Chapter Twelve

Seth

"It"s been ten weeks," Desir"ee announces. "It can"t be avoided any longer. We have to tell my family."

We decided to wait until she was at least nine weeks before we told her family that we"re expecting a baby. The exact words were our families, but I"m still having a hard time calling Talia"s pack my family no matter how often Desir"ee and the twins call them that. I don"t think anyone minds being regarded as family. Well, almost anyone. Jasper and Devon might not be overly excited about it, but the rest of them haven"t complained when it"s been said once or twice during phone calls.

Desir"ee said that nine weeks was far enough into the pregnancy that she felt safe making the announcement. Ben, Michael, and I will follow her lead. She"s the one carrying our baby inside her and she"s the one who will bring the baby into the world, she gets to make the decisions. If she said we"re not telling anyone until the kid is five years old, that"s what we"d do. I"m glad that"s not what she wants to do, but the point is that it"s up to her.

"We can go over and tell them in person if you want," I nod. "I need to talk to Mateo about something anyway."

"What do you need to talk to him about?"

"Just something I"ve been thinking about. Want to head on over?"

She nods and grabs her phone. "Let me just let him know we"re on the way. Do you think Ben and Michael will want to go?"

I hope so because I need them to go. I feel so much stronger and more at ease when they"re with me when I have to do official council things. That"s what I need to talk to Mateo about. I"ve been going rounds with Minos for weeks and we finally came to the agreement that we need another alpha sitting on the council that both of us can trust and who the community will also trust. The only way to improve things in this territory is through trust, and the people need to see someone they know and understand in a place of power. Outside of my pack and Minos, Desir"ee"s brothers and their packs are the only ones I feel okay about over here. Mateo, as the oldest and most active in the community, is a natural choice. If we take into consideration the fact that his father was asked to be on the council then he"s the only logical choice. Desir"ee might not appreciate putting him in that position, though.

"He says to come on over and to come hungry." Desir"ee says. "Grab Ben and Michael and we can go."

She pushes up from her chair at the table and adjusts her shirt. Her stomach is beginning to have a very noticeable swell and her clothes are beginning to fit differently. It"s not going to be much longer before she"s going to need a whole new wardrobe. I"m so excited. She"s going to be gorgeous.

Lucas throws open the door to let us in as soon as we pull up to their house. "Everyone"s in the kitchen. Hurry before it"s all gone."

The amount of food in the kitchen is wild. There are so many different things and Desir"ee makes sure I try some of everything. Ben and Michael waste no time filling their plates and even less time diving into it.

"Now that that"s out of the way," Mateo raises a brow. "What"s this visit about? Desie was just over to check on Amber and it isn"t because you missed us."

Desir"ee rolls her eyes the way only a younger sister can. "We have news and questions. Which do you want first."

"News!" Amber claps her hands. "I want the news." Something tells me the news Desir"ee is about to share isn"t going to be a surprise.

Desir"ee glances from Amber to Mateo and then to me and the twins.

"Go ahead," Ben urges, trying to fight back a smile.

She takes a breath and then blurts it out. "I"m pregnant."

"We know!" Amber squeals. "We"ve just been waiting for you to tell us. I"m going to be an aunt! And my baby will have someone to grow up with!"

"How did you know?" Desir"ee glares at Ben.

He holds his hands up. "I didn"t say anything."

"Your scent," Mateo grins. "We knew the first time you came over to check on Amber after your heat. It"s been a long few weeks. Why didn"t you want to tell us, mija?"

Desir"ee shrugs. "I wanted to wait to make sure everything was alright with the baby. And I wanted to enjoy it by myself for just a little while."

Tony leans over and gives her a one-armed hug. "And everything is alright with the baby?"

"Everything is wonderful. I"m already feeling less nauseous than I was." Everyone sees her cheeks heat and no one calls attention to it.

Lucas clears his throat, a small amount of mirth leaving his eyes. "And now for the questions. I assume they"re not as happy as the news."

"That depends on your idea of happy," Michael smirks. "How are you feeling right now, Mateo?"

Mateo"s brows furrow. "I"m beginning to feel annoyed. What is it?"

