“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want,” Blake whispered.
Tracey glanced between them, her dark green eyes homing in on Blake, running over his tailored suit, his nice shoes. Appraising him like a gem in a jeweller’s. “Nice to meet you,” she called, moving towards him and holding out a hand.
She was actually unhinged.
Pember lurched forwards, placing himself between her and Blake. “No,” he said, giving her a hard look. “You don’t get to do that. You don’t get to act like nothing happened just because… just because…”
He didn’t want to say it. Not to his mum. She didn’t deserve it.
“Because I’m his mate,” Blake finally said, squeezing his shoulder.
Oliver let out a strangled sound that was somewhere between a cough and a squeal, and when Pember looked up, the alpha was smiling. They shared a look, and for once the word felt like theirs and theirs alone.
“Yeah,” Pember whispered. “My mate.”
Nodding to Oliver, then at the harassment order, he spared one final glance at his mum before taking Blake by the hand. “Can we go?”
Blake sighed, wrapping an arm around his waist. “Yeah.”
“Tracey McArthur,” Oliver began, clearing his throat. “I’m issuing you with a harassment prevention order. This order prevents you from…”
Oliver’s voice faded away into the house as he and Blake stepped onto the driveway.
“I’m proud of you,” Blake said, kissing the top of his head. “But I wish you’d have waited for me.”
Pember swallowed. “I know, but I realised it was something I had to do alone. No offence.”
Blake nodded, fingers squeezing his hip. “I know.”
Rounding the corner, he saw Blake’s and Oliver’s cars parked by the postbox. Lucas was in the front seat with Alfie and an iPad on one knee, Mina and a bottle of milk on the other.
Pember gave a small wave. “Why are they here, by the way?”
For once, a blush ran up Blake’s neck. “I asked them to help me re-draft the surveillance order. Lucas has loads of experience with covert policies. He worked in Special Branch for four and half years before West Newton. I wasn’t… I couldn’t concentrate. I just felt myself getting more and more angry. Then I got the call from Val, and Oliver pretty much had the harassment order ready and waiting. Said he drafted it when you moved out.”
Kind bastard.
Pember hummed. “You mean youactuallyasked for help for once?”
Blake scrubbed a hand across the back of his neck. “Yeah. And… uh… they aren’t the only ones that came.”
Tipping his head, he directed Pember’s gaze towards another car at the end of the drive. Chichi and Val waved through the windscreen, and the elderly alpha looked like she was trying to undo her seat belt.
Pember let out a quiet laugh. “You really brought the whole gang, huh?”
Blake nodded. “Val said she’d let Cherry loose in my lounge if I didn’t pick her up. Chichi wanted?—”
Right on cue, the other omega appeared from the side of the car, her dark braids hanging loose around her shoulders. “Hello, cutie,” she said, pushing up on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek.
“H-hi,” Pember said, giving her a watery smile.
“These boys,” she said, linking an arm through his arm and leading him towards the car. “I’ve worked with all of them long enough to know they have as much emotional tact as a group of chimps. And I… I know what it’s like to escape a tumultuous family. As you know.”
Pember’s eyes flicked to the exposed scarring on her forearms. He squeezed her hand before turning back towards the house. “I don’t want this to be the end for us,” he said, swallowing the lump in his throat. “But I won’t let her ruin everything and everyone I have.”
Looking up at Blake, he said, “Let’s go home.”
CHAPTER 33
