“I want you to stay if you want to stay, Alex,” Seth said. “I want you to want to stay. If you want to stay, I want you here. If you don't want to stay, if you don't feel like you can stay and be happy and accomplish what you want to accomplish, I want you to be where you want to be. That was our agreement.” They'd gotten married because it was a mutually beneficial arrangement where they could both help each other achieve their dreams. That's what it was about. Seth still believed in it. If Alex didn't, she should have said something before. There was nothing in the agreement about restricting communication. Seth understood that she was angry, but now she wasn't even talking about the same subject.
“And that's not the point anyway, Alex. The point is that we both built this relationship the way that it is.” Where was all this passion about Seth's home town or how well she really knew Seth a couple weeks ago? It didn't exist then. Where was her affront when Seth told her that there were things about him that she didn't know, that Seth preferred to keep private? Why wasn't she this upset when they both agreed that they wanted to maintain some privacy in certain aspects of their lives? Seth understood that her world had been turned upside down right now, but Seth had never acted like he didn't want her to stay. Maybe telling her she could do whatever she wanted with the house wasn't a good enough invitation for her, apparently, but it had been a step. She chose not to take it. She'd communicated to him that she didn't want to.
“I'm not responsible for your friends, Alex. I'm only responsible for my family.” Seth had told his family not to tell Alex, but he hadn't said anything to any of her friends. “Not everyone feels comfortable giving that kind of information to an in-the-dark human they've only known for a couple months. And not knowing what they are shouldn't make your friendships less meaningful either.” “And the Cassie stuff was going on before you even knew me.” Maybe she was mad at him for not telling her, but Seth wasn't the only person who'd decided not to tell her, and the only people who weren't telling her because of Seth were the people who shared his last name.
He could tell that she didn't believe him, and that sparked Seth's irritation. If she was just going to go with her own answer anyway, he didn't know why she'd bothered asking him in the first place. But Seth's answer was his answer. That was the bottom line.
At least when he was answering questions, they weren't arguing.
“Six. They chose Willow Creek for some fairy reason, I think,” It bothered Seth that the exact detail slipped his mind at the moment. “You'll have to ask Xander. There are other towns. Xander Kingston is the founder who represents the fairies. Youngs represent wolves. Knights represent the other shifters. Levi Whitby represents the vampires. Cranes represent the witches. The Carvers are hunters. They're not originals though. I'll have to give you the museum tour. There's stuff on it there.” Whitby's museum had a secret floor with exhibits all about the wild west conflict. If Alex was interested in all the details, that would be a good place to start.”