“I’m not ready for these conversations, and I have enough to digest,” I say as I start to walk back in.

He grabs my hand just over the threshold, and I realize that sizzle and pop earlier was from him.

His hand starts sizzling more, steam rising from it as he gently and patiently pulls me back outside.

“You can’t go in without me, and I can’t go in until I’m invited. I’ve been patient, Violet,” he says as he tips my head back, his other hand cupping my face as he starts slowly invading my personal space again.

“I’m not sure patient is what I’d call you, under the current circumstances.”

He grins, even as he gently releases me.

“I assumed you and I had an understanding. I’m not sure where the road took the wrong fork, love,” he tells me as he backs up, hands going to his pockets.

“Well, that’s because you and I have very different thought processes,” I inform him like a semi-sane, mostly-rational person.

“I don’t remember so many objections the day after your party,” he informs me like a semi-sane, mostly-rational, wholeheartedly-smartass person with a smirk.

“That was a rough day, and I had a weak moment. That’s also before I realized I was a temporary situation in your big grand scheme.”

“We’re immortal and you’re not. Of course you’re temporary, Violet,” he says softly, turning on that charm he told the others I’m a sucker for, reasoning away any wrong doings.

“You like to create things, mend things, change things…You’re rather perfect for us,” he goes on, taking a wary step forward, like he’s testing me.

“I do a shit job at mending, creating, and changing things,” I remind him as he cages me in against the wall.

“We don’t have to be perfect,” he says, eyes dipping to my lips like he’s about to try and get kneed in the balls again.

Familiar giggling has me jerking my head away just as he lowers his face, and my eyes grow wide when I see my father walking toward us with the omegas. The giggling stops abruptly, and the omegas swing their gazes toward us, along with my father.

Arion cuts his eyes in their direction, and a smirk appears on his lips as he bends, nipping my ear. “Looks like it’s time for me to meet the father,” he whispers.

Oh dear mercy. I’m about to have to find a way to introduce my father to a murderous vampire alpha after he’s unknowingly hung out with werewolves.

I really do need an actual vacation.

Dad’s eyes are as wide as mine, since this is new territory for us. He doesn’t meet the guys in my life. Obviously. Aside from Jerome that one awkward time when Dad stopped in unannounced at my apartment.

I certainly never planned to introduce him to the monsters in my life.

“We’ll just head inside and let you two finish up,” Leiza says as she hurries by us, pushing through the door.

“Actually, Violet was just about to invite me in,” Arion says to her.

I see Lemon visibly tense and hesitate before she walks in.

“Oh,” Dad says, smiling tightly. Then he awkwardly starts in as well.

“Actually, we were just heading out. I’ll be back very soon, though,” I say as I start shoving at Arion’s chest, not even considering inviting him in.

He grins down at me like he enjoys the resistance instead of understanding how serious I am.

“Would you like to join us, Thomas?” he asks my father. “Is it okay if I call you Thomas?”

Dad walks back out, eyes a little wide. “Sure. Sure. I’d love to.”

This isn’t happening. It simply can’t be.

“Have you eaten?”

“Just finished,” Dad says.

Relief fills me as I say, “Well, too bad then. Maybe another—”

“I’m sure you have room for dessert,” Arion says as he gestures toward the sidewalk. A car pulls up to the curb with darkly tinted windows as if they’ve been cued. “I have an excellent pastry chef on staff.”

I look through the doorway and shoot Leiza a horrified expression. She just looks relieved that he’s not invited in. It’s like no one at all is willing to help me out. That’s what I get for surrounding myself with more omegas.

“I really don’t think it’s appropriate to take my father to your house,” I tell Arion, smiling as nervous laughter slips between of my lips. “You know…since you have so many house guests,” I remind him, refusing to let Dad—the man scared of his own monster daughter—enter vampire central.

“Just to be sure I’m clear here, are you dating my daughter?” Dad asks him, sounding genuinely confused about the entire situation.

Arion’s grin grows as he gives me a wink. “Yes, Thomas. I certainly am,” Arion tells him, still looking at me.

I really wish I could knee him in the balls a lot harder this time.

“If we’re still discussing what to do, I’d suggest a drink. I could sort of use one right now,” Dad says as he awkwardly looks around and rocks back on his heels.

“I know just the place,” Arion says, glancing over at him as that charm shifts effortlessly back into place.

“What place?” I ask quickly.

“Local bar,” Arion drawls, putting his hand at the small of my back as he guides me toward the car.

“Please behave,” I whisper, tensing all over.

He leans down to my ear, kissing the skin just under it. “Violet, whatever do you mean?” he asks in an amused tone.

