Page 120 of The Pack Next Door
In my head, there were two Mums. The poor, wounded omega who was so vulnerable that she needed to be protected at all costs. One who couldn’t rely on her mates to do so, forcing me to step up. It was a suffocating feeling. As a teenager, I was thrust into the role of becoming a surrogate mate, focussing on her happiness, her safety, far more than my fathers ever bothered to. Every time I tried to maintain some kind of separation from her, she’d step right over that boundary, enfolding me in a heavy cloud of floral neediness.
Reject the call, I told myself, my heart racing faster and faster.Tap the red button and…
As if sensing my rebellion, the call ended unanswered. That left me holding to the heavy weight of guilt and relief, the two making my guts sour.
“Oh yeah…” Jace grabbed the gold powder when I appeared beside the table, holding the vials up to the light. “That’s the good stuff. So you’re handling the logistics of the launch?”
Hearing my brother suggest that I do something was a welcome surprise.
“Checked in with Emma as I walked in,” I said. “She’ll be free in about ten minutes.” With a sharp breath, I looked around the warehouse. “Mads and Briar haven’t made it in?”
“Not yet.” He smirked as he bent to mix more glue in with the gold powder. “Shit! I should’ve got you to get more epoxy.” I tossed the packets I picked up from the hardware store on the way over here. “Fuck, you’re a legend.”
The keys and my phone landed on the desk as I emptied my pockets and of course, that was when another call camethrough. Jace looked at the screen and frowned before staring up at me.
“Mum’s still calling you?”
She didn’t call him every hour on the hour? I couldn’t seem to bring myself to ask. There was no good answer. Mum either was harassing my brothers the same way.
Or she wasn’t.
Jace stabbed the red button with far more ease than I managed to, the relief washing over me, only to be dispelled as he unlocked my phone.
“Holy shit.” Sometimes it takes someone else to see the magnitude of a problem. He scrolled through my call logs, all the voicemails left, then navigated over to the messages. “Gideon…”
His questioning gaze had me shrinking back, wanting to get up and walk the fuck away from this conversation. I couldn’t, though. Instead, I was pinned to the spot by his silent interrogation.
Not so silent.
“I blocked them as soon as we left for the city,” he said, a small frown forming. “There’s nothing I wanted to hear from them.”
So why didn’t I? That was his unspoken question.
“I…” My hands rose and fell. Responses were formulated, but I dismissed each one. “I obviously didn’t.”
His judgement, his anger, I could’ve coped with any of that. A hand on my arm, giving it a squeeze, right before he pulled away and went to work. I watched him mutely go through my phone and find my contact list.
“Guess it’s not always smooth sailing, being the golden child.” His finger hovered over the screen. “I’m gonna block them, unless you say otherwise.”
“Please.”
I barely croaked that out and he nodded quickly, working to do just that as well as erase all evidence of our parents from my phone. It was only then that I could let out a shuddering breath, loosening my grip on the table’s edge.
“Gideon, you’ve gotta talk to us about that shit. They’re our parents too. Who knows their bullshit better than your own brothers?”
“I know.” I nodded, then turned to face him. “It’s just… really fucking hard.”
“All the best things are, brother.” He stared into my eyes. “You told me that.”
“Using my words against me?”
I smiled weakly, trying to use his ploys to defuse the gods awful tension.
“Nope.” He jerked me to my feet, and to my shock, his arms went around me in a rough hug. We hadn’t done this since we were kids when I found him crying in the yard, having fallen out of a tree. My arms moved far more slowly, the movement rusty, but when I hugged him back, it felt like he was just as good at repairing things inside me as he was the damn pots. “We’re done with that shit, remember?” He pulled back to meet my gaze. “A pack, remember?”
“A pack.” With a nod, it felt like the last thing that was out of alignment snicked back into place. “Thanks, brother.”
Chapter 59
