MARLOW
The only upside to being at this damn airport with Rupert is that I’m not crying.
Even though I feel like hysterical sobbing… But I don’t want to show that idiot my feelings, my despair, my terrible breakdown, and the sense that I’ve lost everything.
I’m pregnant, and he’s the father.
It’s still hard for it to sink in.
I’ve always longed for this, and it’s the only thing keeping me afloat, because it’s the goal of my life, the wish I’ve had ever since I was old enough to understand what I wanted from life.
Meanwhile, I have to bottle up all my emotions.
We’re sitting in the departure lounge with a handful of other passengers. The planes leaving this airport are tiny, carrying no more than fifty people.
Not far from me, two curly-haired boys are playing.
I watch them for a moment. They’re not twins, but they look similar enough to bring the idea to mind.
Will I even manage to carry this pregnancy to term? I’m an alpha, after all. Will my hormones be able to handle it? And what about Rupert and me? I doubt I’ll be able to live with him, but we’ll have to work out some kind of co-parenting arrangement.
One where I won’t have to look at him too often. Or ever!
Rupert isn’t in a good mood either. He sits staring at his hands, lost in thought.
I wonder what he’s thinking. Does he regret losing his little triangle with Caspian and Juan? Is he angry that such a stupid situation complicated our lives this badly?
Well, he started it!
Something draws my attention: a strange commotion farther down the airport, shouting, and the sound of running feet.
I wonder what it means. Was there an accident? Did a plane crash, and are people now screaming and gathering around the gates?
Feeling a nervous wave, I stand up so I can get a better look toward the exit and the boarding gates.
Suddenly, I spot a bizarre figure among the heads of passengers scattering in every direction, most of them shouting in panic.
It’s hard to believe, but I think I know who it is.
But it’s impossible that he’s here.
Just impossible.
Fenn Drax.
Why, why?
Airport security is shouting after him. I can also hear the growing wail of police sirens.
Did they organize a manhunt for him? Well, that’s something. For a few surreal seconds, I just stare at the odd scene. This whole situation seems insane, like something out of a movie.
And the best part is that I realize he came all the way here… for me. I’m sure of it, because what else would he be doing here? Damn it, he’s not taking a vacation to Hawaii right now, of all times.
My hands begin to shake.
My entire body tenses, bracing for some peculiar incident.
Rupert stands as well.
"What’s going on over there?" he mutters, looking around at the crowd.
Fenn's head rises above the other people; he reaches the gates.
Airport employees try to stop him, and the gate closes.
Metal railings lower from the ceiling, but he just hits the massive barrier, and it breaks and bends like a child's toy, with an accompanying sound that's loud enough to make people run screaming.
They probably think the whole building is collapsing.
"Fuck," Rupert mumbles, literally crouching behind me, his voice shaking. "Please, dear Fate, I hope he’s not angry with me!"
And then…
Fenn charges toward me, and I stand straight.
Even from this distance, his eyes lock onto my face with that crazy intensity. Their purple color seems to burn, glowing like flashlights in the dark.
He’s looking at me as if I’m the only person who exists in the entire universe.
My heart pounds in my chest, my breathing rapid. Everything inside me trembles as if I’m made of loose pieces.
He has the nerve to come here after fucking that alpha?
And yet part of me is desperately happy that he came. Because it means he still cares about me.
But it doesn’t matter either way, because I’m carrying Rupert’s kids.
Fenn finally reaches me.
Airport security is right behind him, though. They try to grab his arms, but he jerks free and shoves them away.
"Leave me alone! I just want to tell him something, and then I’ll leave the airport!" he shouts.
They try again, but he pushes them aside and rushes to me, dropping to his knees in front of me with an impressive knee slide. He presses his hands together against his chest as if in prayer.
"Please, Marlow!"
His voice is trembling, desperate, rough, and pleading at the same time.
"Please, don’t leave me! I love you! You’re the only one who exists for me.
I don’t care whose child you’re carrying.
I’ll always love you and your son. Please choose me!
Please, Marlow!" he begs fervently, his eyes filling up with tears.
The guards grab him by the arms again, trying to restrain him, but of course they have no chance.
They cling to him like frantic worms, but strangely enough, some of them start behaving oddly. They slow down, stop fighting him, and instead begin looking at one another with an unusual intensity.
