“So he threatens me with a crowbar, swings it a few times too.” Jake grinned with glassy eyes.
The paramedic smiled knowingly, fondly remembering Tyler’s stubbornness when it came to protecting his friends.
“So I wise up and give him the biggest hug that I could muster. I think he knew that whoever walked down into that valley… weren’t comin’ out…” Jake trailed off and allowed himself a long, slow exhale.
Kyle wiped hot tears from his cheeks.
“…but before he left, he told me something. He said that he had to go to the pump basin, because I had someone who needed me back in town. Tyler said that he’d never forgive himself if something prevented us, you and me Kyle, from spending the rest of our lives together. That son of a bitch knew, I swear that he knew that we’d wind up together all along.” Jake winced and wiped a nervous, sweaty palm along his face.
“I felt ashamed that I lost a pack member, a brother Firedog on the job because of my failures. I should’ve followed him in. I couldn’t even face you when I came back. I remember how upset you were. I couldn’t even get the courage to talk to you, to try to explain. And then before I knew it, you were just gone.”
Kyle leaned in and held his Alpha tightly. He had no idea how scared Jake had been, nor how noble his friend’s sacrifice was. While he had forgotten his one-time anger, he would never forget Tyler’s bravery that fiery night.
A long silence followed as the pair held one another, Jake’s respirator softly pumping and beeping in the dim light.
Jake suddenly spoke up. “So uh, how’d you wanna do this? I mean… I can’t really get down on one knee…”
Kyle sat up with shock. “Wait, you what?!?”
Jake softly chuckled around a wheeze. “I figure that when our pups come into the world, life’d just be so much easier for ‘em if folks knew that I made an honest man out of their pop. So, Kyle Daniels… would you do this Alpha the honour of being the other half of our little pack?”
Hot tears streamed along Kyle’s cheeks as he nodded vigorously and hugged his Alpha. “Yes, yes, of course I do. Of… course I do…”
“Well shoot bud, now you’re makin’ me think that I did end up in heaven…” Jake smiled and hugged his Omega back. It was a warm, wonderful, and heartfelt embrace. They talked, and shared, and laughed until the wee hours of the morning. While they were touched and overjoyed with the recent engagement, more than a few nurses strongly insisted that Jake be allowed to get his rest. Kyle reluctantly left, wearing the largest grin upon his face.
The Omega was sad, but happy, joyful, and exhausted. He was many conflicting things at once. As he made his way back to his room in the cool night of Shale River General, Kyle looked out at the sky. It was smudged with smoke, ash, mud, and grit, but Kyle knew that he was finally home.
Thirty Two – Six Months Later
“Jesus, I’m as big as a goddamned house,” Jess fretted, as she covered her face in embarrassment. She tried her best to smile for the camera.
“You’re really one to talk, eh?” Kyle chuckled back to his sister. The Omegas were standing back to back in their father’s old farmhouse, having their weekly bump pictures taken.
“Watch it jackass – you’re not the one hauling around two pups all day. My belly already looks like a tiger’s tummy,” she said in a pitiful tone.
“Oh hush up you two, you’re both as lovely as the day is long,” their father replied happily, as he focused the aperture of his old SLR on his children. Their bellies had grown considerably. Kyle was still getting used to wearing a sports bra to “holster his boys,” as he often joked.
After the third or fourth snap, Kyle received a text from Jake but dared not answer it on his father’s warning. “Leave that blasted phone out of it while I finish the pictures!” A few snaps later and the old man made good on his word, and was off to the kitchen to fix lunch for his growing clan. The twins could’ve sworn that he now had a skip in his walk. A lot had changed since their big announcements.
Upon hearing that both of his children were with child, their father was a changed man. He cried for what was probably the third time in his life, his eating habits changed, and he eased off working on the fields. He and Cromwell enjoyed daily walks, and much to their delight, he’d genuinely invested time in using his vaporizer. He muttered a little here and there, but they’d managed to get him down to a dose of nicotine that was a fraction of what his du Maurier held. On his insistence, he only smoked outside, when neither of them were around. And, like clockwork, he spent Sunday evenings out on the back porch happily talking about the future with his wife up in heaven.
