by Hawke Oakley
“It’s not a trick,” Mav said simply.
“Bullshit, you don’t even look like her!” Scar snapped.
Scar was right—with his light brown hair and dark eyes, Mav didn’t resemble Angel. But I knew that it took two to tango. She still could have received her light hair and eyes from her other parent. My throat tight, someone’s face flashed in my mind.
A fox omega with blond hair and light eyes.
Henry.
Cold dread clawed at me. The situation was spiralling too fast, and it was all my fault. If we lost Angel to these two horrible people, Scar would never forgive me.
I’d lose my daughter, and my mate, I thought desperately.
With another agonizing pang, I remembered another thing.
Not just my daughter and my mate, but whatever child Scar might be carrying right now.
I had to make this right—fast.
“Why did you two abandon her?” I begged Mav. “If you’re not ready to raise a child, that’s fine. I can even forgive you for leaving her there that night. But we can raise her. We have all the supplies, we’ve already bonded with her… Please, Mav.”
For a moment, Mav seemed to consider my words. Then he shrugged and said, “Nah.”
Scar lunged at him. This time, Mav was caught off-guard. Scar tore a chunk of grey fur out of his shoulder as he pinned him and pummeled his belly with his leg. Mav snarled and kicked Scar off. I held Scar back before he could attack again—even though he was strong and feisty, a disabled omega was no match for an alpha with all four limbs.
“Let go of me,” Scar growled.
“Attacking him isn’t going to change his mind,” I said.
“I don’t care!”
Mav shifted back to human form with a scowl. He examined his shoulder and touched the spot where Scar bit him. A three-inch long wound formed in his skin, just deep enough to bleed.
“Did you see that? He made me bleed!” Mav cried, appealing to the crowd. “Is this omega really suitable to raise a child like he says he is?”
To my horror, murmurs of agreement broke out in the crowd.
“He bit him! He’s bleeding!”
“Doesn’t he run that shady bar?”
“He did attack him first…”
At the last comment I groaned. Of course Scar was the one to attack Mav first. When I found them fighting, Scar probably attacked first and asked questions later. Could this situation possibly get any worse?
Edged on by the supportive crowd, Mav continued. “Not only that, but he hit me when I was a customer in his bar! He assaulted a customer!”
Scar’s hackles raised. “What!? That’s only because you were harassing omegas on my property!”
But Scar’s voice was drowned out by the shocked gasps and gossipping. A sea of stares fell onto Scar and I. Mav smirked at us. He knew he had won.
“Well, I’m gonna go home and see my daughter,” Mav said with a shrug. “Later!”
Exhaustion slammed us. Scar shifted back and collapsed into a listless pile. I couldn’t think. I felt suffocated and could hardly breathe.
With their entertainment gone, the crowd dispersed. Once they were gone, sense slowly came back to me. We needed to collect ourselves before we tried to save Angel again.
I shifted into my human form and reached down to help Scar back up, but when my hands got close, he snapped, “Don’t touch me.”
Shocked, I pulled back like I’d been burned.
Scar hauled himself to his feet without my help. He wouldn’t look at me as he began walking away.
“Where are you going?” I cried.
“Away from you,” he snapped.
My heart skipped a beat. Icy sadness gripped my chest, and my legs turned to lead. I couldn’t follow, or even cry out to him. All I could do was watch my mate leave me.
My mate—and our child he was carrying.
15
Scar
Angel was gone.
Ryu was gone.
Once again, I had nothing left except the Drunken Dragon. So that’s what I focused on. Every single day in the two weeks since the incident with Mav on the street, I went to work. I worked. I came home. I slept. Rinse, repeat.
House chores didn’t get done. Why did it matter anyway? My apartment was lousy compared to Ryu’s, and it wasn’t like there was a young child to think about anymore. I could live in squalor all I wanted. It was my damn life.
Ryu didn’t contact me. I didn’t care, anyway.
