Page 50 of Prey

Kadi clears his throat. “Amir, we have a question for you. We are planning to break up the leaders’ meeting tomorrow night. A few of the guys from the club are coming in a bit and we wondered if you might want to help with the planning? If you don’t, that’s okay, but we figured you may be able to help with information or just in general want to help with getting rid of even some of them.”

My dad cocks his head to the side, thinking of Kadi's words. I see the resolution cross his face as he decides. “Yes, I think I do. I don’t know how much help I will really be. I’ve only ever seen a few of them and I don’t know anything about their movements. But I may be able to help with a few things. Thank you for thinking of including me.”

Kadi nods and takes my hand.

“We are going to go down for a bit. You rest a little and when everyone gets here we can either bring the meeting to you or bring you down there depending on how you’re feeling.” I say. Grams follows us out. She must want to give Mom some more time with Dad before everyone gets here.

Grams closes the door quietly behind us. After we all get downstairs we gather in the kitchen and take some seats around the bar. I love Grams’ kitchen. So much love is wrapped up in this area of the house. Many tears have been cried here. Potions have been made here. New witches have been taught the basics in this very kitchen. You can feel the positive energy in this place. I soak it in. The last few days have been fucking hard.

Grams puts on a pot of water for tea and comes over to hug me. “My little Shasta. The one thing you always wanted has finallyhappened, and you can’t even be happy about it.” She hums as she lets go and makes her way to the other side of the island to sit and watch me closely.

She's right though. I have always wanted my family to be whole again. I mean, who wouldn’t? Now that it is, it’s on the worst possible terms. My dad isn’t even whole himself right now and probably won’t be for a long time. Now we just need to punch a giant hole in the Society tomorrow night so that he has time to get where he needs to be.

She looks over at Ethan and her face softens. “You’ve shown me a lot today and I want you to know that you have my full blessing. Both of you. I’m sorry Amir acted the way he did. He also had preconceived notions about what he thought Shasta’s mate would be like. Then I had the vision and we knew she would have more than one, but not who they would be of course. I don’t think any of us ever thought it would be someone in the lifestyle you two are. But you have been kind to my girl, mostly, and I can see that you care for her. That’s what matters to me. Shasta can take care of herself, as I know you have learned.”

The guys snicker as we all think of the pride land fiasco. Grams laughs and continues. “The thing is, Amir will get back to himself, but it’s going to be a while. I had a vision about it. The scars run very, very deep. The vision I had was angry and violent. I hope to never see anything like it again in my life.”

The guys slump down in their seats. I can only imagine they are trying to put themselves in Dad’s shoes. How do you even do that when someone was hurt in the way he was? I can’t wrap my own mind around it.

I do find what he said about Brigid interesting though and I’m glad he knows her well enough to agree to see her. That was what I thought our biggest hurdle would be. I need to remember to check her out thoroughly though before he does. It makes me alittle nervous that a Goddess split her soul like that. Maybe Shiva will know something.

The water begins to whistle in the kettle and I stand to grab it and bring it over to where we sit. I pour everyone a bit in their cups and we all sit silently for a while, drinking tea and lost in our own thoughts.

I want nothing more than to end the entire Society. Logically, I know it’s going to take a long time and a lot of us working together to make that happen. We can, however, take out a faction or two of them at a time. That’s much more manageable.

A knock comes at the door. Laken and Joaquin are the first to arrive. Grams points at her mug but they both shake their heads. “Where do you want to have the meeting?” Joaquin asks.

“How many are coming?” Ethan asks.

“Us, Alaric, Hank, Emmett and Josiah, and a couple of the other shifters,” Laken says.

Wait, Emmett and Josiah? “My Emmett and Josiah?” I ask.

Joaquin nods. “We went by the shop to check on things on the way here and Emmett was there with Josiah. They asked what was going on and we filled them in. You’re in huge bestie trouble, by the way, because you haven’t even told your best friend you found your dad. He heard it from Jessa. Anyway, they wanted in on it too, no matter how dangerous we told them it would be. They’re shifters so it isn’t like they’re defenseless.”

Oh fuck. I slap a hand to my face. How could I have forgotten to call Emmett? I am the worst friend on the planet. He is never going to let me live this down either. In fact, does he even know about Ethan? I’m sure Jessa filled him all the way in though, so probably.

I look at Ethan and Kadi and wince. They’re both laughing at me. “It isn’t funny you two, he’s going to kill me. I’ve really dropped the ball here.” I groan, pulling out my phone and I fireoff a quick ‘I’m sorry’ and tell him I’ll talk to him later when they show up.

He responds with an angry face emoji. That’s it. Yeah, I am so screwed.

“Well let’s just go to the formal dining room then. It’s got a big long table and there should be plenty of room. Would one of you boys help me move a recliner in there for Amir first though?” Grams asks. Ethan joins her and they go into the living room to grab it.

I run upstairs and knock lightly on my parents’ door. Mom says come in and I crack the door and stick my head in. “Meeting in the dining room soon. Everyone is on their way here. I’ll have Kadi and Ethan come help you down in a few minutes. Grams is getting a seat set up for you.”

My dad nods and holds out his hand. “Come here for a moment, daughter.”

I shut the door behind me and move to sit next to him on the bed.

“I’m sorry for earlier. I’ve had a lot of expectations over the years about what I wanted your life to be like, and spent a lot of my time in captivity trying to convince myself that you all were better off without me. I thought I was never getting out of there alive. I don’t like some of what the two of them do, but your mother said you all are working through things and that I need to just stay out of it.”

He chuckles and squeezes her hand. My mom beams at him. The biggest, truest smile I’ve seen on her since I was small. Since before he died. Well, before he was taken. My heart twists.

“It’s okay, Dad. I had my doubts at first too. It’s been rough with Ethan but it’s because he has some pretty bad trauma of his own. Things are smoother now though, and he continues to do better so I can’t ask for more than that. Besides, they don’t only run guns. They do other things like help the Convocation too.You know how they are. If the Club was truly reprehensible the Convocation would have had them taken out a long time ago.”

“That’s true. I just need the two of you to work around some of the issues I’m going to have for a while. I will also work hard on trying my best to remember the two of you actually had a life that wasn’t in my imagination. I can’t put how I thought things would be in place of how things actually are.” He smiles grimly at us.

I squeeze his hands. I’d love nothing more than to be able to hug him like when I was a child. I don’t think his body can handle that right now. Someone knocks on the door and Ethan pokes his head in at my answer.

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