And maybe it was better that I wasn't sure. If I was, then there was no reason to be concerned. As a mother and a father, I HAD to be concerned about my child at all times, even if I was also confident of his fate. It's something a lot of people don't understand.
Jasper saw that twinkle in my eye and smiled. "Where is the hotel?"
"Not that far from here. It's on Cypress Street."
And Marc said, "Then there's no time to waste."
Scott was the first to say, "So we're immediately assuming he's right? If we waste time dicking around, he might hurt our kids!"
Frederick went up to Scott and socked him in the face.
We all looked on in shock, and I was very confused by what just happened.
Freddy then picked him up and said, "If he says it's the hotel, then they're at the hotel."
And that was that. Scott was fuming, and I thought I could see smoke coming from his nose. It wasn't that, but the horn was definitely starting to peek through.
But when Jasper went to his side to help him up, she said something to him that made his eyes widen and then fall.
He didn't look at Frederick directly, but he nodded.
"Alright then," Frederick said, setting his hands on his belt. "Let's roll out."
The clouds started to roll in from the northwest, and they quickly covered us. What was originally a bright, sunny, and very humid day (much to everyone's chagrin) had turned at the last second to darkness. It couldn't have been an afternoon thunderstorm because those always fizzled out by the time this one came in. I didn't much care about it, but it definitely set the mood.
Lightning danced on the horizon and then moved over us, and then came the rains. The wind had picked up, and there was a ridiculous amount of rain coming down at no sooner than 8:30 PM.
It was such a rapid switch that I felt uneasy. Was it a symbol of something? Was the universe itself telling us something? I didn't want to concern myself with the possibility, but it was definitely on my mind.
The rain was hitting our windshields so heavily that it made it hard to make out where we were going.
I didn't like it that much. Unless I was taking a relaxing little swim in our bath jacuzzi, I didn't like getting wet and really hated rain. So to that end, it did feel like some sort of cosmic joke on me in particular.
Every turn in the road felt like agony, and I watched the clock as the minutes ticked on. I could see, through the pouring rain, all the lights of the clubs and restaurants of Lukas Street. Along the way were the flashing pink & blue neon lights of [rainbow], and I silently cursed the place for being the place where all this started. I wished it would burn down and hoped that I'd never have to go back inside, all while keeping my eyes glued onto its front door and the flat walls that obscured the erotic dancing and partying inside.
'Oh no, is this what Tommy felt?' It was irrational to hate a place like [rainbow] just because I met Jack there. But there was a definite sense that I should've stayed in bed that night. That I was an idiot for getting up at all. That day, I was so excited to go out and enjoy the night, but I was also groggy after a day of seeing the rest of the town. I distinctly remember that feeling. If I had only stayed back, I wouldn't have been in any of this mess.
But...
I jumped when I felt warm skin over my hand. There he was with those silvery eyes.
He wasn't smiling, but his determination was so strong that he didn't need to.
I felt like breaking down right there, just so he could hold me. But I didn't want to waste any time. If I was going to cry, it was going to have to wait until after I fought and won.
He was the reason why that day had to happen.
Josh was the reason why that day had to happen.
I couldn't give up. And I'd never think of it again.
We arrived at the Cherry Madison Hotel sooner than I expected (though the ride still felt unnaturally long). As soon as we pulled in, I felt a sudden surge of anxiety. Would I have to see Frederick myself? What if he was prepared for us? Would there be a big fight? What if something bad happened to Frederick or his brothers? Or maybe Tommy, Jasper, Marc...
Or me?
As soon as we entered, I saw Lauren. Same bunned hair and thin glasses that barely covered her eyes as well as the same thick red lipstick. My heart sunk. If she was down here and Jack and the baby weren't, then maybe we really had gone on a wild goose chase.
That is until she looked up. I waved to her.
She immediately ducked slightly, a motion I recognized from crime shows as being what it looked like when someone was calling for security.
Then I said, "Hey! Lauren! Long-time no see!"
She put on a fake smile and said, "Oh, wow! It's been a while. Listen, I'm busy right now. Can you come back later?"
The other Alphas filed in, and Zeke, in particular, was blasting through the sliding doors.
She backed up and went to the phone.
Zeke jumped over the counter and grabbed her wrist right as she was about to pick it up.
"Uh uh, sweetheart. Not today."
She tried pulling free of his grip. "No! No, let go!"
"Why are you so scared?" he shouted at her. If it had not been for her reactions before getting arrested by him, I'd have said there was a pretty good 6'4" reason to be scared.
Frederick went around the counter and cast his shadow down off of a bright white light just above him. The shadow covered Even Zeke.
He said to her, "I'm giving you one chance to explain yourself. We heard you were here, and that means that someone else must be here. Am I right?"
She said, "I'm gonna call the police! You can't do this!"
There was no one else in the lobby she could've called for help, and screaming would've still taken too much time.
"Where is Jack?" Frederick screamed, slamming his palm on the desk.
