Alpha-mates: Chapter-25/?
Chapter-25
Jared raised his brows as he saw the hesitant looks being sent their way by the assembled alphas as he followed Jensen into the warehouse. He bit his lip as spied the stacked plastic chairs along the wall and nudged Jensen. The Alpha followed his gaze, a tiny smile cracking through his tense expression. They helped themselves to a chair each and Jared went to the table that had been set up on the side with a coffee maker and poured himself two mugs before carrying them back. His mate accepted the mug with a wordless nod of thanks.
Jared took a sip of the beverage as he focussed on the group conversing in hushed tones with Jensen and smiled widely as he spotted Alpha Beaver in the group.
The alpha ducked his head, refusing to meet his eyes.
“So? You guys were saying-?” Jensen prompted when a hush fell over the group at Jared’s arrival.
The Pack alphas glanced at each other and then Jim Beaver cleared his throat, “Alpha...”
“Jim, please... you know you don’t need to uphold such formalities.”
The older man ducked his head, clearly uncomfortable but after a second’s awkward pause, forged ahead bravely, “I’m sorry, Alpha- Jensen-... we... we don’t see a way out of the Cornwall clause. It-... it will be best if-” he glanced at Jared and -given the surprised looks of the others- with a sharp inhale very obviously changed what he was about to say, “You should withdraw the Bill.”
Jensen chuckled dryly, “So you found nothing, huh?”
Jared regarded the men and their shifty eyes for a quiet moment and took a fortifying breath, “You all think Jensen should turn me, don’t you?”
There was a minute of absolute silence as everybody reared from his un-sugar-coated words and then Jensen was shaking his head vehemently, “No, that’s not happening. We will find another way.”
“There is no other way, don’t you get it?” Jared argued, squaring off with the alpha. “Johansson has painted you into a corner and this is the only way. He’s banking on you to balk at doing this to me. So don’t play into his hands, Jen. Don’t you dare do that!”
“We will find another way.” Jensen repeated, eyes hard.
A little while later, as they put the decision to a vote in lieu of asking everybody their opinion individually; it became apparent that Jensen was the only one still hoping to find an alternative. And since no one raised their hand when asked if Jared should be turned-till Jared raised his own hand- it was also obvious that no one actually wanted this for him.
Jensen’s was the only hand that stayed resolutely lowered at the question. He turned to Jared desperately, “I told you what ‘turning’ entails. How can you even think of-”
“I can because this Bill is bigger than me, Jen.” Jared answered; his voice soft but threaded through with steel, “I don’t want to live the rest of my life as beta, but if that’s the cost of getting this Bill moved, then so be it.”
“Fine!” The alpha growled, then louder so that everyone could hear him, “If anyone has to be turned, it’s going to be me. You can turn me!”
Pin-drop silence met the Elder’s outburst.
“Jensen,” Jared spoke into the silence, careful to keep his voice soft and respectful, “Can you even be turned?”
If silence had greeted the Elder’s words, pandemonium greeted Jared’s. Tom Welling’s was the only voice that carried, though: “No... no he can’t.”
Jared sucked in a breath at the confirmation, glancing at his mate who stared stubbornly back.
“Jensen...”
“What?!” The alpha questioned belligerently, “Why is it different if I’m the one to be turned? It serves the purpose just as well,”
“You-... you’ll die, Jen.” Jared whispered.
“And what guarantee is there that you won’t?”
Jared closed his eyes, considering his argument carefully. When he opened them again, he was aware of every eye in the room looking to him to disabuse the alpha of his plan of sacrificing himself, “I’m not Pack-Alpha, Jen, so precedence says that I’m not going to; but if... if I die, you’d still have fulfilled the Cornwall Clause. And have public support... if nothing else, then out of sympathy. ... but if-if -if anything happens to you, Jen; then the Ackles’ pack will lose its Alpha. I know you’ll say that someone else can take over the reins, but they can’t, Jen. No one else can quite stand up to Johansson... and I-I’m sure he’s going to make a play for our pack if you’re out of the picture. Even if he doesn’t succeed, some other Elder- maybe Jeffrey or Alona or-or-or Samantha will. And then what? The Beta Bill will get buried once again and I’d have lost my mate.”
