Irish Melody (8 page)

He lifted his head to look up at Samson and curiously Samson’s eyes were wet. It was strange.
Don’t make me go back to them. If you make me then I’ll run away and come right back. I’ll hide in Hannah’s room and no one will be able to find me.

Samson’s mouth cracked into a smile, but it quickly fled. “Oh, you were serious about hiding out in her room.”

Ippy nodded. He had been. He even knew where he’d go. There was space under her bed since she kept it higher than any bed he’d ever seen. He could live there for a few years. Since her dads didn’t work outside of the house food might be complicated, but she had a mini fridge under her desk and he could take showers in her bathroom. It could work. Only he knew that Liam was a wolf and would likely be able to smell him. Except that Ippy had been in her house so much over the years that maybe he wouldn’t think anything was different since he was sure that his smell was everywhere in her room.

Samson touched the side of his face. “Is this the first time that your dad has hit you?”

Ippy nodded.

“But it’s not the first time you’ve felt unhappy at home. Is it?”

His response was slower this time, but he did manage to shake his head. He’d never really felt happy or wanted there.
Mom got different after the doctor said I was autistic. Same with dad. They fight a lot. I know it’s my fault—

There was a growl and Ippy looked at Samson, surprised it was coming from him. “It’s not your fault. Not ever. You’re my responsibility. Everyone in this pack is. I should have known something was wrong. Why didn’t you come to me? I could have helped.”

You’re busy,
Ippy replied, knowing it was the truth. His teacher had told him so often enough.

Samson shook his head. “I’m never too busy for you or anyone else in the pack when it’s an actual problem.”

That wasn’t what he’d heard, but Ippy didn’t say anything because he didn’t want Samson mad at him. His teacher always told him that Samson was busy. Everyone was too busy for him. Only Hannah really seemed to have time for him. That was how it felt.

“What do you want to happen?” Samson asked him.

When?

Samson shrugged and gave him a soft smile. It made him look a lot younger than he was. “Where do you want to be this week?”

Oh, that was an easy answer. And it never changed.
With Hannah.

“And the week after that?” Samson asked him as he nodded.

Same thing.
With Hannah.

Samson’s smile grew
.
“I’m glad she has you as a friend. You two seem good for each other.”

I love her,
Ippy replied, feeling bold.
And I love Caelum, too. When I’m eighteen we’ll all be living together and we’ll be happy. Together. Like we’re supposed to be.

Samson looked a bit startled. “That’s still happening? I thought Hannah grew out of that thought. She hasn’t mentioned it to me for a few years. Are you sure?”

Ippy turned his head toward the closed back door.
Hannah? Are we still moving to Ireland?

He could hear her coming down the stairs, followed by two much heavier footsteps. She was out the door a minute later and had her arms around his shoulders before she was kneeling next to him. “Yep. We are. Soon as you’re old enough. We’re going to live in Galway Sound, just the three of us. We’ll go to a university, get jobs, you’ll make that awesome pasta thing you make with all the cheese and I’ll learn how not to burn toast.”

Ippy met Samson’s gaze.
It’s still happening.

“So it is.” Samson looked up at Liam and Travis. “Did you two know about this?”

Ippy watched Travis take Liam’s hand and he leaned against Hannah. He knew that she’d mentioned it to her dads, but did they think that she’d grown out of it as well? Would she go through with it if they said that she couldn’t go? She loved her dads and they loved her. He knew that. It was obvious in everything they did together.

Travis was the first to speak. “We knew. And while we’re not happy about our daughter living on another continent, we know that she’s smart and she can decide what she wants to do. Caelum has been a part of her life since she was nine and saw him on a train platform. When she was fifteen she ran away to go save him. It’s been enough years that we figured out that this isn’t some little crush that she has on him and we’ll help her in whatever way she needs—Phillip, too. They’re inseparable. I didn’t expect things to work out like this for the three of them, but we’ve seen Phillip grow up and we know that their friendship is real.”

She was smiling up at her dads and if Ippy could have been smiling, he would have.

