The Human Omega

by J. L. Wilder

  Axe shook his head. “It’s a big secret. I’m guessing there’ll be some test of our ability to control our change since it’s full moon, but other than that, I have no idea.”

  He started jogging again and Kiedra sighed before following him. She caught up and held her own beside him.

  “Can I ask you something?” Axe’s voice was hardly strained.

  “Anything.”

  They ran in silence for a few moments before Axe spoke again.

  “Did you date anyone while you were gone?”

  “A few guys. One for about a year. How about you?”

  “Nope,” Axe said. “Let me finish, then I’ll answer.”

  Kiedra nodded and mimed locking her lips.

  Axe smiled. “The one that lasted a year.—what happened?”

  The silence fell again while Kiedra considered how to answer him. Steve had been her lab partner in freshman chemistry. They’d shared experiments in class and later in the bedroom. It was the bedroom where they’d come to an impasse. She’d gotten excited and maybe a little rough with Steve one night and he’d left. He’d never called her again.

  “Too personal?” Axe asked.

  “No. I’m just not sure how to tell you. It was a bedroom thing.”

  “Did he hurt you?” Axe’s voice rumbled in his chest, touching just on the edge of a growl.

  Kiedra laughed. “No, I hurt him.”

  Axe stared at her, eyes wide and starting from his head, and then the laughter boiled out of him in a surprised rush. He stopped running and leaned a hand on a tree, bent over with the force of his mirth.

  Kiedra crossed her arms over her chest. “It wasn’t that funny!”

  “You hurt him? What did you do? Bite him?”

  “Yes.”

  His laughter cut off and Axe straightened. “Really?”

  “Yeah. Drew blood and everything.”

  “Damn,” Axe said. “He didn’t like it?”

  “Definitely not. Do you?”

  “Well, yeah. Especially if you drew blood.” Axe started jogging again. “What did he do?”

  “Left and never called again.”

  “Dick.”

  Kiedra smiled. “Thanks for that.”

  He shrugged. “I mean it. The mature thing would have been to talk to you about it. He ran.”

  “Is it my turn now?” Kiedra asked.

  “Sure. Ask me anything.”

  “Did you date anyone while I was gone?”

  Axe nodded. “I dated everyone. Alice first, then a bunch of others ending with Leslie. We were together about six months, but she wanted me to have more ambition. When I didn’t, she dumped me for Hawk.”

  “I’m sorry.’

  “Don’t be. I’m not. They deserve each other.”

  The path they were running on opened into the yard behind Mamma’s house and Axe slowed to a walk. Kiedra fell in with his pace. They crossed the yard to the kitchen door. Axe leaned against the side of the house.

  “You remember what Hawk was like in high school?” he asked.

  “Sure. I thought he’d be in jail by now.”

  “Right. Me too. But when we graduated, he went to his dad and found out Roland wanted to retire in a few years. He paid for Hawk to go to college. Hawk went, learned how to run a business and then opened his own when he came back.”

  “He has a business?”

  Axe chuckled. “Yeah. Biggest drug dealer in the state. He’s got the best network of dealers anywhere and he runs that shit like it was a Fortune 500.”

  Axe stretched a little. Kiedra watched and waited, knowing he’d finish his story when he was ready. Finally, he stood up and headed into the house. He poured two glasses of water from the pitcher in the fridge and sat them on the table. Kiedra took a chair across the table from him.

  “Leslie has a thing for power and money and I had neither. Hawk came back after he graduated and brought the money and contacts he’d built there. Leslie took one look and we were over.”

  “Do you miss her?”

  “Do you miss him?”

  They both laughed. A comfortable silence fell between them. Finally, Axe set his glass on the table and stood.

  “I’ve got to get to work.”

  Kiedra got up and took the glasses to the sink. “Want to come over for dinner tonight? Maybe a movie?”

  “Definitely. Want me to stop at the store?”

  “No, I’m going to take Mamma’s car and meet Roland rather than having him meet me here. I’ll stop at the store on my way back.”

  Axe threw her the thumbs-up. “I’ll come back around seven, then?”