I take a breath and look straight into his eyes. "I need you on the WCC."

He just stares at me for a moment while Amber and the rest of his pack stare at him. "I don"t think that"s how it works, Seth. I haven"t been offered a seat. I don"t even think there is a seat to offer me. And if there is, I can"t just take it. There has to be a vote."

"I"ve already spoken with Minos. The vote was cast a few days ago. There is a seat for you."

Mateo looks each member of his pack in the eye and then smiles sadly at Desir"ee before he takes a breath to answer. "They offered my father a seat and he refused. He didn"t want any part of the council. Corruption runs deep, Seth. He didn"t want it to touch his family. He was right. I won"t let that evil touch my family. It"s bad enough that you are mixed up in it."

I take Desir"ee"s hand in mine, smiling. Every time I hold her hand like this she strokes the scar tissue covering the place where my fingers should be. It soothes my choppy anxiety in a way that nothing else can. I"m pretty sure she has no idea that something that small has such a huge effect on me. "I understand how you feel. My father was on the council and he was corrupt. But these councils are not the councils of our fathers. These are new councils with new attitudes and ideals and goals. We can make things right. We can fix the things that the councils of the past broke. We are already accomplishing so much. When my father died, I wasn"t ready to take my seat. I was broken from being held with the rogues and everything else, and I was afraid that I would make the same mistakes he made. I didn"t want to continue the corruption and wrong-doings. But it was my seat and Corso and Kaleb saw what I could become, what I was capable of, and they knew that I would do right by our people once I was whole again. Corso stood in for me until I was ready, and now I am. I will have a seat on the East Coast Council and one on the WCC. A dual seat. I, we, will need to travel from one territory to the other as needed, but I need someone on the council here who I can trust. I need someone on the WCC who will make the world safe for her," I bring Desir"ee"s fingers to my lips. "And safe for our children. I know the community loved and trusted your father, and they love and trust you. I trust you. Minos trusts you. Will you do it?"

Mateo drags his hands down his face. He looks at Lucas, then Tony, then Amber. "I can"t make this decision alone."

"And that"s one of the reasons the WCC needs you," I nod. "Take your time. But not too much, if you don"t mind. We"re not leaving for the East Coast for a while, but I"d like to have things settled before we do."

"How long before you leave?"

I shrug. "We"re just waiting on the all clear from Corso. There has been some discussion about where we"ll be living, and I"m sure it will sway in one direction after we tell them about the baby."

"What is the discussion?" Tony asks.

"I was living in an apartment above Corso"s garage before I came here. Obviously that won"t work now, and I gave Brandon the space. Jasper offered to give us the farmhouse, but Corso wants to renovate the home at the other side of his property for us. The discussion has been about whether we should stay here until the renovations are finished or stay in the farmhouse until they"re finished. I think two moves will be too stressful for Desir"ee that far into her pregnancy."

Mateo interrupts. "Don"t you have a family home over there? A big mansion or something? Why wouldn"t you live there?"

"I won"t raise my children in a place with such bad memories. And I won"t have Desir"ee there." I don"t mention that I would rather cut the rest of my fingers off than live between those walls.

Desir"ee pulls me close to kiss my cheek and stands up to help Amber and Tony start clearing the dishes. Ben helps, too, and the warm sounds of a family cleaning up dinner make the next conversation less uncomfortable. I don"t begin it, but I"m glad it"s come up.

"How long will you be gone before you come back?" Mateo asks.

I sigh. "I don"t know. A few weeks at a time. To be honest, I"d like to come here towards the end of fall and stay until spring. The winters are cold back home."

"So about half a year in each territory?"

"Round about," I nod.

"What about fire season?" Michael asks.

Desir"ee puts the towel she was holding on the counter and turns to look at me with a pinched expression. I can feel how much she"d like me to pull the lead alpha card and tell Michael that there will be no more fire season, but I can"t make that decision alone. "What about it?" I ask, trying to sound neutral.

"Me and Ben will need to be back for fire season. That"s around the end of summer and into the early fall. We can come back ourselves. You and Desie don"t have to come until after."

