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I’d known the Peterson twins would be there, but what I hadn’t expected was everyone else who’d shown up to stare at us like we were the fish in an aquarium. The Petersons were accompanied by Colt Stone’s pack and even Nash and Dutch hovered toward the back of the crowd, shooting me encouraging grins as we faced what I was equating to a verbal firing squad.
Ciara had tried to sit next to us, but Brynn had quickly drawn her to their side of the table and she stood looking worried and a little bit sheepish as the twins interrogated us.
“You went into heat at the complex and somehow, at the end of it, you’ve bonded with my daughter?” Alexei’s voice was dangerous as he stared at Artie who shifted uncomfortably in his seat until Charm rested her head on his leg.
“Alexei—” Ciara began, jumping to the omega’s defense, but Maxim held up a hand to stop her.
“It was an accident,” Artie admitted, not seeing the way that both of the men’s jaws clenched at the word accident. “But I’ve liked Ciara since we met in Scotland and I was hoping everything would end this way eventually.”
Enzo looked as if he wanted to say something, but because of the presence of Colt Stone, he just slipped his fingers through Artie’s and slumped in his seat.
“Do you know how irresponsible that was?” Alexei sounded just like Enzo had earlier this week after Artie’s heat had faded.
Artie flinched at the sound of his voice and we all shot the man a look. Upsetting an omega fresh off their heat was no one’s idea of a good time and even if he was my coach I wasn’t going to stand by and let him yell at Artie.
I actually really liked him—not in a romantic way—that had been obvious to the both of us. But after we’d all agreed to see what a pack with the five of us looked like, I’d spent nearly every waking moment outside of hockey practice with them.
They were a bunch of cool guys and I knew my mom was going to have a field day with them once I finally brought them to family dinner. I’d sort of already told her the gist of what had happened during Artie’s heat.
Her first question had been to ask how I felt about it, and her second had been about meeting them.
Only a few of my cousins were alphas like me and I’d been getting random pointers from them about pack life all week about the do’s and don’ts of it.
“Alexei,” Ciara repeated, this time with more force, causing the man to finally look over at her.
She was standing with her arms crossed, her brown eyes tight with anger.
“What? Do you disagree with me?” the man asked, mimicking her stance. It was clear where her stubbornness came from because I watched as they continued to stare at each other until Alexei finally sighed, giving in first. “Are you really okay with this? You’ve only ever talked about not wanting to be in any relationship and now you’re very suddenly in a committed pack with a very permanent bond mark.”
“I knew it was a possibility the entire time and I was okay with it,” Ciara told him. “And I didn’t bring them here so that you could yell at them.”
Alexei snorted.
“We always yell at them. Remember the first time Brynn brought those two in?” He hiked a thumb over his shoulder in the general direction of Brynn’s alphas.
“You threatened to send me to Siberia,” Nash’s wry joke came from the back of the crowd, easing the tension as everyone laughed.
“I think you’ve threatened them enough. Please just try to trust that I know what I’m doing.” Her words were in direct contrast to her anxious whispers from when we were cuddled up in her bed this morning.
Ciara was worried she was going to ruin everything. She didn’t know how, but she told me that she was terrified of messing things up.
I didn’t know how to comfort her with my words, so I’d just distracted her with my body instead until she couldn’t think about anything else but me.
“We’ll take care of her.” I’d meant to say the words in my head, but when everyone’s heads swiveled to face me I realized I’d said them out loud.
Alexei’s frown deepened. “I haven’t gotten to you yet, Park, what part of ‘don’t date my daughters’ do you idiots not seem to get?”
“I won’t apologize for pursuing my soulmate,” I told him simply, making everyone in the room gawk at me.
Ciara’s face flushed as our eyes met and I offered her a smile which she slowly reciprocated.
“He’s so honest,” I heard someone whisper in the crowd.
Alexei sputtered, clearly trying to find the words to say before Maxim finally put a hand on his shoulder. “Lexei, that’s enough. This kid is too powerful for your fatherly overprotectiveness, and I also distinctly remember a certain young hockey player telling an angry Irishman to fuck off when he forbade you from dating his daughter.”
“That was different,” Alexei grumbled, clearly displeased with his brother’s interference.
“Hey, Alexei, look at it this way,” Dutch said as he and Nash pushed to the front, offering me surreptitious thumbs up while the coaches were looking away. “You’re running out of daughters that hockey players can date.”
