Skylar grinned and blushed like a giddy little schoolboy as he sealed the lunch he'd made for Thea up in its multi-tiered container, having put the final finishing touch to it in the form of an intricate cherry tomato rose above a heart of black sesame seeds on the bottom layer's bed of fluffy, seasoned white rice. He'd tried to keep things simple, but before he knew it he'd found himself throwing his heart and soul into the meal, preparing a quartet of tender slow-cooked pork ribs with a side of sautéed broccolini and carrot, a small garden salad with a pot of ginger balsamic dressing, and rounding things off with a little dessert of salted caramel mini cupcakes.

This was a lot for a morning breakfast, and for a person in general unless that person was an Alpha Cape who burned through calories faster than lightning. Nostalgia washed over Skylar when he remembered how his mother always had a smile on her face, watching as her Alpha husband wolfed down a whole 3500 caloric meal in one sitting. Only now he understood the joy that Omegas felt when they cooked for the Alphas that they loved.

Love. Oh god, a blush had lined across his cheeks. Was it still too early to use that word? No, definitely not since both of them had confessed their love for each other yesterday. His neck twitched with euphoric pain. His fingers lightly brushed against it. Everything that happened yesterday was real. He was a claimed Omega now - claimed to be the strongest Cape in the city with a soul so beautiful he had to cover his eyes to praise it’s beauty. 

“Mate. . ,” Skylar twirled with his hair, curling it in his fingertips as he waited for his cocoa machine to finish boiling. The word ‘mate’ brought such joy to a person but only the lucky few would ever get to experience it. He thought that he would be a part of the majority - forever destined to never experience true love. Oh thank god.

He put a hand on his belly, his thoughts drifting back to their first night together and hopefully, the first of many nights they would share from now on. Before he could fantasize about horny thoughts, his coffee machine buzzed as he worked quickly to get a cup. 

Placing everything onto a tray - with his portion being significantly lesser - Skylar walked towards their bedroom, where he was beginning to hear soft whispers from his mate calling for him. He really hoped she liked what he had put together.

*****

Thea absolutely devoured what he had cooked. He hadn’t so much as even taken a spoon out of his own food before she was half-done with hers.

“Thish ish sho ghood!” She said between bites so wide they could put a whale’s mouth to shame. Thea was also somehow drooling and eating at the same time with bits of her food sputtering onto their bed. “I’ll fix that right after I’m finished!”

Skylar closed his mouth. Right. She had superspeed. He took a bite out of the omelet he had made, wondering if it tasted as good as Thea was making it seem and honestly it just tasted like every other omelet. At least now with their mate bond, he could tell that she wasn’t faking it on his behalf since the entire room was filled with a satisfied, hungry stench from Thea.

“This sauce. . .what on earth did you put in there?!” She licked her fingertips clean of the special sauce. 

Skylar smiled mischievously. “It’s a family secret, passed down from one Omega to another. It’s never failed in satisfying an Alpha’s cravings.” Or so he said, but it was just a simple combination between mayo, ketchup, pepper and some soy sauce.

“I’ll bet. This is fantastic!” Thea poured the rest of Skylar’s special sauce over her rice before proceeding to wolf it down her throat. Then as she finished the entire thing, she looked at him seriously and said, “You’re God’s gift to humanity.”

Skylar almost choked on his glass of water. He coughed before bashfully saying, “I’m not that good.”

“Not that good? Not that good?!” Thea exclaimed and held out her empty plates. “I’ve eaten Michelin star restaurants that are nowhere near as good as the food you make.” 

“Well, I’m just glad that you like the food,” Skylar said, munching away peacefully. Then, he saw how Thea was staring into his side of the tray. “Do you want some?”

“Can I have some?!” Thea asked with stars in her eyes. The more he was spending time with Thea, the more he was beginning to see other sides of her that no one else was able to. Perhaps it was just the mate bond acting up but he felt a sort of possessiveness over the simple fact. Warmth bloomed in his stomach. If someone told him one day ago that he’d be feeding THE Paragon his food in his bed like this, he’d call them crazy.

So, he decided to be bold and do something crazy. He spooned out a piece of everything from his plate and held it in front of Thea’s lips shakily. “S-Say ahhn~”

. . .

. .

.

God, he just wanted to kill himself right now. “If you don’t want it, I’m sor-”. Of course he wasn’t able to finish his sentence as Thea finally decided not to tease him anymore and devoured the entire spoon before lewdly licking it with a seductive glint in her eyes.

