Kade's POV

Emilie, Mom, Dad, and I sat at the dining room table with a pot of chicken parmesan sitting in front of us as steam rises from it. Mom and Dad sat on one side of the table while Emilie and I sat on the other as we started to scoop the pasta and chicken onto our plates along with a piece of garlic bread.

Dad kept glancing up at me as he was eating and I just had to ignore that I noticed him keep looking at me because I didn't want to have to deal with whatever he was going to say. He cleared his throat and I had to clear my mind of any anger as he started to talk. "So, Kade, how're you doing?"

I gripped my napkin in my hand that was sitting on my lap before looking up at him with the best smile that I could muster up. "Perfectly fine, Dad, it's not like I just broke up with my boyfriend or anything."

"Other people will come and go, you just have to let it go," he tells me.

My mom shakes her head. "No, I don't think he should just let Joseph go. He's a good guy and he was excellent to Kade, I think whatever's going on can be fixed and he should move forward with that plan."

"I agree," Emilie said as she texted under the table since phones weren't allowed at dinner. I looked up at my dad to notice how his face looked shocked and kinda paler than it was a few minutes prior. He looks at his wife who continues eating as she doesn't realize how her husband's feeling.

"Alexis, you don't see any problem with the boy?" Dad asks.

Mom looks up with a confused look with a shrug of her shoulders. "No, I see no problem. Kade was happy with him and from what we saw, he was good to our boy. Anyways, it's not our decision, it's his."

I set my fork down as I stare at my dad with a smug look to throw it in his face that Mom was on my side. When he notices the look I'm giving him, he narrows his eyes on me. The deal, he mouthes to me and I shake my head, telling him that there was no deal anymore.

"Kade, don't," he warns me, making Emilie and Mom look up at us as I stare at him and he gives me an angry look. Mom sets her hand on her husband's shoulder, getting his attention.

"What's going on?"

Dad shakes his head. "Don't worry about it."

That strikes a nerve and I scoff, getting everyone's attention back to me as I give my dad an angry look because I wasn't going to just let this get past my mom without her knowing anymore because she deserved to be in the know about what's going on with her children. Dad notices the look I'm giving him and he shakes his head to tell me not to bring it up. I look over at Mom, who's already giving me a confused look. "Mom, there's something you should know."

Dad stands up, slamming his hands on the table, making all the plates rattle and startle Emilie back against her chair. "Kade, let's not do this right now."

I shake my head, standing up to be at the same height as him. Emilie reaches out to press her hand to my arm to silently tell me to calm down as she probably saw my hands shaking against the table. I stare at my dad before looking back down at Mom, who now looks even more confused. "Dad's making me make a decision."

Dad picked his hands up again before slamming them down on the table again, startling everyone and I take a step back, realizing how bad this could turn out. Mom immediately stands up to place her arms on Dad's shoulders to push him back away from the table as he stares at me with an extremely mad look, but I remind myself that this is the only way to make everyone happy, except for my Dad, who basically brought this on himself.

Mom turns to look at me. "What decision?"

"He told me that I had to choose between Joey or this family," I tell her, setting my hand on Emilie's shoulder as she gasps, looking over at our father.

Dad takes a step forward before he's pushed back by Mom who looks up at him with a confused look. "Why the hell would you make him do that?"

"Lexi, we cannot have our son dating a predator," he warns her in a low voice.

Emilie looks up at me, standing up to be at the same level as everyone else. She moves closer to me, probably nervous that Dad was going to do something else. "What's he talking about?"

I think for a few minutes because Emilie still has no idea that Joey's a werewolf or that werewolves even exist in this world. "I'll tell you later, I promise."

Mom scoffs. "Brody, just because Joey is what he is doesn't mean he's going to hurt our son. It just means that he's going to be a better protector than anyone that could ever possibly come into his life. I know you want to be our son's whole world, but we can't be. We need to let him go and let him be happy."

Dad shakes his head. "I'm not allowing him to be in that relationship."

I take a step forward, leaning my hands on the table again. "You don't need to allow me to do anything. I'm 18, I can make my own decisions."

"You live under my goddamn roof! You'll listen to me," Dad yells at me, taking a step forward to point a menacing finger at me that almost makes me coward back, but I know that I need to stand my ground right now as Mom looks between the two of us to figure out what to do.

