Page 24 of Reclaiming Home

“Kye told me you stopped searching for me because Theresa told you to,” Carys answered in a chilly tone. “Frankly, I’d rather stay in this house where I was raped repeatedly for over half ayear than stay one night under the same roof with that woman.” Aaand there was the hurt and theatrical teenager again.

Dad didn’t know what to say to that. “Uh… well….”

“We’re going to stay here. We’re joining Brodie’s pack.”

“He’s a… a…”

“I’m an Alpha werewolf, yes,” Brodie said in his deep voice. “It was my uncle who was holding Carys against her will. I dealt with him and happened to… inherit the pack. I’m rebuilding it and I promise that your children are safe here with me.”

The fact that he still wanted to tell our dad that meant a lot. He didn’t need to say it on our account and he knew that, yet he still said it to Dad.

“Well, I suppose that’s….”

“Even if it wasn’t something you agreed on, there’s nothing you can do about it,” Carys pointed out. “We’re adults. This is what we’re choosing.”

Dad started to grasp at straws, then. “Your little sister—”

“I’m sure that by now, Theresa has told her all about how horrible of a girl I was and how not to be anything like me.” She nearly crushed my hand as she squeezed it. “After all, she told me she didn’t want me in the house because I was such a bad influence for Eira.”

Before Dad could comment, I interjected. “We’ll call you at some point when we feel like it. Just know that we’re safe.”

He seemed to understand that saying anything to defend Theresa wasn’t going to fly, so he sighed. “Okay. If you guys need money—”

“I have that covered,” Brodie said immediately.

“I’m pretty sure Theresa wouldn’t want you giving us any money anyway,” I added.

We told him bye and ended the call. Carys and I looked at Brodie.

“I know it wasn’t my place to tell him that, but I take care of my pack. Well, Rian will help, but you know what I mean.”

“It’s fine,” Carys told him. “We don’t want Dad’s money anyway. Not after….” Then she glanced at me. “Right?”

“Right. I’ve been hanging by the skin of my teeth for over a year now, but I’ve still not asked him for a penny. I’d rather starve.” The fierceness of my tone managed to surprise Carys, but Brodie seemed… proud?

She burrowed under my arm and squeezed me hard. “Thank you for looking for me. For never stopping.”

I felt a bit choked up, so I kissed the top of her head and squeezed her.

She pulled from me and turned to hug Brodie. He seemed startled but hugged her back.

“And thank you for saving me and being a good guy,” she murmured against his chest.

He seemed to feel like I did and hugged her back without saying anything. He avoided my gaze but smiled slightly.

The more I spent time around him, the more of the snippets I’d ever learned about wolves came back to me. Like the mark of a good Alpha. I hadn’t just been guessing when I told him he was acing the Alpha thing already.

I needed to do more research, though. That was one thing I was good at, research. I hadn’t enjoyed studying as much as I would’ve wanted when I was still in college, but I’d managed. The idea of how to be the best human pack member Brodie could want? Nowthatmade me want to study.

We sat in silence for a few minutes after the call, then Brodie sighed.

“I think we should sort all the shopping bags.”

Carys pointed toward the hall where we could see part of his haul, and giggled. “That’ll take a while. I still need to put the nonperishables into the pantry, too.”

I got off the couch. “You go do that, we’ll do the bags and the… upstairs stuff.” The bedding.

In short order, we got to work. Brodie took the frankly disgusting mattress pad from upstairs and hauled it outside. I gathered the old pillows and blankets, everything I could grab from the bedroom really, and took it out as well.

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