Billy nods, but he still looks grim.
“I have to pee,” Madi murmurs to me, grabbing my hand.
She can’t do it by herself with the long train of the dress.
Besides, it’s time to take the train off, so she can mingle and dance at the reception.
“On it.”
We go into the bridal dressing room where the women got ready for the ceremony.
I carefully unhook the six hooks that attach the train.
“Okay, you’re free.
I’m going to go back out and make sure Billy’s okay.”
Madi blinks at me.
“You two are really a thing, aren’t you?
It’s so crazy.
You’re as different as they come, and I never would’ve seen it coming.”
I hesitate.
“Honestly?
I don’t know if we’re a thing or not.”
The dull ache that’s been there ever since overhearing his indecision gnaws at me.
I find Billy waiting for me just outside the dressing room holding two glasses of champagne, and I want to hug him.
Even when he’s torn up inside, he’s always a gentleman.
I accept a glass.
“Any sign of your dad?”
“No.”
Billy suddenly stiffens and swivels to the right like he smelled him first.
“Yes.”
A tall man with the same grey-blue eyes as Billy’s, salt and pepper hair, and an expression that looks like he sucked a lemon advances toward us.
“Who’s this?” the man demands, giving me a disdainful up and down.
He lifts his nose in a decidedly canine gesture, then wrinkles his nose.
“You’ve been slumming, son.”
My natural instinct is to throw all my sass at this guy, but I don’t want to make things worse for Billy, so I remain quiet, my chin lifted, a matched look of disdain on my face.
“You weren’t invited, old man.”
Billy’s voice is flat.
Lifeless.
“I was next door at the Adalwulf party, and I just thought I’d pop over to say hello,” Billy’s dad says.
“I have powerful friends too, son.
You forget how far my reach goes.”
He sends another narrow-eyed glance my way.
What a pompous asshole.
I don’t care what he thinks about me, but I want to kick him in the balls for being a horrible father.
But maybe I’m the one making this worse for Billy.
Should I walk away, so he doesn’t have to try to shield me from his dad’s derision?
“You’re not welcome here.
Leave before I throw you out.”
Billy still sounds deadened.
Like all animation leaves his persona when he’s near his father.
I’m sure a child who was in physical danger all the time would learn to mute his very being.
Adult Billy’s nervous system still reacts in the presence of his tormentor.
He remains perfectly still, but I hear the air ripping in and out of his lungs like he’s running a marathon.
His dad’s gaze rests on me as he speaks to Billy.
“You’d better not be following the path of your weakling alpha.”
He shakes his head slowly.
The way he looks at me makes my skin crawl.
I see evil behind those eyes, and it’s directed right at me.
Billy stops breathing altogether.
“You should know that I wouldn’t allow my son to make that mistake.”
It’s a threat, and I register it.
Ice sluices through my veins.
“Fate makes no mistakes.”
Billy’s tone could freeze lava.
Rage ripples over William White the Second.
His eyes flash silver.
“Are you trying to tell me fate chose this trash for my son?” he roars.
“She’s a pet, no more.”
Before I even see him move, his hand snaps out, grasps the pearl choker Madi gave me as a bridesmaid gift, and yanks.
The pearls explode from their strings, rolling onto the floor.
Billy delivers a powerful kick to the older man’s gut, driving him back with so much force he flies eight feet through the air and crashes against a wall.
Good thing we’re out in a hallway where the guests can’t see us.
He thrusts his champagne glass into my hand and stalks after his father, who seems to be struggling to breathe.
Billy must’ve kicked his diaphragm.
Madi comes out of the dressing room.
“Oh shit,” she mutters.
“I’ll get Brick or one of the guys.”
I just stand in place, frozen.
I live in Brooklyn, but I haven’t seen violence like that.
Never like that.
Billy’s father struggles to his feet but not before Billy grasps him by the throat and picks him up with superhuman strength.
The older man is tall, but Billy lifts him above the ground and bashes his head against the wall.
“You don’t touch her.
You don’t look at her.
If you speak of her again, I will fucking end you.”
Billy
Rage pours from me in waves.
He reached for Aubrey’s throat.
He wants her dead.
The cold steel of a blade seems to rip across my chest.
I never should have let on what she means to me.
Flashes of my father murdering the human hunter years ago throw me off balance.
Bring back the stench of blood to my nostrils.
Screams in my ears.
I’m that five-year-old in the woods-horrified and afraid.
Forced to watch him torture a man for wandering across the line onto pack land.
Fear grips me.
I can’t let him torture her.
But I’m not small anymore.
I can fight back.
I punch my dad in the gut, even though he hasn’t recovered from having his head smashed yet.
I should kill him right now.
My wolf wants to.
He attacked our mate.
I’m sure now-Aubrey is my mate.
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