"Kade, what did he say to you?" Mom asks.

I sigh, wrapping an arm around Emilie to support her at what she's about to hear. "He told me that if I chose Joey, I would have to move out and Dad and I would never have a relationship. But if I chose the family, I wasn't allowed to see Joey and Dad and I could work on bettering our relationship."

Mom turns towards her husband as she crosses her arms to give him a death glare. "Brody, your son chose this family, right? Well, have you noticed how distant he's been with you since then? By making him choose, you'll never have a relationship with him because you will be the one ultimately hurting him in the end."

I look down at Emilie to see tears in her eyes before she looks up at Dad. "How could you? Why would you want to tear this family apart?"

Dad shakes his head, his expression softens when he sees how much he's affecting his daughter. "Em, no, I wasn't trying to tear us apart. I was trying to protect us."

Mom sighs, running her hands over her face. "We don't need protecting. Joey would never hurt us, I promise you. He's one of the sweetest guys Kade could ever bring home, so just hold onto that because it's true."

"Dad, Joey's the man that I love and I want to be with. I respect your opinion, but you should get to know him before you make these assumptions because if you knew him, you would see how funny and how sweet he is, I promise you," I tell him.

Emilie nods. "He's the sweetest, Dad. He always asks about my art and is interested in getting to know all of us, even you. He wants to know his boyfriend's dad, so you need to do that before you do something big like this. We can be a family, but you just have to be open-minded, okay?"

Before my dad can answer, the doorbell rings and we all share a look. I sigh when I realize I'm closest to the door and make my way over, looking through the peephole to see how it is. Once I see the man that I recognize from the pictures Elder Collins showed us, I freeze, realizing that we were all in danger. I slowly lock the door, hoping that he wasn't paying attention enough to hear it.

I tiptoe back to the kitchen, holding my finger up to my lips to tell my family to be quiet when I see them again. Once I realize that they realize that they need to be quiet while also silently freaking out, I move my finger, looking around to make sure all the windows were covered with curtains.

"Okay, we need to be quiet. There's someone outside that's dangerous and if he gets in the house, we'll be in danger. No one can make a noise because then they'll know we're here," I whisper to them and they all nod as I motion to Emilie to hand me her phone.

I go through her contacts to find Joey's name before hitting the 'call' button as I motion at them again to stay quiet as the phone rings. On the fourth ring, he picks up. "Hey, Emilie, everything alright?"

"Joey, it's me. Reece Sutter is outside our front door right now and you need to get here because we're all terrified," I whisper to him as loud as I can so he could hear me and I immediately hear Joey start to say thing to the people around him.

"Are you okay?" He asks.

"I'm scared," I whisper.

"We're on our way, we'll be there as fast as we can. What I need you to do is make the least amount of noise possible and try to get upstairs to the farthest room away, just in case they get into the house," he tells me and I can hear him moving around over the phone.

"Hurry," I whisper to him.

"I love you, Kade," he tells me.

I look up at my family, who are now on the same side of the table to hold each other in a group hug. "I love you too."

I notice the small smile Mom has on her face before she runs her hands up-and-down her daughter's back, who looks completely terrified. I hang up the phone, putting it in my pocket as I motion for my family to follow me as I move towards the stairs, making sure they know to continue to be as quiet as they can be. When we successfully get up the stairs, I thank whatever's up there for making this a new house without any creaky floor boards.

The doorbell rings again and Dad has to quickly reach over to cover Emilie's mouth as she cries out when it startles her. I grab my sister's hand as we tiptoe through the upstairs hallway to my room, which happens to be the farthest room from the stairs. I slowly turn the knob and open it, but once I do, I see that my window's been opened and I realize that someone's already in the house.

Dad reaches out and grabs my shoulder to pull me back once he also sees the open window and we rush into Emilie's room, which is right next to mine that doesn't look to be tampered with. We shove into the closet that's big enough for all of us to hide in before closing the door, hoping for Joey to get here as fast as he can.

We all sit on the floor in a tiny circle as we hold hands with each other as my mom bows her head to pray along with my dad while Emilie's head lays on my shoulder as she bites down on her lip to not cry out in fear. Mom looks up at me, squeezing my hand in hers to get my attention.

