The words hit him like thunderbolts. No. This couldn’t be true. Megan, a fated mate of a Sinclair?
“Even though we’re fated mates, you told me to break it off with him, so I tried,” she said, her face crumpling in misery as she spoke. “I thought maybe you’d approve of Hamilton. He’s older, a successful businessman…well, that’s what I thought he was, anyway. So I was sneaking off to meet him, and trying really hard to make myself fall in love with him, but it didn’t work.”
“But…but…” Tate groaned, running his hands through his hair. He glanced over at Frank. “Frank’s a major player,” he argued.
“I was until I met Megan,” Frank admitted. “I haven’t looked at another girl since I met her, and I never will again. Even if I couldn’t be with her, I would never touch another woman. It’s Megan or no one.”
Megan was positively simpering now, glowing. Schuyler made a gagging motion, sticking her fingers in her mouth as if she was making herself barf.
“He’s such a jerk, his own family won’t speak to him,” Tate protested. “Think about it, Megan. He’s been rejected by the Sinclairs, the biggest jerks in all of Florida.”
“No, idiot, you think about it,” Megan said angrily. “He doesn’t get along with them because, unlike his father, he’s not a douchebag. Schuyler, you did not hear that word.. Frank, tell him what you and your dad were fighting about.”
“It started when these kids were picking on a nearsighted wolf at our school, and I put a stop to it,” Frank said. “My dad said it was survival of the fittest for shifters. He wanted me to actually challenge that little runty kid. I told dad the kid wouldn’t survive five seconds, and dad said that was the point.”
Tate felt anger rising inside him, choking him at the thought. He could picture Quincy saying that, clear as day.
“It went on from there, dad telling me to toughen up all the time, but his version of being tough is kicking weaker people’s butts just to prove that I can. I wouldn’t do it. I moved out and got a job cooking at a restaurant, and I support myself now.” He looked at Tate with a mixture of defiance and hope. “I joined the army. They’re going to pay for my college education, and I’m going into the restaurant business. I’ll own a restaurant some day. I could support Megan, too.”
“But…you vandalized the wedding grounds. And my truck I smelled your scent.” This was crazy. What was happening here?
Frank’s gaze dropped to the ground.
“Tell him,” Megan ground out. Frank remained silent.
“That wasn’t Frank,” she said. “That was his aunt Aurora. She’s angry at our family because she feels like you got her booted off the shifter council, and Loch embarrassed them all when he wouldn’t marry Portia. She used scentsbane to mask her scent. Frank was following her around trying to head her off, which is why you smelled his scent at some of the places that were vandalized. Sometimes she’d manage to slip away from everybody, like when she ruined the flower beds and when she vandalized your truck.”
Tate’s head was reeling. He knew Megan was telling the truth.
If she and Frank were fated mates, he couldn’t stand between that. He knew how he felt about Kat. It would kill him if he couldn’t be with her.
“But…” he protested feebly. “You’re too young.”
“Mom and Dad were high school sweethearts,” she reminded him. “They married right after they graduated.”
She and Frank stared at him, eyes shining with hope.
Damn. She’d torpedoed his every argument. He had nothing. He let out a long, resigned sigh.
Megan whooped with glee. “Yes! He’ll say yes!”
“Not until you graduate from college,” he told Frank, whose face lit up. “You will court her properly, and you will treat her with respect, and you two can’t marry until you have a college degree in your paw.”
“Yes, sir!” Frank said eagerly.
Damn it to hell. The kid was being polite and respectful.
Megan turned to Schuyler and shoved her. “If I ever tell you to run for your life again, you will run for your life, not stick around like a dumbass.”
“Tate!” Schuyler howled. “She called me a dumbass. She used bad language. Aren’t you going to ground her? Why are you laughing? Why are you crying?”
Tate was laughing so hard he was crying, tears of relief rolling down his cheeks. Back to normal. They were all back to normal.
He had Kat, and Megan and Schuyler were safe, and they were back to being the most annoying pack in all of the state, and he couldn’t be more delighted.
Chapter Fourteen