3. Chapter Three

"We're just going to hang out quietly until your dad gets back," I said as I walked into the kitchen and dumped my keys on the counter. "You'll do whatever homework or reading you need to do, then you'll do more. You're in all the advanced classes, so you can't fall behind."

"I'm smarter than the advanced classes," she mumbled, dumping her bag on my dining table. "I could probably test out of them."

"Then you should talk to your dad about that. Maybe if we get you advanced through a couple of grades, you can graduate early and get out of that place." I poured myself a stiff drink and got her a soda. "I know this sucks, and yeah, you're grounded, by me, at least. You got into a fight, and there obviously needs to be consequences. I also get why you did it, so I'm going to try to think of a solution." I put the drink down in front of her. "I don't want you going to school where people try to hurt you every day. I don't want this to happen again."

"I won't punch anyone again, I promise." Carey kept her head down and refused to look me in the eye.

"No. I don't want people to drive you to the point where you think you have to—different problem. You felt unsafe, insulted, and angry. You had reasons to feel all of those things." I sat down across from her, sipping the whiskey I normally shared with Heath. It gave my throat a nice burn; although normal alcohol didn't give me a buzz, the placebo was nice. The idea of a relaxing drink was all I needed. "You should have never been in that position. That's what I want to fix."

She nodded and started pulling her books out.

"Dad won't be able to fix anything," she mumbled. "But graduating early…"

"Was already part of the plan, wasn't it? You take summer classes and everything."

"Yeah, but the school wouldn't let me test ahead. Jumping grades is only for geniuses, not over-achievers." Her eye roll was legendary.

"I'll talk to Heath about it," I promised.

"Who called? Was it Dad?"

"No, it was Agent Kirk. The BSA watches everyone here closely. They already learned you got into a fight, and I took you out of school. They were wondering why I was considered one of your legal guardians."

"Only when Dad and Landon aren't around," she said, shrugging.

"Yup. Bethany gave me some advice I need to pass on. If you get sent to juvie for fighting, they'll look into taking you away from your dad."

Carey paled. "One fight isn't that bad, right? Right? She didn't say I would be given to other people, right?"

"No, one fight shouldn't be that bad," I confirmed. I hadn't meant to scare her so much. "My advice? Remind yourself, in four more years, none of these people will matter. This is just the last bit of childhood hell, and maybe we can make it shorter."

"What would I do if I graduated early?" Carey frowned. "I would be too young to go to college, right?"

"You can take local classes. There's a college up in Tyler. Maybe get some of your boring classes out of the way and help you choose a major. You've never told me what you want to do when you grow up, and that's cool. Most adults don't know either." I certainly didn't. I thought I was running my life, but in reality, my life was running me.

Carey looked away without saying anything. I sighed and got up, leaving her to her schoolwork. With her focused on that, I texted Davor, telling him to back the fuck off. He replied with some nonsense about security and if there's an emergency. I repeated my demand and was left on Read. He called after that and started talking the moment I hit the green button.

"Jacky, there's stuff going on with the fae, and I just want to keep an eye on everyone." He sounded desperate, a little annoyed, and tired as well. "We used to have really close ties to them, and you have magic from one of them. I'm just trying to do my job for the family and keep an eye on things."

"I have Dirk," I reminded him. I only knew the softest of rumblings about the fae. It came up every so often when something shifted in their politics. Everyone in the family was keeping their heads down, thanks to the baby now in the picture. No one was willing to risk Amir.

Especially me, since I probably knew more than my family did about that situation. I still hadn't told anyone what I had learned about Brin. Even thinking about telling them made my stomach roll with unease. Warning bells, I knew. My instincts didn't like it, so even though I had known for months, I listened to my gut and kept my mouth shut.

"Everyone has a head of security that manages the day-to-day stuff, but—"

"Davor, please. I don't like when you or anyone else in the family is really nosy."

"This is…" He growled. "Jacky, this is what I do. This is how I contribute to the family. I'm trying to step up as a brother with you after…after everything. Just let me."

"I'll think about it, but you need to cut it out for now."

I fell onto my couch and turned on the television to a daytime drama show, trying to let it make my life seem so much easier.

It failed.

I mean, who else had seven siblings, a father who didn't know what year he was born, and a mother who went missing for years on end and could do magic? That was before I even considered how the werewolves entered the equation. My werewolves. My weird found family in the bubble of my territory, my lover and his children. Then there were my humans.

Yeah, daytime television had nothing on me.

Someone could become a billionaire from a supernatural version of this show. Estranged for a decade? Ha, that's so human. We have people who can be estranged for centuries. We have people who live exciting and terrible lives without a single human ever realizing it. We fight entire wars in a single conversation. Talk about a show that would get people rich quick.

The wait was long and quiet. Oliver called once to tell me Kick Shot had opened without a hitch, and no one called in tonight, so no one was looking for me to be there. Eventually, Carey came to sit next to me on the couch, and I didn't say anything, just lifted an arm and let her lean into me, knowing the simple comforts were sometimes the best.

It might be a dramatic life, but it's mine.