"Who is it?" She whispers as quiet as she can be.

"Rogue," I whisper to her, clearing her face of all confusion while Dad and Emilie give me a confused look, but we all freeze when we hear footsteps in the hallway. I reach over to cover Emilie's mouth in case she freaks out even more than she was right now. I kiss the side of her head to silently tell her that we were going to be okay.

I lightly set my ear against the closet door to help myself hear what was going outside the door. Someone clears their throat as the footsteps stop. "We believe they were here because the food was still warm, but we haven't seen them since we got inside."

I bite my lip when Emilie's door creaks open and I tighten my grip on Emilie because if she even moved at this point, they would know where we were. Mom's hand tightened on my free one as we heard someone looking around Emilie's room and I just hope that they don't even notice the closet door.

We hear a hand come down on the doorknob of the closet and I squeeze my eyes shut as tears start to come into them. Everyone freezes, trying not to move even an inch as the doorknob starts to turn while someone laugh in the next room. All of a sudden, we hear a huge bang and the doorknob is released as screaming starts to happen.

"The White Water Pack!" Someone yells as we hear people running throughout the house. My hand leaves Emilie's house as my head falls to my chest in relief, knowing that Joey was finally here with perfect timing because if he was just five minutes late, we could've been dead. Everyone in the closet sighs as tears start to free flow down my face.

We sit there for a few minutes as we hear yells and growls from downstairs before everything goes quiet. I don't want to leave yet, just in case something else is going on and we just don't know it. We hear more footsteps on the stairs and I put my hand over Emilie's mouth again because we had no idea who this even was.

We hear my door open before it goes silent for a few seconds before Emilie's door opens and my hand tightens on her mouth again as her eyes squeeze shut as she tries to ignore everything that's going on. Someone's hand goes onto the doorknob again and we all freeze once again as it starts to turn.

It swings open and we all gasp when we see my beautiful man standing there with a look horror on his face until he sees that we're in there. He pulls all of us up from the ground before pulling me separately into a hug, kissing the side of my head. "You're all okay. I have some of my guards on the way and we're going to take all of your to one of our guest houses for the night just to be safe."

Joey backs away to grab Emilie into our hug as Mom and Dad hold each other. We both hold my sister as she continues to cry against my chest as I kiss the top of her head. Dad separates from his wife before coming over to Joey as he separates from me. I hold Emilie as I watch my dad shake my boyfriend's hand.

"I'd really like to apologize, so I'm so sorry for all that's happened within the past few days. I would love to accept you into my family, but it'll take time for me for multiple reasons, but I'm going to try," Dad says and Mom comes over to me, giving me a soft smile before kissing my cheek.

"That's all I can ask for, Mr. Brooks, thank you," Joey says, clapping my father on the back.

My father shakes his head. "Call me Brody, Mr. Brooks is too official for me. You're going to be my son after all I've learned these past few nights, so let's start to act that way."

Joey smiles. "Of course, Brody."

"Okay, all this lovey-dovey stuff is great, but I'm stressed and I want to sleep, can we go do that?" Emilie asks as she wipes her eyes with her sleeve.

Joey nods. "Yes, everyone pack a bag and be downstairs in 15 minutes. My guys are still searching the house for anything else that we need to be alerted about, so don't be alarmed if you see some random guy searching around."

Mom steps forward to give Joey a hug, making my heart flutter at seeing them react together. My mother kisses his cheek before moving back into her husband's arms. We all move to our separate rooms to start packing a bag and when we get into my room, I turn to look at Joey who now looks a little nervous. I stand there for a few seconds as I try to clear my mind from everything that just happened and just focus on him.

"I know you're confused and you have every right to be," I tell him as I reach down to hold his hands in mine. "but my dad gave me an ultimatum."

He gives me a confused look. "What was it?"

"I had to choose between you and him. He told me that he was going to work through the fact that I'm gay, but he couldn't work through the fact that you were a werewolf, so he told me that if I chose you, I had to move out and his and I's relationship would forever be ruined and I felt like if I did that it would also ruin my mom, Emilie, and my relationship as well," I tell him and he nods his head, leaning down to give me a kiss on the cheek.

"I understand, I knew you wouldn't have just chosen to break this off, so I knew that there was more to all of this," he tells me, walking over to my closet to pull out one of my bags as we started to pack some clothes for me.