“I’ll make a statement leaving you in charge-” Jensen began.
Jared shook his head, hearing the defeat in his mate’s voice and pressed his advantage home. “I can’t, Jen. I won’t.”
“Jared-”
“This is for the best, man. C’mon, you have to know-” He pleaded softly.
“Jaybird!”
Everyone jumped at the unexpected call, most of the gathered alphas frowning at the severe breach in protocol and even Jared found himself wincing at how different -and unfit- Chad, in his worn-in denims and V-necked tee seemed in this distinguished crowd. Jensen was the only one who looked relieved at the interruption.
“Mr. Murray!” Jensen called, smiling at the diminutive beta, “Just the person I was hoping for. Could you step aside with me for a minute?”
Chad scowled but didn’t protest, apparently realizing that to refuse would mean antagonizing every Alpha in the room. Jared smiled apologetically at the alphas as his mate conversed in hushed whispers a little way off. Chad kept sneaking these worried glances towards him between his words and Jared bit his lip uncertainly, hoping his friend wasn’t insulting his mate too much. Jensen offered a thick, gilded hardbound book to the other man and the beta nodded curtly before striding out. Jared frowned; it was unlike Chad to ignore him like this, but he guessed that it had to be the impact of whatever Jensen must have said. He went to his mate before he could rejoin the group, “Jensen?”
“Yeah?”
“Can I have a minute?”
“Of course!”
He followed the older man further into the corner, a little way away from the gathering. “What was that about?”
Jensen furrowed his brows in confusion.
“Your talk with Chad,” Jared clarified.
“Oh, that. ... That was out-sourcing, I guess. He’s pretty much the only one in my corner at the moment.”
“Jensen-” He began, feeling guilty about opposing his mate so much that Jensen felt ostracized from his own pack.
“No, I know you have my back, Jay; it’s just... Chad’s pretty much the only one who hates the idea of turning you as much as I do-”
“We still have time,” Jared conceded, “so ummm... I was thinking... would it help if we build up support for our cause?”
“What’dya mean?”
“Socialize... schmooze and kiss ass, basically.” He admitted with a grimace. “It used to work in our favour when I was facing tough competition; even if we couldn’t supply everything a client wanted, or-or-or if they were on the fence about deciding between my company and another... building personal relationships helped win them over.”
“Not a bad strategy.” Jensen nodded seriously as he considered it, “So we keep searching for alternatives like I said, but also build back-up. When we do find something, maybe not an exact fit... but some possible solution; having a large support group would help turn the tide in our favour...”
Jared nodded, biting back his smile at Jensen’s use of ‘when’ and not ‘if’.
“Can you handle it, though? Choosing which events we need to attend?”
∞∞\∞‡∞/∞∞
Three days later, Jensen was already in the kitchen when Jared stumbled in, rubbing at his eyes blearily.
“Coffee?” The alpha offered; the question obviously rhetorical as he was already pouring him a mug.
“Uh... no,” He declined, smiling when his mate’s head jerked up in surprise.
“What’s wrong?”
He shook his head, “Nothing... just- uhm, we have that invite today from the Indian community and part of the rituals include the Betas fasting for the prosperity of their mates. Since we’ll be attending, I thought I might as well join in.”
“Oh, wow. Fasting, huh? I- uhm... I-I didn’t know, sorry; already had my morning cuppa.”
“Jen, you don’t have to-”
“Hey, you’re as much my alpha as I am yours, alright? And if you’re doing this, then so am I.”
He ducked his head to hide the blush that darkened his cheeks. “Thanks.”
“So we’re really going, huh?”
“It’d be good to,” Jared admitted. “Strategically, we should attend as many of these events as we can right now. Discuss what you want to achieve with the Beta Bill. Get everybody’s opinions. Who knows, we might even stumble upon some brilliant idea we haven’t thought of ourselves.”
“Won’t it look fake and pretentious? Blatantly schmoozing now that we want to win them over?”
He shook his head as he considered that, “Its good PR; going out there ourselves. Showing that we’re serious about this and interacting with them personally instead of letting them hear about it from unreliable sources. And if we can successfully garner enough support, I’ll see if I can convince the media to do a poll early next week. I’ll have to be discrete, of course; make it seem like it’s their idea... But if we succeed-” He shrugged.