Liam spoke up as he released his husband’s hand and put it around Travis’ shoulders instead. “And, Hannah, you never knew this since Caelum asked us not to tell you, but the dreams you have of him where he comes in to talk to you? We have them with him, too. He talks to us at least once a week. We like him, I suppose. As well as any dads can like the man their daughter is in love with. He’s a decent guy, respectful, and seems to really care about you.”

Ippy ran his face over Hannah’s cheek, wiping away some of her happy tears before she released him and ran over to give both of her dads a hug. Ippy watched them for a few long minutes before turning back to Samson. He didn’t know what his alpha was thinking, but he was smiling as he turned from watching the little family to meet Ippy’s gaze as well. “I suppose things will work themselves out. If you two are sure about this, you’ll have the support of the pack behind you in whatever you choose. If you’d been moving to a different state to go to college in a few years the support would be the same—I don’t see why this has to be any different.”

Ippy nodded.
What about now?

“Tonight?” Samson asked him.

Where do I go tonight?
Ippy clarified for him.

Samson turned to look at Travis and Liam. “I’m not sending Phillip back to be at his home with his mother right now. Christopher and I have room in our home if you want him to stay with us, but I thought, given their connection, that maybe him staying here with you both and Hannah right now would be best.”

Hannah shrugged. “Sure, we used to have sleepovers all the time before his parents got prissy about it since, you know, we’re teenagers and all.” She crossed her arms over her chest and shot Ippy a grin.

Samson pressed his lips together. “Right. Well, that might not be completely appropriate after all. So—”

I’ll sleep in the TV room downstairs. There are plenty of pillows and blankets down there already,
Ippy told them all. Then, just as quickly, he remembered that Hannah’s dads hadn’t actually said that he could stay with her yet.
If that’s all right.

Travis didn’t look excited, but he didn’t look upset by the prospect either. Liam only shrugged and said, “Sure. Get ready for bed. While you’re staying here, though, you’re both going to be good. This is our house and we’ve got rules. Namely, no sex. You two got that?”

Hannah blushed and nodded. Ippy easily agreed to that. He’d barely even started thinking about sex in general.

Liam’s expression softened a bit. “Good. Now that we have that settled, things will be okay here. Phillip, tomorrow we’ll go by your house to get the things you need. You’ll stay with us as long as you need to. Other than that, things will continue as usual. This is not an excuse to slack off, you two. Phillip still goes to school, Hannah, you still learn about finances from me during the day. There’s still homework, you still have to eat dinner, and your rooms must be kept clean. This is not a two year long party for you both.”

Hannah was smirking before her dad finished talking. “We get it, dad. And thanks. All of you. C’mon, Ippy, I’ll help you get settled in downstairs.”

Thank you all.
He picked his shorts up between his teeth as he followed Hannah downstairs and into a room that they’d spent plenty of nights in, watching movies and laughing as they joked together.

He shifted quickly after gently pushing his wolf aside so that he could come forward. There was no pain, only warmth, and then he was getting redressed as Hannah turned her back to him to get down some of the pillows and blankets they kept in the closet.

I’m dressed,
he told her once he was decent, although suddenly freezing standing in just a pair of her shorts.

She didn’t say anything as she came over and wrapped her arms around him, pulling him in for a tight hug.

You didn’t ask permission,
he chided her as he held her close, too.

Hannah didn’t even start to release him. “Do you mind?”

Ippy shook his head
. No.

She kissed his cheek and he relaxed in her embrace. Samson was wrong, she wasn’t lucky to have found him. He was lucky to have her as his best friend.

The next morning Ippy stood in front of his house, his hand tightly clasped in Hannah’s, as Samson knocked on the front door. Liam and Travis were behind them and Ippy felt better knowing that the three of them were there. He didn’t know if they would have been so accepting if they’d known that Hannah had snuck down in the middle of the night and held him for an hour or two. But since Liam was a werewolf maybe he already knew. Nothing had happened and he’d had a whole speech prepared about how all they’d done was hold hands until Hannah had gone back upstairs, just as they were now. But when Liam hadn’t brought it up at a breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon Ippy had shrugged it off.

Now, as he waited for his mom to answer the door, he was glad he’d decided to stay with Hannah instead of going to Samson’s house last night. He knew Samson and Christopher would have been good to him. And they had extra beds so he wouldn’t have had to sleep on the couch like he did the night before. But he felt better knowing that Hannah was in the same house with him, that he could talk to her, even if she couldn’t talk back without coming down because his phone service had been canceled sometime in the night.