An elevator door opened down the hall, and I immediately feared a patron would come out and get the wrong idea. After all, seven guys were all crowding around a small woman, who was being forcefully held down and yelled out. If anyone saw this scene with no context, it was way too easy to think of what was could have been going on.
But all our eyes boggled when we saw a well-built man with a frosted-tip mullet stroll out while munching on some cheese crackers.
He turned to us, and we looked at him.
He dropped the crackers and dashed back into the elevator.
Zeke let go of the clerk, but before she could get to the phone, Jasper and Tommy held her back.
"Oh no, you don't," Tommy said. "You've caused enough trouble!"
"I'm sorry," she started saying. "He made me do it! He made me do it!"
"You just helped someone commit kidnapping!" Tommy added.
Meanwhile, I looked down the hall and clasped my hands over my chest as the Alphas rushed to catch Jack.
Frederick
My veins were pumping at an unnatural rate. He had made a mistake and showed himself, but he had a headstart: he had just stepped off the elevator and was able to get right back in. Rather than wait for another lift, I kicked open the door to the stairs and started jumping up the stairs, going up five to seven at a time. In just a second, I cleared a whole flight. But unfortunately, I didn't know which floor he was on: there were five in total, and I couldn't waste time checking every single one.
I went into the second floor and immediately glanced down and saw nothing. Then I went back out and jumped to the third floor. Nothing there either. At least, nothing that I saw.
On the fourth floor, however, I saw a man madly dashing towards the stairway door, only to slip on himself and fall trying to make a sharp turn. He all but punched open a door and started shouting.
I kicked open this door, shouted downstairs, "HERE, HE'S ON THIS FLOOR! FOURTH FLOOR, FOURTH FLOOR, FOURTH FLOOR!"
Then I got to the door the very second it was slammed shut and locked. Inside, I could hear him screaming:
"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck,
they're here! Get something! Unlock the window!"
I started kicking the door, leaving massive holes and bending the thing inwards.
After only four kicks, it caved in, and I pushed through, not minding the few splinters I took.
Jesse came out with a baseball bat, hitting me in the stomach. However, I took the blow without falling and grabbed the bat when he tried again. He was so petrified that he didn't let go, even when I lifted him up and over my head.
I threw him against a TV and let him fall unconscious. Then I went to kill Jack.
But to my shock, I saw him standing on the edge of an open window—— with Josh in his hands.
"Don't! Don't!!"
He jumped out. When I went to the window, I saw that he had shifted into a wolf, with Josh in his mouth. Once he landed, he shifted back, and Josh went back into his arms. He looked back up at me, and I thought I was going to die.
If he dropped my son, there was no doctor alive who could stitch the motherfucker back together.
I saw that he was still staggered. Even for a powerful and overly large wolf, a four-story fall is going to hurt. But he soon found the strength to start jogging away.
"Michael!!" I heard Scott's panicked voice as he lifted his son over his head. "Daddy's here, Mikey! Oh my god, are you okay?"
Michael had been trapped in the bathroom, and the sight of his father was so cathartic for him that he was crying into his father's chest like two waterfalls had appeared on his face. Scott was eager to let him keep doing so, gripping him tight.
It was a heartwarming reunion all his own, but I didn't have time to revel in it. I looked to the door and then back out, watching him rush down the parking lot. I couldn't let him get to a car, and I especially hope he didn't get to Marc's car in a renewed attempt at kidnapping.
So I did what came naturally.
"Fred? Fred! What are you——"
I dived out the window and shifted into a Unicorn.
The landing was easily one of the top two most painful things I had ever felt in my life. The shooting pain nearly sent me falling over on my side, and I thought I broke every bone in my legs. But magically, I was able to stand and keep running onwards. This strength was what I needed to start onwards.
When I said that the landing was one of the top two most painful things I had ever felt in my life, galloping on what was probably broken hooves was the other.
Every motion filled me with the worst pain. And why wouldn't it? I had just stupidly thrown myself off the fourth floor of a building and then shifting into an animal famously known as being unable to handle high falls. Even an Alpha has limits.
So I had to break through mine.
Even in my reduced state, I was able to quickly catch up with Jack, who had started limp-running. I kept the back of his head in my eyes, hoping that I'd be able to stomp on it and catch Josh in one single motion.
My legs were killing me, perhaps literally. I almost didn't want to shift back into a human form even after all this was done out of a fear that I'd get to see my legs were bent in the wrong shapes. However, something spurred me to keep going at an even faster sprint: crying.
The distinctive cry of Josh the narcissistic baby, always wanting to hear his voice.
That silly baby probably didn't even know what was going on and had slept through the entire thing.
Either way, it was enough to refill me with the determination to burst onwards at the fastest speeds I had ever reached as a Unicorn. I felt like a racehorse.
But I also started to realize that he wasn't running to the roads or even back to the hotel. Instead, he was running to the town's namesake: Brooks Creek. Erroneously named because it was actually a Pacific river.
I didn't want to imagine why he was going there. However, I did have an idea—— leverage. He was going to try to do something desperate. Realizing this, I tried pushing myself even further. I had to catch up to him and save my baby.