“So, any word yet?” Jess groaned softly as she sat down and took a good, deep breath.
“Hold on, hold on.” Kyle’s eyes raced excitedly across the words on the screen. He was barely processing anything ,and upon seeing the word ‘approved,’ let out a whoop of joy.
“Jake said that Chris approved the loan!” Kyle would’ve jumped for joy, but his morning sickness prevented him from all but the slowest of movement.
“Damn, I’m so happy for you guys, that’s amazing. Dad! Dad, did you hear?” she called across the room.
“Well if’n that ain’t that the best news of the day!” Their father replied happily from the kitchen, as he began to boil a pot of water on the stove.
As an engagement gift, their father had given Jake and Kyle a plot of land on the far side of the farm. It had an old hunting lodge that the pair were planning on renovating into a modern, country chic log cabin in which to raise their pup. Now, with the money secured, Chelle’s husband Richard and his construction crew could break earth and start their work immediately.
“Looks like now I get to be the Daniels den-mother for a change,” Kyle playfully teased Jess, as he began peering out at the grey wooden cabin that would soon be his family home.
“Briggs’ place is only, like, ten minutes away, so think again. Dad isn’t getting rid of me that easily!” She awkwardly adjusted her maternity yoga pants and scratched herself in a fairly unflattering manner.
“May I remind you that this house was big enough for the two of you, and it’ll remain big enough for all of the pups in our pack?” their dad called joyfully, as he spilled macaroni into the pot followed by a carefully measured teaspoon of salt.
With lunch en route, the Daniels twins saddled over to the kitchen table and were greeted by a splashy outlay of bright, glossy magazines and pages printed from Pinterest. It was an ongoing work in progress to plan Kyle and Jake’s cabin. Especially now that they had been approved for the loan, a good many of the more luxurious options were back on the table.
While they dined on the Kraft Dinner and tuna-salad sandwiches that their father had prepared for them, Kyle reflected upon the incredible changes in his life. His heart skipped a beat when he paused to reflect on how unlikely his journey to Shale River was. It was only when the head of his union local, Gloria, unexpectedly offered him a one-way maternity leave as a thank you upon hearing that he was leaving for good that he realized that his time in Toronto was over. The union back-dated his resignation to one day after his mat leave ended, ensuring that he’d be taken care of. While she claimed that it was a fairly common procedure, he suspected that it was because Gloria’s great aunt lived in Shale River, the very city that Jake and Kyle had saved from burning to the ground. After exchanging a tearful goodbye with many of his coworkers, he had stepped out onto the pavement of Toronto General Hospital a free man.
They’d enjoyed their time in Toronto. Jake had been to Edmonton a few times, but was amazed at how big the “big city” was. He drank lattes, danced with Kyle’s Toronto friends, and took to sushi quite well. He couldn’t get over how big Lake Ontario was. The dumbfounded Alpha had always thought that ‘lake’ implied ‘small.’ It was more water in one place than he’d ever seen in his life. Kyle even patched things up with Mike before they left. The Beta was a little hurt but definitely saw the appeal of the hunky A
lpha. He wished them well, joked about Kyle’s nervous interviews on the CBC, and was happy that his friend was safe after the events of the fire.
He and Jake planned to go public about their marriage after they’d returned from Toronto, enjoying a long and scenic drive as part of their extended honeymoon across the provinces of Canada. The only person to notice that they were wearing wedding bands on his Instagram was Jess, but she promised not to say anything as long as she got to help plan the backyard ceremony upon their return.
When they’d returned and the topic of Jake and Kyle’s eventual wedding came up, their father surprised them by asking them why they just didn’t elope like Jess and Briggs did.
“Shoot, ‘course I knew that my daughter had gotten hitched. You think that anything Daniels-related that happens in Judge Riesling’s court isn’t gonna get to my ears? You forget that we still run a duck hunting lodge every fall. While us old fellers might not have the damned textin’ that you youngsters do, we still know how to pick up a phone and have a decent conversation like a regular person!” They’d all laughed and hugged. While Kyle knew that he and his father would somehow always be at odds of one sort or another, it was the best he’d felt about their relationship in a good, long time.