“It’s delicious but,” Thea licked her lips and smiled. “I think I’m hungry for something else.”

Skylar leaned back as she got up into his face. Usually, doing anything naughty right after eating would be extremely unhygienic. . .if you were an ordinary human. He didn’t understand the science but dumbing it down, apparently the biology of Awakened people - even the weakest ones - evolved them to the point that their bodies were usually clean. Some of the top strongest Capes were even advanced enough that they didn’t have to go to the toilet or even eat for that matter. They could still choose to do so but never a need to do it. Thea was proof of that.

Skylar couldn’t even smell any traces of her heavy breakfast, instead the same strong pinewood smell that he so loved was still all over her. Her breath also smelled like candied, summer fruits. He loved candied anything.

Kissing him, Thea pressed forward until Skylar fell onto their bed, Thea stayed on top of him, her long curls of summer hair pooled onto his face, forming a curtain around them so that all they could see was just each other. 

The familiar butterflies somersaulted in Skylar’s stomach. His heart, on the other hand, was prepared to burst like fireworks. She must have smelled his happiness since Thea’s smile bloomed into their kiss. 

****

She pecked him on the lips. “I love you, Skylar.”

Onions. There must have been someone cutting onions nearby. Skylar hugged her neck, pulling her closer into a deep kiss that hopefully conveyed all his emotions. He averted his eyes but still managed to whisper, “I love you too, Thea. My Alpha.”

Thea growled at that. “My Omega. Only mine.” She proceeded to bite him on his bond mark, hard enough to draw blood- blood that was now hers.

A soft moan from Skylar. Could he actually be this happy? Did he deserve this? Perhaps God had mistaken him for some Saint or a Hero that had saved the world four times over. No, he didn’t care anymore. He wanted to be selfish, if only this time, he wanted this happiness for him and for it to last a thousand years. A contract. And all he needed to finalize the contract was to say it.

“Yes. I’m only you-BOOM?!”

Everything went wrong. The crunching of broken glass, dust and a slight tinge of heat that licked his skin before everything shifted. Before he could say anything, he felt his view descend into anarchy, into particles of colors similar to when your television screen cracked. He couldn’t even wonder what was going on before he felt the need to puke when everything returned to normal.

He gulped down the bile forcefully when he had enough recognition of his surroundings to realize that he was currently in Thea, no, Paragon’s arms. . . . and that there was a large, large rectangular hole in where his wall should be. Oh god, he wanted to vomit again but he mentally stopped himself. Last thing he wanted was for her to call him a vomit boy and leave him. Okay, she wouldn’t do that but still, he didn’t want to relive his middle school life.

He closed his eyes, groaning from the nausea of Thea’s unprotected speed.

Then, his skin crawled. He still felt like he had woken up after a year’s worth of all night gaming but he would never mistake that creeping feeling he got up his spine whenever she was near him.

He opened his eyes. “Oh no.” That was all he could utter as his crazy ex who looked extremely pissed at that - with purplish flames of fury roaring around her fists and glowing eyes that were glaring at him. . .no, they were glaring at someone else, someone who was holding her Omega in her arms.

“You,” Wonder Eve pointed at Paragon. “I’ll kill you.”  

****

Skylar raised his head to glance out the glass doors, to see that Eve’s power was festering, anger bubbling enough to be seen by the naked eye as her aura dyed the sky black which only made the glowing of her purple eyes even more menacing. Wonder Eve had always leaned more on the anti-hero theme rather than the girl scout, friendly neighborhood type like Paragon but as she looked now, she was well past anti-hero/edgy and was even swimming in the ‘villain’ pool.

Hell, she was already drowning in it. Thea had somehow already switched into her Paragon alter as her gaze remained locked on the evil form of Eve curiously long, with him still in her arms.

“You,” Wonder Eve pointed a shaking finger at Paragon. “I will kill you.”

With her declaration, a flash of light - black lightning struck her form down, destroying everything in her immediate surrounding, including Skylar’s newly renovated apartment which would have been the cause of his death, if it wasn’t for him finding himself on the floor level.

His eyes winked open, befuddled as his shoes slowly touched the ground. “Wh-What?”

“Stay here and take cover,” Paragon voiced beside him. She looked into his eyes and smiled, giving his cheeks a light stroke. “Remember. I’ll always love you.”