But even a Unicorn can only push so far. I was perpetually behind him, even though I was still able to close the gap somewhat. It was like he was close enough for me to reach out and grab, and it made me frustrated that I couldn't quite reach him. The rain also made the ground even more slippery. Though I nearly fell a few times, what really got my heart going was when Jack slipped. He managed to stay on his feet, but he was always forcing his body forward more than he was running, and I kept fearing that there would be one depression in the ground he didn't see. His feet didn't help him forward just once. Or maybe he'd run right into a tree or worse, the river.
They all weighed on me and kept me going, and I managed to tail him all the way to the Brooks Creek river.
Finally, he stopped. He heaved as if he was about to throw up and let Josh dangle in his hands.
I shifted back to human form and shouted, "Don't do it. Don't. Do it."
The way he held Josh made me fear he was going to do something truly stupid. But thankfully, he wasn't that stupid himself.
"I'm going to take us both out if you don't let me go!"
I stepped forward. "It's just you and me, Jackie. You know you can't beat me." But what I tried to hide from him was that my leg felt like it had been shattered in ten different places, and keeping myself steady was a near-impossible task. By this point, I was about to shift back into a Unicorn to assuage the pain. However, Unicorns don't have arms, and I needed to know I could catch Josh.
He stepped back. "You better stay back, dude. Stay the fuck back."
"Why are you doing this? You could've been different from this. You could've been different from Jonathan."
"Shut up!" he spat. "You don't know us! You don't know me..."
He pulled Josh closer to him, finally holding him like a baby should be held. But Josh was still giving his lungs his all, wailing to the world. And soon, Jack was joining in on it all.
"I don't even know what I am anymore. It's all because of that fucking slut."
My eyes narrowed. "You mean Stuart."
"He should've come to me. I was his chosen one. We were meant to be together! I was the runt of the family! I got no love whatsoever. No one thought I'd become anything."
"And yet here you are, kidnapping people, a FELONY. If you were nothing before, what do you think you'll be now?"
He looked back at the river, which was moving at an even brisker pace than normal from the freak storm. I moved even closer to him, hoping to find an opening.
"You know, you're right, dude. It's fucked up how family can treat each other. My dad didn't know how to act, and he put that shit in us. All of us. And his dad all the same. It's a cycle of shit."
"And again, here you are trying to deny me the chance to be a better dad."
"I WANT TO BE THE BETTER DAD!"
I stepped back and then regained my spot. "You had your chance. And you could've had another chance."
"Stuart was my soul mate! He was the only one! I know he was the only one. It was my destiny, and now he's gone... gone with you..."
"Bullshit." I folded my arms. "This soul mate shit is nothing but bullshit. You might have one somewhere in the world, but that doesn't mean you're never going to find anyone else. Love is a fickle thing, and it follows no rules. That was your first mistake." I stepped forward again, and he stepped back. "And it'll also be your last. Now give me back my son."
He pulled Josh in closer and said the worst bullshit I'd ever heard in my life. "It's alright, son. Daddy's here. Your real daddy."
Josh cried.
My nostrils were flaring so wide that I thought my nose was going to break. And my forehead became pointier by the second. If there's one thing I wasn't going to stand, it was some other punk trying to claim my son was his to my face.
But then I calmed myself. And for a moment, I realized what had just happened.
I told him, "I know you could've been a decent dad in another world. You did love Stuart, didn't you? I know. It's because——"
"Because he's part wolf!" he exploded. "I
know. He shifted the moment I got him. But you know what else he is? Part cat. And part Unicorn. It's all of us. We're all in this. But guess what: I'm the dominant one. This is MY child, not YOURS."
"Are you really so stupid?"
He growled, and then he snarled with oversized teeth that didn't fit in his mouth.
"You think he's your child because he looks like you... And here you are, kidnapping from the man he knows to be his dad? Don't you realize what you've done? Only the most piss-ass deadbeat dads pull this. You weren't the one who changed his diaper. You weren't the one who cuddled with his mother when he got sick. You weren't the one who rocked him to sleep on so many sleepless nights. You weren't the one who worried himself fucking sick over any and every passing day in the hope that nothing would ever happen to him. You weren't the one who risked everything, throwing everything in your house out into the rain, just to chase a fleeting hope to find him. You were the man who wanted to take all this away! And you're the man willing to kill him just to get your own way!"
He roared and lifted Josh over his head. I tried to tackle him, but he was too fast.
OXO
I blinked.
Josh was in my hands. And he was crying, but otherwise unharmed.
Above me, Jack fought and waved his arms over his face like a madman. I couldn't believe my eyes for a moment until I realized what was going on: someone or something had just hugged his face!
He screamed and thrashed all around, trying to get whatever was on his face off. In his panic, he tripped and stumbled over the edge, and I saw a black mass leap to safety as Jack fell into the currents below. The last I saw of him, he was swept away towards a waterfall and, ultimately, the Pacific Ocean.
Josh firmly in my arms, I walked to the river bank and then looked around to see what had saved my baby boy.
A New Millennium's Omega Page 13