But there was one problem. We had sex. Even though I wasn’t in heat at the time, there was still the possibility that I was pregnant.
Part of me didn’t want to check. I didn’t want to know the truth. Maybe in six months I’d have a pleasant surprise, and if I didn’t, then I could just continue on with my miserable life.
But the honest part of me did want to know. It wasn’t fair to a potential child for me to ignore them until their birth.
Fine, I thought, I’ll get a pregnancy test on the way home from work tonight.
With only the smallest glimmer of hope burning in the dark abyss of depression, I got dressed and left for the bar.
* * *
Taking orders and running the ship came mechanically to me by this point. Work itself was a decent way for me to zone out and forget about the dark emotions threatening to consume me. At least his way I forced myself to get out of the bed and enter the real world.
It still didn’t make it any easier.
“Hey, Scar. Grab me a scotch, will ya?”
I slowly came back to my senses at the voice. Nate leaned one elbow on the counter and shot me a good-natured smile. But it quickly faded when he saw my expression.
“Hey… You don’t look so good, man. Are you sick?” he asked.
Mumbling, I grabbed the bottle of scotch. “Something like that. Don’t worry, it’s not contagious.”
Nate’s frown remained. “Hang on, where’s your kid? Angel, right? I thought you brought her to work with you, and that other guy was your nanny or something.”
I winced at the mention of both the people I’d lost.
“Well, they’re gone, okay?” I said, more snappishly than I meant. Nate flinched, and I regretted it. I didn’t want to push away the single person who still wanted to talk to me. “Sorry. It’s just been hard lately.”
But Nate seemed sympathetic. “It’s okay, man.” He paused, phrasing his question gently. “Did something… happen to them?”
A cruel voice in my head thought it would have been easier if they did die. But I was horrified to even think that. I shook myself.
“No, they’re alive,” I told Nate. “It’s just complicated.”
He offered a shy smile. “Might be easier if you talk about it?”
I appreciated his gesture, but every word out of my mouth already felt like a herculean effort. Still, I couldn’t afford to turn down his kindness.
The old Scar would have, I realized. But I can’t act like that anymore.
“Her biological parents are shitstains,” I growled. “They took her from us.”
“You said she’s adopted right?”
“Not officially or anything,” I mumbled. “We found her on the bar’s doorstep, with no one else in sight. No scent trail when I tracked it in my wolf form. It was like whoever left her there just disappeared.”
Nate mulled this over. “How’s that? What kinda shifters are the bio parents, do you know?”
“The alpha-father is a wolf,” I muttered. “Omega-father is a fox.”
Nate’s brow creased. “A wolf and fox? Not leaving a scent trail? Now that’s crazy. Those are some seriously stinky animals. And I’d know—my shifter form is a snake. I can smell a dog probably ten miles away.”
I glowered at him. “I know what I smelled. Besides, we think it has something to do with magic anyway.”
Nate crossed his arms on the counter. “What, like, you think whoever did it put a magic bubble around themselves or something?”
“I don’t know, okay?” I snapped. “I just know that she’s gone, and so is my mate!”
But Nate didn’t seem deterred by my outburst. Heavy in thought, he brought his hand to his chin. “I dunno, man, it seems like there’s something fishy going on with that you told me. If their scent was totally disguised, it’d have to be some master of clear magic or something to do that… Are you sure the bio parents can even use magic that strong?”
I opened my mouth to refute his argument, but then I paused. I’d never seen Mav or Henry actually use magic.
Before I could follow that train of thought, the front door opened and a familiar form came slinking inside.
Ryu!
My chest fluttered with a strange mix of anger and heartache. He caught my gaze for a moment before lowering them shamefully.
Nate turned to follow my glance. “Hey, it’s him! The nanny guy.”
“He’s not a nanny,” I growled. “He was my mate. We were raising Angel together.”
“Ohhh,” Nate said, nodding. “That makes more sense.”
