I wouldn't pledge my loyalty to their pack even if he had a red-hot poker aimed for my butthole.
I flicked my fingers, pretending I was cleaning under my nails as they watched. "We aren't doing any of that."
"Then your pack's continued presence in our territory will be seen as an act of war, and we will defend our pack from all neighboring threats."
This was bullshit. Legal mumbo jumbo spoken quickly enough to cause confusion and instill fear. It wouldn't work on me.
"Okay, go do that then. Protect yourself from us, and we'll continue to mind our own fucking business."
The closest of the two wolves growled and clacked his jaws at me.
"We only allow service animals in here," I said. "You'll have to tie your pets up outside."
Both wolves growled at that.
"I can see we're getting distracted here," Aver's father said, his voice gentle, like he was only attempting to bring some logic and peace to our conversation. "The fact remains. You can pay the back taxes and then keep your account current by continuing to pay your monthly pack business tax, or you can bring war on the heads of everyone you live with. I know my son can't be as foolhardy and quick to judgment as you are. You may wish to discuss this with him before you make everyone's lives harder."
No, Aver wasn't one to make snap decisions. But he also lived in the closet because he was still too scared to show his parents who he really was. I would've loved to see the look on Glendon's face when he found out his son wasn't as perfect—according to his process of measuring—as he thought. That wasn't my secret to tell, though.
"Aver will tell you the same thing I'm telling you. We aren't a pack. We're doing what we've been trying to do since you all pushed us out—survive. Leave us alone. We'll leave you alone. I promise."
"The growing presence of a foreign pack cannot be ignored," my father retorted.
The thin cord that had held me back and acted as a dam for all the things I wanted to say and do to this man snapped. These shifters weren't just here threatening me and my business now. They were threatening my family—my brothers, cousins, niece, and nephews. Both times these idiots had shown up and frightened Kansas, and that made me angrier than anything else. Kansas hadn't asked for any of this.
"Maybe you should try to ignore it," I snapped back, leaning forward in my anger.
The wolves crowded in front of their Alpha, leaving my father unprotected.
I grabbed a glass, pouring myself a shot. It was early, but this was too much bullshit to deal with sober. "Or how about, instead of talking about this pack nonsense, we start looking at the real issue here, Pops? Your panties twisting because you couldn't keep your wife. How embarrassing was it to have her leave you? Do you think it was more embarrassing because you're an elder? Or because you aren't an Alpha and will never be one? I'm sure everyone is still talking about it. The elder whose wife and sons all left him."
John's face blazed a bright, furious red. "That's what we're doing, son. Bringing things back to how they were, how they should be. We've been too kind, allowing your disrespect, giving you and your cousins leeway. But no more. Our kindness is clearly being taken advantage of—"
I scoffed. Kindness?
"Make no mistake," he snarled. "I will put my pack and my house back in order. Your mother will see how she's allowed the outside world to influence her. And if she doesn't come to that realization on her own, I'll use pack law to force her back. I'm within my means."
He sniffed importantly. He had such a punchable face. His nose might as well have been a bullseye.
My arms shook, picturing my sweet mother being forced back under the same room as this monster. I'd let that happen over my dead body. "That would be the only way you'd get your wife to want you again. If you forced her."
My father growled and lunged for me. A few times, as children, he'd smacked us, claiming it was part of his parenting. But he'd only ever hit us as a punishment when he was angry. And we were never forgiven after. My father could hold a grudge, the pettier the better, and I'd spent far too many of my years cowering from him or trying to earn his love.
I dodged his punch, replying with one of my own. My fist hit his chin, and I understood immediately how great it had felt for Nash when he'd punched our father months ago. And why it had been so hard for him to stop. The first punch felt so good, I went in for a second and a third. I forced him off balance, and he stumbled back.
I stopped, making it clear I was choosing to stop. It wasn't the wolves' growls or Aver's father insisting that made me stop. It was me.
"Disgraced alpha son—" My grandfather, Alpha Walker began to speak.
"I'm over that title," I snarled, cutting him off and spinning toward him in the same second. He'd moved closer than I'd thought, and I wound up knocking my fist into his shoulder.
Aver's father gasped. "This shifter has struck our Alpha. Seize him!"
Seize me? What was he? A Disney villain?
Still, the other shifters obeyed, both wolves and those in their human forms. My father I could handle, but I wasn't sure what I could do working with these odds. Maybe I could get a message out to my brother. Dammit, I should've texted him right when they got here, but I'd been hoping I could handle this by myself.
"Wyatt!" Kansas shouted my name from the foot of the stairs.
I'd told him to go upstairs and lock the door. Clearly, he'd decided that had meant "stand on the bottom step and listen in." He was probably so confused.
My father shook his head as he pressed a bloody handkerchief to his nose. "Getting sloppy, son. Never let them spend the night."
The implication being that Kansas was a recent conquest I couldn't get rid of.
I backhanded my father once more, and he fell back, landing hard against the tile. Two of the other shifters rushed in, one on each arm. I shook the right one off, but another replaced him as one of the wolves clamped down on my ankle. I couldn't save myself, but I'd be damned if anyone touched Kansas. "Run, now. That's an order."
Kansas squeezed his arms around his chest and shook his head tightly. "I'm not leaving you." His forehead pinched, and my gut dropped, though I wasn't sure why. I just knew I didn't like it when he looked like that. "When I drop, don't leave me, okay?" His voice sounded so quiet, so unsure.
I'd never leave him, but I didn't understand what he was saying either.
"Kansas, don't—"
Instantly, the two men at my sides dropped their arms before collapsing to the ground. The wolves fell as well, and my father, Aver's dad, and Alpha Walker all dropped like rocks pushed from a bridge into a river. I squinted at their fallen forms, wondering what the hell could've knocked them all out at the same time. Then I saw Kansas on the ground as well, twin streams of blood pouring from his nose down his face.
"Kansas!" I dropped to his side and lifted him to my chest. His heart was still beating, fast but steady. When I drop, don't leave me… He'd known this would happen. Maybe he could have clued me in. My hands were clammy from the terror racing through me, that terror having nothing to do with the shifters unconscious around me.