Chapter 17

17

"I appreciate you all coming here." Dylan took his place at the head of the room. He couldn't remember the last time he'd brought everyone in for an emergency meeting. Rarely anything was significant enough that it couldn't wait until the next regularly scheduled one, but every member needed to hear what he had to say right now. And so he'd spent the afternoon pushing aside the furniture in the large open area that composed the dining and living rooms. Lila had helped him arrange rows of chairs to accommodate everyone, and now she sat in the first row.

So did Will.

Dylan cleared his throat. "I think most, if not all of you, know that my twin brother Will has returned to us recently. Some of us were quick to judge him, myself included. We haven't seen him in a long time. He has a few words he'd like to say, and I ask that you listen with open minds and hearts. Will." Dylan stepped aside.

Will, always so casual and charismatic, didn't look like the same man who'd shown up a few weeks earlier. He stepped humbly up to the front of the room. His eyes glanced out over the assembled audience, which included all of his family members, before sweeping back down to the floor. "Good evening, everyone. I tried to write out what I wanted to say, but nothing was quite working for me the way I wanted it to. Some things are just hard to put into words, but I'm not exactly the kind to give a speech. I thought maybe it would be better if I just got up here and did my best."

Barbara, sitting next to Lila, nodded her encouragement.

The hint of a smile Will flashed her disappeared just as quickly as it came. "I haven't been a very good member of this clan, not recently and maybe not ever. I haven't trusted the rest of you, nor have I given you any reason to trust me. Lately, I made that even worse. I came back to Truro, but I wasn't honest about why. I've been deceiving myself for so long that I didn't think twice about deceiving the rest of you. I came here in the hopes of gaining access to the clan's treasure to help me out of a bind that I'd gotten myself in."

A few murmurs of shock rippled through the gathering. Will had already told his closest family members, of course, but not everyone knew.

"I made a lot of poor decisions. I constantly chose what I thought would be the easy way out, but that easy way always made life harder for me. I wanted to blame everyone else but myself, but I won't do that anymore." Will paused as his voice thickened.

Dylan waited, giving him time. The two of them had spent long hours talking it over, discussing not only what Will could do to help but also what Will needed to do in order to help himself. The more time they'd spent together, the more Dylan had become convinced that his twin brother had truly turned around.

"I can see now that I should've relied on the clan to be the family it's always been. I never really saw that, but I do now," Will continued. "While I won't dive into the depths of every little thing, the basic story is that I made some very poor financial decisions and was going to fix them by taking advantage of the clan. Dylan has made me realize what an idiot I've been, yet he's still agreed to help me."

"That's what we do for each other," someone called out from the back.

Will nodded. "You're right, and I'm hoping we can also forgive each other. That's what I'm asking for today. I know I could just let this go and have Dylan tell you all to be nice to me, but I don't want that. I want to do things right. While I originally came here to demand money I didn't deserve, I'm now here to humbly ask for your forgiveness. Thank you." He stepped back, still looking thoroughly ashamed of himself.

Someone started clapping, and the sound quickly took off until the whole room was thundering. Dylan stepped forward and pulled his brother into a hug. "That was the first step, Will. I'm proud of you, but mostly because it was your idea. You did great."

Will nodded, pressing his lips together against words and tears as he took his seat. His brothers Ross, Dex, and Jace each leaned over to give him reassuring pats on the back and let him know that they stood with him, too.

Dylan stepped back into place. His heart was full, knowing that such an old rift had been healed. Even when Will had been away, he'd often thought about his relationship with his estranged twin and had wished for things to be better. They were, and it was certainly worthy of calling an extra meeting, but he had more to cover. This, however, wasn't going to be quite as simple. "I won't keep you much longer, but there's a bit more business to take care of today. I'm sure you all know that the Suttons' home was sold recently. For those of you who haven't met her, the owner is a woman by the name of Stacey Williams. Her mother, Carol, and her two children live with her, and they're all human. I know this has caused a bit of an uproar. After all, we were very fortunate to have people like the Suttons right at the edge of our border. We knew they could be trusted, and we could truly be ourselves around them. They are missed."

Several members nodded their heads.

Energy zipped through his chest as he prepared for the next part. "I've been trying to determine for some time whether or not the Williams family could be like the Suttons for us, if they could be safe humans for us to be around. As part of this process, I've shared our true identity with Stacey."

The room was instantly abuzz as members leaned over to whisper to each other. Eyes widened and mouths pinched.

"What the hell?"

"That's crazy."

"Why would he do that?"

Even if they hadn't intended for him to hear, Dylan definitely heard. He'd heard it all inside his own head before he'd even started this meeting.

"How do we know we can trust them?" an older gentleman near the back asked.

"I'm asking for your trust in me as Alpha," Dylan replied. He'd made a mistake in that Stacey had seen him in his bear form even before he'd told her what he truly was, but he'd known it was coming anyway. It was like a wall of tension between them, something he needed to burst through before he could figure out anything more about their future. He knew now that he would've told her anyway, even if she hadn't seen something as wild as two bears on a fishing trawler.

Ross shook his head. "I can't believe you just let our secret out to your summer fling."

Dylan's stomach crumpled as he looked his brother square in the eye. Telling them he'd revealed their secret to Stacey had been much harder than explaining the new connection with Will. What he had to say next was even harder than that. "She's not just a summer fling. She's my mate."

This time, the room burst into questions and objections. There were no hushed concerns or secret stares but outright concern.

"A human?"