  “Perfect. Any requests on the movie?”

  “No Rom-Com, please.”

  “Aww. I was gonna get every Julia Roberts movie ever made!”

  “Please,” Axe begged, “anything but that!”

  Kiedra joined his laughter and walked him to the door. She held the door for him as Axe stepped through. He stopped and kissed her cheek, then trotted out to his truck. He waved on his way out of the driveway.

  THE lawyer sat behind his enormous, polished desk, eyeing Kiedra.

  “You don’t look nothing like her,” he said.

  “Like who?”

  “Sylvia Butters. I’ve met her, you know. And her daughter. If you’re trying to fool me, it isn’t going to work.”

  Kiedra snickered. “Mamma adopted me when I was five.”

  “Hrumph.” The lawyer leaned back in his chair to relax a bit, but he kept a wary eye on Kiedra until Roland opened the door and stepped in.

  “Sorry. I had to handle an employee this morning.” He shook the lawyer’s hand when the man popped up like someone pulled a lever under his chair.

  Kiedra shot Roland a look and the two stifled their giggles.

  “No problem at all, Mr. Lane. I’m available to you anytime. You know that.”

  Roland sat in the empty chair beside Kiedra’s. “I know, Mr. Reynolds.”

  “Good. Shall we get started then?” The lawyer pulled several folders toward himself.

  “Don’t you want to ask Roland something, Mr. Reynolds?” Kiedra asked. She offered the startled man her sweetest smile.

  “What was that? Ask a question? No. No, of course not, Ms. Foster.”

  Roland sat up a little straighter and notched an eyebrow at Kiedra. “Something wrong, Kiki?”

  “Well, Mr. Reynolds seemed a little concerned that I might not really be any relation to Mamma. I wanted to be sure he was comfortable moving forward without confirmation from you that I was who I said I was.”

  “Is that so, Mr. Reynolds? Did you want to ask me something?”

  The lawyer stuttered, cleared his throat, and bolted from the room. Roland and Kiedra burst out laughing the moment the office door latched behind the terrified little man.

  “That wasn’t nice, you know,” Roland admonished.

  “But it sure was fun.” Kiedra crossed her arms across her chest, daring Roland to say more.

  He reached across the space between their chairs and patted her shoulder. “You okay today?”

  She shrugged. “As well as I can be, I guess.”

  Roland nodded. “Me too.”

  The lawyer bustled back into the office and took his seat behind the desk. “Apologies, Mr. Lane, Ms. Foster. I had something in my throat. As to any questions I might have, I have none. I’m sorry my words made you feel as though I didn’t believe you, Ms. Foster.”

  “It was more than the words,” Kiedra began.

  Roland shook his head and Kiedra stopped talking.

  She took a deep breath. “Apology accepted, Mr. Reynolds. I may owe you one as well as I know I’m not my usual self today.”

  “No, of course you aren’t. You’ve just lost your mother. And here I am making things worse.” The lawyer looked between Kiedra and Roland, obviously weighing which of the two people were really more important in this situation. He finally settled on bouncing his gaze back and forth between them.


  “Shall we get started?” he asked.

  “Please,” Roland answered.

  The lawyer pulled a single sheet of paper from the top folder on his desk. “This is the last will and testament of Sylvia Marie Butters,” he said, shaking the paper enough to make it rattle. “I won’t bore you with the legalese unless you want to hear it?”

  Roland and Kiedra both shook their heads. Kiedra braced herself when the lawyer took his next breath. She expected Mamma had left the house to someone in the Pack and maybe left her a little something—maybe jewelry.

  “I, Sylvia Marie Butters, being of sound mind, etc., etc.,” the lawyer intoned. “Do hereby bequeath all my worldly goods to Kiedra Ann Foster.”

  Kiedra let out the breath she’d been holding in a sudden whoosh. “What!”

  “Your mother left you everything, young lady. And it’s a sizable everything.” He pushed a second, thickly packed folder across the desk, stopping when he reached the edge of the desk in front of Kiedra. “It’s all in here. Everything we kept in trust for your mother and then for you.”

