Page 18 of Love in Unexpected Places

“So, did you talk to your sister?”Sullivan asked suddenly.

“I texted her before leaving this morning.”

“Oh.I thought you were on the phone with her earlier.”

“No, that was Theo.”

For some reason, that made Sullivan smile.“Who immediately reported to Chance.”

“I guess he’s a bit protective of me.”

“It sounds like something he’s used to doing.”

Matty chewed on his lower lip.Sullivan knew what had happened to him, so there really was no reason not to give him details of what Matty’s life had been over the past four years.“I told you that my parents kicked me out when I was eighteen, and I ended up on the streets.That’s where I met Theo and the others.They took me in, and Theo was a good alpha.We didn’t have a home, but we were each other’s family, and we watched each other’s backs.He’s always been protective of all of us, and I don’t think that’s going to change just because he’s not our alpha anymore.”

“He’s your family.”

Matty was relieved that Sullivan understood.Not everyone did, and he’d heard several pack members talk to each other and wonder why it was so important for Theo to keep his friends in the pack.Apparently, some thought that only Theo should have become a pack member.

As if Theo would have allowed that.

“He is.He and the others are my brothers and sisters, and even though we all became pack members, we’re still a family unit.”

Sullivan nodded as if he really understood.“I wish I had something like that, but the coven has always been a hard place to live.Even before everything that happened recently with the dragon clan, we were never a family.We’re coven members because we happened to be born here in the coven, although there are exceptions, like Michelle.”

“Shewantedto become a coven member?”

“I think that if she’d known what would happen, she would’ve said no, but she found us when she was sixteen and terrified.The leaders saw her as a way to make the coven more powerful.They promised her that the coven would always look out for her and that she just had to obey their orders, and they took her in.I don’t blame her for saying yes.I probably would have done the same if I’d been in her place.”

“But you never were.”

“Nope.Like I said earlier, I was born in the coven.My family has always belonged there, long before the current leaders were in charge.Things weren’t always the way they are now.”

“And you want them to go back to what they were before.”

Sullivan shrugged.“Not really.Things were different, but they weren’t good.The current leaders learned at the knees of their parents.From what I remember, even Braden’s parents weren’t great people.They were never as bad as the leaders we have now, and I don’t think they ever truly cared about the coven members beyond the power they could get from them, but yeah.The coven was always guided with an iron fist, and even though a lot of members care about each other, we’ve never been a family.I thought we might be if we managed to get rid of the leaders, but I’m not so sure anymore, not after I’ve seen the pack and how its members behave with each other.”

“Well, not every pack member loves everyone else as their family.There are plenty of them who would be first in line to kick me and the rest of my family out.”

“Chance and Theo won’t let them.”

There was absolute certainty in Sullivan’s voice, which was weird because he didn’t know the pack that well.It looked like he’d managed to read Chance and Theo perfectly, though.“They won’t,” Matty confirmed.He hesitated, then thought of Theo again.He’d told Matty to get to know Sullivan, which was what they were doing.What better way to get to know someone than by asking questions?“Is that something you think you might enjoy?”

“What?”

“Being part of something that’s more like a family.”

Matty had been where Sullivan was.He’d grown up with his parents and his sister, but he’d never really felt loved, except by Sabrina.He now knew that his parents probably hadn’t loved him, and he wasn’t surprised.It didn’t hurt him because he’d expected it.He had everything he could want now, though.He had more siblings than he knew what to do with, and while Chance wasn’t quite old enough to be his father, he’d taken on a protective role that fit a father figure.Matty wasn’t missing anything, but Sullivan hadn’t yet found a family.

“I don’t know if that’s ever going to happen,” Sullivan said, sounding wistful.“We do need to kick the leaders out, but I don’t know if the coven will survive that.It’s probably going to fracture without leadership, and I don’t know how we can choose new ones.They’ve always come from the same families, but I don’t think we should keep that system in place.”

“You could vote,” Matty offered.

“We could.I’ve been thinking about it, but most of the time, I tell myself that it’s pointless to do that now.It’s stressing me out, and we haven’t even gotten rid of the leaders.It can wait.Besides, Braden is a good leader.Even if we kill the other four, he’ll still be there.”

Matty’s stomach churned.He understood why Sullivan felt it was necessary to kill the leaders, but that didn’t mean he had to like it.The thought of killing people made him queasy, but the coven was too dangerous not to do anything.He suspected that if the coven leaders were allowed to leave, they’d eventually find a way to get revenge, and that was something no one wanted.They needed to deal with the coven and its leaders once and for all.

“Well, Chance has a reputation for welcoming strays,” he said, gently teasing.“The pack was always inclusive, but lately, it’s become even more so.Chance let me and my family in, as well as dragons and mages.I’m sure he wouldn’t mind one more mage if that’s what you want.”

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