Page 37 of Fated Wings
His father’s hand lifted, and for a moment, Newt thought he might actually strike him. But Vaughn shifted slightly, a subtle reminder of his presence, and Hershel’s hand dropped.
“If you don’t come with me right now,” his father said, voice dropping to something cold and dangerous, “I'll have your mutt sent to another dimension. Somewhere you'll never find him.”
Ice flooded Newt’s veins. His father had connections, favors owed by fae far more powerful than either of them. It wasn’t an empty threat.
“You wouldn’t.” But even as he said it, he knew better. Hershel would do whatever it took to get his way. He always had.
“Try me.” His father’s smile held all the warmth of a winter graveyard. “One word to the right people and your precious mate vanishes forever. Is that what you want?”
Newt’s mind raced, searching for options that didn’t exist. He couldn’t let Vaughn be banished to some hellish dimension, but going back meant a lifetime of misery, married to someone he’d never love while his actual mate lived on without him.
Behind him, Vaughn’s breathing had gone carefully controlled. But there was something else there too. Concern for Newt, a willingness to fight regardless of consequences.
That’s what decided it.
“No.” The word dropped into the charged atmosphere like a match into gasoline. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
Hershel’s face cycled through several colors before settling on an unhealthy purple. “You ungrateful—”
“I’m staying with my mate.” Newt’s voice gained strength with each word. “And if you try to have him sent away, I'll follow. Even if it takes me the rest of my life, I'll find him.”
“You dare defy me!”
“The last I checked, interfering in a mating was forbidden,” Vaughn said. “Unless you want a visit from the Ultionem, I would suggest you leave.”
Hershel’s face turned molten. “You think you can unravel generations of tradition? The Unseelie do not recognize mating outside our kind.”
“Dude,” Vaughn said, looking as if he was drawing from the bottom of a dried well for his patience.
Newt’s brows shot up. His father had never been addressed so brazenly before.
“I have had it up to my ears with threats.” Vaughn took a step closer, and to Newt’s shock, his father took a step back. “Between demons and vampires, and now you, I’m at the point where I’ll call the Ultionem myself if you don’t get your pajama-wearing ass out of my house. Newt’s my mate. End of story.”
The bedroom door slowly opened. On the other side stood Zeppelin, Quinn and Wade flanking him.
Taking a tentative step toward his father, Newt said, “This is where I belong, not married to someone I don’t want, let alone love.” It was the wrong way to declare his love to Vaughn, but he had to make his father see that he wasn’t leaving his mate’s side.
After everything he and Vaughn had been through, Newt would fight tooth and nail to stay with his pack. A family who cared more about him than his father ever had.
Hershel glanced between them, his nostrils flaring. Then he looked back at Newt. “You’re dead to me.”
“I was never alive to you to begin with. Just a bargaining tool so you could climb your social ladder.” Newt wasn’t going to deny it hurt. Deeply. He would miss the Unseelie realm, a place he cherished, but if it was a choice between what he would lose versus his mate, he would choose Vaughn every time.
He would also miss his mother. But she’d never had his back. Not really. She’d always bowed to what her husband had wanted, pushing aside Newt’s needs with a warm smile, which was supposed to seem as if she truly cared about him.
But the only person who had shown they cared about Newt stood beside him, canines bared.
Hershel glared at them before a portal opened and he stepped through. Newt could’ve sworn he saw a glint of sadness in his father’s eyes before the portal vanished.
He collapsed in Vaughn’s arms, everything feeling permanent now. There was no going home. No wild fields or markets or the Unseelie way of life.
It was just him and Vaughn and a house full of strangers Newt was eager to form family bonds with. And two mates he was dying to get to know better.
“You okay?” Vaughn asked as Zeppelin closed the bedroom door.
“No,” Newt answered honestly, clinging tighter to his mate. “But I’ll get there.” He pulled back enough to look up into stunning brown eyes. “I love you.”
A smile curved Vaughn’s lips. “Love you too, sweetheart.”
