Chapter 269

“Why the hell would you go to war with the most powerful man in the entire world?” Wyatt grunts.

By now, the worst of the tension has passed. Archer has stepped back, allowing Wyatt to stretch his back and catch his breath.

I’ve moved away to collect my dirtied belongings off the ground and mindlessly toss them back into my suitcase. Beau helps me, though he keeps grabbing my panties and making lewd faces. Not sure how much of a help he is, actually.

Archer stands between us and Wyatt. Neil has come forward to talk with Wyatt. Steven still isn’t paying attention.

“You know exactly how he is,” Neil says. “He put that silver into me. He’s trying to kill Chloe. He’s hunting Mia and her mother. You want us to just sit back and let him?”

Wyatt shakes his head. “He’s a royal asshole, no doubt. But to take him on? You guys have bigger egos than I thought to think you have some kind of chance. And you’re outright delusional if you think I’m going to help you.”

“We have reason to believe that they are after Chloe’s Mom,” Neil says.

“Good. Fuck her. Let him have her.”

I push myself up to my feet, ready to throw down right now for the way he talks about my mom, but Beau jumps up too and stands in my way.

“Beau,” I growl. “Get out of my way.”

“He’s all bluster, Nanny. You know that. Not worth chipping a nail over.”

I don’t give a fuck about my nails, but… I guess I see his point. Grumbling, I return to collecting my things. Beau dips and grabs a pair of my socks that have rolled under the wheel of the sedan.

“You think that if my father and his goons show up here to hurt Chloe’s mom,” Neil says, a hard edge in his voice, “that they’ll just let you and your father carry on? And you also believe that your father won’t try to stop them?”

I look up in time to see understanding shift across Wyatt’s face. Suddenly he looks even more furious. “Gods damn it.”

“Exactly,” Neil says. “So you have two options. You either stand with us to try to keep this entire household safe. Or you are complicit to whatever nightmare darkens this doorway.”

“Shit,” Wyatt growls. He knows then, that he doesn’t have a choice. His angry gaze shifts to me once more. “This is all your fault, you fucking bitch. If you had just stayed in your own damn lane. Kept you head down. Accepted your place. But no. You had to fight everything, and now my dad’s life is in danger.”

With my bag repacked, albeit with ruined clothes, I push myself back to my feet. I meet his glare with one of determination.

“Hate me if you want,” I say. “I accept that. There are things I probably could have done differently, and maybe it would have changed how things are now. But none of that matters now. This is how things are. The Alpha King has it out for our family. Will you stand with us to protect them or no?”

“Don’t you dare question my loyalty to my dad,” Wyatt says sharply. “I’ll stand with you assholes if only to keep him safe. It’s a fucking lost cause, though.”

He pushes away from us and storms back to the house. He doesn’t actually help with the luggage. But, seeing what happened to my suitcase, that’s probably for the best.

“Well, he’s still an entire bag of dicks,” Beau says.

I don’t point out that Beau was his good friend until somewhat recently. Before, they both enjoyed tearing me down like it was some kind of fraternal bonding experience.

I think about it though. And the memory makes me cringe. But quickly, I shake it off. So much has happened since then. Though the hurt they inflicted on me was never and would never be right, we’ve all moved forward since then. Well, mostly.

All the brothers could still be jerks sometimes.

With our baggage in hand, we return to the house. Wyatt is nowhere to be seen, but Isaac is glaring up the stairs. They must have had a fight. When Isaac sees us coming, his face shifts into a more warm expression, though some tightness still remains in his eyes and mouth.

“Let me show you to your rooms.” Isaac leads us upstairs.

The mansion is big enough that each brother can have their own personal room. In addition, Wyatt, myself, and Mom and step-Dad have their own rooms as well. There’s four bathrooms on the second floor, so they will have to share there, but it’s still not as bad as something like a hostel or motel would be.

As Isaac shows the others their rooms, I go into mine. I never really spent too much time here, so it still feels like I’m staying somewhere strange to me. But it’s nice to see pictures of me and my mom hanging on the walls, as well as a few knickknacks and keepsakes I collected when I was younger.

Some of these things I thought were long gone. My mom must have kept them when I thought to trash them. Honestly, I’m glad she did. Yeah, maybe these ceramic bears holding balloons are cheaply made and a big worn with age, but it warms my heart to see them.

We never had much growing up. I was a fool for not wanting to keep what few things I did have, especially now that I know how hard my mom must have worked to make sure I had anything special.

Sorry, Mom. I’ll apologize to her later.

I don’t want to dirty the beautiful pale blue comforter so I lower my suitcase to the floor at the foot of the bed and open it. I start to divide my clothes into two piles: one that definitely needs clean asap, and one that are more or less fine.

So far, the more or less fine pile consists of exactly one pair of socks and nothing else. Most of my clothes are covered in mud. My bras and panties are completely soaked with muck. I can wear a bra two days in a row, but I’m not looking forward to sitting around in the same panties for that long.

With how dirtied these undergarments are, they’re going to need washed at least twice. I sigh. Maybe if I get started now, I can go to sleep before the middle of the night.

A knock sounds on my door.

I don’t bother looking up right away. “Come in.”

“Nanny,” Beau announces himself brightly. He takes one step into the room and his bright voice lowers. “What are you doing?”

“Lamenting the amount of laundry I’m going to have to do tonight.”

I know, in my heart of hearts, that this isn’t exactly a big deal. But with everything else going on, the threat against our lives and all, the last thing I want to have to be doing is sitting by the laundry machine.

“Just send it out in the morning,” Beau says, and I roll my eyes. Gods, the brothers are so spoiled. I wonder if Beau even knows how to work a washing machine. “You can wait until then. I’ll lend you a shirt to sleep in.” He sounds way too self-satisfied offering that.

I lift my head and gift him a flat look, but I’m caught off guard by the way he’s holding his hands behind his back, like he’s hiding something.

“What do you have?” I ask.

He grins widely, like he was expecting me to ask, and then he shows me, bringing whatever he’s holding around.

He holds up a barely-there, mostly-lace and string, bra and panties set.

Lingerie is what it is.

“What is that?” I ask.

He smirks, mischief in his eyes. “A gift for you.”