Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ The Last Bearers ❯ Chapter 30 ( Chapter 30 )

In January, my fathers found out that Bryan and I were sexually active with each other and they weren't happy, to say the least. It was then that I decided I should tell them.

“What was that?” Harou asked in response to my mumbled confession.

I lifted my head, tears streaming down my face.

“I think I'm pregnant,” I said clearly.

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My father's debated for a long time in the kitchen while I sat with Bryan and the rest of our siblings in the living room. Finally, Harou came back into the living room.

“Jayden,” he said softly. “I'm going to do an examination to see if you really are pregnant, okay?”

“All right.” I nodded.

I followed Harou up to his and Hayden's bedroom.

“Can you take off your clothes and lay on the bed?” Harou asked.

Harou didn't wait for my answer; he vanished into another room. I stripped my clothes off and waited breathlessly for Harou to appear.

He came out a while later with a pair of protective gloves on. He examined me from head to toe and then intimately examined me. His expression was unreadable for the longest time. I wasn't surprised; he was always the unreadable one.

“Well Jayden, it looks like you are pregnant,” he finally said.

“O…oh. Is that even possible?” I stammered.

“Oh yes,” Harou assured me. “It's possible since both your father and I can have children. We weren't sure if that ability could be passed down to our offspring, but you proved that it is possible.”

“Do you know how far along I am?” I asked.

“It looks like you're a month and a half pregnant,” Harou answered.

“I see.”

I must have looked scared because Harou gently touched my shoulder.

“It's not bad that you're pregnant,” he said softly. “Your father and I are just surprised, that's all.”

“But you weren't happy that Bryan I were sexually active with each other,” I pointed out.

“Well yes, but that's because we didn't know that you could have children Jayden. We wanted you and your brother to have female partners because they can have children and our purpose in life is to repopulate the Earth. But since you can have children, it means that there are more chances for that to happen. It's a gift, Jayden. Always remember that.”

I nodded.

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Chapter 30

The man stared at them, his mouth hanging open only slightly. Then, he saw Daire partially hidden behind Aleksei and completely froze.

Another man came out behind the first. “Arlen? What's going on?”

Daire gave a quiet gasp when he saw the second man. “Rusty?”

The man saw Daire and froze as well. “Daire?”

“Who the hell are you?” Aleksei demanded, not allowing the men to get any closer to his mate.

Daire's gaze was on the blond man. His eyes filled with tears and he pushed his way past his mate, his eyes never leaving the blond.

“Dad,” he whispered.

Aleksei looked from the men to Daire and then back at the men again. He saw the resemblance not only in the blond, but in the other man Daire had called “Rusty” as well.

“What the hell is going on?” Bryan uttered.

He did not get an answer; the gunshots suddenly got louder.

“Inside,” the blond haired man said curtly.

He and the other man pulled all four of them through 113's door and closed it behind them.

The red haired man locked the door.

“There,” he said. “That should hold `em, for a while at least.”

They stood awkwardly in the front sitting room, which was the same as Aleksei an Daire's, only larger. The blond haired man stared at Daire.

“Daire? Is it really you?” he asked.

Daire nodded. The man started crying softly and hugged Daire. “I never thought I'd see you again!”

“What is going on?” Bryan demanded.

“Can't you see the resemblance, Bryan? Isn't it obvious?” Aleksei asked. “These are Daire's parents.”

Bryan gasped softly and stared at them. The resemblance was much easier to see through the blond haired man, but Bryan could also see some of Daire in the redhead, especially in the eyes and the structure of Daire's face. The blond was more serious than the redhead. It was all in the posture. The blond held himself stiffly whereas the redhead was more slouched, relaxed. The blond did not smile but the redhead had a catlike grin on his face. They were as different as night and day.

“Holy shit,” Bryan muttered.

“What I want to know is how do you know they're your parents?” Aleksei asked, turning to Daire.

“I met them when I was younger, before I came to The Institute,” Daire answered. His sapphire eyes were clouded with confusion. “But I remember a man named Dante. I don't remember Rusty ever being there. I remember Rusty from the Council.”

“Yeah, it's kinda weird,” the other man said. “I am Dante. Rusty is a name I go by when I'm…trying to avoid drawing attention to myself.” He was met by several confused looks. “Yeah, I know. It's way too complicated to explain right now. I sort of have two identities that I use. My real name is Dante. Dante Winters. You might recognize me from the Council. I went by the name Rusty while I sat on the Council. It's my middle name, actually.”

Aleksei's eyes widened. “Oh yeah. I remember you now.”

“Yup.” Dante nodded.

“So you met them before you came to The Institute?” Bryan asked Daire.

“Yes,” Daire responded. “They came when it was time for me to learn what I really was. They came to help with the explanation. It really helped to have them both there because it was fairly obvious that both of them were males.”

“The same thing happened when I was younger too,” Caelyn said. “I think they do that with all the Bearers.”

“You're right.” Dante smiled. “As I said, I'm Dante. That's Arlen.” He pointed to the blond man. The name suddenly clicked with Bryan.

“You're the one who tried to escape from The Institute, weren't you?” he asked.

