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“Liathic Park. It felt like the best place to be. What time is it?”
“Two in the morning. No one could get a hold of you, so I used the override you gave me. Uncle James has already messaged your mother and told her to wait for the video.”
“Oh. Thanks. I will send those files now.”
“Ruby, come home. Your room is ready. Derrik is making hot cocoa and has those little marshmallows you like. Come home, sweetie.”
“I don’t want to butt in. I promised you guys that you wouldn’t have to put up with me again after I left.”
“I know, but we miss you. Even Grey misses you. Come home.”
She thought about it for fifteen seconds. “I will be there as soon as I finish sending the files out.”
“That’s my little marshmallow. Want us to draw you a bath in the big tub?”
She laughed. “No, Uncle Leon. I can take a shower like a big girl.”
She got her small laptop out and sent out the file from their entry in the room to their responses to her leaving. Unsurprisingly, Tanner wanted to work out his frustrations on Beth, and she had scrambled to get away from him but ended up sobbing in the wedding gown. Tanner was rough when he was in a good mood; in a bad mood, he was brutal.
Ruby watched her files being sent and received then she included a note to Beth’s family.Charges can be laid. She clearly said no several times. Charges should be laid.
She blocked their number because she really needed a few days of silence. She doubted she would get it, but she could hope. With that done, she put her kit away and drove the two blocks to her uncle’s pack house. Technically, it was Uncle Grey’s house, but Uncle Leon had lived there for decades, so it was her uncle’s house.
She pulled up and parked, got out, grabbed her two bags, and walked toward the front door. It swung open, the gathering of men welcomed her, and she smiled and cried again. She was home.
She sat with a towel wrapping her hair and her fuzzy bathrobe on with her hands around the huge mug full of marshmallow-studded cocoa. Four serious and concerned faces looked at her. “I am sorry. I couldn’t stick it out. I let you down.”
Leon looked at her and frowned. “What?”
“When I started living here, I was told that sometimes alphas did stuff that upset you, but you had to get over it and be a grownup. The moment I saw that he had invaded my territory, that was it. Everything else was just a compounded sin.”
They looked at each other, and Leon rubbed his silvering head. “Shit.”
“I was doing it right until this.”
Leon took her hand. “Is that when I was fighting with Derrik about the shop?”
“Yeah. You said sometimes you had to take verbal abuse until the person saw sense on the other side of things. You and Derrik worked it out, so I thought I was fucking things up when it never got better.”
Leon stared, and Derrik sighed. “We were having other issues at that time. Dane was having trouble getting into university, Gerald wanted to move to the coast, and the company was just getting off the ground. We were existing mates having trouble. We weren’t in courtship. Problems rise in every union, but if there is a solid foundation, you make it through the other side.”
Grey murmured, “Your foundation was polystyrene. It was never stable to begin with. Tanner is a pretty moron who may have flattered his way into your pants, but he was never going to be able to keep you.”
James said in his ridiculously soft voice for a man so big, “He couldn’t keep you as a beta. He would never be able to manage your other form.”
She nodded. “He never saw it. I got good at that.”
Leon had tears in his eyes. “I never intended my comments to be taken like that.”
“Uncle Leon, it’s okay. Weirdly, I got all of my social cues from you guys, and then I ignored half of them and just went after someone who was pretty and in the industry I wanted to work in when he indicated interest. It was so convenient.”
The men around her were stunned, and then they started laughing gently. Leon patted her hand. “I am sorry. We forget that you are female sometimes. Your brain was wired differently. You were coming at this like an alpha.”
Grey rubbed the back of his neck. “This may be my fault. I was the one to teach her dating strategy.”
James groaned. “The fact that you called it a strategy explains why Tanner was her first boyfriend out of university.”
Derrik frowned. “And before it. Sweetie, was he your only boyfriend?”
