Page 32 of Fractured Fang: Omega

Levi got out of the car and began looking around. He frantically searched for me, and I came to his side to hold his hand.

“Who’s this?” my dad asked.

I stood so that Levi could see where I was so that I could begin talking and interpreting to Levi, so he didn’t miss out on the conversation. The wind shifted, and my dad caught scent of me; his gaze flew between Macs and me.

“What the hell is going on? You two didn’t leave here mated, but you came back this way?” He rounded on Macs. “You mated my youngest son without my permission? Without asking?” My dad stepped toward Macs, his chest puffed up in anger.

“Asking?!” I said, my anger growing now. My wolf rose to the surface, ready to defend our mate. “What is there to ask? He’s my fated mate. You’re so… so.. Ah!” I threw up my hands in disgust, acting much more like the teenager he thought I was than the young man that I actually was. But something about him claiming a right over my choice of who to mate infuriated me.

“You don’t even know what you’re doing with your life,” my dad said.

Macs came to my side, and tried to put a hand around my shoulders, probably to bring me down, but things were escalating too quickly for me to be calmed now. I knew better than to engage in this fight. I had never won it in all the years we’d been having it. All it did was upset both of us. And yet, for some reason, I couldn’t quite stop myself.

“I know exactly what I’m doing with my life, dad.” And he did, too, or at least would if he ever listened to me. “Art. painting. Providing beauty to the world. Like how you do with your cooking. Like how mom does with her buildings. I’m good at it.”

“That doesn’t provide for a pack, for a family,” he countered, his nostrils flaring.

I rolled my eyes. “How would you know? You know nothing about what I’ve been through. Did you know I’m actually kind of famous in the human world? I had a gallery showing once and sold out.”

“What?” Dad’s face scrunched in confusion, and some of his bravado deflated.

“Yeah, that’s right. I went to school, and got an education in the human world. And now I have several people in Steelwick asking me for portraits. And I have an art therapy program set up with a pack I was staying with for a while—that Levi and I had been staying with.

“I have plans to talk with Wilder about setting up a studio here. Maybe even inviting young shifters to come and see what kind of art they can do.” For a split second, I thought he was listening to me—truly hearing me for the first time.

I should’ve known better.

“What the heck are you going on about?” my dad said.

“Phillip, maybe we should all sit down.” Mom tugged at dad’s arm, trying to pull him from the situation. “We have a lot to discuss.” The worst part is that I didn’t even get the impression my mom was on my side. She just wanted my dad to cool off enough to calmly explain to me all my life failures and then teach me how to right my ways.

“Phillip, if you would just listen—,” Macs began.

My dad growled. “This doesn’t concern you.”

And that was where he was wrong. What I did or didn’t choose to do for my career was far more Macs’s business than it was my father's. Not only was he my mate, but he was also the Beta of the Fractured Fang pack. So, if anything, it wasn’t my father’s business.

“He’s my mate,” Macs said. “My family. He’s probably carrying my pup.”

That was the exact wrong thing to say because then my dad growled even louder. Fur erupted on his arms. My mom tried to calm him, but nothing seemed to help.

“You’re going to end up expelled from a pack like your mother and I were. We don’t want that for you. You have to do things that contribute, that are helpful.”

“Oh, not this again,” I said. My parents’ story about getting expelled from a pack was their favorite to tell; each time they did, they became more and more of the victim in the story. And the more victimhood they claimed, the less inclined I was to believe it wasn’t their own damned fault for being cast out.

Wilder stepped forward. I hadn’t even seen him come out, my attention far too focused on my father, which was why my heart was pounding in my chest.

“Phillip, if you don’t know by now that this pack would never do that, then I have done something seriously wrong as your alpha.”

My dad seemed to calm himself then. His old wolf was submitting to the Alpha, more than him actually cooling, but whatever worked.

“Dad, I’m fine. I know you’re scared, but I’m not going anywhere now. I’m going to be here, and even if it takes months, I will to show you I’m right. I can do this. Macs, Levi, and I were going to make our space here.”

“Who is Levi?”

I looked down, searching for the poor boy who was probably so goddamn confused with everybody shouting, and he could hear nothing. Only, I didn’t see him.

“Levi?” I said. I stomped my foot on the ground and clapped my hands, trying to send vibrations enough for him to either hear or feel me—preferably both. “Levi!” my voice rose an octave as panic set in. “Macs. He was here. I was holding his hand.” When had I dropped his hand? Where did he go?

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