Page 49 of Nesting With My Three Alphas
The temperature in the room seemed to drop several degrees.
"Fake papers?" Lily's voice was carefully controlled.
"I never signed anything with Marcus. Nothing binding, nothing legal. But apparently he thinks he can manufacture a claim."
"Then we make sure Sheriff Rowe has everything he needs to shut this down," Anna said with surprising fierceness for someone so young.
"And we make sure you're not dealing with this alone," Mrs. P added firmly. "This town protects its own."
She said it like I was already one of them, already worth defending.
"Thank you," I said, my voice thick with emotion. "All of you. This means more than you know."
As I drove home through the golden afternoon light, my painting safely secured on the back seat, I felt the weight of the morning's revelation settling around me. Marcus wasn't giving up. He was escalating, getting desperate, trying new tactics to drag me back to a life I'd fled for good reason.
But I wasn't the same woman who'd run from Chicago with nothing but two suitcases and a desperate hope for something better. I had roots now, community, people who would stand between me and my past.
I had a future worth fighting for.
I'd only just stepped out of my car when the sound of familiar footsteps made me look up to see Jonah approaching from the direction of his truck, his work clothes suggesting he'd come straight from a job site. His expression was serious, concerned, and I realized word had probably already reached him about Sheriff Rowe's call.
Small towns.
"Hey," he said softly, falling into step beside me. "Heard you had an interesting phone call during art class."
"Mrs. P?" I guessed.
"Mrs. P," he confirmed with a slight smile. "She was worried about you."
We walked towards my front door in comfortable silence for a moment, the weight of unspoken concerns hanging between us.
"Jonah," I said finally, "about tomorrow's meeting with Sheriff Rowe. Would you... would you mind coming with me? I'd feel better having someone there."
His relief was immediate and obvious. "Of course. I was going to offer anyway."
"Thank you," I said, squeezing his arm gently. "For everything. For making this feel like something I can actually deal with instead of something I have to run from."
I looked back at the garden painting still resting in my back seat, then at the duplex that had become my haven, then at Jonah whose steady presence made everything feel possible.
Marcus could file all the fake papers he wanted. He could try every manipulation tactic in his arsenal.
But he couldn't uproot what I'd planted here. He couldn't destroy the belonging, the love, the family I was growing one careful choice at a time.
For the first time since his threatening text that morning, I felt like I might actually win this fight.
Because I wasn't going to have to do it alone. I’d never be alone again.
Chapter 16
Reed
I'd been trying to focus on refinishing Mrs. Thatcher's kitchen cabinets all afternoon, but my mind kept drifting to Kit. There was something about her scent lately, subtle changes that suggested her heat was approaching faster than any of us had anticipated. The protective instincts that had been simmering under the surface for weeks were getting harder to ignore.
After Sunday night's dinner, it was impossible to pretend what we were building wasn't real. The way Kit had looked at all of us, the easy intimacy that had settled over our evening together, we'd crossed a line, and there was no going back.
My phone buzzed with a text from Jonah:Need to talk. All of us. My place in 20. It's about Kit.
It's about Kit. That simple addition made my stomach clench with worry.
