A.N. Sorry for runnig late all, had to make a surprise trip to K.C., enjoy.
(Thomas POV)
"Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached cruising altitude, and the seat belt sign has been turned off. Please feel free to move about the cabin as we begin our non-stop flight to Jacksonville International. The time is now just after 8:00 p.m. Pacific. The flight time is approximately six hours, which will have us landing at about... 5:00 a.m. local time. Once again, thank you for choosing us for the flight's destination."
The announcement faded into the steady hum of the engines, but my brain refused to settle. I kept replaying the last forty-eight hours like someone had spun my life on a roulette wheel and the ball hadn't stopped bouncing yet.
A gentle reminder from Edward to Bella about "expiring plane tickets," a few snide comments from Charlie that somehow got Bella's back up, and...bam...I was strapped into a seat at thirty thousand feet headed toward Jacksonville to explain to Aunt Renee that I'd be getting married in just under two weeks.
The whiplash still had me blinking.
How did I get dragged into the whole thing?
My original plan had been elegant in its cowardice: mail pictures, include a polite "sorry you weren't invited" note, and let the fallout hit somewhere safely on the other side of the Rockies. Preferably with a forwarding address attached to it that was not mine.
Bella, across the aisle, looked too pleased with herself to be innocent. The smile on her face might have been because she was seeing her mother for the first time in nearly a year, but I was pretty sure it was also anticipation for the coming explosion.
"Are you okay, tiger?"
Edythe's hand was in mine, cool and steady. I gave it a reassuring squeeze. "Just wondering how I went from the safe job of training giant wolves… to flying off to visit my scary 'Marriage Should Be Illegal Until Forty!' yet loving aunt."
Edythe laughed quietly. "I can't wait to meet her. She sounds like a very special woman."
I leaned over and kissed her, briefly, because we were still pretending to be normal humans in a metal tube with strangers. "She is a wonderful woman," I murmured against her lips. "With some heavy prejudices."
Edythe's mouth curved. "And we're about to trip every single one of them."
"Like a professional trip artist," I said with a sigh. "I only hope she sees how close Edward and Bella are in following our lead, so I'm not her only target."
Bella heard that and made a sound that was half laugh, half warning. "Don't use me as a shield."
"I'm not using you as a shield," I said. "I'm using you as… supporting evidence."
Edward's expression didn't change, because of course it didn't, but his eyes flicked toward me. "If Renee has an issue with this, it won't be about evidence."
"Great," I muttered. "So, what will it be about?"
Bella answered, far too cheerful for someone who grew up with Renee's emotional weather. "Tone. Timing. Atmosphere. The phase of the moon. Whether she's had coffee. If she is still pissed at your mom for the Vegas wedding. You know...stuff she finds important."
Edythe's shoulders shook with silent amusement. "Then we should plan accordingly."
I stared ahead at the seatback like it might offer a strategy. "Okay. Logistics."
Edythe tilted her head. "Mm?"
"How do we tell her?" I asked. "Do we lead with 'surprise, we're getting married' or do we let her notice your ring and explode on her own?"
Edythe's gaze dropped to her left hand, to the ring there, and she made a thoughtful sound. "If she notices it first, she'll feel clever. That might buy you thirty seconds."
"Thirty seconds," I repeated. "Excellent. In that time, I can… what, duck behind Phil?"
"Phil will back you," Bella said, more confident about that than anything she'd said in the last year. "He's… calmer."
"Good," I said. "I need at least one adult on my side."
Edward's voice cut in, maddeningly smooth. "You're forgetting Edythe."
"I'm not forgetting her," I said. "I'm accounting for the fact that she will be charming, polite, and terrifyingly reasonable."
Edythe smiled sweetly. "I can do charming."
"And terrifying," I added.
Her thumb brushed the back of my hand, light, steady, and grounding. "And you can be honest. That's what she'll respect, even if she fights it at first."
I looked at her for a long moment. There were a thousand things I could say, about how much that steadiness meant, about how being seen by her made it harder to lie to myself, but this wasn't the place for poetry.
"You're saying strike first and stand my ground," I said instead.
"Exactly," Edythe replied.
I exhaled, slow. "Sounds like a plan."
Across the aisle, Bella pulled the airline blanket up to her chin and snuggled into Edward's shoulder. The cabin lights dimmed a notch. Someone behind us clicked an overhead vent open, the sound sharp in the quiet. Edward watched the cabin like he always did, still as a statue that only pretended to be human when it was polite.
Bella's voice softened as she settled. "Mom is going to be… a lot. But she's excited to see us. She's been calling every day since I told her we were coming. I'm just glad the first couple of days will be cloudy, so you don't have to hide in the house the whole time." She yawned. "She has tons of places she plans to take us. We might even go to a couple of them."
Edythe made a soft, approving sound. "Clouds are good."
"Clouds are life," I agreed, then caught myself and added, "for you, anyway."
Edythe's smile warmed in that quiet way she had, like it belonged to someone who remembered how to live now. "For me. For us."
The plane drifted on, suspended between where we'd been and what was waiting.
And for a few minutes, blessedly, my mind stayed where it belonged: on the coming conversation, on the fact that I wasn't running from it, on the simple truth that I was choosing this. Choosing her. Choosing the mess that came with building a life in the open.
I stared out the window. The world below was ink-black, cloud tops faintly silvered by moonlight. The plane felt like it was floating through nothing.
And because my brain hated peace, it finally circled back to the wolves.
"Speaking of training," I said, keeping my voice low, "The last few sessions have been going very well."
Edythe's attention turned fully to me, not sharp, not suspicious. Just present. "Tell me."
I sat back and let myself think. "Jacob and Leah have made the most improvement. Other than Seth, but he started with no real knowledge, so he has the farthest to go. I think he's hitting a plateau that'll hold him back until he matures."
"And the others?" she asked.
"Sam is too worried about how everyone else is doing to put in one hundred percent," I said. "Paul is only doing what he feels is necessary and waiting for every opportunity to prove he's better than me. Jared is…" I paused, searching for the right shape of the thought. "It's like he has no… independence. No...that's not the right word."
Edythe waited.
"He's never one to strike first," I finished. "He's the set-up man. Always looking to make opportunities for others to succeed. A true beta, with no interest in being anything else."
Edythe's expression softened, like she understood why that mattered. "That's not a weakness."
"I know," I said. "Just… noticeable."
There was another thought, prickling at the back of my skull. "Something else is going on too. It's subtle, but I've been picking up more wolf scent than just the six of them. I think they're holding out on me." My jaw tightened. "The lack of trust is irritating."
Edythe sighed, quiet, patient. "You can't make them trust you, love. All you can do is what you're doing."
She brushed her thumb over my knuckles again. "And you really need to stop thinking you owe them something. If you look at it objectively, you've saved their pack leader's fiancée, taken out just as many rogue vampires as the group of them, brought back knowledge of one of their own after they exiled her…"
"And I'm still acting like I'm the one on probation," I finished for her, because she was right and we both knew it.
Her eyes held mine. "Yes."
I stared at the seatback for a beat, then looked back at her. "It's not that I think I owe them. It's that…" I exhaled, forcing honesty past stubborn pride. "I feel a kinship. So I want to do everything I can for them. Blame it on my past, but I feel family should be treasured."
"You can only help them so much before it falls on them to want to learn," Edythe said softly. "Lead a horse to water and all that."
"Save some of this wisdom to calm my aunt down," I muttered, and she smiled like she'd take that as a compliment.