His daughter was still emitting furious pheromones, but he figured they would calm after a few minutes so he didn't remind her to keep them in check, she was perfectly capable of controlling her output, but this would serve as a reminder to the other kids to not mess with his daughter right now. As the kids shuffled to the dining room, he took his time arranging the candles on Liona's cake, before he lit all eighteen of them.
As his daughter blew out the candles, Leon realized that her furious pheromones were fading, but they were being replaced by ones of Liona going into heat. This time, he did remind her about them. Although heat or rut pheromones didn't affect family members, they could and would affect the room of teenagers. Thankfully education had come a long way since he was their age and all the kids in the room, that were either alpha or omega, administered their own suppressants without a second thought or complaint. All but one that is. He could tell that the boy that Liona had kissed in a fit of anger earlier that he had presumed was a beta, was actually an alpha and he was close to going into a rut. He recognized the signs from his own experience as a young alpha.
Leon politely tried to remind the boy that he needed to take his suppressants, but he either didn't seem to understand, or just didn't have any to take. He then tried a different tactic, since maybe the boy didn't have any on him. He offered him generics he always kept on hand, since his job sometimes required them. However, the boy was stubborn and wouldn't ask for them. He could just force the kid to take them, but he hated to do so unless absolutely necessary. He was at a loss. The boy seemed to think that he was going to have to leave and before he could explain that he could give him suppressants for the safety of the other guests, especially his daughter, his parents showed up, distracting him from the kid.
"Hello! Where are our grandkids?" Boomed a loud voice from the entry, followed by a more moderate voice chiding the loud one. Leon groaned silently. His parents had arrived at the most inopportune time, as usual. In fact, his parents had a knack for showing up at the most impeccable moments, so he shouldn't be surprised, but it was still frustrating since he was trying to juggle the house full of kids, the party crashers, and Liona's untimely heat, which worried him and was absolutely going to worry Vivi when she got home later. He had too much on his plate and adding his parents to the mix felt like one more thing he had to worry about.
"Grandpas!" Aurora and Ariel, his youngest daughters, broke from the crowd and rushed to the foyer to greet their grandparents. His sons also followed suit, but at a more leisurely pace. As he was distracted, he lost sight of the boy he was trying to talk to and couldn't see him amongst the crowd of kids waiting for Liona to return and the serving of her cake and ice cream.
"There're our grandbabies! But what's this? I don't see the birthday girl?" Kaito, his mother questioned as he too made his way to the entry to greet them.
"Hello, Mom, hello, Dad." Leon gave each of them a hug before explaining, "Liona had to take a moment to go upstairs. She should be back soon, but it seems a stressful event triggered her heat earlier than normal so she's taking a minute for her suppressants to kick in."
"Let me go and check on her. I'll be back in a moment." Kaito, his mom, headed upstairs. Like his parents before him, he too didn't mind his parents having free reign to go anywhere in their house. They didn't have anything to hide and his parents were always respectful of their private spaces so it never concerned him or Vivi with them visiting.
"You said a stressful event triggered her heat? Is everything alright? I know we're a bit early, but did we come at a bad time?" Lionel, his dad asked.
"Not really, just trying to juggle a teenage daughter, a house full of guests, and needing an extra hand juggling everything. I don't know how you and mom did it, Dad. Both of you managed to raise us all to adulthood without much trouble. But I don't recall teenage hood being this much trouble…" Leon sighed as he accepted hugs from his teenage children. They were so much easier than Liona had been at this age, he didn't know why, but the two sets of twins were a breeze in comparison to Liona.
"We had our fair share of struggles raising all of you, Leon. You and your sister were so advanced that we'd blink, and you were already talking. Then when it came time for school you two would frustrate the hell out of your teachers by reciting your schoolbooks word for word back to them. As you grew up into teenagers, it became simultaneously easier and harder. Easier because you could care for your own needs better, but harder because you stopped relying on us as much. You even kept your relationship with Vivian from us for several months. Do you remember how hurt your mother was when he found out you were keeping that a secret?"
Leon laughed. It wasn't his mother that was hurt the most by it. It had actually been his dad. "Dad, you know I know you were the one that was most upset by the news, but not as much as Vivi's Dad. I know we messed up there, but we were young and in love and just wanted a little time where it was just us."
"Right, as was your right, but it still hurt us. I take it from the young man that is hollering outside that the Bartley family curse has been passed on to Liona. That young man seems a bit delusional. Does he need psychiatric help perhaps?" His dad asked in slight jest.
Leon sighed, "I'd say. He's just the latest in a string of boys that Liona has either broken the heart of, or believes he's entitled to her just because they dated for a short while. I never thought my daughter would have such awful taste in boyfriends. Thankfully they usually give up after a while; and if they don't, at least after I talk to them and put them in their place they do; once she's had it with their attitudes. This one, unfortunately, didn't seem to get the memo that she was done with him pretending that she hadn't broken up with him. He's been bothering her for the last three weeks and I am particularly inclined to be a bit cruel since he has yet to give up."
"Why don't you let me talk to the boy then? I seem to recall a similar incident when you were her age with a former girlfriend of yours."
"Wait, is that why she suddenly stopped bothering Vivian and I?" Leon was astonished.
"Quite. I was quite perplexed why she thought she was entitled to your affections when you hadn't even trusted her enough to tell her that Vivian wasn't your cousin as we had raised you to be. She thought the way to get you back was to force your hand by telling me that you were seeing your cousin in a romantic way, which of course is how we found out about your relationship back then. After I spoke to her, she realized how little she meant to you…"
Leon laughed. His dad didn't 'talk to her', he had threatened her to leave him alone, or face the consequences of harassing his son. "Alright, Dad. If you feel up to putting that boy in his place, feel free. I personally don't have the energy to deal with him right now. I've been juggling everything for Liona's party since this morning when Vivi was called into work for an emergency."
"Such is the life of a doctor. But worry not, the calvary is here!" A new voice came from the entry, so Leon looked over and saw that Vivi's parents were now here.
"Mother! Father! You made it! Thank you for coming! I'm sure Liona's going to be ecstatic as soon as she's able to come down and see you." Leon addressed his in-laws as mother and father at their insistence. It had taken him a long time to get used to not calling them uncles, but he'd been married to Vivian for over eighteen years now, so he'd had plenty of time to get used to the new way of addressing them.
"What do you mean, 'When Liona is able to come down?' What's going on with our granddaughter?" Leon's Father-in-Law, Asher, asked.
"Liona had a stressful event happen today at her party and it triggered her heat to come early. Right now, my mother is up talking to her, but I haven't had a minute to check on her myself." He explained for their benefit.
"Then I will join Kaito and see what's going on. You three go and figure out what to do with the hollering boy outside and the remaining guests in Liona's absence. As for the rest of our grandchildren that are lurking nearby, they can be a big help and start helping you wrap up the party. If Liona's had a rogue heat, her suppressants may not be enough to help, if it's anything like how Vivian was at her age." His Mother-in-Law, Darrol, quickly took charge of things and organized their roles.