Jensen just looked at him, the pride in his gaze obvious, “You’re a brilliant; you know that?”
“Learned from the best,” He parried, “After all, I had to keep up if I had any hopes of competing with Ackles Corp”.
Jensen guffawed and shook his head, throwing away the rest of his mug and clearing the counter of the breakfast ingredients.
“Just make sure you get back here by three. I spoke to Ajay; he said he would be able to rustle up some traditional outfits for us in time for the ceremony if we can reach by four thirty.”
“Traditional outfits?”
“Indian; I mean. Figured it would score us some brownie points to make it seem like we are involved, you know?”
“They do form a huge part of our Pack,” Jensen agreed.
“Exactly, and it’s a fast growing community. Plus, some of them are very well connected. I think we’ll do well to have them on our side.”
∞∞\∞‡∞/∞∞
Six hours later, Jared couldn’t bring himself to look away from his mate. He knew he was staring and that others were watching, but he just couldn’t force himself to look away. And given that Jensen was holding his gaze, it would appear that the Alpha was having the same problem.
They had arrived early as requested and been immediately ushered away to change. However, it was obvious that they had not expected someone of their size, or; to be more accurate, the Pack Beta to actually be an alpha, because while they had one outfit of the correct size, the other was for a much diminutive person. Everybody stood awkwardly for a moment and Jared regretted not warning Ajay previously because it was obvious that not being able to provide the promised clothes was dampening everybody’s mood. Before he could wave it off and offer to continue in his present outfit (a formal suit, fortunately; thanks to Jensen’s insistence that they show up ‘properly attired’); one of the gathered men whispered something to Ajay. The alpha looked surprised, but after a hushed discussion amongst themselves, they seemed to have come to a decision.
“We may have a solution,” Ajay grinned; “It’ll be slightly mixed traditions, but we think it would work.”
They both nodded their acceptance and then Jensen was whisked away.
Jared turned to his host askance, catching Chris’ eye when the bodyguard remained in his position instead of following Jensen.
“It’s alright,” Chris murmured, “Jenny can look after himself. You on the other hand...”
Jared scowled, but followed his host to the small changing room. The outfit they had originally intended for Jensen was offered to him and given that they were similar enough in size, the sherwani fit him perfectly. The pyjamas or churidar pyjama, as they were called; would have a little less ‘churi’ - pleats at the ankles- for him than the Alpha because of his greater height, but it would not be something too noticeable.
He was then escorted to the gathered betas who explained the rituals they (and he) would be performing while he waited for Jensen.
The Alpha arrived amid a flurry of music and conch-shells with the other alphas and Jared caught his first glimpse of the man. Already very distinguished looking in his everyday clothes, the two-toned green-gold of the tussar silk kurta offset the emerald of his iris even more and paired with the pale gold (with an exquisite hand-embroidered chocolate border)kochano- dhoti (whose pleats resembled a Chinese paper-fan) Jensen looked like a Prince from an exotic tale; standing out even amid the group of equally stunningly dressed alphas.
A widowed old Beta guided him through the initial ritual, patiently explaining what each of them was supposed to do and then whisked away the laden copper ‘prayer-plate’ he had used to greet the alpha according to their customs. A brief glance showed other mated pairs performing the same ritual.
“You look beautiful,” Jensen whispered when they were finally allowed a brief moment alone as the old beta disappeared with the tray and he was near enough to draw Jared into his arms. He wound his fingers in the butter-coloured (with thin gold stripes) Uttoriyo wrapped artfully around Jensen’s neck and grinned: “You should look in the mirror,”
Jensen huffed out a laugh as they joined the other couple for the elaborate rituals and puja (worship) preceding the Karva-Chauth celebrations. It was totally unlike anything either of them had ever attended and with a conscientious host who explained the significance and brief history of every part of the ritual, they had an enjoyable time. They gorged on the spicy (but not unbearably so) traditional dishes, encouraging Chris and Tahmoh , who had accompanied them- to do the same and Jared just hoped that they made enough of an impression that the community would stand behind them when the time came.
The evening had been a nice break, but Jared sighed as he failed to stop his mental countdown the moment they were back within the familiar walls of their home: Four more days till the hearing... and so far they had nothing to show for all their efforts...
