Marc (Bowen Boys, #4)(56)
“But she seemed to be fine with it.” His dad looked at Khan. “You knew I was just kidding. I kid around with everyone. It’s what I do.”
“Well, you’d better fix this or so help me I will.” His mom poked his dad in the chest. “And trust me, you won’t like the way I fix this.”
“I’ll call her right now. I’ll fix this. I might have gone a little too far with her, her being a novice and all. But she did a fine job on getting you all to work together. Fine job.” He pulled out his cell phone and began to search for her name. “She’s the best thing for Marc. Who would have thought he’d fall so hard for a lovely girl like her? Not that I didn’t think he would, it’s just that I thought his heart was closed and she just went right in and opened it right up. I don’t seem to have her number. Can I have it?”
“Got you.” They all turned to look at Jonny, who was standing behind his dad. “See, you do like me.”
His dad grabbed her then. Dropping his cell phone, he pulled her into his arms and held her. Jonny was so stunned looking that Khan nearly laughed. His dad told her he was sorry, and that he didn’t just like her, he loved her. Khan then reached for his mom. She leaned her head on his shoulder and smiled up at him.
“I helped her with this part. Just in case the other didn’t go as planned.” Khan kissed his mom on the forehead. “She’s a wonder, isn’t she? I wanted to smack her earlier, but she’s right. We should have known we couldn’t live there forever.”
“She seems to be good for all of us.” He looked toward his other two brothers, who stood alone. “Do you think that their mates will be just as stubborn as ours are, or do you think they’ll be more timid? I don’t know if I can take another strong female in this family.”
“I think that Reed’s mate will take him out of his shell and bring him away from his computers and back into our lives. Not that he’s not here, but he does have his head buried into some sort of electrical equipment all the time.” Khan nodded.
“And Sebastian? What do you foresee in his life? A female to bring him out of his computers too? Though he’s not as bad as Reed, he does tend to zone out when something electronic is brought to his attention.”
They watched Sebastian hug Caitlynne when she made a comment about his shirt. It was as loud as Reed’s snap had been with colors, enough to make a crayon company jealous. And where did he even get those shirts anyway? It seemed that every time he saw him he had on one that was brighter and uglier. And the last time he’d had on a suit, the shirt and tie had clashed so badly that Khan had begged him to take the tie off even though they’d been at a formal function.
“No, Sebastian’s mate will be someone that won’t be easily swayed by him, I think. She’ll have to be strong because of his quiet reserve, Sebastian is a strong man and stronger in his ways. I think his mate will be someone that he will cherish, but she won’t have it. He’s the most romantic son I have, and she will probably hate it…for a time anyway.”
Khan laughed and kissed his mom again. His dad was telling Jonny what a great kid she was, but still only a kid, and slapped Marc on the back. Khan walked to Jonny and kissed her cheek. She looked up at him, as serious as he had ever seen her.
“I need to pledge to you. I think it’s stupid and a little on the barbaric side, but you seem to need it from me. But I want more of a reason. I’ll do it, but there should be more of a reason for me to do it than because I have to.” She glanced at his mom. “I want you to tell me what I’ll get out of this, and not what you’ll get out of it.”
He thought about telling her she’d get to be a member of his family, but looked around and saw that she already was. A huge part of his family, as a matter of fact. Then he thought of something Caitlynne had told him after he’d made her pledge to him, and thought that Jonny more than likely needed the same thing.
“When Caitlynne lay dying in my arms, I had never felt more helpless or more pissed in my life. This woman had refused to pledge to me because she told me later that I had made it sound not like she was pledging anything but submitting to me. She said that all it sounded to her was that I was going to get this connection to her and that I was going to be able to call to her cat and that I was going to be able to find her if she was missing. She said that it was hard to give up what she didn’t feel I deserved but had demanded of her.”
“What did you tell her, Khan, just shut up and do it my way?” She snorted, a habit he was beginning to see that she was using instead of cursing at him. “I’m betting you put her into her place, didn’t you?”
He laughed. “Have you met Caitlynne? The only person that put her into her place is Caitlynne. She’s harder on herself than you are, and honey you are hard on yourself. But in answer to your question, no, I didn’t. Well, that’s not true, I did, but I amended it later. I spoke to her again after I met Monica.”
“He told me that I was gaining more than he was.” Caitlynne walked up beside him as she continued speaking to Jonny. “Not only did I get all the things that he’d gain from me, such as the ability to contact and call my cat, but that I’d have his heart. He said that when a person pledged to a leader of a family, they were bound to him, nothing more, just bound. But when someone pledged to him that was a mate to his brothers, they got a large chunk of his heart as well. Because they loved and cherished the most important people he knew, his blood family.”