Chapter 85

You stay the fuck out of this,” Declan snapped, catching me by the arm.

“I—”

“I mean it,” he interrupted. His dark tone wasn’t lost on me as he stared me down. “Don’t fuck this up, Killian.”

“I—”

“Don’t fuck this up, Killian,” he repeated. Jesus fuck, this asshole.

“Are you going to let me say a fucking word?” I demanded hotly.

“Depends on what you’re about to say.”

“Protect Genevieve, please,” I whispered. “I don’t give two shits what happens to him, but she won’t be able to live with herself if the whole fucking pack and everyone in town learns what he did to her.”

“The plan is to deal with him here. It’s why I called him,” Declan replied. A growl tore through my throat.

“You what?”

“I called him, Killian. It was either deal with him here or deal with him somewhere that he gets an audience,” he said. “We’re exiling him from the pack, and we’ve already called the other packs to make sure they don’t give him a place to fucking go. He’ll have a week to leave Cedar Harbor, and Mom already called the church people to tell them what he did. And I don’t think Mom will kill him.”

Screaming on the front lawn interrupted us. Yeah, that didn’t sound like Mom wouldn’t kill him.

“Fuck,” Declan muttered. “Stay here.”

Fuck that shit. I gave him a few steps before following him outside—almost outside. I remained inside the doorway behind my brothers where I could go unseen.

“Now would be a lovely time to do what you discussed!” Mom snapped as she rounded on my brothers. Fuck, I was fucking glad I wasn’t on the receiving end of that look. She stood on the bottom step with Phillip, who was easily as pissed off as Mom was.

“Where’s my daughter?” he interrupted. And then this fucker caught sight of me in the goddamn doorway. He pointed at me, shouting, “What did you do with her, Byrne? Ruining her wasn’t enough for you?”

“Ruined her?” I growled. My blood ran hot with the accusation. I could only imagine what he thought of me after Genevieve’s confession. “I never—”

“That’s enough of that,” Declan cut in and stepped in front of me. Why’d he have to be such a burly motherfucker? I couldn’t see around him—honestly, it was probably best that I didn’t.

“Enough,” Sam barked. “He didn’t call you here. We did.”

“It doesn’t matter!” Phillip retorted. “You’re alike! The lot of you—”

“We’re still the leaders of this pack,” Lucas interrupted. “You’d do well to remember that.”

“For your information,” Declan began, “effective this morning, Killian’s standing in the pack has been temporarily suspended.”

“Good—”

“And effective immediately,” he continued over Phillip, “my brothers and I are taking a leave of absence from the pack for twenty-four hours. In our absence, our mother is resuming her position as leader of the pack.”

My jaw fucking dropped. I had every expectation that my brothers would handle it, not hand it over to Mom.

“Thank you. Now, you,” Mom said. Oh, shit. Mom was going to fucking kill him. “Had I known years ago what you were, I would’ve dealt with your ass immediately!”

“What I am—”

“You will be quiet when I’m talking to you,” she growled. I sank my teeth into my bottom lip to keep from laughing. The sick and twisted part of me was thrilled to hear Mom taking it out on him. “Your time for talking is done. If I hear a fucking word out of you, I’ll rip your throat out myself.”

“Do we have a plan for what to do when Mom kills him?” I leaned forward to whisper to Declan.

“I was under the assumption she wouldn’t,” he admitted quietly. I was so fucking excited to hear her do this.

“Effective immediately, you are no longer a member of the Byrne pack. You will never be welcome in my town again,” Mom snarled. Phillip tried to speak, but a deafening growl ripped through Mom. Shit, she was fucking scary. “I said no talking! You are not fucking welcome here! You are not welcome in any pack ever again! You are a fucking disgrace to wolves everywhere. We are family! We take care of our own! We protect our own! And what you did to those little girls…”

Mom faltered, her back going rigid, and I fucking tensed. If there was ever a time she would shift uncontrollably with emotions, it was this moment. Mom had a soft spot for children who needed protecting—something we all understood, considering what she’d been through.

“You have one week to get your shit and get out of my town,” Mom snarled finally. “One week! That’s it. And you will never call my girls again. You will not talk to them, and you will not see them. If I find out that you’re bothering them, I’ll kill you myself, Phillip. I’ll scatter pieces of your fucking body so far in the woods they’ll never fucking find all of you.”

“Fuck, you really are Mom’s kid,” Declan muttered.

I didn’t answer, but I was fucking grinning. Damn straight I was.

“You have no right—”

“I have every right!” Mom hollered, her voice thick with a growl as her wolf joined in. “They were children! Your children! You were supposed to protect them! Not hurt them! Make sure he gets off my property.”

Mom stormed right past all of us, blazing fucking mad and leaving the lot of us speechless. We’d all seen her mad—or so we thought. But fuck. Mom was a goddamn wildfire.

I stared at her retreating back as she went straight to the living room, no doubt to speak to Genevieve. There was a kind of sadness that ebbed its way into my chest. What would her and Gabby’s life have been like if I’d opened my fucking mouth when I found out?

“Nolan!” Finn shrieked.

I whirled on my heels fast enough to catch the moment Nolan punched Phillip—or tried to. It was a crappy fucking punch, but he landed it nonetheless.

I gasped.

Declan gasped.

Sam burst out laughing.

Lucas damn near lost his jaw to the floor.

Finn threw his hands up.

And sweet fucking Nolan howled as he shook out his hand.

Nolan fucking Byrne hit a goddamn pastor.

“Oh, God! I broke my hand!” he exclaimed, practically dancing in place. The hit shocked Phillip, but I knew enough to know shit would hit the fan fast.

“Get him out of here,” I ordered while hurrying to get Nolan. I swept him right back into the house.

“I broke my hand!” Nolan said.

“You didn’t break your hand,” I told him.

“What happened?” Mom demanded as I pushed Nolan past her and into the kitchen.

“I broke my hand!” he repeated. “Oh, God! It’s my writing hand.”

“Calm down, you dramatic shit.” I chuckled. Forcing him into a chair, I went about getting a bag of ice made up for him. “You didn’t hit him hard enough to break your hand, kid.”

“You hit him?” Mom’s eyes widened. “Nolan Callahan Byrne!”

“What?” he replied. “I’m not a pack leader for another twenty-three hours and some odd minutes!”

I laughed. I couldn’t fucking help myself.

“You can’t just hit people!” she yelled.

“You threatened to scatter his body in the woods!” Nolan exclaimed, his voice rising a notch. He yelped as I placed the bag of ice over his hand. Bruised not broken. “How is that any better?”

“For the record, it was a crappy punch,” I cut in. “Phillip was surprised at best.”

“Can you teach me how to punch someone?” he asked. “For research?”

“I can teach you a lot of things about hurting a person,” I said. “For research.”

“I give up.” Mom threw her hands up in exasperation. “You two do whatever you want. I sent Ginny upstairs. You two are staying here tonight. No arguing.”

“Mom—hold that there, Nolan—Mom!” I chased after her as she left. When she stopped, I hugged her. “Thank you.”

“You don’t have to thank me, baby boy,” Mom whispered. “This is what mothers do. I love both of you, and I’m not playing games with that. Do you understand?”

“I do,” I replied. “Has anyone ever told you you’re scary?”

“Your father told me all the time.” She let go and brushed the hair away from my forehead. “Where do you think you get it from? Go take care of your wife, Killian.”

“I will.”

But I didn’t. Instead, I disappeared outside to make a phone call because Phillip Goodwin didn’t have a fucking week left in Cedar Harbor. Not if I had anything to say about it.