Kintsukuroi_Chapter-18
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Chapter-18
Ben was a fresh sixteen
when his school organised a higher-education fair and the boy returned home
excited about everything he had learnt about the exalted halls of higher
education. He had accompanied Jayna to her University a few times and had loved
the way students appeared to genuinely like his mother. The high curved roofs
and spiralling staircases had all fascinated him almost as much as watching Janardan
and his team-mates during their drills... So while college itself was not a foreign
concept to him, the realization that it was in his imminent future was a
wondrous realization for the teenager.
Jayna bit her lip as she stared at her
excited son, her heart breaking when she had to tell him that he wouldn’t be
attending college. When the boy demanded to know why he was going to be denied
further education, Jayna shared her memories of the day she had lost her mate
with her son for the first time; recounting the deal she had struck with Adam’s
father and the real reason Janardan had joined them... She watched with a heavy
heart as the boy withdrew into himself till he simply got up and isolated
himself in his room.
Jayna forced herself to focus on her work
so that she would not chase after son and offer empty commiserations. Despite her
attempts at reading through –and grading- the papers turned in by her
senior class, her mind kept returning to all the myriad opportunities her son
was going to lose because Janardan would be dragging them back kicking and
screaming to his godforsaken pack. (And
of course there was going to be a lot of kicking and screaming – neither she
nor her son were going anywhere without a fight!) Logically she was perfectly
aware that Janardan was not to blame for any of it- the warrior was a mere pawn
carrying out his orders. But he was an easy target to blame the whole situation
upon and by the time Janardan returned from his shift at the station, Jayna’s
anger had been simmering for a while. She didn’t greet the alpha with her usual
smile and immediately felt guilty; hating that the man she had sworn to keep at
arm’s length had wormed himself so intimately into their lives that she now
felt in the wrong about not greeting the man properly. The genuine concern
gracing those now-familiar green eyes made it impossible for her to hold onto her
anger and she felt her eyes brim over with tears of frustration.
“’Mega-heir? Jayna? What-what’s wrong?” The
alpha demanded, worry replacing concern the moment he noticed her blotch-y
eyes.
She shook off the comforting touch, turning
away from the alpha as she explained, “Had to tell Ben that he wouldn’t be
going to college.”
“What? Why?”
Jayna frowned, “Why? Because Ben still has
two years of high school left, Janardan.”
“So?”
“He turns eighteen in two years... and
you’re going to drag him –us- to the
pack.”
“No.”
“What?” She whirled around.
The alpha looked suddenly bashful, “Well,
as long as Benjamin Arthur Fahlmer lives, I have to abide by my promise and
return him to the Fahlmer pack... so,
the way I see it there’s only one option.”
“What?” And this time she couldn’t help the
overt curiosity lacing her words.
“Benjamin Arthur Fahlmer must cease
existing-”
Jayna felt her stomach drop, her face
leaching of all colour and blood turning to ice in her veins. “You- You’re
going to kill Benny?!”
Janardan frowned, “’Course not! Benjamin Arthur Fahlmer needs to die as per all existing official records.
Not Benny.”
Jayna blinked, unable to understand what
the alpha was explaining over the buzzing in her ears. “I- I don’t
understand...”
“I have
been tasked with protecting you and Ben, ‘Omega heir. ... The way I see it, taking
you back to the pack is not protecting you. And I will never do something that
is not in your best interests.”
“So what’s going to happen?”
“Well, as long as Benjamin Arthur Fahlmer lives, I have to abide by my promise and
return him to the Fahlmer pack...” Janardan
repeated, “so, the way I see it -Benjamin Arthur Fahlmer must die. At least,
legally.”
When Jayna continued to blink blankly, the
warrior elaborated with a put-upon sigh, “Ugh! What I mean is... you and Ben
are going to change your names and build a new life.”
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“Benjamin
Agashe,” Ben read aloud as he looked through his new identity papers.
