Chapter 63 - 62

"How could someone mate with THAT?!" The other woman asked as she turned slightly away, "the poor kids must be mortified to have a parent like that."

I saw Hunter staring at them in shock before he looked to me. I stood and smiled towards the women before walking over to the jungle gym. I heard Hunter following but could not look back to him. I looked around and saw the twins in the tunnel nearby.

They were giggling, but when they made eye contact with me, they stopped and began continuing through the tunnel. They soon came down the slides without making a noise and came straight to me. Shannon spotted us and came over, but all I did was look to the kids.

"I think we should go," I whispered to them and saw them look to me with sadness. "Maybe we can come another time."

Ashley took a deep breath and put on a brave face, "I don't like it here, Momma. Can we leave now?"

Archer nodded quickly, "I want to go too!"

Shannon kneeled near the kids with surprise. They quickly grabbed onto my pants, "what are you talking about? You just told me how much fun you were having! And we just got here."

The twins looked up to me before looking to Shannon, "I want to go home." Ashley insisted as Shannon looked to me with anger.

"Thank you for inviting us," I said as kindly as I could. I smiled to her before looking back to an astonished Hunter. "Let's meet again soon."

The twins reached up and grabbed either of my hands. They squeezed them tightly as we began walking out. All three of us paused when a female Beta let out a small laugh.

"Slutty Omega." She mocked and I fought the twins not to rush over.

Archer broke out of my grip and ran over to the woman, who looked to him in shock.

"Don't talk about my Momma like that!" He yelled as he began to cry. "I have the best Momma in the world and you..." he mustered up all the courage he had before yelling, "you're just a bully! I hate you!"

I quickly led Ashley to Archer and scooped him up as he cried more. I rushed out of the building and went to the car. I let go of Ashley and set down Archer, but they both did not get in the car. They began crying, so I quickly kneeled and hugged them.

"I love you Momma," Ashley cried as she nuzzled into the crook of my neck.

"You're the best Momma," Archer insisted as he copied Ashley on my other side.

I squeezed them into me and finally realized why I didn't fight back this time. Without thay ring around my neck, my strength was gone. "You are the best kids in the world," I whispered, "I'm sorry you had to have a boy for your Momma."

They both cried as I rubbed their backs and did not stop until the finally wore themselves out. I got them into the car and in their seats. When I shut the door, I saw Hunter standing on the curb, watching me. "Is that what your life has been like since you left? People tormenting you like that?"

I smiled to him, "the kids are not used to it yet. It doesn't bother me anymore." I took a deep breath, "I did not make the decision of giving that ring back easily, Hunt. It took me six years to muster the courage to do it." I fought tears as I cleared my throat, "I need to focus on my kids and what is best for them. Regardless of how I feel or what happened in the past, Jayden is still their father. They deserve to know him and be involved with him." I went around the back of the car so that I did not have to come close to him, "I will always love him, Hunt." I whispered as he look to me in shock, "but it is time to move on. For him and the kids, I have to let him go." I opened the car door, "thanks again for inviting us."

I got into the car, took a few deep breaths, and began driving. I took us directly to the house and was surprised when Elijah was waiting in the living room.

He gave me a sad smile, "Hunter called."

I sighed before looking down to the kids, "why don't you two go play?" I suggested with a smile. They hugged either of my legs before running to their room.

I came over to the couch and sat beside Elijah. He just watched me as I sat down and leaned back into the couch.

"Why did he want?"

Elijah just stared at me, "he told me what's happened. Why didn't you tell me all of this?"

I frowned, "I tried to tell you but you walked away. I can't just wait until it's convenient for you to inform you of what's going on."

"Well let's talk," he said as his eyes softened slightly. "Tell me what's going on so that I can help you."

I sighed, "Jayden and I made a deal for him to save Hunter as they are a perfect match. We confirmed that yesterday. He also got to see a sonogram of the child."

"What all does this deal entail?"

I looked to him as I ċȯċked my head sideways slightly. "You know what it was about and what it entailed. It's not that big of a mystery. Isn't that obvious?" He stared at me so I decided to continue. "Sex," I mumbled, "what else would he want from me? That is all he wants from me and all I am to him. I am to spend 3 evenings a week with him and he is going to meet with me and the kids every Sunday so that they can get acquainted."

"You know this is a bad idea," he grumbled as I look to my knees that were pulled up to my ċhėst.

"It's the only choice I have," I retorted. "I have to save Hunter no matter what."

"But he won't accept help from him," Elijah insisted and I whipped around to look at him with pure anger.

