17. Kai

Chapter 17

Kai

"Kai."

I was on the sofa reading a book, but I must have dozed off. When I opened my eyes, my three mates were leaning over me. Their expressions were indecipherable, but they weren't happy. Perhaps they were resigned, and Seymour had been crying. He wiped his tear-stained cheeks with his sleeve while Dante sniffed and Gideon blew his nose.

"Albie!" I shot up, but our son was on his playmate.

My mates sat on the floor, each one touching me.

Something was terribly wrong. I'd been dreading a day like today where I was whisked away out of Tarrin, but in my dreams, I'd had no warning. Now my mates were in possession of knowledge that had them on edge and crying.

"Just tell me. Don't draw it out." My heart clenched, anticipating the worst news.

"You want to go home," Dante choked out.

"And if that's what you truly desire, we won't stand in your way."

Seymour opened his mouth but slammed it shut when more tears streamed over his cheeks.

"What are you talking about?" I'd sworn Froon to silence, and keeping secrets was his business, so this was something else.

Seymour handed me a crumpled piece of paper with my handwriting scrawled over the page. Shit, they'd found the note I made after getting the news about that guy from Froon.

"We found this."

"Why didn't you tell us?" Gideon touched his brow on mine and tears dripped onto my face.

"Because I made my decision."

"But don't we share everything?" Dante nibbled his bottom lip.

Not everything. We were mates, and while we occasionally snapped at one another, I didn't always tell them when they pissed me off. I counted to ten or went to the park with Albie and walked off my frustration.

How could I tell them that it wasn't a decision I could make? I'd figured out that much. There was no going back for me, but even if there were, this was where I belonged and where I was happy.

My life in Pineville was over and what hand had dumped me here had given me another chance at life.

"There was nothing left for me in the before time. Sure, I might miss my favorite snacks and apps. We need a company in Tarrin to develop apps."

"Okay." I'd moaned about the lack of apps many times, and Dante always nodded when I explained their purpose. Whether Tarrin would have the pleasure of using apps soon or in the years to come, I'd wait.

As for the snacks? I'd have to be satisfied with bringing up memories.

I got up and opened my arms. We group hugged, and Gideon picked up Albie and brought him into the center of our circle where he kissed him and each other.

The knowledge Froon had given me answered the big question that had hung over my head since I arrived. I was here to stay and my former life was over.

Gideon went into our home office to take a call, and Seymour got busy in the kitchen. I got Albie ready for his bath, and when I was sitting beside him and he was playing with his toys and splashing water everywhere, Dante came in.

My mate and Albie played smash the toys in the water and made a big mess, and when our son lost interest and tried sinking his plastic boat, my Number One Mate glanced at me.

I knew that look. He was saying everything in his gaze.

"You know more than you're saying."

"About what?" I took a sudden interest in Albie's game, not wanting to gaze into my mate's eyes.

Dante put a hand over mine. "You've always been worried your existence here would come to an end and you'd be back in Pineville or somewhere new."

"Yeah." That stress had vanished, and I was experiencing a lightness for the first time.

"You can't go back to Pineville, can you?"

Damn, why did this alpha know me so well? The man who'd been with me through the worst of my confusion, sadness, and insecurity, to the happiness of being a dad and having three mates I adored.

"What if I said I didn't know?"

He lifted one of our son's toys from the bath and bopped my nose. Albie complained, and he returned it to the water. "I wouldn't believe you."

"I don't know for sure because there's no one who can fill me in."

"But?" Again he understood there was a but coming. I wished it was his butt with my fingers in his hole or my butt and he was inserting his cock.

"But yeah, I'm pretty certain that life is over for me."

We held each other's wet hands, our eyes locked on one another. I hoped what he witnessed in my gaze was the same love that appeared in his.

"Do we tell Gideon and Seymour? Both of them appeared to accept what you said earlier."

Would it make a difference to their lives? I couldn't answer that. "How about we do this? If they ask, I'll tell them what I told you." There were no right or wrong answers in this situation.

"Sounds good." We kissed, reminding me of the first time our lips met.

"I love you, Mate Number One."

"I love you more."

"Oh, really? And how do you measure your love against mine? Do you have a sneaky pair of love scales around here somewhere?" I squeezed his ass as he lifted Albie out of the bath.

"Maybe." He grinned, that infectious smile of his that got my insides gooey and melty. He wrapped our son in his hooded bath towel and hugged him. "Because no one has ever loved someone as much as I love you."

"I heard that." Seymour popped his head in the door. "I love you as much as Dante."

"Me three. But my love for you three and Albie can't be measured." Gideon got on the floor with us.

"Glad that's settled. But I'm hungry."

As we ate dinner, I gazed at my family, thanking fate for bringing me here.