Page 95 of Unforgivable

Thjis

Tabitha Song envelopes her daughter, hugging her tight to her chest. They're the same height: short. Tabitha is plumper, not as thinly muscled as Lyri. Both females whimper softly, nuzzling cheeks, their wolves reacquainting with each other. Tears are streaming down both female's faces, unchecked.

Ted leans in and wraps both his arms around the females. It's a little funny to see the much taller male dwarf his mate and daughter. I feel a smile curl my lips until Ted's eyes shoot open on us, his face paling.

Very deliberately, he sniffs his daughter. Shit.

Lyri notices right away and steps away from her mother to stand in front of us. In a strange turn-about, it's her protecting us. We might need it. It's hard to miss the murderous glint in Ted's eyes as he lets her pull away from the embrace.

I stiffen. I'm not hurting Ted Song. No way would I do that to Lyri. I'm pretty sure that my brothers feel the same way, so if Ted tries to tear a strip off our hides, then we would have to let him. Hopefully, Lyri would stop him before he rips our junk off. I need it to make my female happy.

"How are you males this evening?" Ted rasps. His eyes travel to each of us in turn before settling on me.

I take a deep breath. I'm covered in Todd's blood. He was alive when they dragged him from the bakery, but, to be honest, he'll never be the same. A curse of being medically trained is that I know how to disable an opponent. If necessary, I know how to maim them permanently. I know without anyone telling me that Todd will never walk again. He may never talk, either.

I'll be in trouble for that, but what's a whipping mean? I'll take a few scars. It's worth it.

"Have some trouble, Thjis?" Ted asks me.

"Had a little run-in with Todd down at the bakery," Rhet supplies for me.

"Milli's Todd?" Tabitha asks her nose wrinkling as disdain flashes across her face. Apparently, there's no love lost between Tabitha and Todd's mother.

Rhet hums an agreement.

"Well, he needs a good slap in the head," Tabitha snaps.

Ted looks steadily at me. I nod, once, to his unspoken question, letting him know that Todd was one of them, and he's not ever going to hurt Lyri again. A gleam of satisfaction replaces the avarice, but only for a moment.

"You males want to grab a beer with me out back? We can let Tabitha talk to Lyri. She misses her daughter. The pups are all upstairs watching a movie." Ted's invitation is given with no quarter, no wiggling out of having a heart-to-heart with the male who's daughter has us by the balls.

So we all trudge down the hallway like we're on our way to the gallows. Heads held high, but not too high. We are dealing with Lyri's dad, after all.

Ted hands us each a cheap imitation beer in a can and takes a glass-bottled dark beer for himself. The beer tastes similar to hog piss, but I drink it down, noticing that Ezra is already reaching for his second can within seconds of being handed the first. Rhet is the only one of us who doesn't seem to need the fortification, his hands steady and calm as he drinks.

"How is everything out in Genom?" Ted asks.

"Good, Lyri's not MateLess," Ezra blurts out. Fucking idiot! Ted goes ashen. Ezra fidgets, nearly dropping his beer, but one stern look from Rhet, and he stills his body.

"What?" Ted asks, looking bewildered.

"She was rejected, Ted," Rhet says calmly.

"F-fuck," Ted breathes out. He rubs his free hand over his face, then takes a page from Ezra's book and chugs his beer. "How do you know?"

"She confirmed it for us," Rhet says.

Ted sinks into a chair, nodding absently. "Someone hurt my baby." He shudders. "How could that happen? How did we not know?"

His lower lip trembles, and he looks down, blinking hard. "How did I miss it?" he whispers to himself.

"The signs are about the same," Ezra supplies.

Ted shakes his head, laughing with such pain that we all wince. "I thought... I really thought that all I had to do was find the males who hurt my daughter during her Shaming. Just make them bleed, make sure that everyone knows who they are so that they'll be fucking unforgivable, but now..."

He coughs, spitting a little into his hand, "Goddess, why?" He looks up at Rhet, "who did it?"

Rhet shakes his head. "We don't know. It's too painful for Lyri to tell us just yet. We were hoping you would know."

---