“Hey, come here.” Branson stood and pulled Jeuel up into a hug. He tried to put as much love and support into the embrace as he could, and Jeuel clung to him. “I would never tell the hospital to do anything without your permission, I promise. Charles Alder is just a name to me, but he was your parent for your entire life. I hate how much this is hurting you.”
Jeuel sobbed into his neck. “I thought I let him go when I left.”
“It’s hard to let someone go when they aren’t really gone. You have had so much loss in such a short span of time, but you’re still standing.”
“You’re holding me up.”
The fact that Jeuel was making jokes while crying in his arms helped calm Branson’s own racing heartbeat a fraction. “That’s what brothers do. We hold each other up when one of us wants to fall down.”
“Yeah, we do.” Emory’s voice startled Branson, and then Emory was there, hugging them both from the side. Branson wasn’t sure what Emory knew or had overheard, but Emory’s natural empathy was probably screaming at him to comfort Jeuel. To comfort a fellow omega in immediate distress.
“It’s what family does,” Tarius said somewhere behind Branson. And then he was folding his arms around them, his chest pressing into Branson’s back, chin resting on his shoulder.
They stood for a while, a loving unit, all of them supporting Jeuel until he quieted, and then an unexpected voice joined them. Trei and Liam had arrived, and Papa broke the news all over again. Trei and Jeuel held each other on the living room couch, whispering and occasionally crying together. Branson stood nearby, Tarius still plastered to his back, strong arms supporting Branson around his waist. Existing together.
“I want to go back,” Jeuel announced, after blowing his nose and sipping some iced tea. “I don’t want him to be alone when he dies.” His red-rimmed eyes seemed to stare right into Branson’s soul. “I know he won’t be able to see me or hear me, but I’ll know.”
“I understand.” Branson was lucky and had been his entire life. He’d never faced his own parents’ mortality, never had to see them sick in the hospital, or face a life-threatening disease. Not like Rei, when his sire was shot in the back. Not like Karson, when his omegin was diagnosed with cancer for the fourth time. Not like Tarius, when his sire was shot by a crazy man intent on kidnapping Liam. And Branson hoped he stayed that lucky for a long, long time.
“Will you take me back to Sonora? As soon as possible? I don’t want him to keep suffering. He deserves to be freed into the neverlife.”
Branson wasn’t particularly spiritual, but many people believed in a life beyond this one, where you rejoined your loved ones in eternal peace. An even smaller fraction of the population believed in a form of reincarnation, of second souls, particularly for alphas and omegas. He liked the idea of an afterlife, but there was no evidence that a human being did anything except cease to exist when they died. An eternal slumber. Darkness and quiet.
“I’ll take you back, of course,” Branson replied.
“I’ll call the train station,” Tarius said then pressed a kiss to the side of his neck. “See what kind of express trains they have leaving soon.”
“I don’t want you boys going alone,” Papa said gruffly. “I know that the men responsible for destroying Jeuel and Trei’s family are locked up, but you both left Sonora for a reason. Going back could be dangerous.”
“I’m not going.” Trei’s firm announcement dropped Jeuel’s jaw. “I can’t go back there, brother, I’m sorry. I buried my mate, and I left Sonora behind.”
Jeuel squeezed his wrist. “It’s okay.” His voice was placating but his expression said the opposite. Maybe not mad, but definitely disappointed.
“Tarius and I can keep Jeuel safe,” Branson said to Papa. “We’ll only be there long enough to say goodbye to Jeuel’s sire, and then we’ll come home.”
Papa shook his head. “I trust you, but I’d feel better if Brandt could spare an officer to accompany you. Plainclothes but armed.”
Branson knew better than to argue when Papa’s jaw was set and the vein on his forehead stuck out. “Okay, we’ll take someone with us.”
Dad appeared by Branson’s side, and he looped his arm through Branson’s in a loose hold. “Are you sure you don’t want one of us to go with you? It’s a long trip, especially doing it twice in a few days.”
“Thank you, but no.” He adored his parents for not insisting one of them go. They were stepping to the side and allowing Branson to make these choices. To truly live and navigate his own life, be an adult, and help his brother navigate this. To choose to go three thousand miles away and possibly see his biological sire for the first time…as the man lay dying.
His throat tightened, and Branson coughed hard. “We’ll be fine, Dad, I promise.”
“Okay. I trust you.”
“We both do,” Papa added. “But I still insist on a constable, because I don’t trust anyone in Sonora. Except maybe Owen Paxton.”
Tarius came into the living room with his hand over his mobile. “There’s an express that leaves tomorrow at seven a.m. with space. How many tickets do we need?”
“You’re sure you want to come?” Branson asked.
“Absolutely, I am.”
“Then four tickets. You, me, Jeuel, and a constable.”
Tarius quirked one eyebrow in question, then returned to the dining room to finalize their tickets.