“Wai-?!” Only, she didn’t. He was left with a face full of wind from Paragon’s lift off as she flew to where Wonder Eve was - who had just completed her final transformation, a form she only took against opponents she deemed worthy. 

Wonder Eve definitely, definitely looked like a villain now. She was clad in complete black, both her suit and cape as it fluttered about behind her, along with the obsidian wings of her summon steed - an armored black Pegasus. You wouldn’t even be able to see Wonder Eve with how much armor she had on as all you were allowed to see was her bright red eyes and singular horn that stuck past her forehead. She was malice incarnate now.

"No, no, no, no,” Skylar couldn’t help the multiple strings of curses under his breath. Not many saw that form of Eve but he had, and he knew the times that she did show it, none lived to tell the tale. In other words, Wonder Eve was going to kill his lover.

In Paragon’s eyes, she was the strongest, is the strongest and will continue to be the strongest from the past to the near future thus bringing forth her confidence in dealing with this situation even if her opponent was the strongest Cape right after herself. But in Skylar’s eyes, his Alpha, his mate, was going out there on a battle where just a single thing wrong would rob her from him, cursing him into a lonely, damned mateless life.

You could only be truly mated once. If one side of the coin dies, you’ll never be able to fully recover from the hole in your heart, never. That can’t be his future. No, no! He refuses to believe that after all the years of abuse and pain he had to endure, after all he was taken from, now his mate’s life was going to be taken too.

But then what could he do? As of now, besides him, the streets had already quickly cleared of people, now taking shelter inside various shops while gazing upon the aerial battle between two demigods. Furthermore, his job wasn’t to get into fights where he would definitely drag Thea down and possibly be captured by her. He didn’t want to imagine what she would do to him in front of Thea’s dying, last moments.

He knew she would do it. So the question remains, what could he do? Should he be like the rest of the civilians, cowering under a roof as his mate wrestles with lightning? Or should he flee like a coward and never be able to show his face to Paragon from shame?

Skylar bit his lips hard enough to draw blood. None of the options were viable for him. He’d rather kill himself than act on any of the two choices.

He took a look at the fight happening above. Every blue that stretched on for miles within the sky had all turned black as clouds big enough to cover the sun, were painted for as long as his eyes were able to see. And every few seconds the clouds would be parted from the blows of the mighty clash between Paragon and Eve. They were too strong and too fast to the point that the only thing you could see from their battles were the sudden flashes of red and black that streaked across the sky. Well, that and the few lightning that thundered a couple seconds and then.

That was until he heard a whoosh behind him. Out jumped a very familiar figure that immediately pulled him into a crushing hug. 

“Breona?” Skylar asked curiously. Then he hissed at her. “What are you doing here?!”

“Wow, not even a hello?” Breona joked but stopped after the glare from her best friend. She tried her best to remain serious and noticed the flashes of light in the black heavens. “Woah, no wonder my personal alarm was going off like crazy. . .What happened here?”

Skylar bit his lips. “Eve is what freaking happened. I-It was barely morning, the sun hadn’t even so much as come out before she appeared in my home.”

“Yeah, but why would that. . ,” A look of recognition appeared on Breona’s face. “Oh shit. She caught you with Paragon, didn’t she?” Then, she realized that Skylar felt. . .warm, like he finally found something he was looking for, like he had settled down. “Oh, real shit. You’re mated?!”

“Not the time Breona,” Skylar groaned. 

“Right. Sorry,” Breona said. Then her tone went serious. “So, what are you going to do?”

A twitch of Skylar’s lips and Breona already knew what he was going to say. She shook her head. “No, I’m not letting you go there. And, certainly not with my support.”

“But Bree!” Skylar cried out. 

“No is no. We talked about this, remember?” Breona looked away from his eyes, guilty that she was betraying the blinding hope inside them. But she had to do this. For him, and for her.

She cut off Skylar again. “The last time,” Breona took a deep breath. “The last time you did something crazy like this, you almost died. You were lucky Paragon was there and-”

“And she’s going to die if I don’t do something!” Skylar cried out, desperation lacing his voice. He stopped his tears from falling but a sob still managed to break free. “I-I’ve seen this skyless, sunless night. It has cer-certain properties that can kill Paragon. That can kill my love.”