Before I have time to form a response that"s polite enough for the kitchen table, Desir"ee makes her opinion of that perfectly clear. "No. No more fires. One of the things I was looking forward to when we went to the East Coast is that you and Ben won"t be able to try to kill yourselves during fire season. No fire season, Michael."

"It"s important to us, Des." Ben crosses his arms. "We need to do our part to keep everyone safe. You know that."

"I don"t care, Benjamin," she huffs. "It"s important to me that you don"t get burnt up on a hillside. You"re going to have a child by then. Do you want to risk him growing up without you?"

"That"s not fair, D." Lucas says gently. "They have been going out to fires ever since they were old enough to join up at the station."

Desir"ee puts her hands on her hips and doubles down. "I don"t care if it"s fair. It isn"t fair for them to put themselves at risk."

Michael rubs the back of his neck. "Since we"re already arguing about it, you might as well know that we put in a few inquiries at firehouses near the distillery."

Desir"ee turns her ire onto him. "Did you think that Mateo and Lucas would keep you safe? Absolutely not. You are not going to put yourselves at risk like that. No."

Michael reaches for her and she reluctantly goes to him. He pulls her down into his lap and rests his chin on her shoulder. "We know you don"t like it, baby. We know it scares you. But it"s something we need to do. We"re always careful. And we know what we"re doing when we"re on a job. We"ll always come home to you."

"Can we sit on this conversation for a little bit?" I ask. "If I"m honest with myself, I don"t much like the idea of you and Ben putting out fires any more than Desir"ee does; and I know how important it is to you. We"ve got time to work everything out. We don"t need to go back and forth about it right now."

"Fine. But I"m not going anywhere until after Amber has her baby. I"ve been waiting too long to be an aunt to miss it."

When we finally get back home Desir"ee is a little less prickly. I know she"s more anxious about the twins being firemen right now than she would be because of the baby. So are they. It"s understandable. Emotions and fears are far more intense when pregnancy and children are involved. We"ll just have to work through this like we"ve worked through everything else. That being said, less prickly doesn"t equate to being snuggly and Desir"ee shuts herself up in the back bedroom almost as soon as we walk through the door.

"She"ll be alright," Ben sighs as he drops down onto the couch next to me.

Michael sits down heavily on the other side, dropping his head back onto the back of the couch. "She just doesn"t like it."

I nod. "I don"t like it."

They both look at me.

"I don"t," I continue. "I"m fairly sure I hate it. Don"t get me wrong, I"m proud of you. What you do is amazing and hard. But it"s dangerous and I don"t want my pack in danger. It"s bad enough with all this council mess. I know it"s something you need to do, but I"ll never like it."

I"m about to go into the detailed list of reasons why I don"t like it when my phone rings with a call from...Jasper.

Jasper never calls me.

Something must be very, very wrong.

I answer the call, feeling like the bottom of my stomach fell through the floor. "What"s wrong?"

"It"s no wonder you and Talia get along. It"s always what"s wrong, what happened, where are you, and never a plain old hello."

I blow out a relieved breath before I respond. "Hello, Jasper. Is everything alright?"

Michael and Ben are both staring at me with their eyebrows raised in identical expressions of worry and dread. Until this very second, I forgot to notice that I no longer see them as identical. They"re both so different that I simply forgot that they"re identical, and now that they"re giving me the exact same face it"s making me remember the first time I saw them when I first came to the West Coast.

"Yeah," Jasper says. "Everything is okay. I just wanted to talk to you about a few things. Do you have a minute?"

"Of course."

He takes an audible breath and gets to it. "I want to hate you. I really, really do. I"ve had big plans of politely tolerating your inevitable presence in our lives ever since it became obvious that you weren"t going anywhere. But it can"t be that way now. I don"t think it was ever going to be that way, not forever anyway; but I did think we"d be a lot older before things changed."

"You can hate me, Jasper. You should."

"No, Seth. I really shouldn"t. I mean, what happened with Talia was bad. Really bad. But that was a really bad situation, and my opinion of it doesn"t matter. Talia"s opinion of it matters, and that"s the only thing that matters. My children adore you. Even Zetty."

I smile at the thought of them. I miss them.