"You didn't tell him right?"

Elijah looked to me with surprise as he shook his head and I let out a deep sigh. "But you can't keep it from him for long. What if he finds out?"

"I will make sure that doesn't happen until after the procedure. I will deal with the repercussions if he ever finds out after that.

"And Hunter said that you gave that ring back to Asher." I nodded but did not look directly to him. "I thought you loved him."

I fought back my emotions, "I finally came to the conclusion that I need to choose between my happiness or my kids happiness. For me, there was no decision needed. The answer was obvious. Even if I was with him, the moment your brother walks into a room that we were in, I would immediately forget all of my love towards Asher and just be controlled by instinct. I never want to do that to him."

Elijah leaned his head back on the couch. "You're starting to talk like you plan to be with Jayden. Are you already giving up that easy?" He looked to me as his face became painful. "He will do to you just like his father did to my mother. He will decieve you and make you think he's a good man until he has you in his grasp. Then he will destroy you and make you feel worthless until he kicks you to the curb and leaves you with nothing." He took my hand and squeezed it slightly, "I don't want you to have the same fate as my mom. I don't want your kids to have to witness what I witnessed. Jayden is not worthy of you." He squeezed my hand again slightly so that I looked to him directly. "I could meet with Asher and together we could come up with some way to fix this. Maybe you could move away together where Jayden can't find you. If you are away from each other long enough, it might become possible for you to love someone else."

I pulled my hand away from him. "Please stop acting like you care about me." He looked at me in surprise and confusion, "you only want to help me because you think of me as your mother and a chance to fix what happened to him. You only want to see Jayden suffer. You don't really care about me or my kids, rather you are imprinting on us with your difficult childhood. I'm tired of people acting like they want to help me when they all just want something from me!" I stood up in stared him down. "This is my life. I decide what is best for me and my children. I decide if Jayden should be in our lives. My instincts towards my destined partner make it where I have very little control in my life but I'll be damned if I let anyone take any more away from me." I took a deep breath in order not to begin yelling. "As I'm sure Hunter informed you, the kids and I have already had difficult afternoon. We really could use some time to relax and calm down."

"Alright," Elijah said with hesitation. "But this conversation's not over."

I watched as he left the house before I went to the couch and laid down. The twins poked their heads out of their room and looked happy when they saw I was the only one there. They quickly rushed out with a board game and insisted we play.

I indulged in their distraction tactic until Chase came home from work and joined us. After a while of playing the game, I finally got the courage to bring up a difficult topic with the kids.

"So tomorrow," I began but paused when Archer tensed his body and seemed to want to speak.

"I don't wanna go tomorrow," Archer whispered and Ashley nodded. "I want to stay home with you."

Chase looked to me with confusion. "Did you guys not have fun at the jungle gym?"

I looked to the kids before looking back to him. "We had some difficulties with some other patrons there. It's probably best if we don't talk about it right now."

Chase look to me sympathetically before nodding. Of anyone, he understood how cruel the world could be to us.

I sighed, "I know how you feel right now, but I also can understand where you dad is coming from. He wants to meet you two so badly. Can you try to meet him, for me?" They both looked to me with hesitation, "he said you two can choose where we go and what we do. He just wants to spend time with you."

They looked to each other, then to me, then to the game.

"How about we just go to the beach?" I asked and I saw both of their eyes shine for a moment as they looked to me.

I chuckled, "maybe we can just go and have lunch there."

They both nodded with excitement before continuing the game. We quietly played the game, ate dinner, and the kids went to bed.

I dialed Jayden's number and waited for him to answer, "hey." He said in a deep voice that made me quiver slightly. "I'm glad you called."

I took a breath as I tried to calm down. "So for tomorrow, the kids want to go to the beach."

"The beach?" He said with confusion, "I can pay for us to go anywhere they want."

I sighed, "they want to go somewhere they can feel comfortable. They want to go around lunch and just have lunch, like a picnic."

"So we are going to eat there?"

I smirked, this rich Alpha probably has never done such a thing, "yeah. I will have the kids pack their favorite foods. Is there anything you want us to bring for you?"

"Anything is fine," he replied with a clearing of his throat. "Is there anything I can bring?"

I smirked, "no, we can handle it."

"I will come pick you all up."

"No, that will make them nervous. We will meet you there at noon. I'll text you the address. Goodnight.." I hung up and let out a deep sigh. How the hell am I hard just from talking to him on the phone? We were only talking about our kids so why am I turned on?