Breona raised an eyebrow, telling him to continue. And so he did. “Whenever Eve’s in this form, she absorbs energy, be it from the sky, the sun or something as meager as air. That’s why the sky turns black and the sun is clouded. We’re in her domain now.”

Skylar grabbed onto Breona’s arms and said, “It’s killing her, Bree. With each exchange of their blows, Wonder Eve absorbs energy from Paragon and gets stronger while it’s the opposite for Paragon. I-I should have told her this.” 

He squatted and curled into a ball. Thea was wrong. He was still the same person he was all those years ago, the same nerd who stuck his face in his books when his other friends were being bullied - just thankful that it wasn’t him this time. Oh, what would Paragon think?

“Hey, hey, Skylar,” Breona attempted to calm him down but when that didn’t work, she squatted beside him so that they could be eye-level with each other. 

“Skye,” She used his nickname softly and placed a hand on his trembling, little shoulders. “Please don’t shut me out. Skye, please.” He didn’t reply, still hiding his face beneath his arms. 

Breona sighed. “You know I used to know a person who’s super strong, so full of courage and while he might have made some mistakes, he’s still the strongest person I know. And, I know for sure that will never change.”

A laugh slipped past Breona’s lips. “You know the first thing he said to me when literally everyone else was avoiding me like the plague?”

A cute, little ear twitched in the corner of Breona’s eyes. She smiled. “He reached his hand out to me and asked me to be his friend. Now that I think about it, he was pretty stupid-looking. Dumb-face. Butt-head. Poo-”

“Okay, that’s enough!” Skylar suddenly yelled out, taking his face out of his arms so that he could beat Breona up for insulting him like that. But reality was cruel. Breona easily caught his arms and simply said, “So, you’re finally done sulking.”

“And you’re done mocking me?” Skylar quipped. 

“Depends on if you’re done being a butt-head,” Breona retorted with a cheeky smile.

“It’s not that easy,” Skylar said.

“Unless you have this,” Breona replied, holding out her hand as a mystical transparent flame danced above it. 

Skylar’s mouth gaped open. “So, so you’ll do it?” He reached out for the flame but Breona yanked her hand back. 

“If,” Breona paused, wondering if she should actually do this. “If you promise you’ll come back.”

“I promise,” Skylar replied without hesitation.

“In one piece?”

“In one piece.”

They looked at each other, one trying to find a trace, a sign, a mark, anything that would reveal the fear in the other’s eyes but instead, all she could see were a pair of determined cocoa-colored orbs staring back at her. He was sure. She didn’t want him to be injured, didn’t want him to be hurt but she didn’t want to disappoint those hopeful eyes more.

She groaned. “Fine. But remember-” The mystical flame appeared back on her hand again. “You know what my power does. What it takes. What it demands from those that wield it.”

“A sacrifice,” Skylar whispered breathlessly. “I won’t back down. It’s the only way I can help her. I have to do this.” A sacrifice. Everything in life demanded a sacrifice of some kind but what makes Breona’s ability even more dangerous was that the size of the sacrifice was random. After ‘ascending’ from her ability, something would be taken from you. At random, again he reminded.

The sacrifice could range from something as harmless as your treasured pencils to something horrible and conceptual like your ability to feel, to love or even to see.

But he had to do it. For Paragon. And, to finally end Eve’s torment. It was finally time to let the past be the past.

And as if to reinforce his beliefs that he needed to help, a boom cracked across the skies as something, someone was sent flying to the ground, crashing through buildings and bouncing from cars. He had caught the brief flash of a tattered red cape and he was filled with urgency and impatience.

Breona caught his impatience and told him, “Give me your hand.” Breona held his hand under hers and noted that it was still as soft as she remembered but his grip had changed. Well, there goes her speech to persuade him to not go through with this.

“Skylar!” A menacing voice boomed across the black clouds. 

---

5 Chapter's worth of content since I took the week off. By the way, to any of my patrons subscribing for this story, please un-pledge. By the next chapter, the story will be finished. 

Instead, you can buy the new tier that will be coming out on 13/3/2022, that will allow you to buy my other novel, AM I LEWD ENOUGH? for just $6, featuring a fantasy setting with lots of lewdness, femboys, monster girls with dicks, etc. Of course, this sale will only last for 24 hours until I take the story off and go back to weekly with patreon. 

Anyways, hope you guys have a blast cause I sure as hell ain't having it.