Ryu sidled listlessly up to the counter. I’d never seen him look so upset. Dark bags hung under his eyes, and his usual kind expression was gone, replaced by one of sorrow and longing.
“Hello, Scar,” he said.
“Hi,” I said curtly.
Nate looked back and forth between us, but made no effort to leave. I didn’t care if he stayed—at least we’d have a buffer for whatever altercation was about to happen.
“I’m sorry,” Ryu murmured. “For everything. It’s all my fault.”
“Yeah, it kind of is,” I replied.
Ryu didn’t wince. He knew it was the truth. But I knew I had to accept some blame as well for attacking Mav. Despite everything that happened, I didn’t regret standing up for Henry—even though he turned out to be a horrible person—because at the time, he was just an omega being harassed by an alpha. I’d have done the same for anyone.
“I mean… me attacking Mav probably made everything worse,” I admitted.
Ryu nodded in acknowledgement. “Still, if I hadn’t forgotten to lock the door, none of this would have happened.”
I shrugged. I had nothing to say to that. “Is that why you’re here? To apologize?”
I still didn’t want to accept his apology, but I was glad to hear it.
“Yes. I didn’t know if you would want to see me, so I stayed away for awhile… But we needed to speak. I couldn’t let things end this way.”
We shared a meaningful glance. We both knew the baby I might be carrying was on our minds.
“Have you checked?” Ryu asked carefully.
“Not yet. I was gonna after work,” I replied.
“Oh. Okay.”
Nate, who was listening awkwardly, tried to strike up a conversation in the uncomfortable silence that followed. “So, Scar… The magic thing?”
“What about it?” I muttered. “It doesn’t matter anyway, she’s in their grasp. There’s nothing we can do.”
Nate sighed and turned to Ryu. “Maybe you’ll listen to me. Has anyone actually seen this wolf and fox use magic?”
Ryu began. “No, but the barrier—”
“Aha! You said but,” Nate interrupted. “So you don’t know for sure.”
“What the hell is your point?” I growled at him.
“I’m saying, if you can prove whoever abandoned her can’t use magic—or at least magic that strong—you could prove that they weren’t the ones who abandoned her.”
“And therefore, not her parents?” Ryu finished.
“Right.”
Ryu and I exchanged glances. We’d been so sure that night speaking with Lorenzo that Henry was the one who’d caused the barrier to flicker and made his scent trail disappear—were we wrong?
“Even if you’re right, we can’t just force someone to use magic, and I doubt they would agree if we asked,” Ryu pointed out.
Nate shrugged. “Sure you can. Send some magical arrows their way or something. They have to defend themselves somehow.”
Judging by Ryu’s expression, we both remembered the time Angel protected herself from Charlotte’s little claws by creating a clear magic barrier. It happened instinctively—there was no way she could’ve thought it out beforehand. If you had magic, you used it.
“Actually, that’s not a bad idea,” I mumbled. “They used underhanded tactics to steal her from us in the first place. Might give them a taste of their own medicine.”
Nate nearly choked on his scotch. “They stole her?”
“Yes,” Ryu said. “But they rationalized it under the guise that they were her biological parents in the first place, and they were just reclaiming what was theirs.” He spat the words contemptfully.
“Man, fuck these guys,” Nate declared.
“So if we can lure them out, you can shoot magic at them,” I said to Ryu. “Maybe stop it before it actually hits him, in case we’re wrong and they don’t know magic.” I paused, remembering my hatred for Henry and Mav. “Or don’t. I don’t care.”
Ryu gave me a wry smile. “We’ll see.”
“Now we just have to find—”
My words cut off as the bar’s door slammed open, hitting the wall. The loud smack drew everyone’s attention.
My blood ran cold as I saw who was sauntering into the bar.
Henry and Mav stood side by side. Mav wore a smug grin and walked in like they owned the place. He seemed ready to gloat and rub the misery in our faces. Henry’s expression seemed a bit more guarded, and he tossed glances over his shoulder, as if he was expecting someone to sneak up on him.
