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“We only wanted to give you the best possible chance in life,” Layla interjects.
“A college degree won’t guarantee that,” Zoey retorts.
“No, but without one, your chances of making something out of yourself grow slimmer.”
“But that’s just the thing, Layla. I don’t need one to make something of myself, and I can prove it. For example, aren’t you happy with your life?” she demands, my incredible girl holding her ground, refusing to back down.
Fuck, I love her. If Alaric wouldn’t kill me, I’d get down on my knees and prove it.
“I am.” Layla nods suspiciously. “Very much so.”
“I know you are, and you don’t have a college degree either. Until a few years ago, you didn’t even have a high school diploma.”
“That’s true, but because of it, we also barely scraped by before Alaric came into our lives. Is that what you want? To live paycheck to paycheck? To live with anxiety, wondering where your next meal will come from or how you will be able to pay rent?” Layla insists, trying to put logic into her stubborn younger sister’s head.
“Zoey will want for nothing,” I state evenly and mean it.
“Oh yeah, big man? You’re going to take care of her?” Alaric blurts out in contempt.
“Yeah, I am.”
“Like fuck you are,” he growls, and before I’m able to react, his left hook hits me right across the jaw.
I lose my balance for a second, and Alaric takes complete advantage of the situation, throwing another punch into my gut. I should have been more vigilant. We’ve sparred enough when he was training me for me to know that Alaric doesn’t sleep on the job. He makes sure to take advantage of every window he has to eviscerate his prey, and right now, I’m his worst nightmare come to life—the man who is trying to steal his child right out from under him. Every nerve ending in me screams to retaliate and throw him a few punches of my own, but if I hurt him, really hurt him, then Zoey would never forgive me, so I take his abuse one punch at a time while never hitting back.
“Alaric, stop!” Layla screams when he lands a punch brutal enough to lay me out on the floor.
I wipe the blood off my split lip and get back onto my feet, staring the man in the eye.
“I will take care of her, Alaric. You can beat me and make me bleed as much as you want, but I’ll never give up. She’s mine now. She’s my life, my heart. You best get that through your thick head and get on board, because that’s how it’s going to be from now on.”
He tries to catch his breath, still glaring daggers at me, while his hands are balled into fists, ready to swing at me.
“Go ahead. Hit me. It won’t change a damn thing,” I warn with a snarl.
“God! You two are impossible sometimes!” Zoey suddenly interrupts, stepping between us.
She places an open palm on my heart and stretches her arm to place the other on her father’s.
“I love you, my wolf, with my whole heart. I am yours. But I don’t need you to take care of me. I’m my own woman,” she says, looking me dead in the eye before she turns her attention to her father. “I’m my own woman, Dad. Emphasis onwoman. I’m not a baby anymore. I can take care of myself and make my own decisions, and if I want to be with Gray and quit school, then that’s my decision to make. Not yours.”
“I just want what’s best for you,” Alaric grumbles despondently.
“We both do,” Layla agrees.
“I know you do.” Zoey sighs, looking at the two people who have been in her corner for most of her life. “And I get that it’s scary letting me live my life as I see fit, but you have to trust that you two did an amazing job raising me, because you did, both of you. I would not be the woman I am today without you. Take comfort in that. Please.”
Layla steps up to her sister, her eyes watering. “I do trust you. I do. I’m sorry if I made you think that I didn’t.”
“If that’s true, then you will also trust me when I say that school isn’t for me. Having some corporate job or a nine-to-five isn’t my destiny. It never was.”
“Then what is?” Layla asks, genuinely curious.
Zoey looks at me with a mischievous smile and then at a brooding Alaric.
“I’m going to follow in my dad’s footsteps. That’s what I’m going to do. I was born for it.”
CHAPTER27
