“OMEGA,” SHE MURMURS.
We’ve long since left Pedro’s and are lying in the dark in my bed across the hall. Alpha is with Lark, so it’s just the two of us.
“Mmm?” I question as I stroke her hair.
“I love you.” Her quiet voice cracks a bit.
My bare chest presses against hers as I squeeze her to me. “I know you do. I love you too.”
I love her with every part of me, which is really taking a toll on my sanity. Alpha warned me that I shouldn’t waste my time with her—that, when I become a Seraph Guardian, she’ll be against the rules for me to touch. But the moment I stepped into her suite a couple of months ago, I knew. I knew that this woman would rip everything I was destined to be right from my fingertips.
And that was okay.
I’m fully aware that I won’t be able to leave her and become an SG. All I want is her. The moment I made love to her the first time, I knew that that was all I would ever care about. Because of my love for her, I understand that I will break the rules—that I’ll become a Leviathan one day. I simply know it.
But I’ll have her all the time. No rules. Just her.
We can be in love and it won’t matter where we are as long as we have each other.
“Omega,” she utters in a soft whisper, guilt singeing her words. “I’m not a perfect person. I’m a monster. One day, you may hate me.”
A growl thunders in my chest as I press a kiss to her head. “Impossible. You’re my everything, Love.”
“Just listen to me,” she sighs. “When everything seems like a big mess, I want you to remember this exact moment. This. Moment.”
“It won’t ever seem like a big mess,” I assure her, “as long as you’re there with me.”
A ragged breath escapes her, and she suddenly pushes me onto my back. She straddles my hips, and within moments, she’s expertly riding my cock and owning my mouth with hers.
“Remember this,” she begs between kisses.
Lovenia is normally so pulled together and sure. But these rare moments of her vulnerability are my favorite. It further bonds me to her and reminds me why I love her.
“I will never forget,” I vow.
Screams.
Agony.
Terror.
My soul is being shredded and gutted and smashed. The scent of burning flesh suffocates me, and my skin melts from me, my muscles turning hard and charred, my bones becoming brittle and black.
“Please!” I wail, begging anyone who’ll listen for mercy.
I’m damned.
To spend eternity suffering.
Flames lick at me. Bite at me.
Souls scream.
My head spins and explodes, and nothing makes sense.
Think of her. Think of Love.
Love. Love. Love.
The thought of her calms my suffering soul and snuffs the pain out. I’m stolen from this Hellhole as I fall into Love.
“Do you ever think outside of our jobs, Love?” I question as I drag a finger down her spine toward her ass. “Like, would you ever want to be a mother? A wife? Something simple?”
Her languid body tenses up as sadness radiates from her. “No,” she lies. “My job is the most important thing.”
I drag my finger back up her spine, relaxing her. “I think about it a lot, Love. It’s important to be a badass good guy,” I chuckle softly, “but I also wonder what a normal life would look like—with a family.”
“Omega, just squash the notion right now. Seraph Guardians and Leviathans don’t get happy endings. Their destiny is to work for the greater cause. And while our causes are opposing, it’s still our duty.”
I press a kiss to her shoulder blade. “I don’t give a fuck about causes. You’re my cause, Love. All of this other stuff is bullshit. I want you as my other half,” I avow before nibbling the flesh on her back.
“Mmm,” she hums out but rolls over, away from my mouth, so that we’re facing each other on the bed. “I love you too, Omega. We can be in love, but we can’t have this fantastical idea of a white picket fence and two point five kids. It’s a dream. No matter what happens between us, we are bound to our duties by an unbreakable contract. There’s no changing that.”
I climb on top of her and enter her with a hard thrust. She’s wet and ready, like always.
“So we’re supposed to live in this moment and that’s it? We don’t have a future together?”
She tangles her fingers in my hair and tugs my face to hers. My mouth overtakes hers, and I taste the woman I love. So sweet.
“No future, Omega. Just this moment. Savor it—I sure as hell am.”
Screams.
Loneliness rips my soul to pieces.
Nothing exists but the eternal flames lashing at me at every possible millisecond.
I’m desperately clutching on to her memory.
What’s her goddamned name?
What does she look like?
I’m fucking losing her!
Love. Love. Love.
Don’t you ever forget, motherfucker. Don’t you dare forget her!
Dark eyes.
Sexy and innocent.
Love.
Thank you, God. Thank you for not taking her away from me.
Fucking Pedro!
Alpha is hot on my heels, but I don’t give a goddamned fuck. I’m going to kill that asshole. The moment I see him—inside my woman—fucking her like it’s his God-given right, I pause for a mere second before leaping into action.
“I will kill you, motherfucker!” I roar.
Her eyes find mine. Teary and apologetic. My love. My Love.
Rage.