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Jared raised his brows as he saw the hesitant looks being sent their way by the assembled alphas as he followed Jensen into the warehouse. He bit his lip as spied the stacked plastic chairs along the wall and nudged Jensen. The Alpha followed his gaze, a tiny smile cracking through his tense expression. They helped themselves to a chair each and Jared went to the table that had been set up on the side with a coffee maker and poured himself two mugs before carrying them back. His mate accepted the mug with a wordless nod of thanks.
Jared took a sip of the beverage as he focussed on the group conversing in hushed tones with Jensen and smiled widely as he spotted Alpha Beaver in the group.
The alpha ducked his head, refusing to meet his eyes.
“So? You guys were saying-?” Jensen prompted when a hush fell over the group at Jared’s arrival.
The Pack alphas glanced at each other and then Jim Beaver cleared his throat, “Alpha...”
“Jim, please... you know you don’t need to uphold such formalities.”
The older man ducked his head, clearly uncomfortable but after a second’s awkward pause, forged ahead bravely, “I’m sorry, Alpha- Jensen-... we... we don’t see a way out of the Cornwall clause. It-... it will be best if-” he glanced at Jared and -given the surprised looks of the others- with a sharp inhale very obviously changed what he was about to say, “You should withdraw the Bill.”
Jensen chuckled dryly, “So you found nothing, huh?”
Jared regarded the men and their shifty eyes for a quiet moment and took a fortifying breath, “You all think Jensen should turn me, don’t you?”
There was a minute of absolute silence as everybody reared from his un-sugar-coated words and then Jensen was shaking his head vehemently, “No, that’s not happening. We will find another way.”
“There is no other way, don’t you get it?” Jared argued, squaring off with the alpha. “Johansson has painted you into a corner and this is the only way. He’s banking on you to balk at doing this to me. So don’t play into his hands, Jen. Don’t you dare do that!”
“We will find another way.” Jensen repeated, eyes hard.
A little while later, as they put the decision to a vote in lieu of asking everybody their opinion individually; it became apparent that Jensen was the only one still hoping to find an alternative. And since no one raised their hand when asked if Jared should be turned-till Jared raised his own hand- it was also obvious that no one actually wanted this for him.
Jensen’s was the only hand that stayed resolutely lowered at the question. He turned to Jared desperately, “I told you what ‘turning’ entails. How can you even think of-”
“I can because this Bill is bigger than me, Jen.” Jared answered; his voice soft but threaded through with steel, “I don’t want to live the rest of my life as beta, but if that’s the cost of getting this Bill moved, then so be it.”
“Fine!” The alpha growled, then louder so that everyone could hear him, “If anyone has to be turned, it’s going to be me. You can turn me!”
Pin-drop silence met the Elder’s outburst.
“Jensen,” Jared spoke into the silence, careful to keep his voice soft and respectful, “Can you even be turned?”
If silence had greeted the Elder’s words, pandemonium greeted Jared’s. Tom Welling’s was the only voice that carried, though: “No... no he can’t.”
Jared sucked in a breath at the confirmation, glancing at his mate who stared stubbornly back.
“Jensen...”
“What?!” The alpha questioned belligerently, “Why is it different if I’m the one to be turned? It serves the purpose just as well,”
“You-... you’ll die, Jen.” Jared whispered.
“And what guarantee is there that you won’t?”
Jared closed his eyes, considering his argument carefully. When he opened them again, he was aware of every eye in the room looking to him to disabuse the alpha of his plan of sacrificing himself, “I’m not Pack-Alpha, Jen, so precedence says that I’m not going to; but if... if I die, you’d still have fulfilled the Cornwall Clause. And have public support... if nothing else, then out of sympathy. ... but if-if -if anything happens to you, Jen; then the Ackles’ pack will lose its Alpha. I know you’ll say that someone else can take over the reins, but they can’t, Jen. No one else can quite stand up to Johansson... and I-I’m sure he’s going to make a play for our pack if you’re out of the picture. Even if he doesn’t succeed, some other Elder- maybe Jeffrey or Alona or-or-or Samantha will. And then what? The Beta Bill will get buried once again and I’d have lost my mate.”
“I’ll make a statement leaving you in charge-” Jensen began.