The boy had been angry at the perceived
betrayal when Jayna had told him that the much adored warrior was actually here
to ensure that they returned to the pack once Ben turned eighteen. Jayna intervened before he could accuse Janardan
and any hurtful words could be thrown, well aware that the alpha didn’t deserve
any of them after the recent revelations. Her son had looked as surprised by
the revelation as he had. In the end, they had unanimously decided to forego cooking
for that evening and ordered in from the neighbourhood take-out place; settling
around the table as Janardan fetched a thick file from his cupboard, extracted
two slim folders from within it and handed one to each of them. They had gaped as
identity documents for them emerged from the folders: everything from passports
to driving licences to school transcripts (for Ben) and degrees and
certificates (for Jayna). Two full lives- complete with bank accounts (which
were surprisingly not empty but had respectable deposits); that were remarkably
similar to their own but differed in dramatic ways as well.
After gawking at the documents for a few
minutes, Ben had eventually picked up the passport and flipped it open to look
at his new name, a smile blooming on his lips when he saw his first name
unchanged. “Well, I get where you got Benjamin from... but Agashe?! What you just picked the first name in the phone directory
or what?” Ben laughed.
Janardan’s cheeks turning a faint pink were
the only thing that kept Jayna from joining in the laughter. “Uhm... It was a
little less random than that. Agashe is my
family name.”
“You... You’re not a Fahlmer ? I always assumed
you shared Dad’s surname,” Ben exclaimed.
Jayna
was glad that Ben voiced it because she had been guilty of the same assumption.
“No, my given name is Janardan Agashe.” The
alpha admitted quietly. He looked down at his lap for a few seconds as though
considering something before looking up bashfully again. “If you guys want a
different name, I’m sure Felicity would be able to arrange it,” He offered,
naming his colleague who was the officer in-charge of cyber-crime.
Jayna regarded the new identity again, as she
shook her head slowly. “No... This – this is fine....Jayna Agashe.... I- I actually like it. Has a nice ring to it.”
“Ben?”
“I’ll be honoured to have your name, Da.”
The boy smiled, leaving his chair to give the warrior an impromptu hug. “Thank
you.”
Janardan’s answering
grin spoke volumes and Jayna just squeezed his shoulder lightly as she rose to
answer the door for the delivery guy. She returned, arms loaded with their
individual orders and grinned as the other two hurriedly cleared the table for
her to put down the containers on.
“So, Janardan...” Jayna
began, once she’d swallowed her first forkful of lo-mein smothered in
sweet-and-spicy garlic gravy she preferred, “Given how detailed these documents
look, I figure you been working on ‘em for awhile...?”
Janardan’s lips twitched
upwards but the man waited till he finished chewing and swallowed to respond,
“I knew after our last visit that moving to the pack would kill you. Both of you... the culture, the-the-the ethos there is far too different for either
of you to be genuinely comfortable.” He shrugged.
Jayna had frozen with her
fork halfway to her mouth. “Janardan, that’s... that’s four years! And all this
time, you never- you never even hinted-”
The cop had smiled wryly
at the accusation, “Yeah well, we can’t afford to let Alpha catch on till we’re
ready to execute our plan, can we? And given you guys speak every weekend, I
figured that the lesser you knew, the lesser the chance of a slip-up.”
“Wow,” Ben laughed,
“this is something like out of a spy-film!”
“But I’m serious,” Janardan
countered seriously, pointing his fork in the teenager’s direction, “you cannot
breathe a word about this to anyone. Not your friends and especially not to
your Thakurda,”
Ben nodded, eyes wide.
Jayna leaned forward to
reinforce the point, “Janardan’s right, Benny. If your grandfather finds out
about this, you will have to go back.
No college, no university, nothing.”
The boy nodded
seriously, “I understand, Mama. I mean, c’mon; what do you guys even think of
me?! I’m not a baby, ‘kay? My lips are sealed.”
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Two years later, almost
to the day; Jayna and Ben stood at the airport, eyes watery and noses red as
they tried to reconcile to the fact that Janardan had never intended to join
them in their new life- ‘truly setting
them free’ as the alpha had phrased it.