“Yes,” Arlen admitted. “That was me. So they did add that to the textbook after all. John threatened that he would.”

“Yeah,” Bryan said. A thought just occurred to him. “So wait. That means you were pregnant with Daire, weren't you? When you were caught I mean.”

Arlen put his hand on Daire's shoulder. “Yes. I was pregnant with Daire when I was caught trying to escape from The Institute.”

“So you're the Bearer in the relationship then?” Bryan asked.

“Yes, I am,” Arlen answered.

Aleksei frowned and turned to Dante. “You're not a Breeder, are you?”

Dante looked surprised, but still smiled. “You're right. I'm not a Breeder. It's a long story how I got mixed up in all this and became Daire's father.”

“We have time,” Bryan pointed out. “It's not likely that things are going to calm down anytime soon.”

“Yeah,” Dante agreed. “But first, I'd like to know who y'all are.”

“I'll introduce you.” Daire stepped forward. “The redhead is my mate, Aleksei. The other blond is my friend Caelyn and his son Rian, And finally, the dark-haired boy is Bryan, Aleksei's friend.”

Arlen and Dante looked very surprised, but welcomed them anyway. All of them made themselves comfortable in the living room. Daire and Aleksei shared a couch, as did Dante and Arlen. Caelyn and Bryan both chose comfortable-looking armchairs in between the couches. Caelyn held Rian on his lap, trying desperately to put the baby to sleep. At last, he was successful and Rian napped in his arms.

“Okay,” Dante said once they were all comfortable. “As I said before, I'm not a Breeder. I'm just a regular guy. I was born and raised in the slums. I met Arlen here when I was in third grade. We were distant for a long time. Arlen was openly gay and I wasn't…at least until fifth grade. Arlen and I started talking around that time and then we started messing around. I was curious and Arlen was knowledgeable. We didn't do anything until we were much older, after I hit puberty.

“There was a group of us who met in grade school and for the longest time, we were real close. Then in high school we started getting distant with each other. We were going our own separate ways and there was nothing to stop it. A lot of them died due to drugs and alcohol. Arlen vanished off the face of the earth. I thought it was because his brother Aidan had committed suicide, but it was because he was a Bearer. He never told any of us this.” Dante turned to Arlen. “You get to tell them the next part of the story.”

“All right.” Arlen sighed softly. “I went to The Institute when I was fourteen, a year later than usual, but it was allowed because my twin brother had committed suicide. They decided that they needed to let me have some time to cope with my brother's suicide because it was too stressful for me to deal with that plus trying to get used to The Institute. What I didn't know was that I had already had my first heat without even knowing it, and then I slept with Dante regularly. I was in for a shock when I went through my preliminary examination with Dr. White. I was already pregnant.

“I finally let it out that I was sexually active with another man on a regular basis before coming to The Institute, which is something I should not have done. They decided that I couldn't be mated with anyone else since I was already tainted, not to mention pregnant, so I was given a private apartment. I was never integrated into the population at The Institute like the rest of you. It was a very stressful time for me. I was pregnant and no one wanted anything to do with me or my baby…for the most part. I tried to escape while I was pregnant and they found out. Contrary to my belief, they did want me. Actually, they were interested in my unborn child because he could potentially be a Bearer. So they brought me back.

“When my time came, I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy I named Daire. Then I found out that he was a Bearer like me. After that, they had a keen interest in both of us. They decided that I was too valuable so they didn't get rid of me. I guess I should be thankful that my life was spared.

“When Daire was six months old, I gave him up for adoption, as was the custom. I continued living at The Institute without a mate because even though there were plenty of Breeders, they didn't want to waste anyone on me. They were just waiting for the right one to come along.” He turned to Dante. “Your turn, dear.”

Dante smirked. “All right. While Arlen was living at The Institute, I was going to school. I graduated from high school and joined the Police Force. My partner Gabriel was murdered and through a chain of unfortunate events, I was reunited with Arlen. It was then that I learned that Arlen was a Bearer and that I had fathered a son.

“Not soon after that, I went to meet Daire when we went to explain about The Institute and that Daire was a Bearer. We lived together until now.” Dante glanced at them. “All right. Now I think it's time for you to do some explaining.”

Daire took a deep breath. “It's a long story.”

“We have the time.” Dante shrugged.

“Yeah, I know.” Daire smiled. “Where do I start though? Let's see…I came here, was mated to Aleksei, who was a cold, heartless pig at the beginning. I had my first heat and Aleksei and I had sex. I got pregnant. Caelyn and our friend Aidan, who was also a Bearer, had sex.”

“Hold on. You said `was'. Aidan was a Bearer.” Dante frowned.

“Aidan died,” Daire said quietly.

“Oh. I'm really sorry to hear that,” Dante murmured.

“It's all right.” Daire smiled weakly. “Anyway, Caelyn, who was having trouble getting pregnant with his real mate Halen, finally got pregnant with Aidan. We kept it a secret for as long as possible because we weren't sure who the father was. I gave birth to a baby boy named Colin. When he was six months old, I had to give him up for adoption. Aleksei and I finally made up. Halen…” Daire took in a deep shuddering breath. “Halen raped me.”