Motherfucking rage explodes through me, and I tackle the fucker straight off her. This, what I’m about to do, ends it all.
Truth is, nothing matters but her. And having seen her with that Mexican prick balls-deep inside her makes me want to rip his head off.
“He raped me!” she hisses at Alpha.
This only further fuels my hate toward him. Punch after sickening punch, I attempt to smash Pedro’s skull into the tattered, shitty-ass carpet.
I love her, damn it, and she’s mine!
Alpha rips me away, and before I know it, he’s dragging me from the piece of shit. He tugs me further away with each step, somehow stronger than my furious, flailing self. I scream and curse the ground he walks on as he manhandles me down the hallway and toward the front door.
My best friend is saving me.
Too bad I don’t need saving.
I need her.
He’s managed to pull me through the doorway of the apartment when I hear Lark’s voice. Good. Maybe she’ll distract him long enough for me to wrench from his grasp. Pedro will die tonight whether Alpha likes it or not.
Lovenia’s scream suddenly pierces the air, and my eyes land on her desolate ones in the hallway from where she now stands behind Pedro, who is raising his Glock toward me.
This is it.
I lose everything. I lose her.
But as the shot blasts from the gun, Alpha twists and takes the goddamned bullet for me. Alpha’s getting hit guts me to my core, but I won’t stop. Pedro deserves to die, especially now.
“That motherfucker!” I scream and finally break from Alpha’s weakened grasp.
Charging forward, I don’t stop until my shoulder crushes into Pedro’s chest and we slam to the floor. Everything is a blur of screams and commotion, but one thing steadies me as I wrestle the gun from Pedro.
Love. Love. Love.
The deal is done. I’m going to kill this fucker now—my destiny will change. I’ll become something sinister and evil, but I’ll be free to love her. No rules. No lines drawn in the sand. Just the two of us for eternity.
I lift my head to meet her gaze as I barely squeeze the trigger, making sure we’re on the same page.
Love flashes in her eyes, and it floods my soul. But the look of regret mixed with sadness confuses me. Tears brim in her eyes, and she nods almost as if the act itself physically pains her.
I don’t think twice before throwing it all away for Love.
Pop!
Hissing and begging roar in my head. Thousands and thousands of voices all plead at once—shrill and filled with terror. It’s too much. Too fucking much. Nothing makes sense anymore. The fires that rage within me and surround me blinds me with their bright light.
How long have I been suffering with these damned?
Will there ever be any relief?
The only relief I find is when I remember her.
Love.
“You need a vacation, son.” The familiar voice tinkles through the air around me, momentarily stealing me from my desperate attempt to grasp at memories of Love.
I lean toward it. Reach for it. Cry for it.
When solid arms scoop me up, my soul rejoices. With his soothing touch comes silence. With his touch comes reprieve from the pain.
“Thank you. Thank you,” I mutter over and over again to my savior.
He hugs me closer to him, and I inhale the comforting aroma of incense—the scent reminds me so much of my Love.
“Shhh, I will protect you now.”
I believe him. I trust him.
The heat cools degree by degree with every step he carries me. With it, my soul fills with warmth. Hope. And Love.
I’m disoriented as we emerge into a hallway. This same hallway I was in years or eons ago—or maybe seconds ago. I’m not sure.
“Jes,” I murmur.
Jes is untouched—not a dark hair on his head singed. But as I lift my hand, I see nothing but black, charred flesh hanging from bone.
“W-w-what?” I stammer out as I rotate my hand and stare in horror.
“Gabriel,” Jes booms in an authoritative voice as he enters the elevator with me in tow.
The archangel appears in the elevator with us and pushes the button. Then he reaches for me, and Jes transfers my decaying body into his arms.
I hiss from the loss—Jes was healing a part of me that now, without his physical touch, bleeds profusely within.
“Do you like this song?” Jes questions as he takes my rotting hand between his.
Song?
What song?
Closing my eyes, I listen—to see if I can hear what he wants me to hear. It’s upbeat and familiar. All I can make out is the word “love” being sung over and over again in a British dialect. I find and hold onto the word while nodding fiercely.
“Open your eyes, son,” Jes instructs softly.
I open them and gasp in awe. The blackness flakes away from my fingers, my flesh thickening over the bones until my hand is restored. My clothes, which were charred, suddenly cling to my body as if they hadn’t been burned away in the first place.
I’m confused and dizzy.
But relieved and thankful.
“Thank you,” I grunt. My soul still aches and bleeds though, the torture suffocating me from within. I’ll never get the screams out of my head. The agony that consumed my entire being still lingers.
“Don’t worry,” he says with a smile as Gabriel transfers my weak body back into his arms. “I’m not done yet.”
The comfort of his presence once again fills me, and I close my eyes, giving in to the fatigue that takes me away. My thoughts find her like they always do.
Love.