“So do I,” I replied. “Don’t make me challenge you in combat for her hand.”
His eyebrows rose. “That is not a thing.”
“In my county in Ireland, it still is,” I challenged. I could take him in a fight. Finn knew it. Just like he knew it was such a thing.
“I know you can take care of her. I suppose if you take responsibility for the musician, that could be managed. But those other two? I don’t like it,” he blustered.
“That really isn’t for you to decide. You can yell at her. You can cut her off. You can demand that she un-bond them. Butultimately all the decisions are hers and you know how stubborn she is. You’re her father–you should want her to be happy. Yes, her happiness looks different than what you want for her, but that doesn’t make it wrong. Sure, her bonding with three people accidentally is not ideal. Yes, the five of us together could be an absolute mess, but that’s for us to deal with–not you. You can’t protect her forever and if you push too much, you could push her away from you.” I challenged his gaze.
Finn might be an alpha. He might be very important in Boston. But I didn’t care. My loyalty was to her, not him.
Sighing heavily, he raked his red hair with his hand. “I could get behind the student, but the fact that he immediately offered to un-bond her makes me wary.”
“Hale had a plan for his life. It’s natural for him to have feelings. Additionally, he feels quite guilty. He cares for your daughter, but is concerned about the fact that she didn’t consent to bonding with him before it happened,” I explained.
He sat with that for a moment. “That says a lot about him and I appreciate that, because he should feel remorse for what he did. But that athlete is happy about it. I don’t like that one bit.”
“Carlos and your daughter have been seeing each other for a while. He loves her. Hockey is an actual occupation, and he does well for himself. We’ll get it figured out. We already planned on going to the Omega Center to find out our options before you so graciously kidnapped us.”
His eyes narrowed. “It’s not kidnapping if it’s my own kid.”
“You’re being impossible and you know it. Do I need to take them all out of here?” I glared, not afraid to march everyone out right now against Finn’s wishes.
“I wanted to get your opinion. I actually value your expertise, and I do appreciate that you love and care for my daughter–especially when you work together. That’s what I always fear most, that she’ll die doing her job, like her mother did.” It sounded likethe words pained him to say. “Do the boys care about what she does? I don’t like it and I resent her mother’s family for putting that pressure on her.”
“They don’t care. They’ll support her staying or leaving, as will I.”
The door opened and Fiona barreled out.
“You're being ridiculous, Dad. The food is almost ready and I’m hungry.” She turned to me. “You missed it. Carlos’ friend and Hale’s sister came armed with hockey sticks, and they brought lasagnas and cookies to trade for Carlos and Hale’s lives, but they left. The best thing is, I actually know his friend from when we were little.”
Oh, well, Fiona did know a lot of interesting people.
“Yes, I could use some food.” Though I’d had breakfast.
I wouldn’t blame Hale at all if he chose to un-bond her and Carlos. Both Carlos and I would take good care of her.
While I didn’t want to be with an alpha, here I had an alpha mate who thought I hung the moon.
They were all so… chaotic.
It would be a challenge if we stayed together.
Though I would do it for her, because ultimately it was her choice and I would support her fully no matter what.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Fiona
“This lasagna is so good,” I told Carlos as we finished eating. While it was warming up, our cook had made a nice big salad and some garlic breadsticks to go with it.
Carlos nodded. “I’m still amazed that she feels that we’re worth two giant pans of lasagna.”
“Who trades people for food?” Daddy asked.
“Italian university students?” my brother, Colin asked, patting baby Rose’s diaper butt as he ate. Colin and his pack lived in the back house.
My other brother, Adam, who was Tommy and Nora’s father and the oldest of my brothers, nodded. “That tracks.” He and his pack lived here with the dads.
