Page 47 of Dark

“This isn’t fucking Oprah and I’m not asking anyone’s opinion.”

Rolling her eyes, Lacey twirled her fork through a lake of whipped cream.

Brody looked down, measuring his words. “We’re locked into this now. These guys decide to start recruiting or leaving waves of Unsired’s infected in our territory, we’re going to have to answer for it. I get it being Hayden makes things personal for you, but we make decisions as a group.”

My wolf roared to the surface. “You would put Hayden’s life up to a vote?”

“E, c’mon.” August rubbed his temples and I felt a pang of guilt. “Sit the hell down.”

“This isn’t about choosing sides.” Cal casted a pointed look at Brody. “Think we all might need to take a breather.”

“Like you’ve ever chosen us.” Wrenching the cap off a fresh beer, Dallas slammed back half of it in one swallow.

“Bro, c’mon,” West muttered. “You’ve had too much.”

“No. He shouldn’t get to call in a favor like this, carte blanche. Not when this family has never meant crap to him.”

“Enough,” barked Brody. “I’m not warning either of you again.”

“That’s not true,” I said through clenched teeth.

“Yeah?” Hard blue eyes held mine. “So how come I’ve never heard you call Dad anything but Ben?”

There was a collective shout when I flipped the table. Chairs screeched back across the flagstones, beer and barbeque shelling the patio. West and Cal launched in like they were going to try to pull us apart, but Dally’s knuckles were flying for my face, and then we were down on the ground, pummeling each other.

I slammed a fist into Dallas’ eye. He ducked, jabbing two quick shots into my ribs. Pain exploded through my chest. I gasped, vision spotting, unable to draw in air. Kneeing him hard in the gut, I rolled out of the way.

Dallas came screaming down on top of me like the motherfucking Hulk, and I hurled a handful of dirt in his eyes. He cursed. I ducked, watching his fist plow into the ground where my face had been seconds before. We traded blows. Jabbing. Punching. Blocking. He caught me in a right hook that hurt like holy hell. Spitting blood, I grabbed him in a headlock and squeezed until he tucked and threw me off.

“Give it up now, Emo.”

“That your best pickup line?”

Growling, he lunged for me. We traded more blows. Dallas clocked me in the jaw. I jabbed him with a knife hand strike to the throat, then tucked and rolled, crushing what smelled suspiciously like a mound of thyme.

Crap. Not the thyme. Ben was going to kill me.

I staggered up, nose bleeding, left eye so swollen I could barely see. Blood streamed down Dally’s neck, clods of grass stuck to his shirt. We were lunging for each other again when the icy spray of the garden hose hit us at full blast.

I shouted. Dallas jumped back, t-shirt soaked through. He glanced over to the patio and did a double take at the sight of the grill lying smashed in pieces off in the grass, the Father’s Day gift he’d presented to Ben that last weekend we were all together.

My stomach dropped, instantly sucked back to that day, a year and a half ago, to the call that had come in through Lindley County Dispatch, radioing in for backup. The scream we’d all felt through the pack bond. Brody the one who’d found Ben’s cruiser abandoned on the side of the highway, door hanging ajar, lights still flashing.

“Get your asses over here,” my oldest brother snapped, stamping out a pile of hot embers.

I glanced around the yard. Hayden and Cal were shoveling hot coals and ash into a bucket. August was manning the hose. Ellie had the Furnado by the collar and was glaring at me with a look that could have rivaled my former juvie officer’s.

And then Brody was in my face. “You think Dad would be proud of this? Fighting?” He turned on Dallas. “Drunk?” Grabbing his keys, he threw them to Lacey. “Take him home.”

And then my brother lowered his voice so only he and I could hear. “I need to know if this is going to be a problem.”

I didn’t look at him. “I’m good.”

“Make sure it stays that way.”

He stalked back towards the house.

A knot formed in my chest. If I lost control again, with my history, Brody would have the grounds to force me back into some sort of treatment program under the argument I was a danger to the community. Silver. Restrictions. Monitoring. If I refused, he could banish me from the pack. And that couldn’t happen.