Page 17 of His Unicorn Alpha
His eyes widened almost comically, while Rex sucked in a breath and murmured, “Oh boy.”
“I…you must understand, we don’t have the facilities to store fertilized ovum. They would either be destroyed or—”
“Or you could turkey baste ’em,” Rex finished for me. “Which is what you did.”
“I used a catheter and the ultrasound machine to ensure my success, but…yes. I…I knew it was wrong, but—”
“It was a breach of trust, Brandt!” Eric burst out, unable to hold his tongue any longer. He began pacing the room, his arms flailing wildly, repeating the things he had already yelled at me at least five or six times already. “We made promises to each and every person who donated their samples. We specifically swore that if matches were found, wewouldn’timpregnate anyone. Do you really think anyone is going to trust us going forward once news of this gets out? Do you really think our science won’t be questioned? Our research?”
“They weremy babies!” I finally snapped back at him, slamming my fist on the polished timber of the tabletop beside Beck’s leg. “I have livedhundredsof years dreaming of being a father, wanting nothing more than to carry my own children and knowing it was nothing more than a pipedream and there they were.” My voice cracked as I recalled the hope that had swelled inside me. The realization that my hopes were not futile or impossible after all. “My three precious little embryos. My babies.”
“But they weren’t just yours,” Eric snapped, storming back to my side as he raised his voice in anger. “They’re fifty percent someone else’s and you took that choice from him. You made that decisionforhim. Selfishly.”
I curled around my belly as he loomed over me. Beck slid off the table and insinuated himself between us once more.
“Enough!” he cried, and I flinched again. “Eric’s right,” he spoke again after a moment, but his voice was gentle and full of the empathy I wished I could have heard from my brother himself. “What you did definitely broke the promises you made. However, I know you’re a species on the edge of extinction and I understand why you would choose to take the chance in front of you. But why not reach out to the potential alpha?”
Once I answered that question, I doubted he would sound so understanding for much longer. Micah was his friend. His former found family. Not only had I broken the Pack Alpha’s trust, I had also done the unimaginable to his friend.
“He wasn’t here. He’s not a member of the pack and I didn’t want to risk the viability of the embryos on time spent attempting to contact him. It was only a small window of time and…” I hung my head, “I was selfish, Alpha.”
“Ugh,” Beck groaned. “Stop that. I’m your friend, Brandt, not your…overlord.”
Rex snorted and repeated “Overlord” with a significant degree of amusement, his Texan accent curling around the word pleasantly.
“Shut up,” Beck directed at him with a smile in his voice. “You all know this Pack Alpha thing makes me uncomfortable.”
“But that’swhyI brought him here,” Eric cut back in effusively. “What he’s done is...well, it reflects badly on our research. On what we’re trying to achieve for shifters and potential alphas everywhere. You’re our Alpha. You get to decide how to handle this.”
“I understand that,” Beckett was back to sounding reasonable but serious, “but this isn’t some super simple ‘right vs wrong’ issue. There are complex emotions involved, too, and I’m not a dictator.”
“Okay,” I watched as my brother nodded, then he met my gaze and gestured towards Beckett again. “Tell himwhoyou’ve involved without consent, B.”
“Micah Hawthorne,” I admitted, watching as the Alpha blinked and processed my confession.
He coughed. “What?!”
“Micah?” Rex repeated, then looked at Eric. “Micah, Micah? As in, Beck’s beta friend? That Micah? The one stayin’ here right now?”
“That Micah,” Eric nodded.
“Well,” Rex licked his lips, “that complicates things some more, doesn’t it?”
Beck was silent for a long moment. Eventually, he looked me in the eye and, directing his words at the others, said, “Can Brandt and I have the room, please?” As Eric and Rex moved to leave, he added, “And don’t say anything to anyone else. Especially not Micah. That’s up to Brandt and we’re not taking that from him.” He narrowed his gaze at Eric. “Understood?”
Eric held up his hands in the universal sign of surrender. “Okay, okay. Yes. Understood.”
I loved my brother, but he often got tunnel vision when it came to things he was passionate about. To some extent, it could be argued that I was the same. I had underestimated his passion for his research, just as he had underestimated the lengths I would go to for my children.
After he and Rex left, with Rex patting my shoulder and squeezing it reassuringly on his way out, Beck continued to stare at me in silence.
It was unnerving.
Despite my advanced age, I felt like an errant schoolboy.
I fidgeted, and, unable to take the tense silence any longer, said, “I had no idea if it was a fluke or something more. But…they weremyembryos and I…I couldn’t…” The thought of destroying them —of letting them waste away in that petri dish, oflosingthem— had me curling my arm protectively around my abdomen once more. Tears clogged my throat, making my voice thick and gruff. “Iknowit was wrong. I know that he will hate me. And when he was only an abstract idea that was fine. You and Sandy had both described him as someone who would never willingly stay in a small town or in our pack and I thought…” I trailed off, shaking my head.
I didn’t need to tell him that I had planned on raising my children without ever having to worry about explaining myself to the unwitting sperm donor. Shakily, the rest of my confession bubbled up, and out spilled the fears which had been brewing ever since I had looked into Micah’s eyes a few days earlier.