  Kiedra sprang from her chair. “Wait. Mamma left me everything and there was something for her to leave me?” She rounded on Roland. “Did you know about this?”

  “Mr. Reynolds, could you excuse us for a moment, please?”

  “Of course. Use my office as long as you like!” The lawyer trotted out, closing the door carefully behind him.

  Roland reached for Kiedra, but she backed away.

  “Tell me what the hell is going on,” she demanded.

  “Please sit. Save this old man the strain on his neck.”

  Kiedra sat, arms crossed, body closed. Roland sighed. “I tried to tell her this would happen, but she either didn’t believe me or didn’t care.”

  “What is happening? I don’t understand. We were poor. Dirt poor. My whole life. Hell, when I got to Mamma’s house, half the front porch had fallen off the house. Axe said he’d help me patch the holes.”

  Roland ran his hand through his hair. When he looked up, his eyes were both guarded and sad. “I don’t even know the whole story. What I do know is that there was money when you were adopted. Something about an inheritance.”

  “I had money when she got me?” Kiedra asked.

  “That’s what I understood.”

  “Then why were we poor?” Kiedra’s eyes narrowed. “Did Mamma lose it at the casinos?”

  Roland crowed at her. “Sylvia didn’t gamble. Ever.”

  Kiedra closed her eyes a moment and tried to gain control of her thundering heart. She took a deep breath and met Roland’s gaze. “Please tell me what’s going on.”

  SYLVIA sat across the desk from Matt Reynolds. The lawyer fidgeted in his chair, clearly uncomfortable with the fierce woman who frowned at him from her chair.

  “And if we do it this way, no one can have that money until I die, right?”

  “That’s right, Ms. Butters.”

  “And me taking it and putting it aside like this, it’s all legal, right?”

  “Yes, ma’am. Since you’re not spending it, but holding it in trust until your death, and then leaving it to the child it belongs to, it’s all legal.”

  Sylvia smiled and it changed her whole face. The aging, hard woman disappeared for the few seconds the smile stayed on her lips, and was replaced by someone younger, softer, prettier. The lawyer found himself smiling back at her.

  “Good. That’s exactly what we’ll do then. I don’t want to be tempted by that money. We’ll do just fine with what I make. She can have this money when I’m gone.”

  “Very good, ma’am.” The lawyer pushed a small stack of papers in front of Sylvia. “If you’ll just sign at each of those little tabs, I’ll get this filed with the state and the bank today.”

  Sylvia nodded. She pulled the papers toward herself and signed at each place. When she finished, she pushed the papers back to Mr. Reynolds.

  “I have one more thing I want to be sure of.”

  “Whatever it is, we can make it happen.”

  Sylvia nodded. “Good. I want to know that this arrangement and everything we say between us from this beginning until the end is private. No one can know anything about it.”

  Sylvia stood and the lawyer popped up behind his desk.

  “Of course it’s confidential, Ms. Butters. That’s one of the most important things about being a lawyer. You gotta be good at keeping secrets.”

  Sylvia nodded once and offered the lawyer her hand. He shook it and then rabbeted around the desk to open the door for her before she could do it herself.

  “It’s been a pleasure, Ms. Butters. I’ll call if anything ever comes up that requires your signature.”

  She gave the lawyer one more chin notch of a nod and walked into the lobby. Kiedra sat on a chair near the receptionist’s desk. Her feet swung back and forth as the she laughed up at the receptionist.

  “And that’s the Bunny Foo-Foo song, kiddo,” the receptionist said.

  Kiedra’s face slowly flowed from happy to guarded, as Sylvia approached. Sylvia held her hand out to Kiedra. The child took it immediately and allowed Sylvia to pull her to her feet.

  “I’m sorry she bothered you, Miss,” Sylvia said. She looked down at Kiedra and tugged her arm a little. “Apologize for interrupting this nice lady’s work day.”

  Kiedra dropped her head low and whispered to the receptionist, “I’m sorry.”

  “It was no trouble, Ms. Butters. Really. I like kids.”

  Sylvia nodded and walked to the office door. Kiedra followed silently behind her. When the door closed behind them, the receptionist looked at the lawyer.

