A New Millennium's Omega

by Marilyn Black

  There, sitting next to me, was a kitty cat licking his paws.

  And then he shifted into a human.

  And that human threw himself on me and picked up Josh as well.

  And I kissed that human and kept kissing him until my lips were sore.

  And we held each other in the falling and easing rain.

  OXO

  "I can't believe you did that!"

  Stuart wiped his eyes. "I almost didn't see you. But..."

  I pulled him closer and said, "Shhhh. It's okay. We're done. He's gone. We can go home. We can't go home." Josh was the only thing preventing us from hugging. And trust me, if there was ever a good reason to not embrace my beloved Omega mate, this dearest boy who I would give the world to, it was Josh. My dearest son.

  The rain soon stopped, and we sat in a puddle in the wet grass, trying our best to catch our breath and realize that everything that had just transpired really happened. It was all so fast and so hectic that I thought that maybe it was a dream of some sort. But the muddy face and crying baby were enough to remind me that I was here. We were all here. And we had won.

  Stuart

  God, I love Frederick. He's probably the most handsome man on Earth. Scratch that like a cat: he's DEFINITELY the most handsome man on this Earth. Even when he's shirtless and muddle and as sore as if he'd just given birth, he was just adorable. If only Josh wasn't there to actually be #1! To have Josh in my hands was like a fresh, drugless high. We hadn't been separated from each other for more than 10 hours, but it felt like a homecoming from over the years.

  I made up my mind that I was never going to let him go ever again, even if it meant we had to fuse together! Or something like that.

  He was safe, and that's all that mattered to me. This adorable fruit of love was why we went on. It wasn't the reason why we were still together: it was the cherry on top.

  And we had won.

  Wherever the world flushed Jack out to didn't concern me, as long as he was out of my life forever.

  The others finally caught up with us. The headlights were passing by slowly even though it was on a highway, and as soon as we waved, they slowed to a stop and pulled off.

  Neil and Tommy came to us first.

  "Oh my god, are you alright?" I heard them ask.

  And I laughed as I said, "We've never been better!"

  I had Josh in my arms as Neil helped me to my feet.

  Then I heard another cry. Except this one was very deep and manly.

  Freddy had plopped onto his back and was curled up.

  "Freddy? A-are you okay?" I went over to his side and brought Josh down to level with him. "See Ja-Ja, Freddy? See him? You can get up for him, right?"

  He gasped and said, "Oh fucking lord, I can't..."

  Scott had a flashlight and waved it across Freddy's body.

  "Goddamn, dude!" And I got to see Freddy's bare legs. They were so red and swollen that I thought he was wearing some sort of cast at first. In my brightest hour, this was a dark moment that dampened my mood and brought the tears back to my cheeks.

  However, Freddy stroked my hair and said, "It's alright, Stu. It's alright. I can survive this easily."

  His ankles, in particular, were the worst: I couldn't even tell he had ankles. His legs, normally thick and muscular, reminded me more of one of those cartoon drawings that kids would doodle where a character's legs were parallel lines to their feet. Seeing it in real life was uncanny at best and totally gutwrenching at worst. I couldn't stand seeing my babe like that, and I knew he had to be in awful pain to boot.

  Zeke also cursed when he saw his brother's wound and said, "That's what happens when you jump out of a four-story window." Then he helped alongside Neil and Scott to lift Freddy up.

  The first thing Freddy did wasn't snark him but say, "Is Michael okay?"

  Zeke nodded and bobbed his head over to his car. In there, we saw Michael's head peering out the window. I felt so relieved knowing he was safe. Over the weeks that he and his cousin had been here, I'd grown to enjoy the presence so much that they almost felt like my own children. If anything happened to him, it would have felt almost as painful as losing Josh.

  They were able to get Freddy into Neil's car (it was the biggest) and lay him flat in the back seat. I did a little Omega's Prayer that he hadn't just been crippled for life, but even if he was, that was fine to me. He did it all for those he loved.

  Frederick was the man you always wanted. And I, in my dumb luck, had gotten him all for myself.

  Epilogue

  Brooks Creek General Hospital

  Dr. Jerome was so kind. He was always the common denominator in how we dealt with these extreme events. And he was there for us when Frederick needed to spend a month recovering.

  He had all but blown out his legs, and there was going to be a lengthy recovery process. When I first heard the prognosis, I was in despair because everyone talked as if he may never walk again.

  But Freddy said, "Fuck that" and decided he'd walk anyway. Thus the past month has been one miracle after another, and even Dr. Jerome was amazed.

  It took Freddy only a week before he could stand on his two legs again. Then another week to walk at a decent pace. However, he couldn't go far without having to sit down.

  Still, he was improving by leaps and bounds, and this went the same way for his Unicorn form. His legs were healing up at a rapid rate, and all the doctors and nurses were stunned that a man whose legs were so severely injured could heal so totally.