But Fenn doesn’t turn toward them.
"Marlow, please, don’t leave me! You’re all I have, my hope, my heart, my longing. You’re everything to me, Marlow!"
My emotions are skyrocketing, and I’m uncontrollably shaking, and there’s this one thing I have to say.
"But you fucked with that alpha Dr. Lomax assigned to you," I blurt out. Nothing else comes to mind except that argument, but in fact all I want is to scream, howl, and cry, and I simply have no idea what I’m supposed to do now, because deep down I have already chosen him.
Fenn's face goes slack with shock.
"What? That’s what they told you? It’s not true, Marlow. They want to separate us. They want to turn you against me! I only went into the chamber with him and used my ability on him from a distance. I never touched him. I couldn’t. Don’t you understand? Not after I held you in my arms, Marlow."
My heart is pounding so fast I feel like I’m about to faint. What did he just say? I press my hands against my chest, struggling to calm it down.
The guards are still trying to drag him away, but one after another, they give up on the struggle. Suddenly, two omegas start kissing. Another guard stares in confusion at the obvious bulge in his crotch, while two more alphas begin making out. Within moments, Fenn is left standing alone.
But it’s not the end of it. I can already see larger reinforcements approaching from farther back. I think the police are already running this way too, and they'll probably realize shortly that trying to physically overpower Fenn Drax is doomed to fail.
But his eyes never leave my face.
"I swear to you, I didn’t fuck him. I couldn’t.
I only love you. I only want to be with you.
Please choose me, Marlow. I’ll raise your child as if it were my own.
We’ll be a family. Because—" he interrupts, his face blushing even more, his gaze strangely shy as he finishes breathlessly, "I wholeheartedly believe we are fated mates! "
Wow.
I didn’t see that coming. My heart was pounding before, but it gallops now like a wild mustang.
"Fated Mates? I thought that as a purple alpha, you could only be matched with a rose omega."
Fenn’s face twists into a bitter grimace.
"But I am not a purple alpha, Marlow."
I swallow hard, completely confused.
And suddenly, the guards who were making out are dragged aside by their colleagues wearing nose clips… as if on some signal. Something is going on!
"Marlow, that little house we dreamed about—"
…and then I hear a dull sound.
Something strikes Fenn’s body…
He staggers.
His hand presses against his side where he was hit.
But he’s still looking at me.
"That little house we both talked about, surrounded by flowers, with you and me living there, and… our happiness, it could happen, please!"
Another round hits Fenn, and only then I see blood spray across the ground…
A wave of terror crashes over me as I realize they’re shooting at him with live ammunition, not rubber bullets.
"No!" I scream. "Stop! Stop shooting him!"
It can’t be, no, no!
They want to kill him like a beast, the way they see him. They want to slaughter him right here in front of me, hunt the monster, destroy this unique being…
I throw myself toward Fenn and wrap my arms around him, wanting them to stop shooting, hoping they’ll decide he’s no longer a viable target because I’m a civilian.
"Move aside!" someone shouts through a megaphone.
Unexpectedly, I feel Rupert grab me from behind and start pulling me the other way.
"Let him go!" Drax snarls. "Marlow is everything to me!"
But Rupert pushes himself to the limit of his strength. He locks something like a chokehold around my neck, cutting off my ability to breathe, and starts dragging me backward.
For a short moment he pulls me away from Fenn, and then more rounds hit him…
He falls onto his side, blood creating a red pool on the floor…
A horrifying scream tears from my throat, but then something begins to change.
His body starts growing, jerking. Oh my dear Fate, Fenn Drax is taking on his true form, the one he talked about so many times, saying nobody wanted to see it…
"Oh, fuck. What the fuck is that?" Rupert mutters, dragging me even farther away.
The police keep shooting at him, but this time the rounds bounce off his hard, insect-like body.
What Fenn has transformed into is nothing like what I imagined in my wildest dreams.
I thought maybe he was some kind of bear, or a yeti, or maybe a giant wolf.
But this is something far more terrifying.
He resembles a gigantic praying mantis standing on massive black legs, with enormous prismatic, faceted eyes similar to those of the cat-eyed mantis species, the outer edges of his eyes rising upward like two horns.
