Chapter 9 #2
A single tear leaked from the corner of Jeuel’s left eye, but he didn’t seem to notice. He appeared to be studying Branson without actively trying to meet his eyes. “I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. But you probably have a lot of questions, huh?”
“I do. I know what your lawyer told my father, who is also a lawyer, but I needed to talk to you. To see you and hear it all in your own words, not just on a court document.” Goddess, but the more he looked at Jeuel, the more he saw bits of himself as a teenager. It was uncanny.
“I understand.” Jeuel chewed on his thumbnail, an action that made him appear even younger than seventeen. “Believe me, I was shocked as hell when Father told me about his past. That I had a biological brother out in the world, and that he might be able to help me.”
Branson bit back the urge to ask if Jeuel knew the details of what Uty had done to Branson’s omegin, but their first phone call was not the time. He didn’t need to heap more hurt onto the already shaking omega’s shoulders. “We’ve sent my DNA out to your people. To make sure it’s true.”
Jeuel’s eyes widened briefly, and his lips almost quirked upward. “Really? So, you believe me?”
“I believe what my parents told me. That they kept an awful secret from me because of a promise to your sire, and that it is possible we’re related because of that promise. If your sire is the man we think he is.”
“Chip Uty.”
Across the room, Papa grunted.
“Yes,” Branson said. Once again, he resisted his desire to question Jeuel about his sire, what Jeuel knew about Uty’s past. He tried to imagine that Jeuel was Emory or Caden, and how Branson, no matter how upset he was himself, would never intentionally cause his little brothers pain.
“Can you, um, tell me more about how you found out? About me?”
“Sure.” Jeuel swiped at his face, as if now noticing the mostly-dry tears on his cheek.
“After the incident, Father was in surgery for a long time. He had—has, six bullet wounds. They caused a lot of internal organ damage. He was in and out of consciousness for days.” Jeuel reached for a tissue and blew his nose.
“I stayed with him as much as I could, so he knew I was there when he was lucid. Which wasn’t much. ”
“I’m sorry.” Branson had no sympathy for Uty, only for the upset young man in front of him. As much as he hated Uty on principle, this was Jeuel’s truth, so he’d listen. With as open a mind as possible.
“On the third day, he was more coherent. He asked about me and Trei. I said I was scared. Scared of the halfway house, of being mated off to someone I didn’t know, of losing touch with Trei.
We’ve been brothers for almost four years.
And Father seemed to—” Jeuel choked once, then blew into his tissue again.
“He seemed to understand that even if he recovered from his wounds, he’d be in the hospital for a long, long time. ”
“And then he’d be in prison?” Branson blurted out.
Jeuel nodded miserably. “He couldn’t take care of me anymore, be my guardian, you know? Not with Dario dead, too. And my brother Paul.” This time, Jeuel began crying in earnest. Branson touched the monitor, his racing heart so sick for this boy’s pain.
Paxton said something, and then another man was crowding into view, hugging Jeuel tight.
Slender, with curly blond hair, face obscured.
Likely his brother-in-law Trei. Branson cast a helpless look at Tarius, who strode over, knelt, and wrapped his arms around Branson.
He hated seeing this, knowing his questions had caused it, but grief was a living, amorphous thing that could not be predicted or contained.
It appeared whenever it wished and had to be dealt with in the moment.
After a time, Jeuel quieted and settled in the chair that now seemed far too large for him. Trei hovered nearby, a hand on Jeuel’s shoulder, his face out of view. “Sorry,” Jeuel rasped.
“Don’t apologize for your grief,” Branson said in a husky voice. “But when you’re ready to continue, you said your sire knew he’d never be able to take care of you…”
“Yeah. He, um, told me he’d been keeping a secret from everyone except our late omegin.
None of us kids knew, no one in Sonora knew, or so he thought.
He told me he was born in Sansbury Province, his name was Chip Anderson Uty, and he lived there until he was twenty-three, and then he and Omegin moved to avoid a scandal. ”
Scandal is certainly one word for raping and impregnating another man’s mate.
Branson swore he heard Papa growl.
“When I asked what scandal,” Jeuel continued, “he said he had cheated on Omegin and impregnated another omega. Someone else’s mate.”
