The muffled sound of raised voices woke me way too early for my liking. I sent up a silent 'thank you' to The Man Upstairs for keeping me an only child. For a myriad of reasons, but the reason right now was the bickering brohams downstairs. Apparently siblings were loud.

Bickering Brohams. Sounded like an awesome name for the T4 rock band. I'd have to bring that up at the next family meeting.

I raised my arm and brought it down approximately where I'd assumed Surly's face would be, only to land on cold pillow. One eye opened just enough to see that I was, in fact, alone in the bed. A fact that did not make me happy.

The voices downstairs would not shut up, and I did not feel like yelling, so I grudgingly got myself out of bed and stomped down the stairs. The voices I had heard were Tripp and Theo, and they got much louder and much clearer as I descended the stairs. Apparently I was the subject of their little tiff.

I got to the bottom of the stairs and marched myself right in between Tripp and Theo. "What in your mother's meatloaf are you yelling about at this ungodly hour?!"

All I got in reply was silence and wide eyes for a solid minute before Trey, my hero, grabbed a blanket from the back of the couch and draped it over me. Because it was only then that I remembered I had slept with no clothes on last night.

A throat cleared. "Harper, it's nine thirty."

I wrinkled my nose and glanced at Thane. "Even worse than I thought. A woman needs her beauty sleep." My attention moved to Tripp and Theo. "Why is it that when there's an argument, it's always you two?"

Both of them ignored me and Theo continued his rant. By the expression on his face, a look I'd never actually seen on his face, he was livid.

"You took advantage. Which is fucking ironic. You barge in on me getting to only second base and I get punched in the face, almost mauled to death and made to feel like shit. Harper's been through what I can only assume was hell the last few days and you decide it's a great time to get your dick wet. Alpha or not, I'm going to kill you."

Whoa...

I heard a low growing sound coming from Tripp. Violence was coming and I had no patience for this.

So I did the logical thing and screamed bloody murder. It had the desired result; everyone shut their face holes and stared at me like I was crazy. Let's face it, I probably was.

"Are you kidding me?! You woke me up for a 'whip it out and measure it' contest? Children, the lot of you!" I turned my glare on Theo. "You have no idea what my last few days have been like. And don't presume to try. I am beyond grateful for everything that you have done, but I will not deal with this. Tripp's taco block moment is in the past. Let it go, like Elsa's flipping glove.

"Also, I'm not going to ask how it seems everyone in this house is aware of my midnight escapades, but I will find out and someone will get punched." I met each individual set of icy blue eyes to make sure they knew that I was not joking. No one looked guilty. They were either pretty good or I was pretty loud. I was just going to believe it was the former.

"There was no point last night where I was forced to do anything against my will. You're brothers, you should know this by now. Bunch of heathens. I pretty much had to beg the guy to take my pants off, something I am very not proud to admit. And probably shouldn't have actually said out loud. I'm a little too miffed to care. But Theo, nothing was done that I didn't want done. I do not have the energy to figure out what we all are right now, so if you start some jealousy nonsense I'll find a piece of ginger, shove it up your poop shoot and tie you to a chair."

There was silence as everyone just stared at me. Surprisingly, it was Tripp that broke it.

"Ginger?"

"Read it in some smut once. You peel a piece of ginger and shove it in some orifices. As it sits in there it feels like your naughty bits are on fire but does no damage."

Almost simultaneously, T4 placed their hands on their rears. It would've made me giggle if I wasn't so angry.

And why was I so angry? Yes, they woke me up. That was never a good experience. But Theo seemed to be trying to protect me. I shouldn't be getting so mad about it.

The answer came just as the tears did. Anger was a much easier emotion than the other ones I had yet to unpack. Emotions that were not staying where I put them. I even closed my eyes and tried to get back to being angry, but that only made the tears come faster.

A strong set of arms scooped me up bridal style and sat with me on the couch, setting me on their lap. My eyes opened to find Theo's concerned gaze on me, and the rest of T4 on their feet surrounding the couch.

"Harper, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you. I just...we just got you back and Tripp was being a territorial asshole. I wanted to make sure you were okay. Please stop crying." Theo tightened his hold on me and tucked my head under his chin.

Thane was the next one to talk, his voice right behind me. "Harper, please talk to us. I know you don't want to, but you can't just keep everything in and forget about it."

I shook my head. Everything just needed to stay in its stupid box.

Tripp's commanding voice grabbed my attention. Because of course he used the commanding voice, the little cheater.

"Harper. We are going back there to get our revenge soon enough. But we need to know how painful to make it. You don't need to go into specifics, but you need to talk to us."

The internal war raging in my mind was very distracting. But after a few quiet moments, I nodded. He was right, not that I would ever admit that out loud. It was just so terrifying...

So I pulled up my metaphorical big girl panties, snuggled as close as I could to Theo and dove back into the living nightmare.