Kintsukuroi_Chapter-13

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Chapter-13

The hurdle of her heat over, life settled back into its usual patterns... Life with Janardan turned out to be surprisingly easy, and barring those two days twice a year when Jayna’s physiology overwhelmed her, their relationship remained completely platonic. Ben was usually shipped off to Candice’s place during those days, and while Miles would have minded the boy as well, Candice’s kids were the similarly aged and hiding the real reason for the bi-annual sleepovers was easier. (Obviously, she repaid by taking in Candice’s boys during her friend’s ‘time-of-the-year’). While Jayna always suffered from nerves for the first day after her heat, as time went by; she learnt to accept that Janardan- as he had promised- would never speak of anything that happened during Jayna’s heats and grew to understand that she didn’t have to worry about being taken advantage of.

While the alpha was flexible and generally accepting of whatever she wanted during her heats, he always mandated that the blindfold he insisted on, not be removed- explaining that an omega’s body was meant to be viewed by her chosen alpha alone. ... Jayna only realized the sincerity of the alpha’s sentiment when they visited a beach and Janardan was scandalized at the sight of the omegas in swimwear. She got sunburnt easily and so her own swim-trunks were a bit more covered than those of the majority (and Janardan looked uncomfortable enough at their sight already) but she couldn’t help but chuckle as she wondered what the alpha’s reaction might have been if her bathing suit had resembled the fancily held together bundle of strings like a few of the omegas were sporting.

 Over the years, things got easier between them as they got to know each other better and Jayna started taking Janardan along for her office events as well, braving the condescending looks and comments by those who didn’t quite understand the true nature of their dynamic. The alpha had grown into one of her most trusted friends and even though it annoyed her to high heavens when Janardan introduced himself as her ‘ang-rakshak’, never telling people (or even him, if he was honest) about his association with the Chief Deer; she privately acknowledged that she would forever be grateful for the man’s presence in her and Ben’s life. After all, Ben needed an alpha in his life and while Jayna had hoped that presence to be the boy’s father, the fates had other plans.  [Ang-rakshak= Bodyguard (Pronunciation: ung- ruck-shuck)]

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She trusted no one with Ben’s safety more than Janardan and so the call from her son’s school to collect him because there had been an ‘incident’ shook Jayna to the core. Ben had recently turned nine and she had thought her son maturing into a fine young boy, so the mention of an ‘incident’, and the need for her involvement  when Janardan was supposed to be there (and much closer to the school than her college) had her mind conjuring all sorts of unpleasant situations. Rushing to the elementary school with barely any regard for the traffic laws, she felt her heart try to climb out of her throat as she saw the number of cops gathered around the school district. Parking her car any which way she could, she hurried out; intent on finding Ben. With every minute that crawled by without a sign of her tow-headed boy, Jayna felt herself grow more frantic. The glaring absence of the warrior’s tall figure among the gathered populace too sent warning alarms screeching through her psyche. There were parents and other students milling about, interspersed with the security personnel and only adding to the general chaos of the scene. Eventually, she spotted Ben’s class-teacher and hurried to the omega, eyes wide with worry and face devoid of colour as she tried to get her throat to work enough to make the enquiry about her boy’s whereabouts. She was gratified when she didn’t have to identify herself, the omega recognizing her on sight and wordlessly leading her inside the school building and presumably to her son.

She noticed Janardan first, the alpha in deep conversation with Chief Deer himself with his left arm around a tiny, dark-haired little child -who couldn’t have been more than four- perched on his hip. His right hand was cradling the back of Ben’s head protectively and the boy had his own arm curled around the alpha’s hip. Jayna exhaled noisily in relief, feeling like her strings had been cut now that she had located her family and the adrenalin rush was draining off; mutely watching the scene. It took a few seconds for her to recognize the pre-school uniform, confirming the age of the child clinging like a limpet to Janardan. She frowned when she looked closer and realized that there was no one apart from the gathered men in blue other than Janardan in the room, indicating that the child’s parents were yet to arrive. Janardan’s hold on both children was protective and Jayna found herself wondering what had transpired to summon the cops to the school- heartbeat ramping up as she thought  of the recent spate of school shootings that had rocked the country.

