Was he happy that his son was finally going to stake his claim so he didn’t have to?
“How long were you standing there?” she asked.
“Long enough.”
“Long enough to hear Tanner or me?”
“Both.”
“Oh.” She held herself, almost scared of what he was going to say.
No words were spoken.
Why wouldn’t he say anything?
****
Gage’s hands clenched into fists.
The urge to go chasing after Tanner, to finally put an end to this, was strong. The wolf within him wasn’t happy. Connie was theirs, not Tanner’s. He lost that right to her when he did what he did.
He took a deep breath, then exhaled it slowly. Connie loved him. She hadn’t told him directly to his face, but she had said the words. He couldn’t think about that right now.
The anger was so strong. It took him a little longer to gain control, but he did. Tanner was his son. He had raised him, and he was never going to hurt him.
He stared at Connie now. Her body was a little flushed, and he figured she’d been dancing, seeing as she stood next to the radio.
He’d missed it.
The past couple of days within the pack had been a nightmare. Wherever he went, there was a conflict of some kind. He couldn’t seem to shake it. It drove him insane.
At night, he came home to a sleeping Connie. She wasn’t in his bed, and it annoyed the crap out of him. He wanted to fall asleep with her in his arms after he had fucked her, pumping more of his cum inside her.
She loved him.
He had heard her declaration, and he knew it wasn’t down to his alpha status, even though that was what his son wanted to believe.
“Why have you been avoiding me?” she asked.
“I haven’t.”
“Gage, I haven’t seen you since the lake and … you brought me home and just left. How is that not avoiding?”
He sighed and took a step toward her, but she held her hands up.
“Don’t.”
“I won’t hurt you.”
“I know. It’s not about being hurt.” She shrugged. “I know you will do everything to take care of me.” She blew out a breath. “I’m upset that you haven’t been around, and if you touch me, I know I’m not going to care about your reasoning, but I don’t want to be that woman.”
“What woman?”
“The kind of woman who doesn’t ask questions. Who is too afraid to … stand up to you for fear of you leaving me.”
“I will never leave you, Connie.”
She swiped at her cheeks, and he saw her struggling to contain herself. All he wanted to do was take her in his arms, to love her. “You say that but, why?”
He glanced around the room. This was killing him. His woman was crying, and she didn’t want him to be close. “The pack. There have been several problems at the construction site. The materials, lack of quality. It has put the project behind and has cost a small fortune. I have been dealing with the supplier. We have never had this issue before. Brian, the town crackpot, thought he had seen aliens again. He believes they are harvesting wolf organs. He was having another episode. He was naked at the bank, threatening to … if you must know, to shit on everyone who tried to get him down.”
“Oh,” she said. “I didn’t hear.”
“Then the Bradleys, their daughter is due to transition next full moon and the girl is having a panic attack. She cannot … handle the pressure. She is so scared, so I was there, talking with her. Then at the diner, there was an altercation between Prescot and Reid. You know how those two brothers are.” He had stopped them from causing thousands of dollars’ worth of damage so many times. The diner was a safe zone, but they had decided to have one of their little spats, which had nearly ended in disaster if he’d not gotten there. Instead, a chair and a table were the only victims, which they had agreed to pay for. “Then I got a call from your parents. They wanted to talk.”
“Oh. From the look on your face, it can’t have been very good.”
“They were willing to take you back. To have you live with them until you were able to leave the pack. They kept on telling me what an embarrassment you were.”
The pain in her eyes gutted him, but he wasn’t going to lie to her. He hadn’t been avoiding her.
“So I told them to get the fuck out of my pack. They are going to request an appeal to my decision. It will happen on Friday at the town meeting.” Another reason he was going to tell her about his day, seeing as she was going to have to be there, by his side. People would expect it.
“You know, I used to think they were good parents, but I can see now they only ever tolerated me.”