46

Chapter 46

Flange Orphanage, City: Three Prongs Fork, Republic of Shantu, Continent: Barat, the Year 2022, Planet: Grimoire

Despite the rude awakening before dawn and the fact that Doyle collapsed from sheer exhaustion. He was able to sleep deeply without dreaming or further disruptions. As a result, he managed to make up for all the lost sleep of previous days, all three of them.

He'd the rude awakening earlier, but now he was fine. He'd gotten a lucky break even after taking that hard fall. No concussion either which he was devoutly thankful for. It meant that Tesha wouldn't be able to detain him further. She'd given it her best shot in trying to make him stay a bit longer, but he'd refused.

Now, Doyle was awake, refreshed, and dressed completely. He was clad in his own garments. Much to his mortification, Tesha had taken it upon herself to launder all his clothing in apology for what happened with the poisoned formula that hadn't been baby formula at all.

After a very late morning meal, Doyle, his coachman Grimes, and the infants were settled comfortably in the carriage. He was still shocked over the news given to him in written form since the verbal had been enough to render him unconscious. That was still an embarrassing moment for him. One he doubted he'd be allowed to forget by either Tesha or Darmono for that matter.

"Well, I'll get back to you about all the test results later," Doyle informed them. "For now, I truly must get my other work caught up." A sigh escaped him when he glanced at the four bassinets firmly locked into place. "Not to mention getting them settled into the orphanage section that handles the abandoned infants."

Darmono looked at him thoughtfully. "Will you give them new names so their painful past can be released?"

While that was a typical method to begin new lives elsewhere, Doyle shook his head. "In this instance, no, I'll make use of the names their parents gifted them with." A faint smile curved his mouth at Darmono's distinct shock at his decision. "They were obviously precious to their dames and sires despite the circumstances under which they were conceived." He shrugged when Darmono shook his head in disapproval. "Well, I'm off."

With those words, Grimes chirruped at the horses and the carriage began moving.

It was time to resume his normal schedule. Not only that but it would begin what would hopefully turn into a stable living situation for the four infants.

Doyle closed his eyes and napped peacefully.

*

Several hours passed, even though it shouldn't have. Doyle had awakened at some point when the carriage halted its progress. Upon inquiring from Grimes who'd gone to investigate the problem, neither of them received a satisfactory answer.

"This is somewhat unbelievable," Doyle muttered in disbelief. At least he was able to do some delayed work. That wouldn't put him too far behind schedule, fortunately.

On the other hand, it seemed as though Darmono might take advantage of this situation to pester him. "What a drag." He grumbled with a sigh.

A knock on his door startled Doyle. He peered out and fought not to grimace in annoyance. It was Darmono. He raised the window and looked at him warily. "Greetings, Commander."

Commander Darmono inclined his head. "I'll make this quick." He shared a newly revised route for Grimes and Doyle to examine. "This is the fastest option because the other routes are washed out and being repaired. That's possibly going to take up to a month." He eyed the skies. "I think we're going to get another storm again."

Ugh, how irritating, Doyle exhaled. "All right, thank you for alerting me to the latest reason behind the delay occurring." There hadn't been any reports through the usual venues that oversight rather annoyed Doyle.

"Good afternoon," Darmono tapped his forehead in salute and then headed off.

However, it seemed some of the closest routes to the orphanage had been destroyed in the resulting storm. It also seemed the storm stemmed from someone indiscriminately messing about with magic and leylines. That timing was the worst, in his opinion. "What a mess."

He gained one small bit of satisfaction from this whole ordeal. Well, at least Darmono hadn't hung around which was his usual method of annoying Doyle. "I guess now that he knows I'm a dominant Omega that is outright rejecting him, he'll keep his hands off me."

It seemed he was going to keep his distance now that Doyle made it very clear he didn't welcome Darmono's proximity. "I don't care if we have a high compatibility." Doyle refused to accept those supposedly official results. "If I'm rejecting his pheromones, it means that in another way we're not matches." He wasn't going to trust paper results when he knew they could be manipulated.

All Doyle could think was that someone meant to play a nasty prank on both of them. He wasn't appreciative of the timing at all. "Well, soon enough I'll be back in familiar surroundings that are safer for me." He could also reinforce certain enhancements that discouraged rutting Alphas from approaching the vicinity with unpleasant pings and scents they despised.

Finally, the carriage came to a halt. "We've arrived at last," Grimes said very cheerfully, making Doyle smile.

"Ah good, home at last." Doyle was grateful that he could leave the confines of the carriage. It had become stifling due to the humidity that had built up with rising temperatures.

That hadn't been because of the children, just simply because of the region where they resided. It heated rapidly because of all the unregulated building of buildings, roads, and other infrastructure that was sloppy at best, and missing safety-coded safeguards at worst. He was so glad he wasn't in the main boundaries of Three Pronged Forks, but on an outer riverbank that put him almost outside the physical borders.

The first thing Doyle did when arriving was step down without ceremony and inhale the fresh air that was untainted by pollution. I've missed this so badly.

Well, now that he'd done that it was back to business as usual. Doyle saw the staff standing at attention and waved at them to stand down. "Good to see you all have fared well in my absence."

There were murmurs of assent though a few were quiet.

He would address those few concerns later once he was settled back into a normal routine however long it took.