“Yes, we know,” Dante said in a hard voice. “We were there for Halen's trial. We were the ones who helped send him to his death.”

“And he was executed.” Daire's voice was barely audible. He cleared his throat. “Caelyn finally gave birth to Rian. However, he looked like Aidan instead of Halen so Caelyn's secret was revealed. John, as you might imagine, wasn't happy about this at all. Aidan was detained by John and he wouldn't say what was going on so John got mad. He brought us in for questioning and when we wouldn't talk, he tried to separate us and put us in confinement. That's when Aidan was shot. One of the guards forcefully took Rian away from Caelyn, which upset him, which made Aidan upset, and then he tried to attack John. John shot him. He…died in the Medical Facility.”

“He was one of the Mixed, wasn't he?” Dante suddenly interrupted.

“Yes. He was Mixed.” Daire nodded.

“One of the Mixed?” Aleksei frowned. “So you're saying there's more than one Mixed at The Institute?”

“Didn't John tell you?” Daire asked. “There were two Mixed here at The Institute. Only two Mixed The Institute has ever seen. One was Aidan and the other is Alden.”

“Alden?!” Bryan gasped. “Sweet little Alden is actually a Mixed?” He shook his head. “Well it makes perfect sense.”

“Today the Bearers lost control and we were running from them. We came down here and tried to hide. That's when we met you,” Daire finished.

After Daire had finished talking, the room was silent. Finally, Dante spoke.

“What are you planning to do?” he asked.

“We're going to leave The Institute,” Daire answered.

Dante and Arlen looked completely shocked.

“Are you nuts?!” Dante protested. “There's no way in hell you're going to be able to leave The Institute in one piece!”

“We have to at least try,” Daire replied.

“So are you just going to walk away from your duty as a Bearer then?” Arlen asked, a cold tint to his voice.

“Of course not,” Daire answered. “I'm still going to be living with my mate and we're still going to try and have children. I just don't want to live at The Institute any longer.”

“I can respect that,” Arlen said. He nodded to himself. “All right. I'll help you. It's going to be dangerous, but I'll do all I can to assist you.”

“You know I'm in,” Dante said with a grin. “I want out of The Institute as well.”

“What we need to do is come up with a plan,” Arlen said.

“One that doesn't involve us getting caught,” Dante added. Arlen glared at him.

“What was your original plan?” Arlen asked Aleksei.

“We were planning to use this almost abandoned service corridor to escape that I found,” Aleksei explained. “There's a small forest nearby. We were going to use it to cover our movement.”

Arlen nodded thoughtfully. “That's a good plan. The guards are already pretty distracted, but we can't take any chances. We'll wait until it's dark before we slip out. Dante and I are allowed to come and go as we please as long as we come back.”

“They really trust you, huh?” Bryan muttered.

Arlen ignored this. “I will go out under the pretense that I'm going shopping. In reality, I will be checking things out to see what it's like. The rest of you are to lay low until I get back. Understand?”

The others nodded. Arlen gave Dante a brief kiss on the lips and slipped out of the room.

“Well,” Bryan sighed after Arlen had left. “At least now we know where Daire gets his attitude from.”

Dante laughed. “Yeah, Arlen's something else, isn't he? After puttin' up with me for so long, I'm not surprised.”

“I want to try and sneak back to our apartment to get our things,” Aleksei said.

“No.” Daire shook his head. “You shouldn't. It's way too dangerous.”

Aleksei smiled. “Don't worry. I'm going to be fine. I know how to sneak around without being caught.”

“All right,” Daire reluctantly agreed. “Be careful, all right?”

Aleksei nodded. He quickly kissed his mate on the lips. Just like Arlen, he slipped out of the room.

To be continued…

Notes: Ha, how many of you were expecting Rusty to turn out to be someone completely different? I didn't until I started really getting going on this and on something else that I was writing. Then I realized that the two fit together perfectly. There's a lot more to Rusty/Dante's story than you'll get here. In fact, there are going to be two other books describing exactly what happened to Rusty/Dante that caused him to become Daire's father. The first book is called Dark Angel. I'm in the process of rewriting it because I wrote it for NaNoWriMo and then realized that if I tweaked some things (a lot of things, actually) I could make it fit into Identity's universe. The prologue is posted but it's not done. I'm rewriting it. Not sure when I'll have it finished.

The chapter was supposed to be a lot shorter than this, as well as Chapter 31, but I'm working on Chapter 32 and it just keeps getting longer and longer so I decided to move stuff from Chapter 31 to this chapter and then I'm going to move stuff from Chapter 32 to make it a bit more even.

I'm sorry it took me a while to get this chapter finished. I didn't expect it to take this long to get finished. I kept putting it off and now I'm paying the price. XD I had it written for a long time, but I wasn't happy with it because it was so short. Then I realized as I wrote out Chapter 32 that it was going to be a lot longer than I first planned so I could move things around and make this and the next chapter longer. Plus, there's a certain scene in the next chapter that I can expand on a lot and make that chapter longer as well.