Thicker Than Ink

Twenty

The very last thing I need when trying to coax Addy into opening the door so I can soothe him through his sudden drop and the panic attack I can feel coming with it is the sound of the handle of the front door turning... The need to lock it not dawning on me because one would think a broken foot is enough of a 'no' that a reasonable person would need to realize they aren't exactly wanted here... The heavy sound of Pop doing his best to limp his way over the threshold with his growls spilling over as if he had some preconceived notion that this is his house despite having never even set foot inside before... My wolf not reacting well to the fact that someone unwanted is entering My house with my pregnant mate terrified and locked away in the bedroom... The small amount of control I had fought to get back from the beast snapping with how fragile it had been... The wrath that pours out of me when I turn and storm his way quieted only by the fact that I know Addy can still hear me, even with the door locked tight with his hands over his ears huddled up under the blankets of our bed...

Still... The look Pop gives me when he sees my face...

It makes him open the door back up after only just closing it...

Because he knows...

He knows that this was the wrong move to make even though his bullshit mentality is that all of the world owes him something and he can't backpedal fast enough to avoid getting snapped at, my hands coming up to shove him the rest of the way out of the door before following him and closing the door as softly as I can behind me without turning away from him or dropping the glare I'm giving him, my words harsh as they start, the low hiss that leaves my mouth maybe more terrifying than yelling would have been to him because he's used to being yelled at in the fights he picks, "Are you fucking kidding me?"

Any other time Pop would fly off his handle back at me for even daring to touch him, but this isn't the same battle it was when I was a teenager. He's older now, and my wolf is mature now, both bigger and stronger than his and he knows it... Add in the broken foot currently trying to knit itself back together in his boot and it's barely even a fight... It's more like he'd be acting like a punching bag, not that he doesn't deserve it, "Coming into my house? Where do you get off coming over in the first place? What made you think you should come back at all, Pop? You saw that I had a mate at the conference and decided it'd be nice to come home so you could try and push Addy around too like you do to the rest of us? Because that's not happening. If you think you're getting anywhere him or the baby you're out of your mind."

I barely recognize my own voice anymore as my words try and fade into the background of the rumbling pouring from my chest with no hesitation, my hackles raised as Pop backtracks, his wary eyes widening as he holds up his hands, my reaction likely making more sense to him... My need to protect my mate and child something foreign to him, but recognized even if he himself never experienced the urge over Ma and Becky and I... His words only digging his hole deeper as he stalls instead of turning tail like he needs to to avoid getting his ass handed to him for inviting himself into an Alpha's den with a pregnant Luna frightened inside, "I didn't know, Sigh. I didn't know. Stop turning so red and we can just talk. I just need you to call Ma and tell her to let me in at home and I can leave. That's what we both want, right? Me to leave?"

My hands balled into fists knowing damn well that I can't throw any punches without Addy getting more stressed out than he already is, a fight going to cause me to be away from him even longer than I already am having to be in order to get Pop to get the message that when he took off after handing the title down and took so long coming back that everyone else moved on with their lives... That Ma was going to eventually get tired of his bullshit and change the locks, and that Becky would stop answering his calls, "Get off my property. Leave Ma alone. And Becky. I don't just want you gone I want you to not come back. Period. I don't know how you even had the balls to show up."

"What the hell, Son? I didn't raise yo-" Pop tries to start with me, but the last he snaps one of the last restraints I have of my hold on myself, the way I start to shiver as I step forward a warning to us both that if he doesn't leave soon that my wolf is going to take it as a challenge and tear him down to protect its territory and our mate.

"Raise me? You didn't raise me, you Fuck. Ma raised me, and that's only when you let her come and see me after you stuck me out here to fend for my fucking self! You didn't raise anybody! Now get lost. Last warning." I do my best to not get loud... To keep the childhood resentment he always brings out in me and the fresh batch of anger that he's chosen to add to the pot to a simmer instead of a raging boil... But even I flinch at the way I bark my words at him... The point finally getting across that if he doesn't escort himself off the property that there wouldn't be any choice in whether or not I prevent him from being mauled because at that point, he's an intruder who was asked to leave the property, and the territory and refused, and I don't think certain higher-ups would necessarily frown on it or even ask for inches off my ponytail very specifically because it's Pop I'm dealing with... And while it's a phone call I don't want to make, I'd put up with Alic for a few minutes if it meant clearing up why Pop no longer has a home to return to or a pack to run with.