“No, you aren’t going to kill him.” I interrupted—I had to nip this in the bud. “No one is going to kill him.” I glared at Papa Diesel like I was reprimanding atoddlerand not a fully grown alpha with military training.But if he wanted me to treat him like an adult, then he could, you know, start acting like afuckingadult.“My life isn’t in danger; no one in the family is going to retaliate or say a single damn thing to the Kingston-Storm pack. This sort of thing happens all the time when couples find out that they just aren’t compatible. Luckily I found a replacement for the situation, so the wedding will still go off without a hitch.”
“Avril, you aren’t serious about this…” Mag-dad tried.
“Oh, I am serious. I am dead serious.”
“Sweetheart, I know that you’ve planned and invested a lot in this wedding…” Pa Nix was holding his hands up, like he was defusing a bomb. All of them were acting ridiculous. This wasn’t even a big deal. “But this isn’t the sort of thing you can just rush into. All of us would understand if you needed to reschedule the wedding. It’s not worth marrying the wrong person.”
“I don’twantto reschedule. Everything isperfect.”
“But Avril, sweetheart…”
“NO.”
I might not be an alpha, but I could glare with every ounce of my anger and annoyance brimming right under the surface. I might not have an aura, but I was going to make them allfeelit and understand. “I have been dieting and planning and saving for this day foryears.It’s happening. My new fiancé is lovely, and you will accept him. And even if you don’t, no one is going to say a word. Not one word about it until after the wedding. Doyouunderstand that?”
If I hadn’t been so furious at all of them, if I had gotten a chance to see this situation from a distance, maybe I would have thought that it was kinda funny watching all these highly trained and muscular alphas all cowering in their boots at the threats of little old me.
Father frowned, grabbing my chin and staring into my eyes. “Do you love this man? This new one? You aren’t just marrying him because you want the wedding to go on?”
“Yes. I love him. David… I promise I’m not just marrying him because I want to get married…” It was hard to explain everything that had been going on for the past few months after keeping it all to myself. It was like I was a completely new woman from who I was when I walked in on my ex cheating on me. “I feel like he is the man I should have married from the beginning. I didn’t even know what I wanted in a partner until I experienced it with him.”
I guess that something in my rambling, emotional nonsense resonated with my dads, because the tension in the room faded.
“So to be clear, this man—he treats you right?” There was an edge to Father’s voice. It was more than obvious that if I said anything other than the affirmative, he was going to use his spy network to find out where David lived and make him pay.No onedisrespected Ragnar Stryker’s children.
I nodded.
David treated me far better than my ex ever had. Not that I was going to say that in front of my fathers. I wasn’t about to have them start a riot and damage their longstanding friendship with the Kingston-Storm pack because of my greasy worm of an ex.
“Hey sis,” Gunnar piped up after his nap time. “Since he treats you so right and all, you won’t mind if we all do another interview on him and check?”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, go for it.”
This interview idea was stupid.
I don’t know how it all started, but apparently now it was a new tradition for everyone in the family to gang up and interview potential scent matches and fiancés. I’m used to my dads being overprotective—but I swear some of my brothers are just doing it to get in my business. They are sticking their noses where they don’t belong more than they are helping anything.
I don’t know; maybe I would have needed a family intervention with my partner if I’d gotten engaged to that one guy who literally had an arrest warrant…
But I had nothing to hide with David. He’d be fine, no matter what my dads or any of my crazy brothers threw at him.
Anyway, I’d already promised Chloe that I’d help her get her revenge for when our brothers helped to interviewheralphas.
Just wait until the next of my brothers meets their own sweet and unsuspecting little omega.
Payback was a bitch.
CHAPTER 28
DAVID
This was not at allhow I expected meeting Avril’s family would go.
I thought that maybe we would meet at a restaurant, or at her house. Instead, the address that her father sent me was an office building. Suddenly I felt underdressed in my button-up and gray slacks. This felt more like I was there for a job interview than meeting my fiancée’s dads. When I got to the interview room, there were over a dozen men all glaring at me like they were the judge, jury and executioner—all there to come to uncover my horrible, horrific crimes.
One thing that struck me when I met them was that all the men in the room were noticeably handsome. More than one of the younger men and some of the older ones as well belonged on the covers of magazines, or walking down runways.
Which didn’t make any sense.