Ben’s teacher glanced at her murmuring, “You’re a lucky lady, we do not know what would have happened if not for your partner’s intervention.”  And left.

The other’s voice made the gathered alphas turn and then Ben was releasing Janardan to dash into her arms. ... All too aware that Ben would soon stop rushing into her arms like this as he grew older, Jayna found herself relishing the moment; her accelerated heart-rate slowing now that she had her baby in her arms.

“Hey,” She smiled at the alpha as he approached, some deeply buried instinct in her demanding she steal a kiss the way she would have done without hesitation if this had been Adam... but despite what everyone assumed, this was not her mate; she sternly reminded herself as she held herself in check.

“’Mega Page,” Chief Deer greeted, offering his hand to the omega to shake. “I must thank you for introducing me to Janardan. Today would’ve turned out far different if your boy here hadn’t intervened.”

Jayna felt herself puff up with second-hand pride and grinned openly when she noticed the alpha’s pleased smile, “Yeah? What happened exactly- no one would tell me anything...”

The police chief smiled and shook his head, “Gotta whole lot of paperwork to wrap-up to lose this case, but watch the national news, you’ll find out soon enough.”

Jayna felt her eyebrows climb- the national news?! What had gone down at the school to deserve coverage by the national news?

The chief paused before turning with a twinkle in his eye, “Or you could try asking him,”

“Nah,” Jayna returned easily, readjusting her hold on Ben, “Janardan has a tendency to downplay his accomplishments. I’ll wait for the news.”

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They waited till the little omega’s parents came for her before heading home. It took a while since both parents had offices in the next city- the child spent her time with her grandparents after school till they picked her up on their way back. Being elderly, the grandparents employed a pick-up service to collect the child from school and drop her off at their place. Later, Jayna discovered that it was this very routine the so called ‘villain’ had exploited for his nefarious purposes.

Too worked up to cook dinner, Jayna opted to drop by the neighbourhood pizza joint to pick up two large pizzas for dinner, much to Ben’s enjoyment. 

The three of them piled in front of the television and Jayna felt her nerves return when all the national news channels were airing reports about the averted tragedy at Ben’s elementary school. She tugged the boy closer in an unconscious need to confirm the child’s safety as a video clip recording started playing showing the pre-elementary kids coming out of the school gates. She guessed it was the footage caught by the CCTV camera the school had set up back when Ben was just moving from the pre-elementary to the elementary school. It seemed so long ago now that Ben was in his final year at this school before he was promoted to the middle school across the road. The channel helpfully circled one of the children exiting the campus to direct viewer’s attention and Jayna realized that had it not been for the red circle following the child as the little girl in pig-tails walked, she would not have noticed the burly alpha that had appeared in the throng of parents and guardians gathered to pick up their children. The child’s eyes were wide with terror and fat teardrops rolled down tender cheeks as the alpha pulled his reluctant victim towards one of the parked cars; the gathered parents and guardians too busy interacting with and helping their own wards to notice another child’s distress. Even knowing the child was safe, Jayna couldn’t help but gasp in terror when the alpha managed to open the door of the car without drawing attention to himself.

 And then Janardan was there.

Ben let out a loud whoop at the sight of his guardian on television and Jayna felt herself slump with relief at the man’s appearance. Her smile widened at how sunlight glinted off the alpha’s hair because of the camera’s angle, making him look positively drool-worthy. There was a short-unheard – exchange between the two alphas and then Janardan was pulling the softly sobbing child away from the attacker. The alpha, obviously mistaking Janardan’s calm facade as a weakness, tried to grab the child again and then between one blink and the next, Janardan was holding the man down; knee firmly pressed into his back and arm twisted painfully as he perched on the prone alpha- the child safe and unharmed at his back.

