Page 44 of The Fates We Tame

“You can’t marry a woman you barely know,” King says. “This isn’t you. You need to give yourself time to reconsider. Plus, your mom will kill you for getting married without her here, and then she’ll kill me for not stopping you.”

It’s heartwarming the way these grown men are still scared of their moms.

“I know Sophia,” Theo says. “Look. I almost lost my life. My chance of a future was nearly taken away from me.” He glances in my direction, and I almost believe the honesty inhis eyes when he looks at me. Like I’m more than a damsel in need of saving and something worth treasuring instead. “It does something to a man. Makes him reevaluate what’s important. Sophia’s my future, and I’m not prepared to waste a day of it.”

His words make me weak.

My phone rings and I glance down at it.

My papà.

I almost answer it on autopilot.

My heart sinks. Given my brothers arrived at the center at the same moment I left, it’s taken him four hours to call. It’s also odd that the center hasn’t attempted to call before now. Nor my mamà.

“Listen,” Theo says finally. “I get it. You guys all care for me. But letting Sophia go isn’t something I want. I just need you to be happy for us.”

“Fuck me,” Bates says. “Vi was just telling me about the latest book she’s writing, and it had an insta-love trope. Like, where the guy falls first and falls hardest.”

Theo reaches out his hand for me, and I make my way over to him as best as I can. My body aches right now. The more than four hours sitting in the truck didn’t do me any favors. I feel like a pretzel on a good day.

King tugs a hand through his hair. “You know this is fucked up, right?”

Theo smiles. “From the stories you all told me while I was in the hospital and since I got out, it sounds like fucked up is really business as usual for us.”

Vex slaps Theo on the shoulder. “Sounds about right.”

Theo looks to King. “Brother, I’m doing this anyway.”

“Explain it to me. Why Sophia?”

Theo shakes his head. “I’m a grown man, King. I don’t need to explain my relationships to you. But what I will say is this: Sophia is loyal. Courageous. Funny. She’s been an anchor whenI felt like I was disappearing. Sat there and looked up shit about bikes to calm me when they were shoving me through scan after scan.”

King shakes his head. “That can all be true, but you don’t have to marry her to continue that.”

Theo shocks me by releasing my hand and taking a step into King’s space. King doesn’t even flinch, but Theo seems to grow in stature and composure. “Again. I don’t have to explain this to you. If you don’t call a vote and sanction me marrying Sophia and making her my old lady, I’m still walking into that courthouse and marrying her.”

I move toward Theo but Vex stops me. “It’s okay,” he says in hushed tones. “I’ve got him covered but let him handle this.”

Halo and Spark step up on either side of King. They sense the tension like I do.

“Fine,” King says, finally. “Marry her.” He looks directly at me. “As far as I’m concerned, you haven’t proved why you should be an old lady of the club. You figure out how to do that, and we’ll take a vote.”

“I’ll look after him,” I say. But I realize how pathetic it sounds. How on earth will I do that? I can’t support him financially. Definitely not physically. Maybe emotional support is all I have, but I have no previous skills to draw on to help.

“We know you will.” It’s Niro who squeezes my shoulder. “I’ve got your back.”

King eyes Niro. “Once upon a time, that wouldn’t have been a ringing endorsement.”

Niro shrugs. “Once upon a time, you were the asshole who thought kidnapping a brother’s sister was a good idea.”

King’s glare eases for a moment, and I see the flicker of a smile as his shoulders relax.

“For fuck’s sake, you drove the van,” King says.

Niro chuckles. “Oh, yeah. Forgot about that.”

King turns to me. “You happy with this, Sophia?”