But they weren’t alone. Looking uncomfortable in Henry’s arms was our daughter.
Angel!
My heart flared up with hope.
“Those filthy snakes,” I snapped. Then to Nate, I added, “No offense.”
He shrugged. “None taken.”
A customer in the lounge muttered, “Is he bringing a baby to a bar?”
His friend replied, “Haven’t I seen that kid somewhere before?”
They both glanced towards me in confusion, but I was too busy to address their concerns. Mav walked ahead with his head held high. Henry followed, but he didn’t look as confident. His attention was focused more on holding Angel, who frowned in his arms.
My hands gripped the counter so hard my knuckles turned white. Right now I wanted nothing more than to haul myself over it and punch them both in the face. But I forced myself to stay calm. This was our chance to get back our daughter, and I wasn’t about to ruin it with my impatience.
“Hello,” Mav said, leaning on the counter with a smug expression. “I’d like a drink, please.”
I held my tongue. Instead, I imagined punching him so hard his face became concave. I shot Ryu a glance, urging him to hurry up with the plan.
“Aren’t you listening, cripple? I said, give me a drink!” Mav snarled.
A sharp sound whizzed in the air as three clear magic daggers flew towards Mav. The alpha squealed in terror and ducked, throwing his arms in front of his face. But the daggers didn’t touch him. They hovered in the air, shimmering and sharp, just millimeters from Mav’s skin.
Ryu glared at him, his hands raised in the motion. It would only take a flick of his wrist to ruin Mav’s face permanently, but he held back. He was a stronger man than me. I would’ve had no problem making him even uglier than I was.
An ugly face to match his ugly personality, I thought.
When Mav realized he wasn’t hit, he dropped his arms and laughed. “So you just attack me on sight now? Pathetic. Well, it doesn’t matter, because—”
Ryu didn’t wait for him to finish. He flicked his wrist again, this time in a different direction. I had only a split-second to register that this time the magic daggers shot towards Henry.
My heart seized. This is it!
Henry gasped. He threw his arms up, the same way Mav did. But in doing so, he dropped Angel.
He dropped my baby!
“No!” I cried out.
Two bodies moved at the same time. I tried to launch myself over the counter, but my prosthetics slowed me down. But the other blur in my vision was faster. It shot out, a long dark shape. When I realized what it was, Angel had already landed gently in its thick coils.
“Nate!?”
A huge snake coiled on the bar floor, dark gold with brown markings. He seemed to exhale a sigh of relief. “I caught her!” he said, his snake-like voice made clear by Ryu’s dragonspeech ability.
Henry fell backwards, stunned by both the magic attack and the sudden appearance of the three-hundred pound snake in front of him. “What the fuck?” he yelled.
To my surprise, other customers in the bar didn’t seem at all phased. I caught one of them say casually, “Hey, haven’t seen Nate’s snake in a while. Looking good, man.”
“Thanks,” Nate replied, his tongue flicking out.
Gotta remember to not call people snakes in a negative way from now on, I thought in amusement.
“Scar!” Ryu cried, gesturing to Henry. He moved quicker—Ryu swooped in, agile and gentle, and scooped up Angel from Nate’s safe grasp. Her face brightened immediately and my heart melted, a massive wave of relief washing over me.
At the same time, I snatched Henry’s arm. He suddenly seemed meek, and cowered like I was going to hit him. I almost rolled my eyes.
What did Ryu ever see in this guy?
“Let go of me!” Henry cried. “Freak!”
I growled. “Watch it.”
With Ryu and Angel safely backed away, I finally felt comfortable confronting the two assholes who had nearly ruined my life.
“Care to explain yourself?” I snarled.
“The fuck you talking about?” Mav cried, stumbling towards Henry, as if both of them felt safer together. I realized now that they had probably been working together this entire time. “All we did was walk into your bar with our kid, and you attacked us!”
“You can stop lying now, because no one believes you anymore,” I growled. “And since when were the two of you so close?”