On top of that, he has simply magnificent wings.
Their lower halves shimmer with iridescent colors, shifting along the sides with an almost luminescent sheen, while the upper portions fade into a pattern resembling enormous, ominous eyes staring directly at whoever stands before him.
Their surface gleams like nacre, and the edges are so delicate and translucent, like an ethereal veil of lace. What an extraordinary marvel of nature!
Fenn is huge now, so huge that he towers a good sixteen feet above the ground… Wow.
Similarly to a praying mantis, he has gigantic spiked forelimbs.
The police bullets stop having any effect on him. They bounce harmlessly off his black-and-purple insectoid exoskeleton.
I look at him, straight into those bizarre eyes that seem to follow my every movement.
And then I remember that moment when I stood before him after my shift and he accepted me.
And this is the moment when I owe him exactly the same thing.
So I move toward him, shoving Rupert away with all my strength.
The mantis lowers itself slightly as if it wants to get a closer look at me, tilting its bizarre head a little.
And I don’t hesitate; I wrap my arms around the armored neck of the creature, even though I know that with a single movement of those forelimbs it could tear me in half.
But it doesn’t.
And I whisper, "I choose you, Fenn. I choose you!"
Then I start to climb onto him. Maybe he can take me out of the airport on his back, and they won't shoot him that way?
But the police have other plans. They throw something else toward us… Smoke fills the air.
People run in every direction, and Fenn and I are swallowed by a choking, stinging cloud. My head starts spinning, my vision blurring, my hands loosening their grip on him…
…and then I lose consciousness.
The last thing I feel is Fenn tripping and falling as well, his body collapsing onto the ground.
For all his power… he’s still a biological organism, and he can still be put to sleep.
◆◆◆
I feel myself emerging from the darkness of unconsciousness. I’m lying in Rupert’s arms. He’s supporting my back and gently patting my cheeks.
"Open your eyes, Marlow. Open your eyes…"
Reluctantly, I do, because I already know what I’m going to see: his fake, candy-sweet face.
The moment I gather enough strength, I shove him away and sit up.
Interestingly, we’re still at the airport, although there’s no one around us anymore. I assume the plane has already left.
"Where’s Fenn Drax?"
That’s the first thing I care about.
My eyes are drawn toward the barely washed away stain of blood on the floor…
"Is he alive?!"
Rupert’s face twists into a grimace.
"That weird thing? That giant praying mantis?" He practically spits out the words. "Why would you care what they did with that monster? It was creepy and disgusting—"
I run toward the place where Fenn Drax’s body slammed into the floor, and I fall to my knees.
My fingers touch the ground that is still faintly pink with his blood.
"No, no…"
Rupert is right behind me, and he continues in a rather impassive voice,
"Actually, I’ve been thinking about it, and I guess I finally understand why he was able to activate fertility in everyone. He probably wanted to lay his eggs in them! A similar reproductive strategy exists in many insect species… It makes perfect fucking sense!"
"Shut up, Rupert! Just shut up! I only asked where they took him!"
Rupert shrugs. "How should I know? He just transformed back into his more humanoid form; they tied him up, and the police or whoever hauled him away somewhere."
I jump to my feet.
"I have to find him!"
"You’ve lost your mind, Marlow. You’re pregnant. We’re going to be parents, and he belongs in the past. You should leave him there—"
"No! I don’t want to be parents with you!" It’s a scream. "I don’t need you or your presence! You and I are simply never going to work! We’ll set up some damn visitation schedule so you can see the kids, but personally, I don’t want anything more to do with you. Don’t you understand?"
I turn around and rush away, leaving Rupert alone at the airport. Standing there with his mouth hanging open and a completely idiotic expression on his face.
As soon as I step outside the building, the first thing I do is pull out my phone.
I know exactly who I need to call and who is the only person powerful enough to help in this situation.
Blue Lowen.
But before I press the call button, I notice a preview of a text message from Mr. Davos popping up in my notifications:
"Have you considered moving to Rainbow Springs? It just so happens that my son wants to sell a beautiful house surrounded by flowers—"
I ignore it for now. I’ve got more important things to deal with. But I promise myself I’ll click on that text as soon as I put out the biggest mess in my life and get things back on track.