Epilogue: Joe

2 Months Later

What exactly led up to this lovely evening where my mother was screaming at me in that high-pitched nasally voice of hers, where my stone-faced father sat and stared daggers and where my dear old brother Benjamin was sharing a smirk with his wife? Two words, I suppose. Conrad Fitzroy. That delta had become the bain of my existence since our oh so fateful meeting at some dingey gas station. Contrary to what I'd told Conrad, I didn't run off to weird and quiet places to pick up omegas who knew nothing about me. Really, it was to avoid nosey journalists, stalkers, and the makeup of snakes and weasels that I called my family.

"You-you can't do this to us! What will people think? What will people say?" My mother sobbed like a great opera actress when she needed to. The water works were on full blast tonight for my father.

"He's a liability to the firm," Benjamin piped up and his wife tried not to look too enthusiastic when she nodded in agreement. "A PR nightmare. Think of it pa. Lots of our shareholders have old-fashioned sensibilities. What of Gladstone and Comp? Of Sain-Heinz-"

"What do our shareholders have to do with Joe's dating life? Hell, what does geopolitical forecasting have to do with him dating a delta?" That was Gavin. My brother a year younger than I and a million times smarter. He was born to be a lawyer and he was the only family I could stand. I had told him of the fateful news months earlier to which he took his sweet time to "ruminate" as he called it. He told me, in that matter-of-fact voice, what exactly would happen if I were to date a delta and tell others about. Namely, that the family would not be happy, some old business partners and family friends would have their feathers ruffled and mother's friends would make snide comments till they died or until the proletariat revolution took hold and guillotined them. I would also be killed. Really, the idea was a mercy.

"This isn't about the shareholders!" Mother went on, crying like a great ingenue of the theater. Her puffy omega eyes glared holes into father, willing the old alpha to look at her and do something about this madness!

I sighed and drank my wine. Benjamin would not shut about a potential hit to the business with a smirk that would have one thinking this was good for the business and Gavin tried and failed to use his rational lawyer ways to show that all this worry was preposterous.

"We live in a new age. This will make us look progressive, liberal! We'll appeal to the millennials," Gavin continued.

"As if some bratty kids could give a shit about geopolitics. Our market base is the older-fashioned alpha looking for good sensibilities in the people that provide him information. Isn't that right father?" Benjamin went on. To his credit, my father stayed as stone-faced as ever. It was known legend that the great patriarch only ever spoke when the moons of Jupiter were aligned in a very precise and obtuse manner, reminiscent of mystic, non-euclidean geometry.

"Robert! Do something! Knock some sense into your son!" My dear mother sobbed.

That's how it went on for the rest of the evening. In the end, Gavin gave me a tight smile and shrugged. I could hear mother calling a friend to see if a trip to Hawaii was feasible in the next day or so from where I stood in the foyer, preparing to depart. Benjamin only gave me a wink and drove off in a limo where I could hear his son Quinton bawling.

The only change tonight was my father catching me before I left.

"I would have kicked you out if you hadn't brought the Edwards in as business partners. Don't fuck it up. It's the only useful thing you've done."

I gave a tight nod and left.

The original plan was to bring Conrad along to meet the family. Then I was reminded what a bad idea that was by the ever prescient Gavin. Then it was decided that Gavin would record me breaking the news to the family. The only hole in that plan was that I felt like daggers were being raked over my body at the thought of Conrad watching a recording where my family acted as if deltas were essentially the plague. He'd suffered enough.

That didn't change the promise nor the fact that Conrad was sitting in my car, a little outside the way of my parent's mansion, waiting for me to get back. What a fucking night.

I pulled on a smirk, the best that I could muster to hide the exhaustion and the irritation I felt as I strolled up to the Rolls Royce. He was playing some Cube Escape game on his phone but looked up and gave me a smile. It might have been a little strained. He was trying. That's all that mattered.

"How'd it go?"

I handed him my phone. I hadn't realized Gavin recorded my last interaction with father. I winced as his voice came up. When the video stopped, a weird silence followed. I huffed and laid back in the driver's seat.

"So that's why I don't want you to deal with them yet. They're kind of...a lot. Not Gavin. But I'd rather wait for a better time for you to meet Gavin."

Conrad nodded and bit his lip as he continued to stare down at my phone. I imagined myself kissing him, taking him like I had so many times before, biting into that bottom lip, making it bleed just a little and comforting him as he whimpered and begged for more. I imagined the lean muscles under his ratty leather jacket, running my hands over his chest and thighs and face. The tickle of his light beard, the masculine scent, the way he used to smirk against my lips. Fuck.