She had witnessed the warrior’s lethal agility once before when Hayden had confronted the man, but watching the news clip now, it was obvious that the man had lost none of his edge. The clip cut off with a close up of Chief Deer as the older alpha explained that Janardan was part of the police force’s effort to curb the risk faced by the school districts. To the man’s credit, he attributed the apprehension of the wannabe-kidnapper to Janardan alone while maintaining that Janardan was one of the new recruits of the force. When the clip re-started from the beginning, Jayna flipped channels and felt her mouth drop open as the next channel broke a story about the kidnapper, identifying him as the mastermind behind the horrific kidnapping, abuse and murder of the six-year old that had rocked the nation four years ago. She switched off the television to just look at the alpha, “Janardan.”

Janardan just smiled reassuringly, obviously reading her unspoken thoughts, “its okay... Ben is okay. He’s safe... well, you are both safe.”

Jayna swallowed and nodded, trying to accept the fact that she had been unaware of a predator’s presence so close to her son and that the man in question had tried to hurt another child, but had been apprehended and that her boy was now safe. ...

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The attack and Janardan’s involvement in nabbing the culprit made Ben want to ‘be like you’, but the warrior deferred it, explaining that he needed to talk to his mother before agreeing to anything. After a long discussion with Jayna, where Janardan told Jayna that the boy would lose the majority of his baby-fat if he began training and the omega argued that given Ben was already nine-going-on-ten, it was time he lost the childish roundness anyway... Eventually, the alpha agreed to train the boy in self defence.  They decided to break the news over the weekend to give the boy enough time to work through his excitement without getting distracted at school.

Jayna was preparing pancakes at the time and she waved Janardan off, knowing the alpha needed to impress the seriousness of the matter properly to the child. She watched from her peripheral vision as Janardan sat and summoned Ben closer, making the boy stand before him- he had grown so much and was so tall now, but was still so tiny next to Janardan. Even sitting, the alpha was only a few centimetres below the boy’s line of sight. Since Janardan had never looked so serious while interacting with him before, Ben sent an uncertain glance at Jayna; the omega noticed, the boy struggling to hold still and not squirm under the alpha’s intense scrutiny.

“I’ve spoken to your Mama,” Janardan began, “and we’ve both decided that it’s okay to let you train a little-”

Ben let out a loud cheer, jumping up and down in his excitement once and beaming at Jayna. “Did you hear that, Mama?! Da agreed to train me! Yahoo! Mama! Da’s going to train me!!!”

Jayna struggled to maintain her seriousness in the face of the boy’s obvious elation and threw a pointed look towards Janardan. Ben caught on and turned back to Janardan, sobering quickly when he realized that the alpha, while patient in the face of his joy  was regarding him steadily- there was no hint of smile on the alpha’s face even if Jayna could detect the man’s mirth in the twinkling of his eyes.

It melted her heart everytime she caught Janardan’s expression when Ben called him ‘Da’... it was something the boy had started doing after the incident with Hayden. When they had had asked the boy what the nickname meant, he had innocently explained that since Janardan was like a ‘half-dad’, he was a ‘Da’.

“If you had been in the pack, you would have been expected to join the Guard-at least for a few years- so you would be expected to have basic training anyway.” Janardan’s voice broke into her thoughts, as he continued once he had the boy’s attention again.

Jayna felt his heart skip a beat at the reminder of life in the pack-lands, but forced herself not to react outwardly; determined not to interrupt this moment between her son and Janardan.

