GOD I MISS him.
I hope Connor shows up. Sadness and loss threaten to devour me, but I remain strong as I wait near the stairwell that leads to the basement at HEA Corporation. If I know my best friend, he’ll come. No matter what happened in the past, I know he’s loyal to our friendship—both as Connor and as Alpha. Our friendship overlaps into other existences. Friends like that just don’t fade away.
“The great warrior returns,” a deep, familiar voice chuckles.
I lift my head to see Connor sauntering over to me. His blue eyes shimmer with mischief, but most of all relief. To see me.
I’m fucking relieved to see him too.
“Hug me before I change my mind,” I grumble but grin at him.
We embrace and slap each other on the shoulder before breaking apart.
“Good to see you, Omega,” he says. “Al won’t shut up about you. Apparently, you’re ‘dreamy’ to a six-year-old. She was drawing pictures of you when I left.”
I laugh and stare at him probably in a creepy way. I don’t fucking care; I’ve missed him.
“How are you you?” I ask. “And how in the hell are you with Twiggy?”
He beams. “I don’t know, man. HEA Corp did something—although, I can’t really wrap my head around it. One minute, I think I’m being exiled to HEL, and the next, I wake up in bed with my pregnant wife.”
I wince at his mention of being exiled. His face darkens, and he regards me with a remorseful frown.
“And suddenly you have a six-year-old? How the fuck does that happen?” I question, brushing the tense moment off.
A proud grin stretches across his face at the mention of his daughter. “I’m not really sure. They fixed shit…changed the threads of time… Fuck if I know. I’m Alpha, yet I’m Connor. It’s a mindfuck, man, but I’m so damn thankful. My wife is about to deliver any day now, and I have an amazing daughter. I just go with it because I don’t want them to take it all away. I’m afraid that, if I question it all too much, I’ll wake up and it’ll all be a dream. So I don’t question it. Each day, I wake up and thank God for my family, which I somehow managed to get back. It’s a fucking miracle, Omega.”
His words give me hope. If they can fix it all for him, maybe I can redeem myself with the good guys. I’ll put every ounce of my energy into making that happen.
“How are you, buddy? I expected a lot worse, but you look good,” he rushes out in relief.
I smirk at him. “I always look good.”
“Asshole.”
We laugh, and it feels like old times.
“No, it hasn’t been easy. I was pretty fucking miserable for a while there, but then…” I trail off.
His eyes narrow. “Love?”
“Yep.”
I expect him tell me to run the other damn direction—away from her, Love. But he doesn’t. Instead, he beams at me.
“Slaying dragons and forsaking everything?”
“Yep.”
“People make mistakes, Omega. I’m glad you two have found a way despite where it’s landed you. Love may have fucked shit up where you were concerned, but she’s a good one deep down—past all the makeup and overly flirtatious behavior.”
I smile as I think of her, but my stomach tightens in disgust knowing that that asshole came to see her. He’s there with her right now, doing who only knows what. Rage blooms in my chest. If she hadn’t been so adamant about me not being there, I’d be over there in a fucking heartbeat, ruffling that asshole’s feathers.
“Luc has his fucking talons in her. I’m going to kill the motherfucker one day.”
Connor flashes me a conspiratorial grin. “Need help?”
We laugh again, despite the seriousness of my words, and I wish I could go have a beer with him—catch up with my best friend. But more important matters are pressing, like seeing Jes.
“Don’t be surprised if I call in that favor,” I chuckle. “I wanted you to come with me to meet some guy named Jes. A big-ass angel named Bosefus tells me I need to see him. Of all the years we worked here, did you ever meet a man named Jes? I sure as hell haven’t.”
He shakes his head. “Nope, but if he’s in the basement, he can’t be too important, right?”
I shrug my shoulders. “Bosefus says he’s some bigwig—hates the pretentious offices on the top floor.”
Connor whistles. “Top floor? Hot damn. Maybe he isn’t some nobody. Let’s go meet him. I got your back, man.”
“He’s human now. You really shouldn’t drag him into your problems,” a voice that sounds like tinkling bells utters from down the hallway.
I snap my head in the direction of the voice, and Connor looks over his shoulder. My eyes lock with a Seraph Guardian.
“Holy shit,” I stammer.
Connor darts his attention all around but turns to regard me with interest. “I have an SG?”
I nod. “And she’s a fucking knockout. Straight from the Victoria’s Secret runway.”
And she does look every bit of a model with her full lips and striking, green eyes. Her long, mocha-colored hair hangs down in waves over her perky breasts. She’s donning a fitted, white pantsuit that leaves nothing to the imagination. Every curve and swell is on full display. Her wings seem daintier than Bosefus’s, and they have a slightly pink hue to them. Everything about her screams sexy and sweet, even her white, knee-high, heeled boots.
The Seraph Guardian glares at me. “You’re an ass. He’s not supposed to know about me.”