  I wasn't. Because he was Freddy. What else was he going to do: live in pain for the rest of his life? He wanted to walk, so he was going to walk.

  The month was agonizing at first, but then the days would pass by, and I'd know that Freddy had done something to amaze the doctors.

  As for Josh, he was in the hospital for less than a day. Despite the bad stuff he went through in those two days, he was completely uninjured. It was like Freddy said: he might as well have been sleeping through it all.

  Michael, too, was uninjured. In his case, though, I was more worried about potential mental scars. Just because nothing nefarious happened to him didn't mean that he'd walk away unscathed, and I feared that he might spend much of his childhood waking up from nightmares about that time he was kidnapped.

  Thankfully, I heard from Scott and Jasper that this wasn't the case. If anything, he was excited to start school again (already a WTF thing) just so he could brag to his friends about his summer. It was almost an adorable thing all on its own that he thought he was living through a movie plot, and I guess he kinda was.

  I was doing alright. As messed up as that ordeal was, I didn't want to be like Tommy and stay quiet about it. We all cope in our own ways, and my method was to talk about what happened and be as open as I could, both for myself and for others so they would understand how things developed the way they did. It was therapeutic in the beginning, and I admit I started to embellish a few details later on.

  Like, I don't think Frederick went in there spouting witty one-liners or wearing face paint like Rambo, and there was an international conspiracy that started getting passed around, but it sounded cooler so whatever. And really, the story itself was already so out there. My son got kidnapped by a wolf with icy tipped mullet hair whose brother was a world-renowned hacker, not long after I became betrothed to a dot-com multi-millionaire and moved from my meh middle-class life to a giant sprawling mansion that had a dark and troubled past.

  Goodness, I could write a romance novel about this! But I don't know, I think it's missing that one part that every great romance novel needs: where the lovers are forced apart. Eh! I bet it'll work out in the end. After all, love is a strange thing!

  OXO

  "Fred is a man who's very hard to put down," Dr. Jerome said while watching Freddy swing and twist on a balance board. I was smiling as I watched my man show off his recovery.

  "When he's driven, he's like a force of nature." I bumped and bounced Josh over and over in my arm
s, letting him ride my arm and giggle. "And there's no better way to get him driven than to threaten his family."

  Dr. Jerome smiled at me and said, "That's what an Alpha has to do to protect his pride."

  "And I'm glad he can do it so well."

  Freddy looked down and smiled, and I wondered what he was thinking about. The blush that grew on his cheeks told me, though, that it must've been about me.

  I hadn't talked to Scott or Jasper much after that first day or a few assorted phone calls (speaking of which, Freddy did get a new phone, but he had to use mine for a few days). The last I heard of them, they were taking a vacation. I completely understood why. That's all I wanted to do with Josh and Freddy.

  Neil had been by his brother's side for many days, neglecting his shop. As a result, we got to bond as well, and I could tell that he did feel many good things about his sibling. Alphas may be confrontational and aggressive, but damn if they aren't also some of the most loving people.

  Scott's last words to me for quite some time was, "Things can change, but memories are forever."

  Tommy agreed with him. "We've been enjoying every moment we've had with Makayla."

  Neil had his hands clasped together while he was sitting, so it almost looked like he was praying. He said, "We've been thinking of doing what Scott's done. Take a vacation, you know? Just get away from it all for a while."

  Freddy said nothing, but he was eager to give his bro a big fat hug. We were all thankful for what we had, and I was thankful that I was able to be surrounded by such good people in my life. I never expected that my life would turn out this way when I first came here, but sometimes the best things are the ones you never expect. And I'd never trade those days for anything.

  Frederick

  I'll put this out there now. I've faced many types of people in my life. Crackheads who don't know how to act. Drunkards who are waving broken bottles. Angry housewives who have snapped. Omegas angry at Alphakind. And of course, the likes of Jack. I've had to deal with tons of things in my life as well. I've gotten shot once by a Seattle junkie with a pawned Baretta, stabbed twice (neither was particularly bad though), and gotten myself dragged into several fights with others who refused to respect my authority (the win-loss ratio ain't too shabby either, if I do say so myself). And of course, I was in the hospital dealing with legs that, for all I knew, would never work again unless I made them work.

  But if there was one thing I could go my entire life without experiencing again, it was needles. I hate getting shots. Before then, it wasn't that bad. Unless it was one of those tetanus shots, it was real quick, and you'd never know when it started or ended if the nurse had a good hand.

  Four shots a day, however, was pushing it into the "getting tired of this shit" territory. That was my new routine, and I was happy for it to eventually come to an end. It was four shots roughly at the same time, almost always in the same general area on my calve. Why are needles such a pain in the ass anyway? They're just little needles no different from a mosquito stinger! Yet I'd still take gross baby boogers and dirty diapers well before I'd get another sticker in my legs.