 “You are a little younger than most recruits, but since you are volunteering, I guess that is acceptable enough.” Janardan went on. “That said, what I am going to teach you is not a joke or a party-trick. It’s serious and can cause grave injury if misused or practised incorrectly. So I will expect you to maintain silence about your training. You are not to speak to your friends about it nor are you going to show off your ‘moves’,” -The alpha made dorky finger quotes around the word that had Jayna nearly laughing out loud- “If I see you or find out that you’ve broken my confidence-and find out I will, so don’t try hiding it from me; you will regret it.”

“Are- are you going to beat me?” Ben stuttered out, visibly horrified. Janardan had never raised a hand to the boy, Jayna being the one responsible for administering the rare punishments he needed.

“Beating refers to striking you violently and repeatedly... so no, I’m not going to beat you.” The alpha paused, then: “You want to know what your punishment will be if you disobey?”

Ben nodded nervously.

“Fine, if you disobey; You are going to be grounded and you will be doing two full sets back to back- irrespective of the rain or snow. For a fortnight, longer if I deem it necessary.”

“Sets?”

“Of training.” The alpha explained blandly. Jayna sneaked a glance at her son and realized that the boy wasn’t scared of the threat; far too excited at this chance to learn things from Janardan, who had become his hero ever since that TV clip.

“Still want to learn?” Janardan asked, apparently of the same mind if the smile tugging at the corners of his lip indicated anything.

Ben nodded eagerly, “Yes, Da.”

“You will call me Sir, while we train.”

“Yes, Sir.” The boy offered a smart salute and both adults smothered their grins.

“We’ll start with just one hour... which means you will be waking up an hour earlier in the morning.”

“What?!” The boy’s expression fell, eyes wide and pleading as he tried to bargain. “Please, can’t we train a little later?”

“You have school, kiddo.  And training does not give you an excuse to be late or miss classes.”

“Fine,” The boy huffed.

“And you will obey me absolutely.” Janardan finished, eyes narrowed at the boy’s attitude even if Jayna could plainly see that the man was not really angry. “If I say sit, you’ll sit. If I say jump, you’ll say ‘how high’. No questions, clear?”

“Yes sir,” Ben muttered contritely.

“Good,” Janardan grinned, the faux- angry mask falling away as he finally gave in to his enjoyment, “I’ll see you sharp eyed and bushy tailed at six tomorrow morning.”

“Yes sir!” Ben grinned back, brightening right back up. He turned towards Jayna immediately, asking: “You’ll wake me?”

“No,” Janardan interrupted, “You wanted to train, so be responsible for it yourself. You will not be bothering your Mama about it. Set an alarm.”

The boy’s face fell, but to his credit, Ben didn’t argue, “Yes sir.”

Janardan smiled, relaxing slightly as he ruffled the boy’s hair. “Good boy.”

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Ben, in typical kid-fashion was loud and noisy the minute he was up; so even if she wasn’t responsible for waking the boy as per Janardan’s mandate, found herself woken long before her alarm was due. She tugged on her robe and stepped out of the room as she noted that she was its only occupant. 

She nodded her thanks when Janardan pressed a hot cup of coffee into her hands, still sleep-addled. She plopped down at the table, watching blearily as Ben ran around like a headless-chicken looking for his socks. It took a few sips of the beverage for her to notice that Janardan was already dressed and had a fine sheen of sweat covering him and was watching Ben’s scrambling around with muted fondness.

“You already finished your workout,” She observed.

Janardan spared her a glance, “Yeah, I need to focus on Ben if I’m to train him and I can’t do that if I’m busy with my sets.”

Jayna nodded, finally getting up as the two alphas left. Ben was bouncy and all smiles when they returned precisely an hour later and Jayna shot a quizzical look at the warrior- to hear him talk, Jayna had been slightly worried that Ben would come back teary eyed and refuse to train any further.

Janardan bit back a smirk as he answered the unanswered question, “Give it a day.”

True to the man’s prediction, Ben seemed to move much more stiffly the next morning; and by the time dinner rolled around, Jayna felt her heart clench painfully at the sight of her baby’s smothered grimaces. What worried her though was the slight tremble in the boy’s hand as he raised his dessert fork to his mouth, face listless even though it was his favourite: brownie with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.

