You Are Every Season - Book 2

Nine

~'A chain of events is a number of actions and their effects that are contiguous and linked together that results in a particular outcome'~

Neither man knew it - as one slept and one ran - but a domino effect had begun. Everything would happen because of what happened directly before it. Every action has a reaction - that much is universal. But in this case, a trap had been laid.

As Mew raced towards their condo, now by taxi, he couldn't physically process the blind panic that gripped him. His omega was under attack - the one he had promised to protect. His teeth ached and throbbed sharply as protective, possessive, vicious alpha instincts took over. It was not a side of himself that Mew often allowed to breathe - believing as he did that such secondary gender stereotypes were restrictive and divisive - but in this moment he simply had no choice.

He had tried to contact Gulf, but again and again his phone answered with voicemail. His friends too - all silent. Mew's own phone, by contrast, had been hot with a rush of incoming calls from family, friends, press members and lawyers. He had switched it off. It didn't matter.

Only his tua-aeng mattered, his baby Gulf.

Images flooded his mind in nauseating waves: Gulf's brown, almond eyes, filled with hurt and tears. Gulf crying out 'P'Mew...P'Mew...where are you? Why did you leave?"

It was more than Mew could bear. He swung over to the open window of the vehicle and retched violently into the heavy air, laden with dust from the road beneath their tyres.They were nearly there, nearly at the condo.

But Gulf wasn't at the condo. Gulf was at Mild's apartment, sleeping away a hangover, still blissfully unaware of the events that were unfolding.

//

And here the next link of the chain was formed.
As Mew reached their block, he jumped from the taxi, flinging too many Baht at the driver but not turning back.

He could see a gaggle of media waiting outside the lobby of their building. Chattering hungrily - gleefully - baying for blood.

Was Gulf up there alone and trapped? Yesterday's Mew would have cackled at the thought - was his faen that outmoded damsel in distress? Never that. But Mew, only Mew, knew his hidden, core vulnerability...His alpha heart growled, shackles up, eyes narrowed.The only thing that would soothe him from this state was the scent of his omega, the touch of his mate - seeing that he was safe.

So Mew raced forwards blindly as if into battle, thinking to charge through the crowd as he crossed the road. But as he was identified ("There he is!") and cameras began to flash, there was a surge, en masse, towards him from the opposite pavement. The power of many forced the traffic on the road to swerve erratically in the direction of the other and, with a screech of breaks and a desperate trumpeting of horns, when the dust cleared:

Mew Suppasit lay on the road. Broken, still.