Page 35 of The Alpha: Part Three
“Do you want to stay in the house?” she asks through clenched teeth.
I bite my lip to keep from smiling. “Mateo, will you go check on Seth for me?”
Seth and the twins are outside standing guard. Seth is on the front porch, Michael is on the back patio, and Ben and his nervous energy are walking circles around the house and yard. I'm not worried about Ben, his nervous energy mostly comes from being excited about a new baby. He loves babies, especially brand new ones. I'm pretty sure he's going to be insufferable when ours is born. I'm not worried about Michael, either. He's happy to be watching over everyone right now. But Seth... Seth is anxious. His bond feels tight, almost itchy. I don't think he actually needs to be checked on, but I think knowing that I'm thinking about him will make him feel better.
“You just want to get rid of me,” Mateo complains, but he leaves to check on Seth anyway.
Amber grasps my wrist and pulls me close to her line of vision. “What are the chances that I can push this kid out of me before he gets back?”
“Slim to none,” I laugh. “But it won't be much longer. He's just worried about you.”
She lets her head rest against the pillows piled behind her and closes her eyes for a rest between contractions. “He's driving me insane.”
An hour and a half later, I'm cradling my very first nephew in my arms. He looks so much like my brother. He somehow even has thick, dark eyebrows and a scowl and I love him so much that my chest hurts. He's completely perfect.
Mateo and Tony are in bed with Amber so she can rest between them. She didn't want to give birth in a nest. She moved around their bedroom restlessly while she was laboring, I honestly didn't know where she'd actually have the baby. At the end, she somehow settled on the edge of the small couch they have in front of the window and it was exactly what she needed. Vicente came quickly after she found her position.
“Here,” I whisper, holding the baby out to Lucas. “Take him. I'm going to make sure you have everything you need and then we're going to go.”
“Will you be alright, D?”
That question gives me pause. I hold his gaze for a moment before I tilt my head, giving him a partial smile. “What do you mean?”
Lucas glances down at my stomach. “When you have your baby. Will you be okay? You're going to be so far away from us.”
I bend my head to gently run my nose across Vicente’s hair, drawing in his warm scent, and place him into Lucas's waiting arms. “I'll be okay. I'll have the twins and Seth. I'll have Talia and her pack. I'll be okay, Lucas.” The peace that falls over me after my declaration is all the proof I need to know that the words are completely and utterly true. I will be okay in my new life.
That peace grows fuller when Talia calls a few weeks later. I'm not sure what kind of fires Corso put underneath the renovation crew he hired to work on the house, but they're nearly finished. And it's gorgeous. I never even considered living in a place like that.
The house from my earliest memories, my parents' house, was warm and strong and full. My brother's house, the one I grew up in, was also warm and full of the kind of strength that comes from building up from the ashes of the life you once knew; which is what we had to do after we lost our parents. I have far more memories from Mateo's house, but all I remember feeling in either of them is love and security. Those houses were wonderful and built my foundation, but they were small and no more than what they needed to be. The house on the phone screen the twins and I are crowded around is not small. Not by a long shot.
“It's smaller than the manor,” Talia gushes, “but not by much. And it's got newer appliances! I'm going to invade your kitchen to do my baking. Let me show you the upstairs again. I need to know what you think about colors. Jasper made me promise to ask about a color scheme.”
The upper level of the house is no less decadent than the lower level. All the bedrooms are upstairs. We each have our own room, but my room is the biggest. It's actually huge. “The only things left to do are paint the wallsand bring in the furniture after we figure out what your preferences are. I'm glad you like that kind of thing, because I'm no help at all. I'd paint everything white and put quilts on the beds and call it done. Jasper and Corso want todress the windows. You should get a grip on them before you end up living in one of those home décor magazines.”
“I'll call Jasper and give him a general idea.” I probably sound as overwhelmed as I feel. This is going to be a huge change.
“What about the outside?” Michael asks.
Talia grins. “The mote is seventeen feet deep and you have piranhas instead of alligators.”
“Talia,” Seth sighs, not bothering to hide his smile as he rubs at his eyebrow when a gleam starts shining in Michael's eye.
“Fine,” Talia laughs. “I talked them out of the mote. But it was difficult after what happened at the manor. Nathan has it rigged up, though. There are so many cameras hidden across the entire property and watching both houses that I lost count. The outer system goes to a general feed that can be accessed from my house and yours; and the camera feed from inside your house is a closed system that is only accessible from your security room.”
“I'd feel better if Nathan could access it, too,” Seth suggests. “If something happens, he needs to see everything all at once.”
Talia turns the camera around so we can see her face and nods. “I'll get him to set it up. Can you think of anything else, security-wise?”
“What about an electric fence type thing?” Ben asks.
“Already in place. That was the compromise when I talked them out of the mote. It isn't pretty, but there's a fence around the entire property with a charge that will throw you back to the West Coast. Each individual plot has a secondary grid that is more aesthetically pleasing, but just as strong. It's starting to look like Daniel's compound around here with all the fences and inner-fences, but it's safe. And there are no motes. Alex and Trent did rip down the climbing roses, though. It's sad, they were beautiful. But they were too much of a risk. We have rose bushes now to make up for it. Everywhere.”
“I like roses,” Ben smiles at me.
“Oh!” Talia exclaims. “Desir'ee, Obi asked me to pass you his phone number. He said he has something to talk to you about.”
“I'll call him after we get off the phone, just text me his number.” I'm not sure what Obi could want to talk to me about, but I want to talk to him about putting things in place for when I have the baby.
