Knightly
Since finding out they’re sisters, Phoebe hasn’t been able to look away from Perry. She‘ s been very quiet these past few days, and I’m unsure what I must do to close this massive gap between us.
Everything is set for a formal coronation and introduction as the royal rogue family. I’ve gone through some of her jewelry to see her style so that the designers can put something nice together for her. There are no rogue heirlooms left. They were all destroyed in the fires during the massacres. I want her to have new ones anyway. Those would have been tainted with the memory of what I did to the previous family. “Hey.” I must have been thinking too hard about her. I look up to see Phoebe dressed professionally in a dark blue dress that hugs her body like a glove.
“Come in,” I say, needing to take more of her in. To my disappointment, she slips on a black coat that covers her up.
“I know you’re going to be home today, and I was wondering if you could watch the twins for me. I’m closing a deal on my new building with Alpha Barnes, and I didn’t want to take them with me today. Word got out. I think I’m going to be swarmed with paparazzi.”
“We can come with you if you like. I can boost security?”
“It’s okay. I don’t want you to be sitting around. I’m going with your Dad and your sister. I think we’ll be okay.”
“Oh,” I nod. She doesn’t want me to go. That’s how bleak things are getting. Fucking great. “Do you have a moment?” I stop her from escaping. I hear her sharp inhale when she spins back around to face me. She looks annoyed., “Is everything okay?”
A flash of anxiety goes through me as she stares back at me with a blank expression. She lets out a heavy sigh, and my stomach feels like it’s free–falling. Holy shit why am I scared all of a sudden.
“I don’t know,” she laughs. “Yeah, I guess.”
“Phoebe,” I stand up when she opens the door to leave.
“I can’t do this with you right now.” She holds her hand up without looking up at me. “I‘ ve given you room to do what you had to, and I’d like the same courtesy. We’ll talk later.” That’s worse than her picking something up and throwing it at my head. I give her a single nod, and she takes that as her escape. I follow her out to see her say goodbye to the twins. When she leaves, they just go back to doing whatever they were doing in their room.
“What are you guys up to?” I ask, peaking into their room. The two of them giggle.
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“Ask him.” Aizen encourages Ayrie. She gets bright red the same way Phoebe does when she’s embarrassed.
“Daddy, Mommy is working super hard, and we want to go to the art museum,” she says. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but my five–year–old asking to go to an art museum wasn’t it. She holds up a brochure for me. I crouch down, taking it. “Is graffiti arts.”
“Like this.”
Aizen runs over to his writing desk and brings back the notebook he’s always working on. He turns to a page and holds it up for me. It’s a graffiti drawing of roses with the words TOXIC ROSE THORNS right in the center.
“You did this?” I ask him.
He nods and flips through a few pages to show me a printout of our recent stream stats. I used to look at these things religiously. I’m surprised to see how relevant we still are despite having gone silent for a few months. Pretty Phoebe is still number one. How?
“Das you,” Ayrie pokes me.
“Art Museum it is.” I agree.
Her eyes light up like her mother’s when she’s happy. It just makes what happened in my study that much worse. She’s right. The silent treatment is fucked. I pack them an extra set of clothes, snacks, and their own mini first aid kits Phoebe has in here. Once they’re all dressed up, I hand them their backpacks.
Aizen has grown a few inches. His features are a little sharper than they had been. He‘ s now taller than Ayrie by a few inches. Ayrie’s hair is longer, and the alpha call inside of her is stronger than it had been a few months ago. That probably means she’s going to shift, with Aizen, taking on my more dominant traits. I’m a little relieved about that. It means she’ll be able to defend herself when she starts school with the other pups in Redwood.
In the corner of the room, I see a box labelled donations.
“Mommy sends those to the kids on the reservations,” Aizen says when he catches me looking at them. “She sends all the time.”
“That’s cool,” I admit.
“She makes us this.” Ayrie twirls around in a flowy baby–blue skirt and pinches the bottom of her tank top to show me the Toxic Rose Thorns logo printed on the front.
“I did that one,” Aizen pokes her belly.
“Yeah, and Mommy printed it.” She giggles. “Oh!” she smacks her face with both hands. “Daddy, my camera.”
“I got it,” I say and go to the charging station. As I put the camera into the carrier, I call
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for the car to let my driver know that we’re going to the museum in Blood Ridge.
When I disconnect the charger to bring it with me, a book falls from the shelf. I move the cabinet to get to it, and it falls open. It’s a photo album. On the cover is my name. Nathan. I open the first page to see it’s one of the pictures from the night Phoebe got fired. It’s our family photo. The one my mom took. I flip through the photos to see that Ayrie took pictures of me with everyone, and Phoebe turned them into a comic book- themed photo album. The comments and the drawings were clearly done by Aizen.
“No, Daddy!” Ayrie runs over to me and snatches it out of my hands. “Is post to be a secret!”
“Oh, sh-” I stop myself from finishing that.
“We worked so hard,” she groans, putting it back where it fell from. “You ruin the secret.”
“I’m sorry. It fell, and it’s so pretty I couldn’t help it.” I take a knee in front of her. “We can keep it a secret. No one has to know.”
“Mommy was making it for your collection. She said you’re gonna be the super cool king. I has to tell her or then you no have any surprises for your celebration.”
“I can act surprised. I’m still very surprised now. It’s perfect.”
“I have to tell Mommy. We have a strict no more secrets polly seed. And I took all the pictures.” She motions the book and then waves me forward. I lean into her, and she pushes up on her tiptoes to whisper in my ear. “You no have no bad angles. You’re really pretty, Daddy,”
“You think so?” I laugh, pulling away from her. She tucks her hands behind her back and rocks back and forth in her little silver sparkle boots.
“Yup. I know. I’ve seen a lot of Daddies at my old school. Mommy says it’s not nice to say, but those daddies are lucky they has monies. My daddy is the lead singer of Toxic Rose Thorns. I win at that too. I always win at everything.”
I stare at her and laugh because I don’t know what to say to her. She giggles and reaches for the carrier to put into her backpack.
“Mommy is right, though. You can’t say that to people. It’s not nice.”
“I know. Jessica Kneely cried because I told her that her dad looks like the shark from Suicide Squad. He’s a big bald shiny man. I keep it to myself. It has too much power.”
If she’s talking about Alpha Hank, I have to admit that she’s right. He does look like the fucking shark from Suicide Squad. My little gremlin is a mean little girl, and I am living for it. She might have been raised by Phoebe until now, but that’s all Knightly. I have eight sisters to back it up. She had me and the driver laughing the entire ride to the museum. It doesn’t help that Aizen hypes her up for more. Maybe it does. It makes it that much cuter.
“Okay, you guys are not allowed to go anywhere without me. At my side at all times. Tell me if you want anything or if you need to go to the bathroom. Deal?”
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“Yes, sir.” They both salute me.
“Good, pups.” I smile. “Now, let’s have some fun.”