Jared shook his head, hearing the defeat in his mate’s voice and pressed his advantage home. “I can’t, Jen. I won’t.”
“Jared-”
“This is for the best, man. C’mon, you have to know-” He pleaded softly.
“Jaybird!”
Everyone jumped at the unexpected call, most of the gathered alphas frowning at the severe breach in protocol and even Jared found himself wincing at how different -and unfit- Chad, in his worn-in denims and V-necked tee seemed in this distinguished crowd. Jensen was the only one who looked relieved at the interruption.
“Mr. Murray!” Jensen called, smiling at the diminutive beta, “Just the person I was hoping for. Could you step aside with me for a minute?”
Chad scowled but didn’t protest, apparently realizing that to refuse would mean antagonizing every Alpha in the room. Jared smiled apologetically at the alphas as his mate conversed in hushed whispers a little way off. Chad kept sneaking these worried glances towards him between his words and Jared bit his lip uncertainly, hoping his friend wasn’t insulting his mate too much. Jensen offered a thick, gilded hardbound book to the other man and the beta nodded curtly before striding out. Jared frowned; it was unlike Chad to ignore him like this, but he guessed that it had to be the impact of whatever Jensen must have said. He went to his mate before he could rejoin the group, “Jensen?”
“Yeah?”
“Can I have a minute?”
“Of course!”
He followed the older man further into the corner, a little way away from the gathering. “What was that about?”
Jensen furrowed his brows in confusion.
“Your talk with Chad,” Jared clarified.
“Oh, that. ... That was out-sourcing, I guess. He’s pretty much the only one in my corner at the moment.”
“Jensen-” He began, feeling guilty about opposing his mate so much that Jensen felt ostracized from his own pack.
“No, I know you have my back, Jay; it’s just... Chad’s pretty much the only one who hates the idea of turning you as much as I do-”
“We still have time,” Jared conceded, “so ummm... I was thinking... would it help if we build up support for our cause?”
“What’dya mean?”
“Socialize... schmooze and kiss ass, basically.” He admitted with a grimace. “It used to work in our favour when I was facing tough competition; even if we couldn’t supply everything a client wanted, or-or-or if they were on the fence about deciding between my company and another... building personal relationships helped win them over.”
“Not a bad strategy.” Jensen nodded seriously as he considered it, “So we keep searching for alternatives like I said, but also build back-up. When we do find something, maybe not an exact fit... but some possible solution; having a large support group would help turn the tide in our favour...”
Jared nodded, biting back his smile at Jensen’s use of ‘when’ and not ‘if’.
“Can you handle it, though? Choosing which events we need to attend?”
∞∞\∞‡∞/∞∞
Three days later, Jensen was already in the kitchen when Jared stumbled in, rubbing at his eyes blearily.
“Coffee?” The alpha offered; the question obviously rhetorical as he was already pouring him a mug.
“Uh... no,” He declined, smiling when his mate’s head jerked up in surprise.
“What’s wrong?”
He shook his head, “Nothing... just- uhm, we have that invite today from the Indian community and part of the rituals include the Betas fasting for the prosperity of their mates. Since we’ll be attending, I thought I might as well join in.”
“Oh, wow. Fasting, huh? I- uhm... I-I didn’t know, sorry; already had my morning cuppa.”
“Jen, you don’t have to-”
“Hey, you’re as much my alpha as I am yours, alright? And if you’re doing this, then so am I.”
He ducked his head to hide the blush that darkened his cheeks. “Thanks.”
“So we’re really going, huh?”
“It’d be good to,” Jared admitted. “Strategically, we should attend as many of these events as we can right now. Discuss what you want to achieve with the Beta Bill. Get everybody’s opinions. Who knows, we might even stumble upon some brilliant idea we haven’t thought of ourselves.”
“Won’t it look fake and pretentious? Blatantly schmoozing now that we want to win them over?”
He shook his head as he considered that, “Its good PR; going out there ourselves. Showing that we’re serious about this and interacting with them personally instead of letting them hear about it from unreliable sources. And if we can successfully garner enough support, I’ll see if I can convince the media to do a poll early next week. I’ll have to be discrete, of course; make it seem like it’s their idea... But if we succeed-” He shrugged.
