40: The king of annoying

**Jasmine**

**Positive**. My pregnancy test was positive. For a while I just stared at the thing in absolute disbelief, and after a moment or so, I began to doubt. And so, I tried another, and to my surprise it still showed the same result. I'd been feeling unwell over the course of the last few days. Nausea and vomiting, headaches and I'd even become uncharacteristically tired. Of course, I'd taken my fair share of medicine and yesterday I'd finally gone in for a check-up with Teressa, not wanting to be sick today, the day of the Alpha Conference. Immediately when I told her my symptoms, she grew wildly excited and wanted me to take a pregnancy test right there and then. But I was afraid. There'd been other times when I'd been dead certain I was pregnant, only to be disappointed with nothing but a negative test result. But now that the test was positive, I could barely even begin to believe it... and I could barely begin to process just how real this all was. *I* was going to have a baby, and that very thought both excited and terrified me.

"Jasmine are you alright? You've been in there for a while. Is your stomach still bothering you? Perhaps it was the food from last night?" Damon's soft voice from the other side of the door frightened me and I almost dropped the test on the floor. It took a moment for me to recover and finally answer saying, "N-no... I..." I didn't know how to tell him. Of course, I knew that Damon desperately wanted children and that he would no doubt be absolutely over the moon that I was now pregnant, but I couldn't even begin to muster up the words to tell him.

However, he made it easier for me by saying, "I'm coming in, alright?"

"O-okay..." I muttered. Damon slowly entered the bathroom and immediately, his eyes zeroed in on the pregnancy test in my hands. His brows furrowed and a concerned look made its way on his face. It was a look he always wore when I told him I wasn't pregnant- one of disappointment, not in me, but in himself for making me go through all of this for him, for getting my own hopes up only to be disappointed. He neared me and then wrapped his arms around me in a tight embrace before saying, "I'm so sorry... maybe it just isn't our-"

But I cut him off, finally finding the words and saying, "-I'm pregnant."

He froze the moment I said it, staying absolutely silent. At one point the silence had become so disturbing that I removed myself from his grasp and stared uncertainly into his hazel eyes. They were glossed over in shock and astonishment, but still, he did not speak.

"Damon... why are you so silent?" I asked, afraid that this man would pass out. And that was when he let out a long exhale before taking letting out an almost maniacal laugh. I stared at him, half concerned, and half confused.

Once his laughing fit was over, he grabbed me in his arms and began laying kisses against the skin of my face.

"We're having a baby! I can't believe it Jasmine!" He yelled out joyfully. I giggled in response and pecked him on the lips which he responded to by pulling me closer to him and kissing me deeper. It was a kiss so sweet and so happy I could bask in it all day.

Once he pulled away, he kissed the tip of my nose before smiling down at me. It was a goofy smile, one which I adored and took a mental picture of.

"Thank you so much Jasmine."

I gazed up at him, confused and then asked, "What are you thanking me for?"

He gently picked me up, walked me to our bed and then set me down softly against the mattress before kneeling in front of me and taking my hands in his. "For making me so happy. I honestly wake up every day wondering what I must have done right in life to have deserved you. I've never been loved by someone, the way you love me, and I hope that I make you as happy and I make you feel as loved as you make me. There is nothing in this world I wouldn't do for you-" he then placed his hands against my stomach before saying, "-for both of you."

I'd always thought that I was the one lucky to have Damon, but it seemed he was just as grateful to me as I was to him. And so, I placed my hands over his and smiled, now certain that the choices I'd made in the past to get me here, right here, in this exact moment, had all been the right choices. First my sister, and now my baby. It seemed life hadn't taken everything away from me, in fact, it had even given me a few gifts in return.

"So, this means we're skipping the Alpha Conference... right?" Damon asked sheepishly.

I raised a brow at him and cocked an eyebrow. "No, it does not! The rogue problem is serious, Damon. Besides, Landon is waiting for us downstairs."

Damon frowned and folded his arms. He honestly acted so childish sometimes.

"I don't want to go." He said.

I laughed, stood up and began to grab my jacket. "Suck it up, you big baby."

He sighed, got up from his knelt position and then began to follow me as I walked down the stairs towards the foyer. Landon was already waiting for us, but surprisingly, he wasn't alone. Lucien stood beside him, and they both seemed to be engaged in a rather humorous conversation.

"Lucien? What are you doing here?" I asked.

He smiled. "I'm joining you three. I figured I could voice some concerns of my own. After all, just the other day a Vixen of mine was attacked by one of those insane rogues."

"Or you're just trying to find a good excuse to hang out with your big brother." Damon said before grabbing the poor man and ruffling up his hair. Lucien growled and pushed him away before fixing his hair and glaring at Damon. "You're so annoying! What are you, five?"

Damon rolled his eyes and then glanced towards me.

"*Should we tell them?*" Damon asked through a mind link.

I shook my head before asking Lucien, "Is Tristan coming, by any chance?" I wanted to tell everyone together. More importantly, I wanted her to be one of the first to know.

Lucien sighed deeply and then began scratching at the back of his neck. "Ever since she came back from... wherever she disappeared to after dinner earlier on in this week, she's been avoiding me. Actually, I couldn't even get a word out of her these past few days."

"I noticed it too," said Damon, "did you do something wrong or something to upset her?"

I chuckled softly to myself when I saw the shocked expression on Lucien's face.

"*Excuse me*, but who the hell do you think you are?"

