Page 39 of The Alpha: Part Three
Michael's nostrils flare and he comes to stand beside me. “What happened?”
I take a breath, closing my eye against the rage that is suddenly rushing through me. “My father. He almost destroyed her just like he destroyed everything else. For what?”
Michael casually moves a small step closer to me, stepping into my space and pressing his arm against mine and providing a physical countering anchor to go with the support flowing through our bond. “He's gone now. She's safe. She can be who she is now. She's here and she's happy.”
I nod and breathe, allowing Michael's peace to grow inside me. When I open my eye again, my mother is giving me the most solemn look, but she smiles between me and Michael and nods without saying anything.
“Desie is in the bedroom. She wanted to have a rest before everyone got here,” Ben says. “I’ll just go let her know you're here.”
“Do I look alright?” my mother asks John, running her hands over her blouse and skirt.
“You always look beautiful, my love,” he answers and tucks a few strands of silver-blonde hair behind her ear.
I can't remember seeing my father ever touching her so lovingly. I remember him being possessive of her. I remember him trying to monopolize her time and attention, even when it came to me when I was younger. But I have no memory of him ever touching her with the love and reverence John is showing her. Seeing him treat her the way she deserves to be treated fills something inside me that I didn't know was empty, and I turn away from the sight before anyone notices that I've teared up. Michael is the only one who notices and he reaches up to squeeze my shoulder without saying anything.
Ben leads Desir'ee down the hall and my mother squeals when she sees her. “You're an absolute doll! Oh, I'm so happy right now! Sit down and tell me everything about you. Are you feeling alright? Is everything alright with you and the baby?”
Desir'ee smiles softly, taking the flowers when John hands them to her. “I'm more than alright and everything is perfect with the baby. I'm so glad to meet you, Missus Pratchett.”
“Claire, honey. None of this missus business. Tell me how you met my son. I need your account of it because that's the one that counts.”
And then I listen to the story of how I met Desir'ee from her point of view and it never occurred to me that her version would be full of so many descriptions of myself, including handsome, respectful, and kind. I'm not sure that I've ever considered myself to be any of those things. Then Mom asks about how she and the twins met and I get to listen to stories about when they were younger that I've never heard before.
When the conversation starts turning toward when I was a kid, I jump in and change the subject. It isn't that I don't want Desir'ee and the twins to know about me, it's that I don't feel like the Seth in those stories is the Seth that they have. “Let's hold off on stories about me growing up for now, if that's alright. We'll save those for when we've got more time. I know Mom and John have to be back home tonight and I want her to tell you about the project she's working on with Talia's mother. It's wonderful, and I want you to hear it from her. I'm really proud.” My mother beams when she hears me say that and I'm hit with another wave of awe and happiness at the changes in her.
Desir'ee is crying by the time Mom is finished explaining what she's turning my childhood home into.
“We might even end up calling it the Omega House. What do you think?” Mom looks from Desir'ee to me expectantly.
“I think it's amazing,” Desir'ee says. “It's such a good thing. Thank you for doing that for them.”
I nod in agreement. “It is, Mom. It's really great.”
We end up having dinner delivered and I get to watch my mom eat pizza for the first time in my life. I don't know why it's significant, but I've never seen her eat anything that didn't require a fork so it leaves an impression. John realizes how late it's become just as Ben and I are finishing up clearing the table and regretfully reminds us that he and Mom have a flight to catch back home. After much hugging and several rounds of goodbyes, Michael and I drive them back to the airport.
“I'm so proud of you, Seth,” Mom says, squeezing me into one last hug. “I'm so glad you're happy.”
I bend down to kiss her cheek. “I'm glad you're happy too, Mom.”
I reach to shake John's hand but he hauls me in for a hug, too. “We're done with that, son. Things are going to be different now.”
And I believe him. Things are going to be so different now.
Chapter sixteen
Desie
The house is ready. It happened so fast. Well, not exactly fast, but much quicker than I thought renovating a house would take. Jasper sent me a ton of pictures and a few videos of the finished work. It's gorgeous. It really is. He and Talia made me swear to tell them the day we'd be arriving so they could have food in the kitchen for us. They seem every bit as excited as I am. None of us are as excited as Corso, though. He's very pleased with himself for putting this into action and getting it finished so quickly. And he's doubly excited about the baby.
Corso is positively giddy that his team got the house finished before my unexpected due date and he's already drawing up plans for a massive playground area for the property. Jasper told me that Corso can't wait to watch all our kids grow up together and that he hopes both packs end up with a whole army of children. I don't know about an army, but I'll be happy with a few.
I've got eight weeks left of this pregnancy. I'm huge. Ifeelhuge. Ben is very happy with the changes in my body. He won't keep his hands off of me, which is fine most of the time, but I'm starting to feel tired. Tired in the same way I was at the beginning of the pregnancy. And that's just unfortunate because it's officially time to pack for the move.
“It's not like we're taking everything,” Michael assures, emptying the dresser full of my nesting materials. “Just the important stuff. We can leave most of our stuff and all the furniture and things here because we're going back and forth, remember?”
I do remember, but it feels strange to be preparing for a move to a completely different territory across the entire continent. “I just don't want to miss anything we might need over there.”
“We can't take too much, Des,” Ben yells from his room. “We're driving. We can only fit so much in the truck.”
