Page 49 of The Alpha: Part Two
"Sorry," Kaleb says, shrugging awkwardly with his arms full.
"Why do you have muffins?"
The corner of his mouth twitches. "Talia sent them. I think they have zucchini in them, too. You never know with her."
I don't care what they have in them, I'm eating all but three of them. Starting with the one I grab out of the basket before I take Kaleb's load from him. "Thank you," I mumble around the entire muffin in my mouth.
Kaleb laughs and shakes his head. "I came to check on Seth. He… needed a lot of support over the past couple years. He has a hard time with omegas, especially when heats are involved. I just wanted to see if he's—"
Desie lets out a moan loud enough to hear outside through two closed doors. Kaleb coughs to hide his laugh.
"I think he's doing alright. No panic or anything like that." I'm grinning. I'm actually very proud of Seth. After seeing how he was the first time he was here when Desie was in heat, to say I was nervous would be an understatement.
"I agree," Kaleb nods. "Okay, well, enjoy those, and check in when you're able to." He turns to leave, but I stop him. I have some questions, and now is as good a time as any. Not questions, exactly. More like polite accusations and warnings.
"You know you're Seth's family, right?"
Kaleb's head tilts. "I suppose it's something like that."
"No. Youarehis family. That's how he thinks of you. He loves you. All of you. He would do anything he could to help and protect you. Especially the kids, and Talia. Jasper, too, even though I don't think he deserves it. You do know that, right?"
Kaleb quirks his mouth while his lips form a thin line and holds my gaze for a moment before he answers. "It has grown to that point over time. And now, after finding out what he tried to do for Talia, and that he called Corso after what happened, yes. It's been a slow process, and Jasper will very likely always have a difficult time. I don't know that I'd say he loves us, but we do seem to have adopted Seth in a roundabout way."
"Nope. He does love you. I can feel it. And because he loves you, and you're his family, that means you're mine and Ben's, too. We take care of our family, always, and we will go to great lengths for it. But we have high expectations of our family. Seth is a priority for us. Keep that in mind the next time you all start deciding what he's going to do with his life. We'll follow where he leads, but he gets to decide where that is. Not you. He'd try to do whatever it is you want him to do simply because you're asking him to do it, but don't forget that love is supposed to go both directions."
His brow raises, and it starts smelling like I was wrong and a problem has found its way to our door, but Kaleb sighs and nods. "It's hard for some of us. Even now. Jasper especially has a difficult time with Seth, but if we didn't care for him, he wouldn't live in an apartment beside the manor. If we didn't trust him, we wouldn't allow him near our children. You've seen how much they adore him, even Zetty will run to him if she has an ouchy."
Just hearing the wordouchycome out of this big motherfucker's mouth is enough to lighten the air. "I know. And I get it. I think we're about to be in a similar situation with fucking Lopez. Desie's over here singing that asshole's praises and talking about him like he didn't fucking kidnap her. It's bullshit. But he kept her as safe as he could, and he helped with Flores. So, I get it. But he thinks you still hate him, especially Jasper. It would go a long way if he knew you didn't."
Kaleb nods again. "Noted. I'll pass that along."
One more question before he goes. I don't have any reason to be worried, but Desie would ask and so would Seth, so I'm asking. "Is Talia alright? That belly isn't playing around." That isn't an exaggeration. She's all belly, and she looks a little bit like she might explode.
An actual moony expression passes over Kaleb's face, and I instantly regret asking. "She's great. She's only got a few weeks left at this point. We were hoping to get back home before the birth, but we're coming to terms with the fact that this is going to be a west coast birth. It will be different, but fine."
"Desie will be there, you won't have to deal with a stranger. She's an amazing nurse."
"Talia likes Desir'ee very much. I think they're going to be a lot of trouble together." Kaleb puts effort into looking indulgent, but it's more than obvious that he likes the idea.
"Please thank her for sending these. I'm not sharing."
"I'll pass that along, as well," he laughs. "Check in when you're ready."
I don't stand on the porch to wave him off. I have an omega to take care of and a basket of fresh muffins to hoard. Not really. I wouldn't really hoard them. I'm going to put them on the dresser and force Desie to eat one as soon as she's capable of it. Then I'll eat the rest of them.
Chapter twenty-seven
Ben
This is everything.
This is everything we were meant to be.
Desie, me, Michael, and Seth. This is everything. This is right. We feel so full, so complete. I knew it would change some things, but I had no idea how much better everything would be with a full pack. I can't seem to stop smiling, even though Desie's trying her best to kill us.
This is the third day of her heat. It's usually the most intense day, and it's no different now. Well, not entirely different. Michael and I have always talked a lot of shit to her about making her pregnant, or how beautiful she's going to be with a belly, all kinds of things like that; and she's always really receptive to it and loves it. This time, though, she's talking her own shit and she means it. The shit we talk to her doesn't typically affect us; we say all those things because she gets off on hearing them. The shit she's been saying this whole time is completely working on us though. Even, and maybe especially, Seth. She wants babies with us now. Fucking immediately.
I've got fairly decent stamina, but fuck. Every time I'm inside her as deep as I can get, she finds a way to get me just a little deeper and begs for me to finishright there. Swear to fuck, if we didn't have these implants, her heat would have ended yesterday because she'd be knocked up.