It was nearly seven when Heath called. I had felt him enter my territory and head to his own home. I could have texted or called him first, but I didn't want to rush it. I wanted Carey to feel safer for a little longer. Heath wasn't a danger to her, but he was going to be an angry father who had to deal with a fight at school. He hid it well on most days, but from his texts, I knew this situation was going to be one that pricked his temper.

"You didn't bring Carey home?" he asked. I could hear his frown through the phone.

"No, I figured she would be better off staying with me for the day. I didn't want her alone to stew."

"I did," he growled softly.

"Too bad," I snapped. "She's having a hard time." I moved away from Carey, whose eyes went wide as I stood. "She hit that girl because the girl was saying awful things about you and Landon. She's been bullied since the first day of school. Do you really think she needed to be alone?"

"She didn't tell me that when the school called," Heath said, quickly changing course. "The school didn't tell me that."

"We'll talk about it when you pick her up. Or whenever you want to talk about it."

"I'll be there shortly."

He hung up on me, and I glared at my phone before dropping it on the coffee table.

"Your dad is on the way."

"You can just call him by his name, you know. He's your…boyfriend or whatever you two want to say."

"Right now, he's your father," I said, shaking my head as I went back into the kitchen. This was not how my day was supposed to go. I tracked Heath as he drove toward me, knowing he was probably on a warpath, and knew the moment he parked behind the bar. In the background, Carey was packing her bag up and cleaning off my table, a good guest, no matter what was going on.

Then he was at my door, and he didn't even knock. When he appeared in my kitchen, his expression hard as he took in the scene, I lifted a hand.

"Before you say anything, the BSA has already called me about taking Carey out of school, asking why I had those privileges. Bethany gave me some advice on how to keep this from getting worse."

"The only way to keep it from getting worse is making sure Carey knows she can't, under any circumstances, retaliate against these people," Heath snarled. "I've been doing this a long time, Jacky. I don't need the BSA's advice."

"Wow." I crossed my arms. "Are you mad at me, Carey, or the school? I'm not sure, but the hostility needs to drop several degrees." I was getting a snarl of my own now. "They relentlessly bullied her. She thought she needed to send them a message. These things happen."

"They can't happen," he snapped. "And she knows that. She's seen enough kids get taken from their parents and the pack. She's an Alpha's daughter—"

"No, she's not," I retorted. "You don't have a pack." I shouldn't have said it. It was a low blow because an Alpha werewolf was always an Alpha. Once they had a taste for that role and it settled on their shoulders, it wasn't something they could shake off.

"Well," he said, throwing his hands up. "I guess that means I don't get to have expectations from my children anymore. I'm just some rogue werewolf who should let his children do whatever they please."

"Heath—"

"Jacky, I love you, but this is not your fight," he warned softly, those grey-blue eyes pinning me in place. "This is the way things are. I can't take her out of school because they would take her away from me. She's required to have human interaction with kids her own age in a normal setting. Beyond that, the kids are probably protected by their families and the school board itself. They'll never take this seriously. If she gets violent, they'll say it's because of me, and I lose her anyway. This is the world we live in. Carey knows the stakes…or she did." He turned to his daughter, who kept her head down.

"No." I started to shake my head and walked between him and his daughter. "I'm not buying that."

"You always need a fight you probably can't win," he said, turning his eyes to the ceiling, probably the heavens themselves, wondering what he had done in his life to deserve me.

"I don't think Carey should have to tolerate this!" I snarled. "You shouldn't, either."

The glare he directed at me should have warned me off. This was Heath and Carey. He literally gave up everything so he could try to be a normal father to her. To an Alpha, the pack was everything and all that mattered. He had walked away from that for her. He would sell all his businesses tomorrow if it was the right thing to do for her.

And I was stepping on his toes in a big way.

"Do you think I was surprised when you said she was being bullied?" he asked softly. "You think I'm okay with it? Every single werewolf kid gets into at least one fight, and every single time, I've had to go to their schools and fight for them. Every single human kid in the pack gets into a fight, and every time, it's for the same thing, except with the added benefit of needing to fight with the BSA to keep them. Unless the humans do something to change, there's nothing I can do. We're required by law to send our children to a human school. The other option is boarding school, where we would be potentially hours away, and we'd have to send the kids away from the pack. Jacky, I'm not saying it's okay, but I am saying the only way to get through this is to just take this shit on the chin."

"Heath—"

"I'm mad at them," he growled. "And I'm fucking furious my daughter felt the need to hit someone. And yeah, I'm mad that she hit someone, but right now is not the time for you to try to fix it. I have a meeting with the school tomorrow, then we'll come back to this."

He turned on his heel and walked out of the house. Carey looked at me as she followed him.

"He'll be fine. He always got snarly when the other kids got into fights, too."

"You knew he would be like this," I said, sighing as I watched him from the window.

"Yeah. He'll be fine in a couple of days. I told you, though. I told you there's nothing Dad could do about it." She shrugged and started walking again.

"Is he going to yell at you?"

"No. He'll yell, but it won't be at me. Probably Landon. He yells at Landon about everything. I'll tell him you grounded me, though. He'll like that. No horseback riding for the rest of the week or something." With that, she left me standing there and followed Heath as he walked down my drive.

I was left to the quiet of my house, wondering if I'd just overstepped my relationship with him in an effort to protect his daughter.