Jensen just looked at him, the pride in his gaze obvious, “You’re a brilliant; you know that?”
“Learned from the best,” He parried, “After all, I had to keep up if I had any hopes of competing with Ackles Corp”.
Jensen guffawed and shook his head, throwing away the rest of his mug and clearing the counter of the breakfast ingredients.
“Just make sure you get back here by three. I spoke to Ajay; he said he would be able to rustle up some traditional outfits for us in time for the ceremony if we can reach by four thirty.”
“Traditional outfits?”
“Indian; I mean. Figured it would score us some brownie points to make it seem like we are involved, you know?”
“They do form a huge part of our Pack,” Jensen agreed.
“Exactly, and it’s a fast growing community. Plus, some of them are very well connected. I think we’ll do well to have them on our side.”
∞∞\∞‡∞/∞∞
Six hours later, Jared couldn’t bring himself to look away from his mate. He knew he was staring and that others were watching, but he just couldn’t force himself to look away. And given that Jensen was holding his gaze, it would appear that the Alpha was having the same problem.
They had arrived early as requested and been immediately ushered away to change. However, it was obvious that they had not expected someone of their size, or; to be more accurate, the Pack Beta to actually be an alpha, because while they had one outfit of the correct size, the other was for a much diminutive person. Everybody stood awkwardly for a moment and Jared regretted not warning Ajay previously because it was obvious that not being able to provide the promised clothes was dampening everybody’s mood. Before he could wave it off and offer to continue in his present outfit (a formal suit, fortunately; thanks to Jensen’s insistence that they show up ‘properly attired’); one of the gathered men whispered something to Ajay. The alpha looked surprised, but after a hushed discussion amongst themselves, they seemed to have come to a decision.
“We may have a solution,” Ajay grinned; “It’ll be slightly mixed traditions, but we think it would work.”
They both nodded their acceptance and then Jensen was whisked away.
Jared turned to his host askance, catching Chris’ eye when the bodyguard remained in his position instead of following Jensen.
“It’s alright,” Chris murmured, “Jenny can look after himself. You on the other hand...”
Jared scowled, but followed his host to the small changing room. The outfit they had originally intended for Jensen was offered to him and given that they were similar enough in size, the sherwani fit him perfectly. The pyjamas or churidar pyjama, as they were called; would have a little less ‘churi’ - pleats at the ankles- for him than the Alpha because of his greater height, but it would not be something too noticeable.
He was then escorted to the gathered betas who explained the rituals they (and he) would be performing while he waited for Jensen.
The Alpha arrived amid a flurry of music and conch-shells with the other alphas and Jared caught his first glimpse of the man. Already very distinguished looking in his everyday clothes, the two-toned green-gold of the tussar silk kurta offset the emerald of his iris even more and paired with the pale gold (with an exquisite hand-embroidered chocolate border)kochano- dhoti (whose pleats resembled a Chinese paper-fan) Jensen looked like a Prince from an exotic tale; standing out even amid the group of equally stunningly dressed alphas.
A widowed old Beta guided him through the initial ritual, patiently explaining what each of them was supposed to do and then whisked away the laden copper ‘prayer-plate’ he had used to greet the alpha according to their customs. A brief glance showed other mated pairs performing the same ritual.
“You look beautiful,” Jensen whispered when they were finally allowed a brief moment alone as the old beta disappeared with the tray and he was near enough to draw Jared into his arms. He wound his fingers in the butter-coloured (with thin gold stripes) Uttoriyo wrapped artfully around Jensen’s neck and grinned: “You should look in the mirror,”
Jensen huffed out a laugh as they joined the other couple for the elaborate rituals and puja (worship) preceding the Karva-Chauth celebrations. It was totally unlike anything either of them had ever attended and with a conscientious host who explained the significance and brief history of every part of the ritual, they had an enjoyable time. They gorged on the spicy (but not unbearably so) traditional dishes, encouraging Chris and Tahmoh , who had accompanied them- to do the same and Jared just hoped that they made enough of an impression that the community would stand behind them when the time came.
The evening had been a nice break, but Jared sighed as he failed to stop his mental countdown the moment they were back within the familiar walls of their home: Four more days till the hearing... and so far they had nothing to show for all their efforts...
Illustrations of the clothing
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