"Your older brother, which is why I know that you probably did something to upset the poor woman. Did you annoy her again? Did you manipulate her into having sex with you? Did you say something suggestive and inappropriate?"

Lucien's mouth gaped for a moment, before he recovered, cleared his throat and then denied everything that Damon had accused him of. "I can honestly say that I did absolutely nothing wrong this time. It's so weird. One moment we were both on the same page and now... well it's like she closed the entire book. Jasmine... do you know what might be wrong? Has she been acting strange towards either you or Damon?"

I couldn't help but grow a little more concerned about my sister after what Lucien had said. I wondered what could have happened to her during the period of her disappearance to lead her to ignoring the one person she seemed to truly get along with.

"I-I'm not sure. I did call her a day after she returned from her disappearance and she sounded fine on the phone, but she never quite disclosed why she disappeared." I said.

"And she hasn't been acting differently towards me either. She does her work, as instructed. In fact, I was even planning on taking her along with me to my next few meetings to help me with my presentations. Since it's your job to accompany me to meetings as well, perhaps you two will spend more time together and you could figure out why exactly she's avoiding *you*, because she clearly hasn't changed her behaviour towards me, nor has she changed her behaviour towards Jasmine. The problem is clearly you, dear brother." Damon said.

Lucien sighed and then nodded. "You're right... I just can't figure out what I did wrong."

Although the fact that she was ignoring him was very concerning, I found it endearing that he cared so much. And so, I smiled at him and placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder before saying, "It will all work out."

"Maybe she's just afraid." Landon said.

"Of what?"

"Her feelings, or of hurting you. Take it from people with experience, being mated to someone is not as easy as it seems. But you've been lucky. Every person in this room, excluding you of course, has had a rocky start to their relationships with their mates. You and Jasmine's sister seem to have gotten off on the right start. I haven't met the woman yet, but if she was willing to even stand the presence of someone as... slippery as you-"

"I believe you mean seductive."

"Nope, pretty sure I said slippery. Though you are right, I could have used a better word. In fact, quite a few come to mind: sneaky, deceitful, snake-like... a man whore."

"Man whore. I kinda like the sound of that. A man with ample sexual experience. Are you insulting me or complimenting me Landon?" Lucien said smoothly. Landon rolled his eyes and gritted his teeth before saying, "I think we should leave now... before I strangle him."

"You're just upset you never got to fuck me before you found your mate. We all know you had a thing for me."

"You are delusional Lucien." Landon said with a sense of finality to his tone. But Lucien was clearly not finished with his blatant attempt to get right under Landon's skin.

"No, I'm attractive. Besides... we would have had so much fun, especially because you seem so good at being submissive." He said with a raised brow and then leaned in teasingly. Landon scowled at him rolled his eyes, clearly only feeling only annoyance and frustration.

"Alright break it up boys." Damon interjected in an attempt to prevent any actual physical violence which Landon was clearly about to inflict on Lucien.

"He started it!" Lucien whined like a child.

"Well, I'm finishing it. Goddess, you're such a handful. Landon was right, Tristan is one strong woman to be able to deal with your shenanigans."

Lucien rolled his eyes and then said, "I was just teasing him. You're all so touchy. Besides, Landon doesn't hold a candle to *my* Tristan." And the moment he said this, a huge argument began to break out between the three men. I however found the bicker between Lucien, Landon and Damon nothing short of adorable. In fact, the entire encounter between all three was absolutely blissful. I wondered if they'd been like this when they were younger... but hopefully *less* chaotic.

Once we were ready to leave, Chester opened the door for us and Landon and Lucien went out first, leaving Damon and I trailing behind. He grabbed my hand gently, pulling me to a stop. For a moment, he gazed down at me with a serious look in his eyes and asked, "Are you sure you don't want to tell them as yet?"

I smiled and nodded. "I want Tristan to hear it first too. Could we wait until Lucien and Tristan have started speaking again? Then we can invite the family over and make an announcement. London would also kill me if she wasn't one of the first to know either... and we both know how chaotic that will be."

Damon contemplated my request for a moment and then nodded. "We'll wait until then... but you do know that if we wait too long, people will begin to notice." He said, gently touching at my stomach. As he did, I saw another surge of excitement flash in his eyes.

"I don't know, I think the two of them will sort out their differences much sooner than we could ever have expected."

"What do you mean?" Damon asked.

"My sister doesn't do well with strangers, but when she's around Lucien, it's like they've known each other for years. Landon was right. The starting points of all of our relationships were rocky, but not Lucien and Tristan's. It's as though right from the start they were undeniably drawn to each other. In fact, I've never seen two people more suited for each other than them." I said.

Damon nodded, but I could see a disagreement coming on by the doubtful look in his eyes. I sighed and asked him to voice his concerns.

"Just because they didn't have any major hiccups in the beginning, it does not mean that they won't have any... or many in the future. We still have hiccups now and then, don't we? But what's important is that we always find a way to cure our hiccups and move on. What's important is that we choose to stay together and that we choose to love each other no matter what."

I stayed silent for a moment and just stared up at him in absolute wonder of his words. Eventually I reached up, wrapped my hands around the back of his neck and then placed my lips on his in a sweet, gentle kiss.

"What was that for?" He asked once we pulled away from each other.

"I'm just... happy." I said softly. He smiled and leaned in for another kiss, but before our lips could even touch, Lucien yelled from outside, "Hey lovebirds! We leaving or what?"