There was something rugged yet boyish about Conrad's body. Maybe it was the tiny bit of dominance in him, the way he teased in bed and the way he wouldn't easily submit or become pliant in my arms. Maybe it was the soft jabs, the back and forth of snark and wit. It wasn't just in bed. Our long hikes in the forests of Oregon and the mountains of Washington were filled with conversation that could last for hours on end. Sometimes, I'd step back and look at him and watch the way the light hit him in just the perfect way. The way his fiery red hair shone. The easy-going and boyish half-smile he'd shoot me. I didn't believe in soul mates. He seemed to challenge that thesis.

"Jesus. I didn't know they were so fucking awful. No offense, but your mom is kind of a psychopath."

I smiled wryly. "You should have been there for Christmas dinner when my mom found out an aunt voted differently than she did."

I contemplated switching gears and taking us back home when Conrad spoke up again.

"No, I mean it. I just...my parents were so amazingly loving. I couldn't imagine having to deal with that. Were they always like this?"

"I mean, far as I can recall. Back when I could barely piss without a diaper on and my father was already screaming at me to get into business school," I joked. Conrad had a wide-eyed look and it was amusing to find concern and sympathy in his beautiful green eyes. How to tell him not to feel too bad for the big rich alpha? I was finally with him after all, wasn't I?

He handed me the phone and laid back in his seat. "Christ. No wonder you're so emotionally constipated."

"Hey! Don't make me spank you."

A pair of sunglasses was thrown my way. "Don't make me vomit."

It went on like for a bit and it felt like heaven. My father's words dissipated for that one moment of the night and for the time that we drove back home, trading banter and mostly light jabs. It was past midnight by the time we arrived at the mansion. At the living room, there was an awkward pause. Conrad had yet to sleep with us although affections weren't completely out of the question anymore. He seemed the most comfortable around Hans and Misha and I'd be lying if I said it didn't hurt like hell but I suppose a little pain on my part was somewhat diserved.

Still, Conrad seemed hesitant to go back to his room. He stood there, rubbing his neck and looking around the area as if the modern abstract paintings on the walls were suddenly the most interesting things to him. I shrugged good night and restrained myself from kissing him even as my eyes glued themselves to his lips. Neither of us moved. He saw my look.

"Well..." I said after an awkward while. "I'll see you tomorrow-"

A kiss. God-damned, the little vixen kissed me. It was light and quick and skittish but there it was. I was too stunned to react. I might just have taken that moment to push him up against the wall and make the kiss much much longer but he hurriedly turned, muttered a goodnight and ran off to his room. My lips burned. I'd kissed him a million times before. Hell, I'd kissed him only a few months back when he'd probably almost sworn us off. It was different  this time. He'd kissed me.

I felt light-headed and ecstatic as I walked up the stairs, taking a moment in the bathroom to clean up and undress. When I entered the master bedroom, my heart calmed a little at seeing Hans curled up against Misha. The omega's head was buried into  Misha's chest. Soft, sandy blond hair poked out between Misha's arms encasing Hans in a firm hold. I glanced around for Ross. He was in business mode, looking down at some papers on his great oak desk on the far left side of the room. He had his own office another level up but preferred to be with us even when he couldn't sleep right away.

I stalked over and smirked, seeing him in loosened slacks and a simple dress shirt with the top few buttons undone. His sleeves were drawn to his elbows and I could see pure muscle rippling underneath. Most alphas would be ashamed to be drawn to the strength of another alpha. Benjamin still made snide remarks about our relationship. It hardly mattered to me. I'd loved  Ross since I was a young boy and we'd been rooming at the Academy. He'd comfort me whenever my father had verbally or physically bashed me on any given day. He'd been there when I'd forced myself, rather stupidly, to let Conrad go.

He perked up as I sat on his desk and smiled over at him.

"I take it everything went ok?" There was a hint of exhaustion in his voice. I ran my hand through his raven black hair as I spoke.

"Yeah. Well, actually, no, my family was still shit. But that was a given. Conrad took it well though. He kissed me. I mean, yeah, it was like a second long but still. Bet you're jealous, huh?"

Ross growled playfully and leaned his head into my hand. We sat there for a minute or two in blissful peace before my father's words came back to me in a painful and cold cascade. I sighed.

"I'm definitely out of the business, though."

"I'm sure Gavin will get them to come around. Your brother is a genius." He pulled me with him as he hauled himself up and to bed. I could only give a weak and tired smile, deciding against voicing my doubts.

I all but forgot the terrible dinner with them as Ross pulled me onto the bed and into his arms. Misha and Hans shifted a bit. I listened to their soft snores and fell asleep to a small happiness I had thought died in Oregon.