Papa did growl that time, but Jeuel didn’t react. Branson hazarded a glance, and Papa’s face was bright red, but he stayed silent. His furious eyes said it all.
“Father said he signed an NDA with that omegin to never reveal that Father was the boy’s sire, in exchange for Father’s own reputation not being dragged through the mud. So, he signed it, took Omegin, and they left the province.”
Branson wanted to fly out of his chair, knock the computer monitor over, do something to dispel the rage coursing through him at the way Uty had completely downplayed his part in Dad’s torture and abuse.
Cheated? Fuck all the way off. But Jeuel was already upset and fragile, and Branson didn’t want to destroy all Jeuel’s personal perceptions of his sire right away.
Jeuel had plenty of time to learn the truth about Charles Alder/Chip Uty.
“But he told you my name?” Branson ground out.
“Yes. Looking your family up on the internet was pretty easy.” Jeuel’s lips twitched into an almost-believable smile before drooping again.
“Later that day, Father slipped into a coma. I told Trei about our conversation, and I wanted to find a way to call or email you myself. But he suggested going through a lawyer. That you might not believe me, but you’d believe something official. ”
“Well, the papers certainly got my attention. Trei?”
The other omega squatted next to Jeuel, and Branson got a better look at him. A wan expression, eyes that betrayed exhaustion and grief, much like Jeuel, but he didn’t look very much older. “Hello, Branson. I’m Trei Alder.”
“Nice to meet you, under the circumstances.” Trei gave a pointed look to Branson’s left, so he added, “This is my boyfriend, Tarius Higgs.”
“Oh. I was hoping you were married.”
Branson quirked an eyebrow. “That information would have come up when you cyber-stalked me.”
“I know, I just…you being married would have helped our case. But it’s still strong, I think. You have a huge support system in Sansbury. We don’t have anyone here except each other.”
“Your parents aren’t around?”
Trei shook his head, blond curls flying.
“They died when I was fifteen, within months of each other. I was seventeen when Paul found me in the Omega Classifieds, and after four dates, we agreed to mate. And before you jump to conclusions, Paul was a good mate. He was distant sometimes, but he was never abusive. I loved him.”
“I’m glad to hear that.” Because Branson’s mind had immediately gone there.
He knew too many omegas who’d been chosen from those classifieds for nefarious purposes, including his friend Khory, so he didn’t trust the pairings.
But he had no reason to doubt what Trei said was true; the young man had just lost his mate, as well as his in-laws.
“And I’m glad you and Jeuel have each other. ”
“He’s been a lifesaver,” Jeuel said. “We aren’t blood, but he’s my brother in every way.”
“Then what’s your plan, Trei?” Tarius asked, speaking for the first time in the conversation.
Trei blinked at him. “My plan?”
“If Branson does win custody of Jeuel, and Jeuel moves here to Sansbury, what are you going to do? I can’t imagine you’ll abandon your brother to people he doesn’t know and a province he’s never been to.”
“I’ll go with him. Mr. Paxton has already filed my emancipation papers. I’m twenty-one, I’ve previously been mated, and I’ve held employment. It’s rare here in Sonora, but it does happen. I want to go to Sansbury with Jeuel.”
Branson glanced at Papa, whose fury had abated and shifted into contemplation. That lawyer look when he saw a potentially intriguing challenge ahead. Fine, Branson would leave that one to Papa to orchestrate. “So you definitely want to pursue this?” he asked Jeuel. “Moving here to live with me?”
Jeuel finally wrangled up a real, staying smile.
“I do. I don’t have anything but bad memories here, and the constabulary isn’t keeping me close by as a witness.
I’ve given them hours-worth of statements about the incident, and about my family.
What little I knew about Father’s business was nothing beyond rumors at school and articles in the newspapers.
Public stuff. I need a fresh start, Branson. ”
“I understand.” Sort of. Not really. Branson understood needing space from the conflicts in his life, especially when the media circled his family.
But he could not fathom a time in which he’d want to move across the territory—nothing short of a man-made disaster that killed his entire family in one fell swoop.
And if something like that ever happened…
Branson wouldn’t want to be the lone survivor.
“Will you tell me about yourself?” Jeuel asked. “What do you like to do? How did you and Tarius meet?”