Pregnant With Alpha’s Genius Twins

#Chapter 102 – To stay or to go?

I walk slowly up to the house, surveying the scene, not wanting to run into members of his family. I meet a few Betas in the woods between houses, but they merely nod and smile as I pass. I return the gesture, glad to know that they’re there.

The house itself is quiet, though. Lights are on in various spaces, but there’s no sign of life in the kitchen or anywhere on the first floor.

Frowning, I come around the pool and stand by the edge of the back porch, trying to see if Victor is sitting somewhere close, maybe reading –

“Looking for someone?”

I jump at the voice, panic flooding me. But when I look in that direction, I just see Victor, sitting in an Adirondack chair in a dark corner of his porch.

“No, I just came up here looking for someone to scare the hell out of me. So, thanks for that little jolt to my nervous system, so kind of you.”

He gives me a low chuckle. I climb up the three short steps to the porch and walk over to him. He’s got a warm blanket spread over his knees, a glass of whiskey resting on the floor next to his chair.

“What are you doing out here?” I ask, wrapping my arms around my body for warmth. “It’s getting cold.”

He shrugs. “It will be too cold to come get fresh air at all soon, so I thought I’d take advantage of what could be my last night. Plus, I wanted to get away from them.” He uses his head to indicate his family inside of the house.

“Are they so bad?” I ask.

He rolls his eyes at me, just a little. “It feels like I’ve gone back to high school. I’m the Alpha of this pack, but somehow I find myself taking the trash out for mom, listening to my dad lecture me on the fact that my tie is too loose.”

He heaves a sigh and shakes his head. I purse my lips, hearing again the frustration that he expressed over the phone.

“They’ll be gone soon,” I say softly, trying to be encouraging. “You’ll find a new normal.”

up his glass of whiskey. “But when they’re gone, what will it look like?” He says, thinking aloud. “They’ll be gone, and so will you, off to your new house, wherever that is. Suddenly I’ll be in this big house, all alone.” He sips his whiskey, thoughtful, and my heart goes out

respond when the back door opens. I grimace, anticipating disruption from his mother or worse, but am

breaks into a smile. “Burton!” I

smiling at me, and comes over to us with a glass of wine on his tray and my favorite blanket draped over his arm. “It is

wine and the blanket, thanking him. He gives a

I say, laughing again and turning back to

to have a rare talent for intuiting people’s needs. So I offered

happy, and wrap the blanket around my shoulders. “Good, I really liked him. I was sorry to

glad that we agree,” Victor says, turning up the corners of his mouth just slightly. “I guess I was wrong before, I will at least have Burton here when you all

eyebrows and lowering myself into the chair next to Victor’s. “You two are going

small laugh and then closes

as glass, but I can see the sleepless nights, the anxiety, the weight of his increasingly heavy world pressing

to see him strained so. I want to reach out my hands and smooth away the frown I see pulling at the corners of his mouth. I want to whisper comforting nothings in his ear. I

further avoid the impulse to reach out and touch

know, Victor, I’ve been thinking

his eyes and looks at me. He doesn’t say a word, just lets

back to a human school,” I say, “Not after my father took them away so easily. But there are so few schools we can send them to, and nothing

it will be several months, at least, until Prath Academy is ready to

you think about homeschooling for the spring? And then summer off, and then Prath

and thinks about it. “We could certainly find a tutor easily enough. I’m sure Annabeth could recommend someone suitable. But your next house – will it be spacious enough to have both a home

“Wait, what’s

them all as living in the barracks. A locker full of weapons and bullet-proof vests, I guess,” he

the bulk of all this Beta stuff,” I say, laughing again, “I wonder if it would be too crowded. But your house,” I