𝐆𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐚́𝐧 || 𝐉𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐨𝐥

Chapter 24

Jeonghan kept his distance from Seungcheol and Minghao for the rest of the day—or tried to, at least. The others weren’t making it easy. After dinner, Seungcheol asked to speak to everyone in the living room. Jeonghan joined them reluctantly, curling up on the couch next to Junhui and avoiding everyone’s gaze. He was angry, mostly at himself for getting his hopes up when Seungcheol had taken him on that walk. The alpha kept promising to take care of him and the babies, to be there for them, while making it perfectly clear he was going to be leaving the first chance he got, and he might not be coming back.

“I wanted to talk about the future,” Seungcheol said.

Junhui perked up next to him. In contrast, he found himself sinking down into the couch, trying to make himself invisible. He wasn’t sure he wanted to hear what the alpha had to say.

“I know that when I got here, I told you I planned to fix the place up and sell it. Well, I’ve been thinking a lot about that, even before we found out Jeonghan was expecting. I found some papers in my grandpa’s study; plans he had for the orchard. I guess he never got around to putting them in place before he died, and I think they’re worth another look.”

“What kind of plans?” Junhui asked.

“He’d been selling almost all his apples wholesale every year, mostly to manufacturers. But, year after year, the money he was getting was dropping while the costs of growing weren’t. He was planning to cut out the middleman and make his own apple products. His first idea was bespoke supplies for local bakeries—apple pies, crumbles, that sort of thing. He’d already been doing that on a small scale, but he planned on expanding. We all knew how good a baker he was, but it seems baking wasn’t all he turned his hand to—he’d developed his own recipe for cider. That was the second half of his plan. He was doing pretty good trade with that locally before he died.”

Jeonghan, realizing this wasn’t a rehash of their earlier conversation, started paying more attention, lifting his head so he could watch the others’ expressions.

“You want to bake pies and distill cider?” Minghao said, his brows creased.

“Ferment cider. You don’t distill it. But yes, that’s the long and short of it.”

“Then you’re not leaving?” Junhui asked.

Jeonghan waited with bated breath to hear the alpha’s answer.

“I still intend on going back to work. But I was hoping you and Jeonghan would step up to the plate. You’d handle the cider, Jeonghan the baking. You’ll have to hire help, of course. For the harvest, the processing. We’ll need more than one pair of hands doing the baking, especially when Jeonghan’s out of action with the babies. Minghao, there’s a place for you here too, if you want it.”

Jeonghan waited eagerly for Minghao’s response, watching the beta closely. Minghao stretched, in no hurry to answer.

“I might be persuaded to stay,” he said at length. “I do have a fondness for apple pie.”

“I’ll make you one right now,” Jeonghan offered, jumping to his feet.

The beta laughed and waved him back down.

“Not that I don’t appreciate your eagerness, but let’s hear Seungcheol out first. And see what your brother has to say for himself.”

“I’ve said my bit,” Seungcheol told them.
They all looked to Junhui. He sat back in his chair, his gaze on the ceiling. “I’m going to be honest with you—I don’t see this working if Seungcheol leaves.”

“I won’t be gone forever.”

“Yeah, but you know this place. You know the people. They respect you, see you as one of them. Whereas Jeonghan and I are blow-ins—we’ve been here all of five minutes, and we’ll likely be seen as outsiders for a long time to come. A business like this takes time to establish and, being so local, relies a lot on trust. I’ve barely made the kind of connections we’ll need to make this a success.” He sat forward, looking around at all of them before adding, “And aren’t we supposed to be keeping Jeonghan’s pregnancy under wraps? You said it was a pack pregnancy. If we’ve got this place full of workers in the next few months, there’s no way they’ll miss his super-quick pregnancy or the babies that come from it. It’s a nice idea, Seungcheol, it really is. But I’m not sure you’ve thought it through.”

Junhui’s eyes found Jeonghan’s, an apology in them. Jeonghan nodded slowly. He knew his brother was right. Junhui didn’t often express an opinion, and when he did, it was usually full of sense.

But Seungcheol wasn’t giving up that easily.

“Okay, sure. There are a few kinks to work out. But this was never going to happen overnight. We could focus, for now, on getting the equipment up and running, taking a few practice runs at making cider. It isn’t as easy as following the recipe; we’ll need to know what we’re doing if we’re going to make a real go of things. That gives us time to find a doctor for Jeonghan, to prepare for what’s to come.”

Jeonghan hugged his arms around his stomach at the word doctor. He didn’t want anyone poking and prodding. The situation was so fragile already, and the word pack seemed almost dangerous.

“What would happen if someone did find out? If they thought I was carrying pack babies, or that we were a pack?”

He looked around, but no one seemed to have answers for him.

“There hasn’t been a pack in this or the surrounding counties for over forty years,” Seungcheol told him. “There are some further afield. They get bad press sometimes, people worry about their influence, and they attract a lot of people from the fringes. Dangerous people, egotistical ones. If the locals saw us as a threat, they might chase us out, or worse.”

“Then we hide it,” Junhui said. “Just like we were planning.”

“It’s easy to hide them now. But what about once they’re born?” Jeonghan couldn’t see how that many babies could be kept a secret from anyone.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Seungcheol said.

But Jeonghan could see only one solution—split them up.

Four babies together caught people’s attention, where one or two wouldn’t. Would he have to part with his babies just to keep them safe?

The conversation turned to more practical matters, with Junhui and Seungcheol going to a nearby farm to borrow some equipment to prepare for the harvest. Minghao decided to head into town, offering to pick up groceries. That left Jeonghan with some badly needed time to himself. He cleaned the kitchen, got a head start on dinner, and rolled out the pastry for another apple pie. He hoped the others weren’t getting sick of them. Jeonghan had other recipes of Terry’s that he’d been itching to try, but with the day he’d had, it felt good to do something familiar.

He heard the sound of a car coming up the drive.

Assuming it was the truck, he waited for it to pull around to the back. Instead, it stopped out the front. Maybe Minghao was back already? He’d borrowed Seungcheol’s car, so he’d have space for groceries.

Wiping the flour from his hands, he padded out to the front of the house to help, only to stop short when he spotted a familiar face through the screen door.

“Jeonghan. Thank god. I’ve been worried sick.”

“Douglas.”

His alpha had found him.