Page 79 of Trick Knot Treat

“I know, Dad. I miss you, too.”

“So, just cut your holiday short and come home,” he says, trying his absolute best to tempt me.

“Absolutely not. We made a deal. You said I could have a year of freedom, and then I would come and help out with the family business and live with you and Gummy, and we’d be a family forever.”

“I know I said that, but…”

“No breaking the deal, Dad. You promised.” Just thinking that I might lose the last couple of weeks with the pack makes me feel sick. I want every minute. Better to have loved and lost…right?

“All right, all right. Well, everything’s been pretty quiet here. Yates has a new omega.”

“A new one?” I gasp. “How does he find so many to put up with him?”

Dad bursts out laughing.

“Yeah, it’s shocking, isn’t it? That anyone would put up with his filthy ass for a minute, let alone long enough to date him. After last week, where I found his underwear in the soup pot, side note for you my daughter, Gummy does not like underwear in his soup pot, and they are not cheap to replace. I checked this time to make sure he’s not drugging them; they are sober, but I worry about their capacity for thought. I have seen signs of opposable thumbs, so they must be humanoid of some variety.”

I burst out laughing. “Dad!”

“What? It’s perfectly reasonable. How anyone wants to suck on his unwashed-”

“DAD!” I shout.

“All right, fine, fine. No more speculating.”

“Hmm,” I say, watching the waves crashing onto the sand. They are just pale white crests in the depths of inky darkness. I lose track of the conversation, staring at the waves, hating how deep I’m falling. Is falling in love like drowning? I can’t get out no matter how hard I try.

“So, do you want to tell me what’s going on?”

My attention jumps straight to alarm, and I let out a squeak. “Nope.”

“Nope?” Dad says in his frowny voice.

“No. Absolutely not. Everything is fine. Perfect. Peachy.”

“Sweetheart, you know that I have a father's super power, and I can tell when you’re lying to me.”

I hold my breath, trying to find a way out of it without giving anything away that will end up with Dad coming here to ‘rescue’ me.

“I had a bit of a run-in with another omega. We got a bit territorial.” There, that is true, just not all of it.

“Oh, is that all? Did you put her in her place? Show her what the Witlock family is all about?”

“Of course, I did!”

“That’s my girl.”

I hesitate for a long moment. Regretting everything. I need to ask, I have to, but I don’t want to. “How is Harvest?”

“Harvest? He’s fine. Why wouldn’t he be? He’s fretting to have you home, not that he shows it, but he’s been a little toey and extra these last few weeks.”

I close my eyes, filled with contradictory feelings of relief that I don’t have to go back yet and remorse for not wanting to go back to him. My best friend has done me a solid, and I owe him big time. “Well, give him a big hug from me and tell him I’ll see him soon.”

“I can’t wait to see you two together and bonded. It’s like a dream come true. No one will look after my baby better than Harvest.”

My stomach drops and bile chases up my throat. In a desperate attempt to delay the inevitable, I agreed to the bonding if I had one year off. It’s not like it was new; we’ve been expected to bond our whole lives. It’s just…now, we’re here.

A bonding of convenience because I know that both Harvest and myself are only doing this because we love Dad, and we’ve grown up with our whole family celebrating this inevitable outcome.