Valen (Henchmen MC Next Generation 6)

“Okay, okay,” I said, voice soft, trying to soothe her. “That’s fine. Just not the crack of dawn either. Let me sleep in a little.”

“I can do that. And I’ll bring you lots of snacks. And some supplements that will help healing.”

See, my mom went from a poisons expert to an employee at a health food store to the owner of one who created her own teas and supplements for all sorts of various ails. My entire childhood was a mix of herbal teas for colds and PMS to poultices for wounds.

It would probably break her heart to know that during my travels, I barely managed to remember to take a general multivitamin, let alone all the other stuff she told me would help with jet lag and the various discomforts that came from eating different cuisines than you were accustomed to.

“That would be nice,” I told her because, well, it was always nice to be fussed over.

“I didn’t know if you still took your tea… oh, I’ll come back,” Valen said, backing out before I could even say to.

Because, apparently, Valen still had a fear of my parents.

I mean, as he should.

On the third day of seemingly nonstop crying after he left without a word, it had been my mother in bed with me, stroking my hair, listing off all the practically untraceable poisons that she would use against him if she ever saw him again.

And my dad, well, we all knew how much he was dying to get Valen in a tub with heated lye melting his body.

“Was that him?” my mother asked, voice running cold.

“Yeah.”

“They are making him take care of you? Are you fucking serious? I am driving over there right now to give Reign a piece of my mind.”

“Fallon,” I corrected. “Fallon is in charge now. And, no. I mean, no one assigned anyone to look after me. A lot of the guys are just gone dealing with the situation. And Valen…” I trailed off, exhaling hard. “He just stepped up,” I said, trying to use the least personal way to describe it.

For them.

But for me as well.

Because if I let myself think of how careful and kind he’d been, it was going to create issues with the whole “hating him for life” thing.

“Stepped up, huh?” my father grumbled, not having any issues with the “hating him for life” thing. “Must be new for him. Hope he stretched first.”

I couldn’t help it.

A smile tugged at my lips at that.

Life was hard.

But it was made a hell of a lot easier when you had family who would love you no matter what, and hate people for you even when you were struggling to hate them yourself.

“Right?” my mother agreed. “Listen, if he is being a shit and you need anything, I mean anything, even just being helped to the bathroom or something, you call me, do you hear me? I don’t care how late it is. I will come right over and, trust me, they will let me in or I swear to shit I will stab them all with a little mild dose of belladonna and let myself in.”

“I love you,” I told her, feeling it down to my bones. “And I know you would come if I needed you. But I really think I am just going to crash. It’s been… a day.”

“You want me to have a word with that shithead who never deserved you?” my father asked.

To be fair, he believed that every guy was a “shithead who didn’t deserve me,” so it wasn’t exactly personal.

“No. But thank you. I promise… everything is fine. I will text you guys if anything is wrong. And first thing in the morning,” I added, knowing they would be worried.

“Okay. We love you,” my mom said, and my dad said it almost at the same time.

“I love you guys too,” I told them before hanging up.

It was another solid ten minutes before Valen showed back up again, likely trying really hard not to have to be near even the voices of my parents.

“I take tea the same way,” I told him as he walked in the door with a bottle of water and a can of soda under one arm, a tea in his hand, and various snacks piled on his other arm.

“I’m kind of shocked your mother hasn’t barged in here,” he said, dropping everything on the table, then bringing one of the chairs over to me to work as a makeshift nightstand, where he tried to pile all the stuff he’d brought, but a few items landed on the floor anyway.

“She wanted to. I managed to push her off until tomorrow.”

“Prepare yourself for the tonics and supplements.”

“Yeah, I know,” I agreed. “My body probably needs it,” I said, shrugging.

“Meds kicking in at all yet?”

“No,” I admitted, trying to situate myself upward so I could drink the tea without spilling it all over myself and the bed.