  “Did I do something wrong, Mr. Reynolds?”

  “No, Mae, you didn’t. That’s just how Ms. Butters is.”

  KIEDRA leaned forward in her chair, her elbows on her knees. “We wouldn’t have had to struggle. We could have even had some luxuries.”

  Roland patted Kiedra’s leg. “She didn’t want anyone to ever say she’d taken you in for the money, Kiki. She wanted to be certain everyone knew she took you in because she loved you.”

  Kiedra shook her head several times before collecting herself. “Can we get the lawyer back now? I have other things I need to do today. I can’t deal with any of this right now.”

  “Sure. Of course. Let me get him.”

  Roland stood and went to the door. As soon as he opened it, the lawyer came right back to the office.

  “Kiki doesn’t want to do anything with her inheritance today. What do we have to do for her to be able to leave?” Roland asked.

  The lawyer pulled a few papers from the third folder on his desk and took a gold pen from his suit pocket. He handed both to Kiedra.

  “If you’ll sign where the flags indicate, you can take everything else with you to go through at your leisure. There’s a debit card and other bank paperwork in there, so be careful with it.”

  Kiedra scrawled her signature at each little flag and scooped up the folder the lawyer had pushed toward her earlier.

  “Thanks, Mr. Reynolds. I’m sorry I was rude earlier.”

  “Never you mind, Ms. Foster. I understand.”

  Kiedra nodded and left, walking straight out the door of the office to the street without stopping.

  KIEDRA walked to the grocery store where she’d left Mamma’s old Cadillac. The land yacht had once been white with black leather on the roof, but now it was more rust than paint and the leather had long since peeled off. She opened the passenger door and jerked open the glove box. The folder from the lawyer went into the box before she slammed it shut and locked it with the round-headed key from her ring.

  She backed away from the car enough to close the door before she stopped to take a deep breath.

  “Get it under control,” she muttered.

  An old woman walking past paused and looked her up and down. “Are you all right, dear?”

  “Yes, thank you.”

  “You look a little pale. Maybe
you should sit down?”

  Kiedra conjured up a smile from somewhere. She turned the full force of it on the woman in front of her, hoping to ease the woman’s mind. Instead, the woman backed up two steps.

  “You’re Ms. Butters’ daughter, aren’t you?”

  “I...well...”

  “You are! I remember that smile. I hoped she’d bring you by the law firm I worked for sometimes, but she never came back herself.” The woman leaned in and patted Kiedra on the arm. “I was real sorry to hear about your mom. Do you need anything? Want me to call someone for you, maybe?”

  “No, no. I’m fine. Really. Just going to the grocery store. And I’m really on a schedule...”

  “Of course. I’m sorry. It was...well, it was real nice to see you hadn’t lost that smile.”

  The woman turned toward her own car and left Kiedra staring after her. She watched the woman get into her car and wave when she drove past. Kiedra raised her hand in return.

  “You bothering old Mrs. Smith?” A snide voice slid into the small space Kiedra had left in her patience, overflowing it and bringing anger boiling right up and out.

  Kiedra spun on her heel and came face to face with Leslie. “Now is not the time, Leslie. Believe me and stay away.”

  “Ohh, Alice, did you hear that? She’s warning me to stay away.!”

  Alice stepped from behind Leslie, so she was in Kiedra’s eye line. “Yeah, I hear her. Uppity bitch, ain’t she?”

  Leslie leaned in close, poking Kiedra with one long, crimson nail. “You need to stay away from our men,” she snarled. “Hawk and Axe both.”

  “I don’t see what difference it makes for you. It isn’t as though either of them are ever going to be interested in you for more than a one-night stand after the Contest.”

  “I’ve already had more than a one night stand with both of them.” Leslie’s predatory smile would have sent most women running for the hills, but Kiedra felt nothing like running.

  “Well, I don’t know about Hawk, but Axe sure didn’t want to come back once he realized what a hateful excuse for a human being you are.”

  Leslie’s mouth fell open and she stammered, trying to find the right come back. Ever the faithful friend, Alice stepped in.