“Stop” Ellie screamed when she rushed in from her room.

“Stay out of it, Ellie,” Destry told her and turned his attention back to Ryder, who was staring at me with pleading eyes.

“Destry, put him down!” I yelled back at him. By this stage, everyone was watching on in shock as Destry assaulted the deputy sheriff and my best friend.

“You allowed it! You knew about this, Brax, and you allowed it!” He was seriously pissed. I had to do something to fix this. It was now or never, right?

Fuck!

“She’s not sleeping with him!” I said sternly. Ryder’s head flicked to mine. Destry continued to stare daggers through him. “I am.”

Destry took a second to register my words and instantly let go, his arms falling to his side. He looked at me with a completely confused expression sweeping over his face. The anger which was there moments ago, had all but vanished, only to be replaced by pure shock.

The most fearful thing was he didn’t say a word. Ryder took a step back, out of arms reach of Destry, and Ellie rushed to his side to see if he was okay, while I stood cemented to the spot, waiting for my family to disown me or at the very least say something. I had four sets of eyes burning into me, Destry, Amelia, Austin and Rach, and I couldn’t for the life of me read their expressions. All I could see was Ryder from the corner of my eye.

“Well, fuck me,” Rach said, finally breaking the deafening silence of the room. Her head tipped slightly to the side, a smile on her face. A smile that instantly made me relax. Just maybe this would be okay.

“Did that already,” Austin snickered, loud enough to be heard. Rach turned quickly and punched him fair in the nose. We all looked over when Austin hit the ground, and Rach turned and walked out the door muttering under her breath. What was going on with those two was anyone’s guess, and right now, I had enough problems of my own without worrying about whatever that was.

All eyes shot back to me and it was then, standing in the kitchen of the place I now called home, that I realized I’d just told my family, my protectors, my blood my biggest secret… but definitely not my only one.