She kicked the warrior’s feet discretely under the table and jerked her head towards Ben. Janardan regarded the child mutely for a long minute, his eyebrows drawn into a frown before nodding as he apparently came to a decision.

“Benny?”

“Yes Da?” The boy looked up immediately.

“You okay?”

The boy looked down, obviously trying to decide how to respond before he chose to confess: “Hurts,”

“Should’ve told me before, Kiddo” Janardan reached out to stroke a gentle hand through his hair, eyes softening when Ben leaned into the touch instinctively.

It was the boy’s turn to do the dishes, but given how the very act getting up and carrying the plates to the kitchen made him gasp in pain- unshed tears springing to his eyes, neither adult had the heart to make the boy complete his chores.

“Take a hot shower,” Janardan told the boy, pushing him gently towards the bathroom, “and make the water as hot as you can stand it. I’ll see if I can help with the soreness once you’re done.”

“Yes, Sir.” Ben murmured as he went to obey.

“You can help him?” Jayna asked, worried eyes trailing after her son’s stiffly moving form.

“I think so, yeah.”

“Okay. You help him, then,” She snatched the bottle of dish-washing soap from the alpha’s hand, “I can handle it here.”

“He’ll be okay, ‘Mega-heir.” Janardan told him with a reassuring squeeze of her shoulders and turned to grab his jacket as he headed out.

Jayna gaped at the alpha’s departure. She was just beginning to worry when the door opened again to allow the alpha in. The man strode purposefully to the burner and put on a pan to heat, measuring out some of the mustard oil he had purchased and setting it to heat, next he moved to the refrigerator and grabbed a few garlic gloves, tossing them in while heading to the spice rack and rifling through till he located the black cumin seeds. Jayna kept at the dishes, idly noting that the alpha waited for the oil to start sputtering before decanting it into a bowl and carefully carrying it with him to Ben’s room. The door closed behind the man with a soft snick.

Jayna hurriedly wiped down the dishes, unable to place where the panic was stemming from. Alphas in general could be cruel to children not their own, but Ben was safe with Janardan, right? The man had given no reason to doubt his dedication and yet Jayna couldn’t quite quiet the dark whisperings of his mind ...  the man accepted the abuse he had endured as his due, and gave no indication of resenting those who had hurt him... what- what if he tried to replicate what had been done to him in a mistaken attempt at caretaking his young ward?

Even knowing he shouldn’t, Jayna sneaked up to the closed door of her son’s room, putting her eye to the keyhole like the worst kind of stalker. ... Her breath hissed out on a distressed gasp when she realized that the boy was prone on the bed in his superman boxers, but a quick glance around showed that Janardan wasn’t doing anything untoward. Yet, the forever untrusting part of her mind whispered maliciously. ... Unable to silence that uneasy voice, she kept watch; rejecting her original plan of taking a quick peek and returning to her own task. The alpha was simply massaging the boy’s ankles and slowly working his way up his legs. It took a few minutes of watching before Jayna couldn’t take it anymore and stormed in.  Her son jerked in surprise and started to sit up until Janardan placed a warm palm at his nape. The green gaze told her that the alpha knew the real reason for the interruption despite not contradicting her stammered excuses to her son for the interruption.

“I’m not going to hurt Benny, ‘Mega-heir.” Janardan told her blandly once the boy had dropped off and she and Janardan were in the privacy of their own room- albeit with the partition back in its usual spot now that she wasn’t in heat.

“I know,” Jayna admitted.

The warrior didn’t dignify the obvious lie with a response and Jayna forced herself to continue after an awkward pause. “It’s just that... you were hurt, Janardan. What you were put through in the name of training is... I don’t have words-”

“You assumed I was going to do the same to Ben,” the alpha filled in.

