Page 18 of Midnight Mate
Angus put a hand on my arm. “Relax, East. It’s—”
“I messed up one time in your righteous presence,” my father snapped, eyes blazing at Angus. “And now I got Tobias breathing down my neck because of your meddlin’.”
A jolt of awareness speared through me as I read between the lines. Something had happened between them—something pack related. Part of me wanted to know what, but then I realized getting involved would only end badly for me. Again.
“I’m not doing this.”
I grabbed my beer, chugged it, and slammed it down. Fishing around in my pocket, I came away with a twenty and tossed it onto the bar.
“This new generation thinks it runs shit,” my father continued, oblivious or uncaring that I wanted nothing more to do with him tonight. “But I been around longer than these assholes could walk. Nobody’s dictating my life.”
Fuck me.
I knew from experience he was only getting started now.
The bartender raised an eyebrow that said he knew the same thing.
Angus shot me a look—an apology and sympathy rolled into one. I hated it.
“I’ll see you, man.” I headed for the door without a backward glance.
I made it halfway across the lot before the sound of breathing behind me made me tense. I stopped, my wolf rising dangerously close to the surface.
“Whoa.” Angus stopped short at the look on my face. “It’s just me.”
“Jesus. Don’t sneak up.”
His brow lifted. “Never got the drop on you before. You telling me that super-sniffer has lost its edge?”
I didn’t answer. My eyes darted to the bar behind him.
Angus sighed. “I’m sorry I riled him up.”
I shrugged. “He would’ve riled himself eventually. Always does.”
Angus nodded. He’d been my confidant in high school. The only one I’d ever told what went on behind the closed door of my parents’ house. Not that the town’s bartenders hadn’t seen their share, but even they didn’t see him come home at night. Arguing and throwing things and sometimes throwing us.
Angus knew.
And right now, he was looking at me like he knew too much.
“Your mom came to me,” he said without a single preamble.
That was his way. Angus liked to rip off the Band-Aid all at once.
“Came to you for what?”
Stupid question. I already knew what.
“Help.”
But even as I hoped I was wrong, that one simple word told me everything.
My shoulders sagged. My knee twitched and nearly buckled.
“She came to you?”
I couldn’t help the sting in that. She hadn’t bothered to reach out to me. Though, if she was going to go to anyone else, I was damn glad it had been Angus.