In the past two years, all
three of them had worked towards developing the new identities that Janardan
had created for them with help from his colleagues. Once Janardan had explained
the situation to his Chief after their return from the pack the year Ben turned
twelve, Jim Deer had been surprisingly helpful. With the rest of his colleagues
pitching in with their individual talents, it had not been very difficult to
create completely legal identities for Jayna and Ben. Even the bank accounts
were not much of a hassle with the intervention of Felicity. Janardan had
carefully siphoned off the majority of his savings into the two new accounts
for four years before Jayna and Ben discovered the truth and pitched in. They
were careful not to make large withdrawals from their actual accounts, but by
and by they had built up enough of a nest egg to be able to start their new
lives comfortably. With Felicity’s help, Ben had applied to the colleges of his
choice with his new identity while assuring his paternal grandfather that he
would be returning to the pack. To make things more authentic, he even tried asking
the man to let him finish University before returning to the pack to learn his
new duties, but the Alpha had refused- as anticipated. Jayna had discretely
started applying for teaching positions at other institutes as well, while
handing in her notice of resignation to her current employers in apparent
preparation for returning to the pack on a permanent basis. In all their planning
for the upcoming move, Janardan had always
found excuses to avoid finding out where they were heading- paranoid about
someone from the pack forcing the data out of him and explaining that if he
didn’t know, he wouldn’t be able to tell, thereby ensuring no one came after Jayna
and Ben... But as they stood at the departures gate of the airport now, neither
Jayna nor Ben wanted to let go of this alpha who had come to mean so much to
them.
“Come with us, Da...
please?” Ben whispered, for once giving up on protecting the macho front he’d
been trying to build since the last growth spurt- which nearly had him at Janardan’s considerable height; and
revealing the soft core within where the little boy who always wanted his
hero’s approval still lurked.
The warrior’s expression
softened as he noticed the tears which had leaked out of the boy’s eyes and he reached
out a gentle hand to swipe them away, “You know why I can’t do that, don’t you?
C’mon now... you’re a big boy now. You can take care of your Mama for me,
right?”
The boy nodded,
sniffling quietly as he mumbled, “But I want you to stay with us...”
“Oh Benny,” The older
alpha sighed, pulling the sobbing teen into his arms as he glanced helplessly
at Jayna. The omega wasn’t doing too great herself, having come to the
unpleasant realization that she had unwittingly fallen for the gruff alpha.
Still, she was an adult
and the parent here and so she forced herself to not give in and start
blubbering like an idiot and instead cupped a hand around Ben’s nape and
carefully pulled the weeping teen away from the alpha, “Benny, c’mere kiddo...”
The boy hid his face in
her neck and Jayna felt her heart twist at how obviously her son was hurting
over being parted from Janardan. She carefully stroked his back in firm up-down
motions, patting intermittently the way she used to when Ben was knee-high.
Janardan’s eyes had sheen
to them, but the alpha stoically refused to shed a tear and make the parting even
more painful than it was. His eyes flicked to the digital board announcing the
flight status and he glanced back to them.
“What?”
The alpha shrugged,
“Can’t even tell if your flights ready for departure or not... Don’t like not
knowing,”
“Then let us tell yo-”
A finger pressed to her
lips, silencing her, “Can’t risk it, ‘Mega-heir... You know I can’t.”
Jayna puckered her lips
to press a quick kiss to the finger pressed against them, smiling despite herself
at the alpha’s startled expression. Janardan used her name a lot more than he
had originally, but ‘Omega-Heir’ was still the honorific he mostly addressed Jayna
by.
“I trust you. We trust you,” Jayna countered dejectedly, “But fine. Have it your way. ... just,
you know you don’t have to use the honorific for me anymore, don’t you?”
The alpha ducked his
head, “I know... Jayna.”
The tears she had held
at bay all this while spilled at the sound of her name on the alpha’s lips. “Janardan...”
The warrior smiled one
last time and then with a silent head-tilt, stepped back and away. Jayna
tightened her arm around Ben’s shaking shoulders- the boy’s face still buried
in the hollow of her neck- as she watched Janardan disappear in the melee of
people.
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A little less than
forty-eight hours later, Janardan sat behind the wheel of Jayna’s car and
inhaled once before gunning the engine. The engine roared to life, quickly
picking up speed as it raced headlong towards the graffiti-ed brick wall of the
deserted warehouse.
The bright swirl of
yellow and purple lettering was the last thing Janardan noticed before
everything went black.
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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- Chapter-13- Chapter-14 - Chapter-15 - Chapter- 16- Chapter-17
As always, comments and critique is welcome :-)
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