Escape is Only Temporary [boyxboy]

Chapter XXXVII

~Saturday 13th August 2016~

Dislike was too weak a word to describe the feelings Shepherd held for Emmeline and William. Detest was better, loathe close too, but nothing quite right. There didn't seem to be a word that held enough weight to really express Shepherd's wrath toward the pair. Maybe that was a good thing, maybe that was the only thing preventing him from acting on that same rage that billowed in the pit of his stomach. If he gave his feelings tangible words, they might become something so much more.

Dinner had been atrocious. Shepherd had actually prayed for awkward silence and, instead, he got heated arguments. When Emmeline wasn't insulting Reece's cooking, she was calling Shepherd lazy. If he were to be a good wife to Reece, he should have been the one cooking dinner. An alpha should be served through and through, and his mate should reserve themselves to that purpose. No matter whether Shepherd had been sitting throughout dinner because of the injury to his leg, Emmeline didn't listen. She just continued berating the man.

It was evident that Reece was trying to defend Shepherd, although there wasn't much he could do. With his father breathing down his neck, calling him pathetic for taking a woman's role in the relationship, he was getting overwhelmed. Shepherd could see it. The way his back had tensed whenever William opened his damn mouth, the lack of music or laughter in the kitchen, the constant flinching and muttered apologies whenever even the tiniest thing went wrong. It made Shepherd's heart hurt to see his mate like that.

And, of course, when the family sat down to eat, nothing got better. Emmeline and William distanced themselves, trying their hardest to sit far from Snowden at one side of them and Beau at the other. Honestly, Shepherd was simply happy that Beau had picked the short straw and sat beside William instead of Kai. Too many knives around for that. There had been a few moments of peace, Shepherd thanked the gods for that. Then Emmeline spoke once again. To begin with, the topic of another woman, the daughter of a nearby alpha with past ties to the family, had been almost normal. Shepherd thought it was harmless... Until her genetics were mentioned.

Shepherd hadn't even needed to speak, Kai did it for him. He snapped. Thankfully, Snowden was swift enough to deflect the knife that Kai had thrown at Emmeline's head. Not that he got a damn thank you. Beau excused the two of them, and they had been so close to the staircase, to safety, before William decided it was the right time to ask about Beau's eye. Surprisingly enough, Shepherd didn't have much sympathy for the burn that Kai had left on William's shoulder, or the ruined shirt that he demanded the boy pay for. It was more shocking that Kai hadn't just aimed for William's throat instead. It would have saved a lot of trouble.

"You're having nightmares again," Shepherd murmured, stroking a hand through Reece's hair, hearing that pleased rumble echo through his chest, "I'll make some more dreamcatchers today for you," normally, the two would be up early dawn, especially since Shepherd was no longer on bed rest for his leg anymore. However, it was almost ten o'clock that morning and they were procrastinating. With it being so warm in the room, the covers had been kicked to the base of the nest during the night, leaving the two lovers laid in the nude over their mountain of pillows. Shepherd was happy like that, stealing Reece's body heat as the man laid on his stomach with his head settled against the warlock's shoulder.

"Won't work," William and Emmeline brought out the pessimism in Reece. He was in a bad mood that morning, grumbling most of his short answers to Shepherd with a scowl contorting his face. The lack of sleep was only making him grumpier, and Shepherd didn't have a solution for that. His nightmares had been horrific the previous night, waking Shepherd up every few hours to calm the hyperventilating and tearful wolf. No one could be that traumatised by parents who were just oppressive to them. There had to be something more, something that Reece was still hiding.