I roll my eyes at her. “He used to work here. Of course he knows he has one whether he can see you or not.”
Connor chuckles. “This should creep me out, but I find it really fucking cool that you’re talking to my guardian angel, who I can’t see or hear.”
Another eye roll from the SG.
“What’s your name, princess?”
If looks could kill, I’d be a dead motherfucker.
“Anastasia. My friends call me Asia. You can call me Anastasia,” she pouts.
A pouting angel is pretty fucking adorable.
“Are you sure you’re tough enough to protect my friend, Asia? Or will he be the one having to protect your ass?” I taunt as she struts toward me.
Connor playfully punches me in the arm. “Don’t piss my guardian angel off. Asia sounds like a name that could kick some ass.”
Of course she bites back at me. “I could crush you in a second if it came to it, Leviathan. Go back to HEL where you belong and stop bothering my charge.”
I go to goad her some more, but she does that fucking weird-as-hell thing they do and seizes my arm. Instantly, I am rendered powerless and tossed into my past.
The orange cat stares at me. It’s as if she can see into my mind. Like she knows I’m a lonely eight-year-old boy. I would be talking my mother’s ear off, but Daddy is almost home from work.
I’m staying out of Momma’s hair. She wanted to have the house in perfect condition before Daddy got home, just like every day. It’s best when I stay out of her way so she can make sure everything sparkles and shines.
If she doesn’t, Daddy gets angry with her. Sometimes, he hurts Momma. Once, I left my baseball bat in the hallway after playing ball with my friends. He beat the living tar out of her with it afterwards.
It was my fault.
Now, I don’t play with toys.
Now, I try to make life easier for Momma.
“Here, kitty kitty.”
The cat’s right ear twitches as if he hears me calling him but chooses to ignore me. Once, I asked Daddy if I could have a dog. He was drunk again and laughed at me. I remember he said, “We already have one stupid bitch in this house and a needy little pest. I’m not working to feed another goddamned mouth.”
His words didn’t make sense, but he was angry and cussing and drunk. That was a perfect storm for him to become mean.
I hate it when he’s mean.
So I never asked again.
Yet, now, as this kitten stares back at me, I want to love it. I want to protect the sweet kitten. Surely I can take care of him without Daddy knowing.
I stand and begin to walk to the kitten. “Let me love you, little kitty.”
She must be scared of me, because she tears off toward the road. Fear for her safety punches me in the stomach and my belly then flops when I see the car racing down the road toward her.
“No!” I screech.
The kitten won’t make it. Everything slows as I watch the cat run right under the car. I hear a crunch, but the car keeps on going. Doesn’t even stop to help the cat it just ran over!
After rushing to her, I drop to my knees. There’s so much blood!
“I will save you. I promise,” I tell her through my tears as I scoop her mangled body into my arms. With superhero speed, I bolt as fast as I can into my house.
“Momma! Momma! Help me! We have to save her!”
She appears around the corner as I’m flying into the kitchen with the cat. Her eyes bug out in fear and she glances over to the garage door.
“Oh, no, Andrew. You can’t bring that cat into the house. Your father will be here at any moment.”
Even though she’s freaking out, I don’t care. I need to help this cat.
“Fine! I will take care of her myself!” I sob angrily at Momma.
She wraps her arms around me and tries to guide me back out of the kitchen. “Please, Andrew. Take the cat back outside. You’re dripping blood everywhere. I need to clean it up before he gets home.”
Too late.
As soon as she says the words, the door from the garage into the house opens. My father, in his fancy, never-wrinkled dress shirt, jerks his head around in anger at the scene before him.
“What the fuck is going on here?” he snarls.
Momma is shivering and her voice shakes. “Ed, honey, it’s nothing. Andrew wanted to help the kitten. It had been hit by a car and—”
“Let me see that animal.” His quiet words stop my mother’s explanation.
I do as I was told, praying to God that he’ll somehow know how to save the cat. He may be a mean daddy, but surely he can rescue the kitty and be nice this one time.
But he isn’t nice just this once, and what follows is something straight from one of my nightmares.
My father swings the dying cat by its tail and slaps my momma upside her head with it. She and I both gasp. But then he continues to hit her over and over again with it. His always perfect shirt turns red from the cat’s blood, and I stare at the monster in our kitchen.
I’m in shock, and all I can do is stay openmouthed and frozen.
I couldn’t protect the kitten.
I couldn’t protect Momma.
One day, I will grow bigger than everyone and protect all the innocent people and animals. I will bring justice to the evil men like my father.
“Hmph,” Asia says with a smirk as she releases me. “Have fun with Jes. I’ll wait by the stairwell.”
Connor is watching me with furrowed eyebrows. “Are you okay, man?”
I flip his guardian angel off and storm toward the stairwell. “No, and your SG is an asshole.”
Memories of my past fucking suck.