The front door opened and his mom glared right at him before moving aside and letting them in. He stayed next to Hannah, not wanting to leave her side during this as Samson squared off with his mom. He knew that she’d never really liked him, but he still couldn’t help feeling a bit of pity for her as the big man glared down at her. He tried not to think about that as he went upstairs with Travis and Hannah for company. As humans they wouldn’t be much protection against his mom if she decided to shift—that was why Liam and Samson were downstairs with her, but he was glad to have them nearby.

“There are trash bags up there waiting for you. Use them to get your stuff out of my house. I don’t want anything left of you here. Not after what you did to your father.”

Without his phone or a pen and paper he couldn’t reply back to his mom so he did his best not to hear her. Hannah lifted her free hand, though, and gave her the finger. Hannah shot him a smile and he tried to be happy, for her at the very least. She didn’t deserve to have anyone be mad at her just for trying to help him.

He closed his door behind him and Travis picked up the first of the bags on the bed. “I’m sorry, Ippy. Believe me. Your things don’t belong in bags like this and I know how hard it is to lose your family. I lost mine when I came out.”

He did?
Ippy asked Hannah.

Hannah nodded and gave his hand a firm squeeze. “Yep, he did. Dad lost everyone when he came out.”

Ippy hadn’t known.
Was it worth it?

Hannah spoke for him. “Ippy wants to know if it was worth it.”

Travis’ smile was instant and Ippy found himself being pulled into a tight hug. “Absolutely. I got my daughter first, and then Liam came into our lives. He improved everything in his path and our lives were better nearly overnight. I wouldn’t change what happened between us for anything because the life I have now is the one I would have always wanted. I know things are tough right now. They’re probably going to be that way for a bit. But you have a best friend and a whole extended family here for you. I care about you like you were my own kid because I’ve watched you grow up alongside Hannah. This should have never happened to you and I don’t understand how any parent could get so mad at their kid for being who they are. But what I want you to remember most of all is that this pain isn’t forever. It sucks right now, but things will be better soon.”

“It can’t rain all the time,” Hannah reminded him, quoting one of her favorite movies. It was a cult classic and they’d both loved it, though her dads had been pretty upset that they’d decided to watch it when they were probably too young.

He moved out of Travis’ hold to give Hannah a hug, too. He didn’t deserve her, but he was grateful that she was there. She was light and perfection. He, well he wasn’t entirely sure what he was, but he was pretty sure that he wasn’t as great as she was by any means. He didn’t even have the guts to tell his mom what he really thought about her and his dad.

Hang on a minute. He spotted an old notebook on his dresser and went to it. Hannah started packing up his clothes as he sat down and wrote a letter. His hand started to cramp and he ran out of ink, but he found another pen and kept writing. When Hannah tapped his shoulder he looked up and was surprised to see that two hours had passed as she waved her phone in front of his face to show him the time. He turned in the chair and looked around at the room he’d grown up in. They’d packed up his clothes, his movies, his notebooks, his school stuff…and he didn’t even mind them doing it, which was the most surprising thing about it.

He gave her a weak, watery smile and she offered him her hand which he eagerly took. He didn’t bother folding up the letter. In fact he didn’t expect his mom to ever actually read it. But he still left it on his desk for her as Hannah silently led the way out of his room, a trash bag of his things in her hand as Travis trailed behind them with another two bags of his things.

His mom wasn’t looking at him as he walked by her and out the front door. He pretended that didn’t bother him. Liam and Samson took up the lead and he heard Samson say something about a car coming for her in an hour. He didn’t know or care what that meant. She was no longer his mom and he wasn’t her son. Though it hurt, he knew that was probably what she’d wanted since the doctors had told her that he would never be normal. But, like Caelum had said, normal was relative and he didn’t know anyone that was. His family was a pack of werewolves, a few humans that loved them, and a girl that was his best friend and who he loved greatly. He had enough right there and with Hannah’s hand still clasped tightly in his, he knew that he’d be okay. After all, there would be sun again. It wouldn’t be today or even tomorrow. But there would be sun again soon.