Chapter Twenty-Four
Jasper
I knocked on the door softly, how I would’ve liked to be notified of a visitor right after Dash.
“Are you sure I should be here? I don’t want to frighten them.” Conrad, always aware of how he might scare people or make someone uneasy.
“I’m sure you should be here. Besides, I can’t carry all of this by myself.” Not only was Owen strapped to me, but I held two casseroles, oh, and Conrad’s young in my belly. Even after three months mated, it was still surreal he was mine—in all ways.
I teased him day and night about putting a tiger in me. I made jokes about stripes and Frosted Flakes and all things feline.
He paid me back every night, teasing me in other ways—the best of ways.
Alex, one of the omegas kidnapped with, come to find out, not only the knowledge of, but also the assistance of Dash the Demon, answered and smiled at us, opening the door to welcome us.
“You didn’t have to do this, Jasper. You have so much on your plate.”
The thing was, I did have to. The man I once...lived with did this to them, and, whether or not I admitted it out loud, I felt like I should’ve known or should’ve stopped it—something. Besides, cheesy potato casseroles were pretty much a rite of passage in Distance, and I needed him to feel every bit as welcome as he was ready to feel. Knowing how intense it was for me to get to the point where I could feel safe gave me a perspective most didn’t have, and if that helped me help them, then that was what I was compelled to do.
“I know, but I enjoy spending time here.” I did, too. Alex and Blake were people I’d have chosen as friends had we known each other under any circumstances. They didn’t see their strength yet, but they would just as I had grown to see mine.
Blake stood as Conrad and I put dishes on the table and sat down for a meal. He was not as friendly as Alex, but rightfully so. They knew my Dash was responsible, in part, for their capture, and he was leery of me. I completely understood. Had I been in their position, I’d have felt the same way.
We ate dinner with them every Wednesday night. Travis had given them a guesthouse to stay in on pack lands once they felt safe enough to leave the alpha’s home, but it had no kitchen, so everyone provided what they could. He’d lined up jobs for them, and, soon, they would be providing for themselves.
Conrad had offered to add a kitchen for them, stating accurately that a dorm-sized refrigerator and hot pot did not a kitchen make, but Travis was firm in his no, stating part of the reason the cottage had no kitchen was to help foster community. At the time, I thought him nuts, but as time passed and dinners were brought and shared, I got it. Travis knew what I had not—that they needed to learn what pack was like—what a good and supportive pack was like after their trust in pack life was broken. I got that the pack believed the words of a madman, but if they had truly been integrated and treated the way pack should, their wolves would’ve sensed the lie. How they hadn’t, both perplexed and angered me—a niggling part telling me they did sense it but didn’t care. Distance wouldn’t treat them so. Not with Travis at the helm.
We said our goodbyes after eating and walked home, hand in hand, Owen strapped to Conrad half-asleep.
“Wanna go sit in our swing?” Conrad asked, already tugging me in the direction of the swing he’d installed, identical to Travis’s, at our house.
Our house. No, our home. Everything that was once mine was now ours. Our cabin. Our bed. Our babe. Our young in my belly.
I wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I have to run tonight,” Conrad said, reaching for my hand to steady me while sitting on the swing.
“I know. It’s okay.” Now that Conrad was an official beta of the pack, he had security detail, and, as much as I didn’t love him to be gone, I was so proud he was protecting our pack. “Owen is sleeping through the night now. I’m going to take a long, hot bath and then collapse into bed. It’s been a long day.”
Conrad nodded. I’d signed up for school, although how I’d juggle all the babies and all the classes, I knew not. Thank goodness for online schooling.
“Or...you can wait for me, and I’ll join you in the bath.” He waggled his eyebrows and slipped a hand under the back of my shirt.
“When will you be home?”
He pushed a stray hair away from my face. The nights were growing cooler, and there was a wind coming in. We often slept with our windows open nowadays. “About midnight. Think you can stay up that late?”
I ran my hand up his thigh. “I don’t know. Once I get in the bathtub, it’s hard to keep my hands off…myself. By the time you get home, I’ll be fast asleep.”
He growled and took my mouth, plunging his tongue inside. He pulled back and, with a smile on his face, said, “That’s it. I’m not working tonight. Let me call Travis. Our lands will just have to be unsecure tonight.”
I laughed, hard and loud. He was so bluffing. The man never missed work or was late or, for that matter, ever complained about working at all.
“You’re so full of crap.”
“You are, too,” he said. “You love my hands on you more than your own. No one can satisfy you like I can…even yourself.”
He had a point.
“Fine, fine. I guess I’ll wait.”
He sighed and leaned back in the swing. “I love you, Jasper. Every single second.”
“I love you, too.”