“Well, I kind of had to come out to all four of our parents on my own.”
“Shit, how was that?”
“It was fucking weird, Sully. That’s how it was. I had to tell them everything while you were unconscious, and I was lying crying on your chest.”
I started to laugh. It came out as a dry cough that made the left side of my head pound. “I don’t suppose you thought about getting off me for that particular conversation?”
“Nah, didn’t even consider it.”
I laughed again. I could feel Jules’s good humor being restored through our bond. Soft amber light sparked and flowed between us.
“Are your folks okay with it?”
“Yeah, they were shocked, but I think that was more by everything that happened than by us. Us being mated seems like small potatoes compared to the whole killing and carnage thing that went down. They’ve seemed a little odd since Dalton, you know, died. A lot of the pack is acting strange. They kind of seem like they’ve had a bucket of iced water poured over them. It’s like they’re awake for the first time in a long while.”
I heard a commotion at the front door as my mother and father both tried to barrel into the cottage at the same time.
“My God, Sully, are you all right?” cried my mother.
“My boy, my boy, my boy,” sobbed my father as he fell to his knees beside my bed.
“He’s fine,” said Jules, yet to abandon his post on my chest. “He’s the same as he’s always been. He remembers what happened and everything.”
“Jules,” said Tess gently, “you have to get off him now, honey. He needs to eat.” She waited until he moved and sat up in bed next to me. As soon as we did, she handed us each a heaped plate of dessert. “You boys need to get something in your bellies. Start with the protein balls I made. They’re the healthiest.”
“The carrot cake is healthy too,” said Mrs. O’Malley, peeking her head around the doorway. “It has carrots in it. If you think about it, it’s basically a vegetable casserole.”
Jules and I shot each other surreptitious glances and tried not to laugh. We ate until our sugar levels were worryingly high, and the members of the pack who’d popped in to check on me had gone home. Jules got out of bed and hit the shower and I finally had a quiet moment with my mother.
“So,” she said with an apologetic shrug. “We’re a couple of alphas, huh?”
I had questions and a lot of them. Despite all the sugar, I was struggling to find the energy to get into it with her right then.
“Did you know that this is what I’d be?” I asked.
“Maybe.”
“Maybe?Maybe? And you didn’t think to warn me?”
“No.”
“No?! I’m really going to need a little more than one-word answers here, Mom.”
“I'm not a wise woman like Mrs O'Malley, Sully, but I had a gut feeling about you, because I know what I am. I sent you up to the cabin for your first shift in case your designation was alpha. I wanted to make sure you were far from Dalton, so you could shift safely and and find yourself in your own time. I had no idea about Jules being an omega. That was a surprise. I thought he'd be a beta like his family."
"I've heard that's not exactly how it works."
She smiled, "No, I suppose not."
"Are you and Dad okay with, you know, everything?"
"Oh, Sully. Of course we are. We've always loved Jules like a son. We might not have seen it coming, but both of us can't imagine anything more wonderful than Jules formally being part of the family. It was a quick shock, but the second I saw you together i had one of those,ah, I get it now,moments."
I wasn't surprised to hear her say that. I knew her heart, but it still felt damn good.
"When you know yourselves better, you might find that you’ve always known this about yourselves, too. I’m fine with all of us being exactly whoever and whatever we are. Most of the time, our designation is written into our DNA. It’s part of who we are. In very rare instances, our designation isn’t set in stone, and we get to choose who we are. That’s what happened in my case, because of my defect. My body is better suited to being a beta, but who I am inside has always been more of an alpha. When I first shifted, I leaned more to my alpha side, then I met your father and learned about the workings of his pack and I felt a strong pull to Clearwater Valley despite how much I disliked Dalton's way of thinking. It was a strange wolf pull, and it grew significantly stronger the first time I heard your heartbeat inside me. So, I made a conscious choice to suppress my alpha side and live as a beta in this pack. It hasn't been easy, but I've tried to be the best beta I could possibly be. I've tried to live and raise you the way of the wolf. I followed Dalton's leadership because every time I thought about upping and leaving the pack and taking you somewhere more normal, I felt the hot and cold kick of instinct so hard in my chest it almost incapacitated me. I haven't understood why until today. I've only known that you belong here."
"How do you do it? Supress your alpha side, I mean?"