He opens the front door to the passenger side, and I inwardly groan when I see Shera giving me a little wave from the driver’s seat.

“I was feeling a little left out. I mean, considering all the quality time your new friends have had with your father,” she says with as much feasible condescension as she can.

Gone is the timid dread in her eyes from our last meeting. Back is the feisty redhead with that unpredictable gleam in her eyes.

“I don’t want to ride with Shera. I can drive,” I suggest very quickly to Arion.

His brow furrows, and when I see his slightly hardening eyes, I quickly correct myself.

“I mean, it’s fine, but it’s sort of weird, right?” I add to recover, worrying what the hell happens if Arion gets pissed at someone because of me.

I glance over in time for Shera to shoot me a horrified glare, as though she can’t believe I’d put her life at risk or something. How can Arion read between the lines so well on some things, but be perfectly obtuse with so many more obvious things?

Surely he’s not that crazy.

Fortunately, he seems to relax. “It’s only fair she spend the evening with us. Four omegas versus one beta,” he says, whispering the second part in my ear. “Keep it fair, Violet.”

I’m confused about the part where he thinks I ever agreed to actually freaking date him. His talking skills are hit or miss. Listening skills? He’s got a big ol’ goose egg for his batting average.

With Dad already uncomfortably climbing into the front seat like he’s bewildered by the entire situation, I’m stuck climbing into the back. Arion smoothly slides in beside me, and his arm goes around my shoulders, as though we do this sort of thing regularly.

“We’re hitting that new bar in town,” Arion tells Shera, who gives me another little glare in the mirror before she pulls away from the curb.

“So how long have you two been dating?” Dad asks, glancing around at the town as we pass through.

“Not all that long,” Arion says before I can come up with something of my own to say. “But we formed this rare connection, and Violet’s more open with me than she is with the other three because of that.”

I know I turn pale.

I also stop breathing for a second.

I feel the sting of pure, utter horror wash over me as my dad chokes on air.

Shera grins so broadly it must hurt her cheeks.

“Other three?” Dad asks, clearing his throat repeatedly.

Fuck. My. Fucked. Up. Life.

“It’s just a really wrongly used figure of speech,” I say, lying worse than I ever have because there’s just no quick way to recover. “He’s trying to be funny and failing.”

“Embarrassed by us?” Arion asks in a hushed tone as he whispers into my ear.

“Okay,” Dad says, clearing his throat again.

Arion moves in closer to me when I touch the side of his smooth, firm jaw and turn his head so I can get closer to his ear. I’m not even surprised that he uses it for an excuse to try dragging me onto his lap.

“Please remember what it’s like to have to speak to a girl’s freaking father right now. I don’t even know what is going on at this current moment, but there isn’t an us to be embarrassed about. You’re the one making this up as you go,” I whisper a little angrily.

His cheek nudges mine, as he lazily drags me a little closer, like he’s unable to help himself once he gets too close. It always feels as though he’s starved for affection, and it messes with my head that he stays starved for it, and the need isn’t getting sated by anyone else.

This is my problem. It’s what lures me in every single time when I should clearly run the other way.

He loves another woman.

She’ll be rising soon.

No one seems to have told him yet, so I wonder if that means Vance hasn’t one hundred percent decided.

“I’ll be as good as I can be,” he says with a grin against my ear.

“That’s not at all reassuring,” I tell him seriously as I pull back to look at him.

He just grins, eyes flicking to my lips again, and I’m forced to endure how perfect he really looks this close up. He’s more mischievous than all three others combined, and that’s with Damien pretty much carrying the other two.

It makes him feel so full of life and energy, and he can seriously make someone feel like the central focus of all his attention when he wants to.

He’s also the one who’s the most likely to turn on me the second Idun’s back, so that helps me keep things in perspective.

I look away, and I exhale, quickly getting distracted when I see us pulling up to what looks like a private gate. Shera rolls down her window and waves at the man, who is visibly shaking and scrambling with the buttons to open the gate.

“I don’t need to have a fancy coat or anything to get in, do I?” Dad asks as he looks around, his gaze roaming over the elaborate gate system.

The bar comes into view as Shera drives over the hill and starts down the newly paved section. The bar, however, does not look like it belongs behind that ornate gate.

It looks like it belongs on the side of an abandoned highway.

“Certainly not,” Arion tells him, grinning as he snakes his arm around me and pulls me closer, content so long as I’m letting him touch me.

I get a little wary as we get out, especially when Dad walks in first like there’s no cause for alarm. When I hear some commotion inside, I quickly walk in behind Dad to see absolutely everyone staring directly at us like they can’t believe what they’re seeing.