Page 5 of The Alpha: Part Three
“Not everything,” Devon purrs. “Just a couple things that my father told me about just to be able to look out for anomalies, to be prepared. I've never seen your file.”
Jasper nods. “I need a minute.” Then he walks out of the kitchen and down the hall to Michael's room.
Devon grinds his teeth and rolls his shoulders, but he's calm. “What do you know about my omega that I don't, Pratchett?”
“No,” I say. “Absolutely not. I won't let Jasper be awful to him anymore, and I'm not letting you be awful either. If Jasper wants to tell you about whatever he's got in his file, that's up to him. But you're not going to push Seth into telling you. None of you are. I won't allow it.”
Nobody says a word until Nathan marches over and startles Seth with a gentle hug. “I’m sorry. That probably hurt. I don't know what's in Jasper’s file, and I can only guess what they wanted to know about Talia, but thank you for not telling them anything. Thank you so much.”
Jasper really did only take just a minute. He comes back to the kitchen with hard, distant eyes and looks at Seth for a moment. “I don’t know what to say right now, but I think I need to go back to our place to think for a while. I wasn’t aware that your father had access to my file. I appreciate you keeping things to yourself.”
Kaleb gets his pack into their van and we are finally blessed with everyone's absence. I understand why it took so long for everyone and everything to get sorted, I do, but I am exhausted. After cooking all day and the terrible events of the afternoon, I'm just a little past needing my home to myself. All traces of blood and mess are gone from the kitchen and the only thing left to do is put Seth to bed. Because that's where his stubborn, freckled self needs to be, not sitting rigidly on the edge of a chair at the table arguing with Michael about which bed he's going to be put into.
“Executive decision,” I announce. “Seth, you know what sleeping in a bed with Ben and me is like. Arms and legs everywhere and clinging to you. You're going to sleep in my bed. Alone. You need the room.”
His shoulders drop, as well as the corners of his mouth. “I don't want to be alone. Not after today,” he says quietly.
Michael and I exchange a look and he nods. “I'll stay with you. We've got travel cots. I'm used to sleeping wherever.”
“That works,” I nod, smiling my thanks. Being alone probably would have bothered Seth very much, but he needs the space for his body to heal, just for tonight. He won't feel up to running any marathons or anything like that for another week, but that's okay. I've had pretty much all the action I can stand for the time being.
Seth lets Michael and Ben help him stand, his face drawn and pinched, and leans heavily on Michael down the hallway. I'm glad that he's letting himself depend on us, but it makes me think about all the time before he came to us when he was alone. Working through his horrible injuries and many hurts by himself. He says Talia and her pack supported him, and I believe it. Support is better than nothing, but alone is alone. Our Seth has been alone far too much for far too long.
I follow them down the hall so I can see for myself that Seth gets tucked in at my lofty standards. I would love to lay next to him in bed and fall asleep with his scent surrounding me, but he's got enough stitches and bruising to make me nervous.
“I'm going to go grab the cot,” Michael says after he helps Seth onto the bed. He pauses on his way out the door to pull me into his side and run his lips across my temple, then leaves me looking down at Seth with my hands on my hips.
“We should have gotten your jeans off before you got into bed.”
Seth closes his eye and rests his head back on the pillows, sighing. “I can sleep with them on. I might not make it if I have to roll around to get my clothes off.”
“Absolutely not,” I fuss. “They're too constricting and the waistband might pull at the stitches. You won't have to roll around. I'm a nurse, remember? I have tricks. Just let me do it.”
The fact that he lets me do it without helping too much lets me know exactly how much pain he's in. The bullet might have missed organs, but it still did enough damage for him to passively allow me to maneuver his jeans down his long legs without a single breath of argument.
“I'm glad you're wearing loose ones,” I smile, running a finger along the hem of one leg of the plaid boxers he's wearing.
He gives me a tight nod in response.
“Do you need more pain meds?”
He shakes his head.
“Okay. Do you want your feet tucked in?”
He opens his eye and one corner of his mouth turns up. “I don't think so.”
I pull the sheet up over him and tug the bottom free so that it's loose over his feet, then I cover him with one of my favorite thin blankets. “Do you need anything else?”
He nods and lifts his hand, reaching for me.
I smile and go to him, being careful not to jostle him when I lean down to kiss him. “Today scared me.”
“It scared me, too. I was scared to death about Iris.”
I take a breath before I respond. Yes, the possibility of Iris being missing was horrible. We all felt the terror of it. But that wasn't what I was talking about. “I'm so glad the boys ran with her. She wasn't really the target though. No more than Rose was.”
A truly puzzled look crosses his face. “What do you mean?”