"The point is," Jasper continues, "I can"t hate you anymore. At all. If anything, I owe you a debt."

"You don"t owe me anything," I say around the knot forming in my throat.

"I do. How much do you know? About me? My family?"

I fall back against the couch much like Michael did. I don"t want to talk about the things in Jasper"s file. I"ve never talked about his file before, and I don"t want to start now. "Ben and Michael are with me."

"Just tell me."

I hesitate for a few moments before I answer him. "I know you had sisters. I know you had cousins. I know what happened to them. I know that you were moved around a lot after something big and terrible happened when you were a kid. I always thought it was to keep you hidden."

"It was," he interrupts.

"I know your father was a son of a bitch, and that his pack did what he told them to instead of what was the right thing to do. You had a friend, right before the big terrible thing. She was relocated, too. Her name wasn"t mentioned." I don"t know how much he"s comfortable with me saying out loud. I firmly believe it"s his story to tell and I"m not sharing it with anyone. I don"t have details, just a clinical explanation of the ungodly number of kidnapping attempts and the deaths of his siblings and cousins. And I"m as glad as he is that his friend"s name wasn"t in the file.

"Good," he whispers. "Good. Did you see any of the psych eval notes?"

"I closed the file when I saw the page heading. Do you know why my father had your file?"

His laugh is cold. "Probably the same reason everyone else wanted it."

"I"m glad Devon won." There isn"t typically an actual physical fight among packs for an omega. It"s all either handled naturally with scents and immediate natural bonds or politically. Packs fought for Jasper. Even after he made it abundantly clear that he would be with the Johnson pack. The goal of the fights went from showing him they were the strongest to eliminating Devon and the others.

That was the first time I"d ever seen them operate as a unit. Devon has always been an asshole, but he was older than me so it didn"t affect me. Trent and Nathan are just a year older than I am, though. Trent was as much of a dick when we were younger as he is now and that did affect me. Nathan had never been anything but a quiet accomplice, but that day they were all vicious.

"I"m glad you aren"t the person I thought you were," Jasper says gently. "Thank you for protecting me. Thank you for protecting Talia."

"That"s what alphas are for."

"Not all alphas feel that way, Seth."

"They should."

He"s quiet for a few seconds then he takes a breath, and I can almost visualize him shaking himself out of the very heavy moment we just had. "Corso won"t tell you, but they"ll have the house on the other side of the distillery finished before winter sets in. He"s really excited about it. He wants our packs to be close so our kids can grow up together. Elizabet has also been circling. She can"t wait to meet Desir"ee."

Oh god. I"ve been with them long enough to know that circling is a very polite way to describe the way Elizabet mines people for information. I was hoping me and my pack wouldn"t be on her itinerary. "Maybe she"s just curious because Desir"ee and the twins are from the West Coast." I can hope until the last second.

Jasper laughs. "Nope. You"ve recently been declared family so you get the same treatment the rest of us do. I don"t know what kind of mother you grew up with, but mine wasn"t anything like Elizabet. It"ll take a minute, but you"ll get used to her...eventually."

My mother wasn"t a bad mother. I would even go as far as to say she spoiled me. She definitely spoiled me. Looking back, I think she did it to make up for some of the things my father had planned for me. She wasn"t strong, though. Not like Elizabet or Talia. Or Desir"ee.

"Before winter, you said? I still can"t believe he"s renovating a whole house for us."

"I think so," Jasper answers. "And the offer of the farmhouse still stands if you"d like to stay there until the house here is finished."

"I don"t know how to be grateful enough for that. I never thought–"

"It"s a good thing, Seth. We"re all supposed to take care of each other, right? You"d do the same for us."

I nod even though he can"t see me and clear my throat. "I would."

Jasper ends the call and I"m left sitting between a set of twins trying to stare holes into me. "That was Jasper."

"Uh-huh," Ben says.

"He wanted to talk about the things I may or may not have seen in his file."

"Uh-huh," Michael repeats.

"He says the house behind the distillery will be finished before winter."

They look at each other then back at me.

"So we won"t be trying to move in during shit weather," I continue.

"He said he wasn"t going to hate you anymore," Michael says.

I nod.

"Good."