m hardly helpless.
Brice can go fuck himself, I call Mom back first. She answers on the first ring, crying into the phone. I hear my dads in the background growling and one of them's yelling at me that it’s about damned time. I can’t tell which one, probably Murph, Idon’t really care. Fuck, they’re supposed to be on vacation right now.
“Calm down, Mom, I’m fine. I didn’t mean to worry you guys.” I start, since she seems to be having trouble getting words out. I hear more grumbles and then someone must hit speaker phone because everybody's louder.
Suddenly Murph is on the phone. I don’t know which one is my biological dad, but he’s the pack lead for my family, just another indication that shit has gotten bad if he feels the need to step in. “Son, I love you. Now what thefuckwere you thinking leaving with a strange alpha!” he yells down the line, and Sam growls at the aggression in his tone.
Even with it not on speaker on our end, he’s loud enough that the whole room can hear it. I try to stay calm, because yelling back will just incite more anger, and what I am about to say is already gonna piss the old man off. “Yeah, I need to talk to Mom, not you, so give her back the phone.”
There's a brief pause, no one on the other end even breathes before he’s roaring into my ear. “You do not make demands of me, young man! Your mother is inconsolable, do you know how worried she’s been? We get a call from Brice hours ago that you left a bonding ceremony—that we are just now hearing about—with an unknown alpha and a young beta. Then you refuse to answer his calls or text. We don’t know if you turned off your phone, if you’re hurt, if you’re dead in a ditch somewhere. I was trying to find a way to get home so we could come look for you. You know this cruise was supposed to be an anniversary present for your mother, and now the whole thing is ruined. What do you have to say for yourself?”
Kelly curls around my arm, her whole body shaking. Sam's behind me on the couch. I go ahead and hit speaker because I don’t want to risk my eardrums if Murph decides to yell again. “Oh, I’m so sorry if the”—I check the clock on my phone—“fivehours I was out of contact was enough to ruin a fucking three week long trip. I’m sorry Brice didn’t tell you that I left with his pack leader’s brother, Sam, who is my chosen alpha, and our beta, Kelly.”
I hear a sharp intake of breath—pretty sure it’s Mom—on the other end, but I continue on, my words dripping with sarcasm. “I’m sorry that his public embarrassment of my new pack is a fucking inconvenience for your vacation. Especially since you weren’t even home during my only break this year and pawned me off on my cousin, who I haven’t seen in years. That issofucking inconsiderate of me. Now, put Mom back on the fucking phone, or I am hanging up, and she can call me when you all get home.”
There's a brief pause and a beep before Mom comes back, the rest of the voices all faded to background noise, so I'm guessing she took us off speakerphone. She sniffs loudly in my ear a couple of times. “Oh sweety, I’m so happy for you. Are they nice? How many alphas did you get, are they hot? How about the beta, is he sweet?” Kelly giggles into my arm, and since I’m still on speaker mom hears it.
“Oh, is that him, he sounds kind of…delicate. But that’s ok. Hello to my Teddy’s new pack, it’s nice to meet you! I’m his mom, Jessica. You already heard from my Murphy, but Jared and Noah are here too! Say hi!” We hear mumbles in the background of my dads all giving some form of greeting.
“Ok Mom, well, you heard Kelly earlier, she’s our beta, and this is my alpha, Sam.” Sam grumbles out his own hello behind me. “So far, it’s just the three of us, but yes, they’re both hot. I really am sorry that I made you worry. Joseph just started yelling at him for talking to me earlier, and I kind of lost my cool. I didn’t mean to mess up your vacation. I miss you guys.”
“Aww, Teddy. No, you didn’t mess anything up, Honey.” I hear a loud snort behind her followed by a slap and Murphygrumbling. “As I was saying, I am so happy for you. And Kelly, hmmm, does this mean I can expect grand-babies soon?” Kelly lets out a croaking sound beside me and starts coughing, causing Jake to wander over and lay his head in her lap, his big brown eyes staring longingly up at her.
“No, Mom, probably not anytime soon. Everything's still pretty new, you know. We’re taking things one step at a time, but Sam says he’s going to file the official paperwork at the courthouse on Monday. I was going to try to contact the omega center and see about transferring to online classes, so I’ll be here once everything’s official. I didn’t want to bother you on your vacation, so I was going to wait to tell you until you got back. Sorry again.”
Jake lets out a low growl and turns towards the door, backing his ass up against Kelly, and a few seconds later someone starts pounding on the door, again. I hear Joseph yelling on the other side but can’t make out all the words.
“Mom, I love you, but I’m going to let you get back to enjoying time with your mates. It sounds like Joseph and maybe Brice just showed up here, and I need to—”
Mom cuts me off. “Now just a minute. Let Murph talk to them. I can’t believe this; I’m going to have a strong word with Brice’s mother that she lets him pull pranks like this.” The mental image of my Aunt Sandra chiding her thirty-six-year-old son runs through my mind and I snort out a laugh.
“No, Mom, it’s ok. I love you, but thisisSam’s brother. I think he needs to deal with it, and I’m here if he needs me.”
My mom makes a little ‘aww’ noise before telling me she loves me, and that she’ll call once they get home, and I better not be having too much fun to answer.
The pounding on the door starts up again as my dads grumble in the background and I hang up the phone. Joseph’s voice is clearer now. “Get the fuck out here you asshole. You’ve got alot of goddamned nerve lying to the fucking cops! Do you know what kind of trouble you could get into, man?” This seems to be the breaking point for Sam as he yanks open the front door.
Jake lunges but Kelly grabs his collar, getting dragged off the couch as he tries to get to Sam’s side. She makes a loud squeak of protest and Jake turns around looking abashed. He presses his nose against her face, making sure she’s ok. She pats his head and calls him a good slobber monster as I help her stand back up. Jake goes back to growling at the door but stays protectively beside her as I walk over to confront Joseph with Sam. Brice is standing at the foot of the steps, fists clenched at his sides. He looks…guilty?
“Hey, Brice. Yeah, I was on the phone with my mom…what the fuck man? You knew they were on vacation. You worried her for nothing. You told them I left with a strange alpha? Seriously, you know Sam.”
