Page 117 of The Goat in the Bedroom
“But what about the other players she's blackmailing?” Xander asked.
“We reach out to all of them.” I was about to make every queer man in the League my besties and let them all know they had fucking badass allies on their side. No more feeling scared or alone. Not on my watch. “Carefully, quietly. We build a coalition.”
“And then?”
“As a family, we finish this.”
Xander looked around the room, at Liam and George who'd been denied the chance to support him for years, at Willa who was ready to fight the world for him, at Hayes who'd been his brother-in-law all this time without knowing this crucial piece of him, at all the Kingmans who'd claimed him without hesitation.
“Okay,” he said. “Let's do this. Let's take her down.”
“That's the spirit,” Jules said. “Now, who's going to teach Xander how to properly cheat at Monopoly?”
“I will,” George said, putting his arm around his nephew. “After all, I've got years of uncle-nephew bonding to make up for.”
As everyone started setting up for the strangest game night ever, part strategy session, part family bonding, part war council, Vincent and Holly wandered through the crowd, accepting pets and treats from everyone.
Holly had claimed Xander's lap, and he was absently petting her while listening to George explain why you should always be the banker.
“Thank you,” he said quietly to me. “For this. For getting your family involved. For not hating me.”
“I never hated you,” I said. “I was hurt but never hated you.”
“Still. This is... more than I deserve.”
“No,” Willa said, overhearing. “This is exactly what you deserve. What you've always deserved. A family who loves you for exactly who you are.”
“Even though I hid it?”
“Especially because you hid it,” Liam said. “Because now we get to make up for all the years you felt like you had to.”
“This is insane,” Xander said, watching it all unfold.
“This is family,” I corrected.
“Your family's about to go scorched earth on Sloane Mitchell,” Artie said, appearing with a plate of cookies that Holly immediately tried to steal.
And somehow, in the middle of a blackmail crisis, surrounded by chaos and goats and an ever-expanding definition of family, everything made perfect sense.
Sloane Mitchell had no idea what she'd unleashed.
The Kingmans were coming for her, and they were bringing everyone.
KINGMANS GO TO WAR
ARTEMIS
Monday morning in our house looked like a Kingman family explosion.
There were brothers sprawled on every available surface. Chris was asleep on one side of the L-shaped couch with Isak on the other. Declan had claimed the floor with just a pillow and Vinnie curled up on his chest. Everyone else was spread out across the rooms, and thank goodness I’d ordered all those throw pillows. Over at Flynn and Tempest’s we had a girls only slumber party. Jules even stayed.
One text from Gryff saying Bridger was making pancakes had us all standing back in my kitchen waiting not so patiently for his fluffy flapjacks of fun.
This must have been what it was like for Gryff growing up.
The beautiful chaos of never being alone. Always having someone to catch you when you fall. Never questioning if you belonged because of course you did. You were family.
“More tea, baby?” Gryff appeared beside me with the pot, looking surprisingly rested for someone who'd slept on the floor of his own bedroom because his brothers had claimed the bed.
