The Mating Games

chapter 22- You almost died!

We had all gathered around the table; people served and piled food like it was their last meal. Nobody had said much since dinner started but I could tell my mother was bursting at the seams with questions for her new daughter.

"This is so exciting!" She exclaimed, clapping her hands together, "Oh, I've waited so long for the kids to be old enough to start their own families. Aren't you excited, Randy?" She gushed, clasping my father's arm and shaking him slightly. He had a forlorn look on his face, his aging eyes sad and slanted.

"Yes, dear. It is all very exciting," he gritted out, barely able to talk through his tight jaw. I felt a warm hand run over my bare thigh; Theo sent me a reassuring smile and took a bite of his steak.

"I can't wait for the grandkids! Oh, it will be so nice to little ones around again," she drifted off into a wistful memory, her eyes clouding over with joy, "and the best part is, I can have my full and then give them back," my father agreed with her, a small settling on his lips.

"It will be nice," he murmured. Shane glanced over at his mate; she was sitting like her spine was a metal rod and a tight lipped grimace, she looked very uncomfortable.

"Oh, I don't think we'll be having kids right away," she shut down the idea, nervously peering down at her plate and pushing the food around. My mother froze, her face scrunching into a mortified mask.

"What do you mean?" She sniped out, barely able to contain her disappointment. Shane gave her a warning look, reaching over to comfort Clair.

"We don't think having kids at this very moment is a good idea. We want to wait and get to know each other better before we bring a child into our family," power emanated from his voice, sending out a threat for anyone to challenge him. Theo tensed beside me, his back straightening and tightening with the undying need to assert his dominance. A loud whine broke the still air; the atmosphere had turned sour, anyone could recognise its palpable tension.

"But I wanted grandkids now!" My mother turned her steady eyes onto me, a hopeful glaze shimmering over her face.

"Summer?" I shook my head, ready to fight her tooth and nail.

"Don't even ask, Mum," my fork dig deeply into my potato, cutting off a large chunk and shoving it in my mouth before she had the chance to reply. Nods broke out around the table, all from my male relatives.

"I agree, you're too young to be thinking about kids. Maybe in fifty years, when hopefully I'm dead and won't have to ignore the fact that you had to have sex in order to have kids," my dad's teeth ground together, his hands tightening on the cutlery. Theo chuckled under his breath, ready to make a smart remark. My foot dug into his shin, using enough pressure to tell him to keep his bloody mouth shut. I was lucky and unlucky at that point; it wasn't Theo who spoke but Colin.

"You can have sex without getting pregnant," he sounded confused. Fuck Colin, way to put that image into my father's head. April and him sure are a great bloody match! Everyone stilled; my younger brothers even had the decency to stop shovelling food down their gob and listen into the inevitable fight that was ensuing.

"I know that," my dad tight lipped, anger simmering under his calculated eyes. I watched helplessly as my dad stared Colin down, ready to jump the table and tackle him like some kind of rugby player. Luck must have really been on his side though, because it wasn't long before my mother burst out in more excited sequels,

"Oh, yes! Maybe we'll get lucky and you'll accidently get pregnant!" The disappointed sigh that left my lips was one of the many that echoed around the room.

"Mum, that's not lucky. It's really kind of the opposite," Ryan called out mother out, shaking his head and defusing the tension from the room.

"Yeah, Mum," two little voices called from the end of the table, both happily ignorant to the previous mood, "Summer can't take care of a baby! She still dances around her room singing in her underwear," josh responded like it was obvious. My face turned all kinds of red after that. I hung my head in shame, staring down at the food left on my plate and eating as much as I could in one go. Laughter erupted around the room and soon everyone had forgotten the last conversation. I was the first to leave the table, claiming I had finished and went up to my room to finish packing.