"Has anything like this happened before?"

"Not in our clan, I can assure you of that."

"Unbelievable."

Dylan let it come and did his best to let it flow around and over him. Let them say their words and get it all out now because they were going to anyway. He gave them time to get through it as he waited patiently at the front for things to die down. As he scanned the crowd, he met his mother's gaze. She and his father were the only ones who waited just as calmly and patiently as Dylan did. Barbara gave him a small smile. Paul's head bobbed forward in a barely perceptible nod. They approved, and that was all the approval that mattered to him.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he began, putting his hands out to get their attention and try to calm them down, "I understand that this is quite the revelation. It's not what you expected. To be honest, it's not what I expected, either. None of us get to choose who our fated will be or when we'll have the privilege of meeting them. We're expected not only to wait patiently but also act when we know the moment is right and everything has come together the way it's meant to be. For those of you who've already found your mates, I ask you to think about the moment you met them. Did you have concerns about who they were as a person? Or whether the two of you were truly a good match? You probably did, but underneath it all, you felt that special pull between you, the one that told you it was right no matter how much you might question it. You knew, without any doubt, that this was who you'd be spending the rest of your life with. What would you have done if someone told you no? If you were told you had to stay away from that person—your true soulmate—for the rest of your life simply because they weren't what was expected?"

That left them a bit stunned. Several couples exchanged looks or reached for each other's hands, perhaps remembering how they'd met or some opposition that'd tried to stand in their way. He'd convinced some, but others would take more time. He probably wouldn't even be able to convince them that night. Some members would talk for weeks or perhaps even longer as they wondered if their Alpha was truly qualified to hold the position. Dylan had to be okay with that. Fate had brought him to the leadership of this clan just as it had brought Stacey to him.

Just as he was about to start speaking along those lines, Lila got out of her seat. She stepped forward, smiling at him. "Can I say something?"

Though Lila had always understood that her destiny was to lead the Brighams herself one day, she'd never spoken at any meetings. Her training had been more behind-the-scenes, understanding how the finances worked or helping to assist members in need. Pride moved through him, squeezing out the worry. Dylan nodded as he stepped aside.

The moment she took the podium, the crowd silenced once again, and all eyes were on her. "Hi, everyone," she said, laughing a little. "I didn't prepare anything, so I apologize if I ramble a bit. Anyway, my Dad didn't tell me this news before the meeting, so I'm finding out at the same time that the rest of you are. Except that I'm not. I've seen the looks that have passed back and forth between Dad and Stacey, even when they hadn't realized anyone was noticing. I've sensed their connection, even though the true feeling behind it is something only the two of them will ever truly understand. I'm not surprised in the least at hearing him make this announcement."

Dylan's throat grew thick and tight. She was eighteen and she'd graduated. Those were cold, hard facts. But there was much more maturity in Lila that couldn't be measured. She was a sensitive, observant young woman, and she was going to make an excellent Alpha someday.

Lila continued. "I've spent quite a bit of time with Stacey and her kids, and I can tell you they're good people. If Dad trusts them enough to know our secret, I think the rest of us should, too. I know I do. I also know that I'm really happy for him. He's dedicated his whole life to this clan and the betterment of everyone in it. He's always concerned about everyone else before himself. He would never do anything to cause the rest of us harm, and he deserves happiness just as the rest of us do."

Jace shrugged. "We always had a good relationship with the Suttons. Why couldn't we have one with the new family?"

Dex seconded this. "It's much better to have someone there that we're friendly with. We've been worried for a while about who might move in, and it sounds like we've got the best possible scenario here. "

Even Ross finally nodded. "We can't live the rest of our lives pretending they're the enemy just because they're human."

Paul slowly got to his feet, and everyone turned to look. The quiet retired Alpha was at every meeting, showing his support for Dylan, but he rarely interrupted or even interjected with an opinion. Anything he had to say happened behind closed doors with his sons. Now, however, he crossed the room to the kitchen. He opened the fridge door and pulled out a beer. As he turned back to the gathered assemblage, he held the drink high. "To Dylan and Stacey!"

A new round of applause ruptured the silence that'd fallen while everyone waited to see what he'd do. The Brighams nodded and clapped, truly supporting their leader in the decisions he'd made and the ones that destiny had made for him.

Dylan put his arm around his daughter's shoulders. "You're something else, kid. You didn't have to do that, you know." He heard a knock at the door, but Jace ran off to get it.

"I wanted to," she assured him. "I really like Stacey and her kids. I also really like how happy you look when you're with her. That's how it ought to be. "

"I think so, too," he admitted. "I wasn't sure how it was going to go tonight, but my toughest crowd is yet to come. I still have a lot of explaining to do to Stacey. She was pretty flabbergasted when I told her, and I don't know how she'll take the idea of being fated to someone. I just hope she accepts me since all these people here have already decided to accept her. I'll have to find a good time to talk to her."

Jace appeared at his elbow. "It looks like you've got your chance right now. She's at the door."

"Are you shitting me?" But even as he asked, he could sense it. Stacey was always somewhat close since she lived next door, but the beast inside him knew she was even closer than usual. Their connection was growing stronger, and now he'd have to see if he could make it work. Dylan raised his voice. "Everyone, the meeting is dismissed. Thank you all for your support, and I'll see you in a couple of weeks."

Still chattering excitedly, the members slowly began to work their way out of the clanhouse.

Lila shooed Dylan away as he reached for an empty folding chair. "I've got all of this. You go."

With that, he turned for the door.