I grabbed his arm and he looked down at me, setting the bag on the floor to give me his full attention. "I'm so sorry, Joey, you don't understand how sorry I am. I should've stood up for myself and I should've stood up for you better and I'm just so incredibly sorry for all of this bullshit."

He shakes his head. "It's okay, baby, I understand. You're going through a lot."

I smile, wrapping my hand around his neck to pull his lips down to mine to have the first kiss we've had in the past week or however many days. His tongue ran over mine and I realized that the 15 minutes was almost up of the time we had to get our stuff before we had to leave, so I had to pull away, making him whine before trying to connect our lips again.

"I know, but we have to leave soon, right? We're taking them to the guest house," I ask him against his lips.

He nods his head, going back into alpha mode to pick up the bag on the floor to continue putting stuff into it. My hand runs over the back of his jeans, making him stand up to give me a smirk. "Hey, you're the one that told me we have to get ready."

I nodded, grabbing a few more things before walking out with him to the living room where Emilie already sits, playing with her fingers. I reach into my back pocket to get her phone before handing it to her as she gives me a grateful smile. Joey sits next to my sister, wrapping his arm around her shoulder as she stuff her phone in her bag.

"You okay?" Joey asks her.

"I'm just confused," she says and I basically facepalm when I realize that she still has no idea what just happened because she has no idea that werewolves even exist. We all look up when Mom and Dad walk in with bags in their hands as we all stand up to go to the car.

Cody and Melissa stand outside of a big SUV and once they see me, they run over to give me huge hugs. Melissa kisses my cheek as she holds me tightly. "Are you okay?"

I nod my head. "Yeah, we're alright."

Mom, Dad, and Emilie put all their bags in the back before they start to pile into the back. I stop my mom as she starts to get in to pull her away for a bit. She looks at her husband and daughter as they get in before walking back towards the house as Joey talks to someone that looks slightly familiar with Cody and Melissa by the hood of the car.

"I'm going to ride with Joey because we still have some stuff that we need to talk about, but if you don't mind trying to explain the whole werewolf thing to Emilie, it would be great. I could ask Cody and Melissa to help explain because they have more experience with it, but I rather ease her into it instead of just having to tell her when she's already at the camp where there will already be a bunch of wolves around her," I tell my mom.

She nods her head. "Yeah, that's perfectly fine. I will definitely need help from Cody or Melissa because like I told you, I don't know too much about all of this stuff."

I give her a soft smile before pulling her into another hug. "I'm so sorry, Mom."

She shakes her head against my chest, setting her hands on my shoulders as she pulls away from the hug. "Don't apologize, I finally get to meet Joey's parents and see where my baby has been staying the past few months."

I smile, leaning down to kiss her cheek. "I love you."

"I love you too, also, should we be worried about Gigi and Grandpa?"

My eyes widened, remembering that their house was only a few minutes away and I immediately turned to Joey, who felt my panic as he looked over at me from his conversation with his beta. "What is it?"

"My grandparents, should we be worried?" I ask.

He pulls his phone out before pressing a few buttons and holding it up to his ear. He walks away for a few minutes as he talks to whoever is on the other line, probably telling them where to go and see if they're okay. Once he gets off the call, he turns back towards my mom and I. "I'm having some people go check, but I'll let Cody and Melissa know the address, so you guys can go there and get them in the car because it's better to be safe than sorry, so they'll come with us to the guest house."

My mom sighs, kissing my cheek before giving me a soft smile. "More people to explain this crazy situation to."

"It'll all be okay, Mom, I'll see you there. As soon as we get there, I'll come and check up on you guys and maybe I'll have you meet Lila and Conner, Joey's parents," I tell her.

"That would be great," she tells me before kissing my cheek again and getting in the car along with Cody, who was driving, and Melissa. We watched them pull away as Joey wraps his arm around my waist before he guides me to his car. When we get in, he starts it to let the heat run over my body before looking over at me.

"I love you, you know that?"

"I love you too," I tell him, holding his hand in mine before placing it against my chest so he could feel my heartbeat underneath his palm, knowing how it calms him down in stressful situations. His eyes close as we just sit there in silence, together for the first time in about a week.