Pleasantly cool and crisp, for their mid-October wedding the brilliant oranges, reds, and yellows of the autumn woods were their cathedral. Décor was mostly what could be gotten from local craft fairs, handmade, artisanal goods with heart. Tasteful, elegant, and so very Shale River, they’d all worn their country best, danced barefoot on the prairie grass, and dined on the finest feast that McRorie’s could offer. Married beneath a beautiful country sunset, they were silhouettes in the night as the celebratory bonfires were started and an endless barrage of fireworks welcomed the new couple home. Stetson hats were tossed into the air amid whoops and hollers of joy. A collection bowl was passed around, but at the last minute Kyle and Jake handed it off to Natalie and Richard, for his brother Danny’s recovery fund. The tall, lanky Alpha’s eyes went as pink as the sunset as he thanked them for their kindness. Natalie, eight months along in her own pregnancy, simply fully broke down and cried joyful and ugly.
And there would be tears in their new life together. It was hard for Kyle to adjust to knowing that, especially during the dry season, with each and every call that Jake went on, there was a chance that he could be hurt, or worse. It just made their time together all the more special. It was a pain that Jess shared, as Briggs’ role as the sheriff directly placed him in harm’s way. The siblings bonded over not just the joys and pains of their changing bodies, but in knowing how to value the time that they shared with the men they loved. What time they did have would be carefully guarded and respectfully treated. Many hours spent in less treasured ways might have simply been forgotten and paved over with the passage of time.
Little did they realize just how profound the changes in their lives would be in four short months when the pups were born.
Thirty Three
Nine months and two days after their steamy episode in the Alpha’s pickup truck, Tyler Edward Fournier-Daniels was born, pink, screaming, and healthy at Shale River General Hospital; Tyler, after their fallen, heroic friend, and Edward, after their curmudgeonly old dad. Kyle was in labour for roughly five hours. Jake was by his side the whole time, mopping his husband’s brow, listening to him swear and threaten Jake with bodily harm for getting him pregnant, and being there to clean up his vomit. Tyler Edward had to spend an afternoon under the bili-lights to take care of an expected case of newborn jaundice but was otherwise the darling of his parents’ eyes.
Jess’ twins arrived a little early after a twenty-one hour labour. As a precaution, Edward Crane Briggs and Hannah Maria Briggs spent nine days in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton. Briggs and Jess stayed nearby at a friend’s place and spent most of their time at the hospital. In less than a week they made the four hour trek back to Shale River.
The next three months were a whirlwind of excitement, tears, and frustration. Their father did what he could, but his forte was clearly not dealing with the screaming, crying, and emotion-drenched sleeplessness that newborns can bring. Determined to help, he ferried a steady stream of baked goods and casseroles from their church in the months following his grandchildren’s christening. He also popped in when possible and was able to turn a soggy sink of mucky mess in to well-ordered stacks of neatly drying dishes. He did what he could, and their lives were made all the better for it.
Kyle and Jake’s transition to home life was one that most new parents would’ve been familiar with.
After his Alpha was called away for a few more long-term missions in the deep Albertan northlands, Kyle worried a little when Tyler Edward became hesitant to embrace his father upon his return. It became a self-fulfilling prophecy: the more that Jake was away, the less confident he was around his son, and the less Tyler Edward wanted to spend time with his Alpha daddy. Jake and Kyle had long discussed how Jake’s job would take him out of house and away from home for long stretches of time, and so, one lazy weekend afternoon, the pair were determined to bond Jake with his son. Kyle tried to arrange the morning and afternoon naps so as to give them the rest of the day to play as a family. After all, he wanted Tyler Edward to grow up knowing that both of his daddies always had time for him and loved him.
Things were not off to a promising start, although Kyle did his best not to laugh.
“I swear that you’re not going to hurt him,” Kyle assured Jake in a sweet yet cracking voice. Sitting beside the Omega on the couch was the massive Alpha, carefully cradling their swaddled tot as if he were high grade explosives set to a hair-trigger. Jake didn’t appear to be breathing as he focused intently on the newborn. Kyle was pretty certain that he hadn’t blinked in at least a minute.