“No! ... Yes.” She was forced to admit. “You don’t see anything wrong with what happened to you, Janardan. “

“I don’t,” The man agreed, “But I also know that Ben is not me.”

“Right,” Jayna acknowledged, a blush painting his cheeks at the mild reprimand, “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Janardan countered, “You are right to worry. He’s your son.”

They lay quietly for long minutes after the alpha’s absolvent of Jayna, before the man spoke again. “One of the first things that we were taught was to ignore our bodies. ... What we are, is up here-” Jayna could picture the man tapping his head- “So anything that happens to our bodies can be discounted.  As the new recruits, we had all our belongings taken away from us. Not that we had much, but still. No clothes, no weapons or amulets or things to distinguish us from the next kid in the barracks. We had no beds,” The man broke off on a soft chuckle. “Though truthfully, the cold hard ground was like heaven after a long day of training.”

“I’m guessing your training was not quite the same as what you’re doing with Ben,” Jayna commented.

“Oh, no... Of course not!” Janardan responded. “The day began with a mandatory strapping to get us used to functioning with pain... Once that was done, we had mile long jungle treks and obstacle courses and hunting etcetera-”

“Strapping?!”

There was a soft rustle indicating the alpha shrugging, then: “The worst part was preparing the switch knowing you were going to be beaten with it the moment you were done. ... and god save us if the stick broke before trainer was done with us.”

“Wow,” Jayna murmured, shocked. “I’m glad you’re not quite training Ben the same way, then.”

“No, Ben is alpha-heir, ‘Mega.” Janardan explained, “He will never be just a soldier, nor will he be expected to be on the front-lines. Ben is going to be the Commander, planning strategies in the event of an attack. But even then, he should know the basics so that no one can challenge him or deem him incompetent when he finally takes up the mantle.”

“That’s...” Jayna searched for an appropriate word, eventually settling for: “quite a load for a child.”

“He doesn’t need to know what he’s getting trained for. Right now, everything is fun and games for him; it’s only when he’s of age that he’ll realize what he accomplished while playing.”

“Thank you,” She murmured, grateful for the man’s understanding.

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 Over the summer-vacation that year, Janardan approached Jayna asking if he could join the police force in earnest now that Ben would be going to middle school which had considerably longer hours than the elementary school. Jayna agreed easily, having never had any objections to the man working- in fact; it had felt wrong when an alpha as obviously capable as Janardan had been reduced to acting like a mere baby-sitter by his alpha-in-law’s order.

Seeing Janardan in the quintessential law enforcement blues gave Jayna the butterflies in her belly that she had not felt since her first date with Adam; she managed to talk herself down but it got incredibly hard when the svelte omega Janardan had been partnered with gushed how lucky she was to ‘have’ Janardan. Their crush on her ang-rakshak was obvious, especially when they exclaimed that Janardan’s ‘audition’ for a formal position on the force was what every cop dreamed of, but when Jayna tried making discreet inquiries about whether Janardan returned the feelings, she was met with an uncomprehending stare. [Ang-rakshak= body guard]

With Janardan having joined the force in earnest, his colleagues soon became a part of Jayna’s circle, with the men and women and their families joining them on weekend barbeques and such, the house becoming more like the loud, laughter-filled home it had once been.

Ben was also growing into a fine young man and while Jayna had originally regretted that the child looked more like her than Adam, she found herself grateful for it- those not in the know accepting Janardan’s presence in their life without question. And in a strange way, she could see both Janardan and Adam’s influences on the type of person Ben was growing up to become.

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Life would have continued the way it had, if Adam’s father had not mandated a visit during the summer Ben turned twelve.

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Chapter-14

MasterPost

Earlier Parts:  Prologue- Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter-3- Chapter 4- Chapter 5 - Chapter 6-

Chapter 7- Chapter 8- Chapter 9 - Chapter-10 - Chapter-11- Chapter-12

As always, comments and critique is welcome :-)