  But I digress. After all, whenever the shots came, I wouldn't feel them quite as much since I also got to hold Josh. His chirping and squeezing my nose took my mind off it until I felt those painful thrombosis mega-needles dig into the muscle. Awwggh.

  My goal for that last month was to get out of the hospital at all costs. I would push myself as far as I could go before my legs would give out, and my body understood my will. Being a Unicorn helped too. Unicorns are magical like that.

  During that month, there were a lot of times where Stuart would fall on me, and we would lie there. He was on top of me for a change, and I'd squeeze his body tight. It was the closest we could get to having some private fun.

  We kept trying to talk. But it wasn't going to happen. Not yet. We were too happy to be in each others' presence.

  But eventually, the question had to come onto my lips.

  "Do you want another baby?"

  He bit his lip and looked to the side. That wasn't a "no."

  I asked because I felt his body and fingered his entrance, and his insides were very warm and self-lubing. It was that time of the year again, and his body was flushing red and getting plumper.

  His heat wouldn't come back until December, and I was so compromised that there was no chance we were going to be able to get it on in time. Sex can happen when you're disabled, very easily. But when you're still feeling shooting pain half the time, it kills the enjoyment.

  He agreed. "Why not ask again at Christmastime? Maybe then we might find some presents under the tree."

  We both smiled and laughed. Josh did too, and I wondered if he knew. Babies are smart. Maybe he wanted a sibling too.

  If so, I'd be happy to oblige. He deserved one.

  Final Passings!

  Five months did pass. Frederick left the hospital on August 9th, 2000 with only a passing limp to his otherwise stable gait. This too would pass with the months—— come to October, one year to the day after Stuart and Frederick first crossed paths at Steamy Cups, and you saw a proud Alpha Unicorn in a suave black suit under a black fedora, holding tightly his man, the fabulous Cat Omega, Stuart. Though they had their fun over the months, they both awaited the next coming of heat.

  As the heat closed in come December, Frederick still felt small pricks of pain every now and again in his legs, but he never let them slow him down and instead used them to drive himself forward as a physical memory that he would always have forever to remind him of his duty and role as a loving Alpha father, a man dedicated to his family, and a savior to his mate and son.

  Stuart would tell Frederick, "I finally understand how Tommy feels," as he reflected on his tribulations in Brooks Creek. "I wish it never happened, and I can't believe a man would be that possessed to do such a crazy thing."

  Frederick would reply, "Love is a strange thing."

  And Stuart would say, "That is true... but it's also how I got out of that mess too." They would fall into each other's arms, and Stuart would kiss Frederick's smile. "If it had to happen just so I could meet you, I'd go through it a hundred more times."

  Josh was growing healthily, and often slept with the soundest of tranquility. His parents watched him slumber and felt great joy about this life they've made.

  On December 20th, just days before Christmas and the great decision on whether or not to have another child, Eric answered the door and summoned for the master of the house to greet two familiar faces.

  Michael and Miranda had returned!

  Michael's words were, "We wanted to spend Christmas here with you!"

  And Miranda added, "And he promises not to get kidnapped this time!"

  Frederick shuffled his pipe across his lips and grinned. "Wonderful, I've been expecting you."

  Stuart looked astounded. "You put them up to this? I wasn't expecting this!"

  And Frederick said, "Of course. It's only common courtesy considering their summer vacation here ended so abruptly." He pulled a mug of peppermint spice latte to his lips and tasted the wonderful new brew from Tommy and Neil. "After all, wouldn't it be nice to get a good feel for two children in this house?"

  Though shocked at first, Stuart grinned.

  "And you always teased me about doing these kinds of things, babe."

  "You've rubbed off on me."

  Michael and Miranda screamed and laughed and ran into the Christmas-decorated insides, finding their old rooms and waking Josh by accident, who once more wanted to hear the sound of his own voice.

  The end!

  Next time: Brooks Creek is once again the center of drama when the eldest Paulson brother, Malcolm, loses his fortune and has to come on home to beg for more money. Meanwhile, a stressed and youthful Omega named Jacob is just trying to stay afloat after his Dot-Com company collapses, and he’s come to Brooks Creek to find himself. Instead, he finds a hot man who needs his help to find his own way as we
ll…

  If you enjoyed this book, why not check out the first book in the series? It follows Neil and Tommy’s romance and the birth of Makayla. Best of all, it’s set in 1998!

  The Unicorn’s Dearest Omega

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  This was written way back in 2017 but never sold particularly well, and I’ve decided to drop off for a while. I decided to reuse several names from that book, so I wish to say it now: Brooks Creek and Nightfyre are not in the same universe!

  If you liked me, you might also like Susi Hawke, Piper Scott, Aiden Bates, and Lorelei M. Hart!

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