“Yeah, but he’s… so small. He hates me, and… I don’t know what to do…” Jake was more nervous than the Omega had ever seen him be.
“You’re his dad, talk to him and tell him that you love him.” Kyle smiled as he lazed back against the soft plush of the couch. He almost felt a little bad for his darling husband as he watched Jake try to whisper a few things to his son in a low tone. When he leaned in closer and tried to whisper a little louder, Tyler Edward’s eyes grew as wide as saucers before his bottom lip began to tremble. Between the two of them, father and son, it was Jake who looked like he was going to cry more.
“Gentle sweetie, that’s just daddy.” Kyle spoke in a sing-song tone as he rubbed a reassuring hand along Tyler Edward’s belly. “Shush-shush-shush.” He calmed away the tears.
The babe looked around the room until he saw his den-mother and then beamed a huge smile at Kyle. The Alpha was dejected.
“Shoot. He totally hates me,” Jake said, while trying not to frown.
“No, he’s just… not used to all of the different facets of his Alpha daddy. And you’re a whole lot of… big. Hold him closer to you, and try speaking to him in calm, soothing tones? Don’t feel too badly, Hannah Maria shrieks any time that her dad holds her, but she’s okay playing near him, Jess told me. Pups are weird.”
“Hey there bud, this is… your dad, and I uh, sure do love you. Could you maybe do me a solid and not cry, because it makes me feel like just about the worst feller in the land.” Jake spoke in a low, soothing rumble. It may have worked. Tyler Edward glanced up at him and made a sweet, toothless jack-o-lantern grin. His hand slapped Jake’s clean-shaven jaw a few times. Immediately the Alpha’s eyes lit up and he couldn’t help but smile as his son kept poking and prodding at his face.
“I think that he’s warming up to me,” the Alpha remarked confidently in between little coos and silly baby talk. Seeing the warm smile radiate across his husband’s face reminded Kyle all over again just why it was that he’d fallen in love with this wonderful man.
“See, what did I tell you? He loves his daddy.” The Omega bubbled over with barely contained joy upon seeing h
is Alpha unafraid to show a vulnerable, sweet, and tender side of himself as he cradled his pup in his powerful arms.
“I mean, yeah, okay. It’s a good start, I’ll give you that. But how do you do it? How do you make it look so easy?” Jake asked, his eyes still fixed upon the dark blues of Tyler Edward.
“Honestly? I’m nervous too, but we’re all doing this together and learning as we go.” Kyle was glad that Jake didn’t just assume that because he was an Omega that he’d somehow ‘just know’ how everything worked. Being maternal and actually knowing what to do with a screaming infant at four in the morning were two entirely different things. In truth, he and Jess had each other’s backs, and had Snapchat on constantly to discuss and compare their experiences, share poop and barf pictures, or debate strategies for trying to solve the riddle of the ever-changing infant sleep schedule.
After a good twenty minutes of Jake and Tyler Edward warming up to one another, Kyle decided to broach another issue that had been creeping into their lives.
“I told you that he loves his daddy. Maybe we could try to set aside some time and I could watch you two bond more often? Like, I don’t think that it’d hurt to pass on overtime next week, right?”
Jake tensed slightly as he began to frown. “I mean, yeah, but with the cabin, and the bills… and…”
“I get you. Yes, I totally get that money’s a little tighter than normal, but I don’t want to miss any of this. We’re so sleep deprived and running on empty that I know that we’re going to forget the little moments here and there. And most of those things will happen when a camera isn’t pointed at him.” Kyle kindly stroked his Alpha’s shoulder.
Jake said nothing and let Kyle continue to speak.
“My dad basically starts blubbering at the drop of a hat whenever we talk about Tyler. He’s really committed to being there as a grandfather for him. I think that he regrets not being there for us as much when Jess and I were growing up, and now he’s trying to right a wrong. Hell, he even said that he wants to start leasing half of the fields to some of the younger farm families in the area just so that he can get more time with his pack.”
His Prairie Omega Box Set Page 23