Raf looked back and forth between Dante and the strange man. They both looked utterly shellshocked. 

The man’s companion, a petite woman with dark hair and green eyes, seemed to mirror Raf’s level of confusion, but she somehow managed to recover herself more quickly. She pasted on a friendly smile and gently shook the man’s arm.

“Alexei, darling, do you know this man? Won’t you introduce us?” she asked sweetly.

At the word “darling”, a visible shudder swept through Dante’s body. He slowly unfroze and took a step backward, though he did not break eye contact with the man in front of him. A torrent of strong emotions raced each other across his face, far too rapidly for Raf to identify them all. One thing was certain, though: whatever else he was, Dante was furious.

“Darling?” he whispered roughly. Then much louder: “Darling? Why, you son of a--”

“Okay,” Christina cut in, smoothly placing herself in between Dante and the man. She grabbed Dante by the hand and pulled him not-too-subtly behind her, simultaneously offering her other hand to the man in front of her.

“Hello there, I don’t believe we’ve met,” she said cordially. “My name’s Christina, this is Raf, and apparently you already know Dante. We were actually just leaving; although if you two wanted to catch up, I’m sure we could spare a few minutes. Let’s all just step out of the restaurant first so we can avoid interfering with their business while we chat. Okay?” She turned and looked at Dante, her eyes flashing a warning as she ground out through clenched teeth, “Okay, Dante?”

Dante was breathing heavily through his nose as he glared at the man over Christina’s shoulder. His hazel eyes were wild, his hands were balled into fists, and his whole body was tensed so tightly that he was visibly shaking. Raf half suspected the only reason he had not already taken a swing at the man was because of Christina’s firm grip on his wrist. It was probably only a matter of time before he did something he would regret, though.

Raf quickly crossed around to Dante’s other side, and gently squeezed his arm. “Dante,” he murmured into his ear, “please. Not here. Let’s go outside.” 

Dante finally broke eye contact with the man and looked over at him, and the expression on his face made Raf’s stomach drop. For the briefest of moments, the veil of anger lifted, and Raf had a clear view of the roiling emotions that lay beneath. Dante’s hazel eyes were darkened by an agonizing mix of terror, grief, and pain. Raf’s breath caught in his throat at the sight, and his hand involuntarily tightened on Dante’s arm.

Dante held his eyes for a moment longer, then bowed his head, his shaggy brown hair hiding his expression once again. “Fine, then,” he growled, “we’ll talk outside.” Shaking both of them off, he pushed open the door and stalked out of the restaurant.

Raf and Christina hurried after him without missing a beat. On the pavement outside, all three turned back to see if the man and his companion would follow. For a few moments, it seemed like they would not. Then, the door slowly opened, and the man stepped out of the restaurant and walked toward them, alone. 

“Dante,” he said solemnly, coming to a stop before them. “I’m so sorry that we had to meet again under such circumstances. I honestly had no idea that you resided in this city.”

“Save it,” Dante snapped. “As if it mattered to you when, how, or if we ever met again! You made your intentions perfectly clear.” He thrust an angry arm in the direction of the restaurant. “And obviously, you’ve already moved on.” 

“I was a coward,” the man acknowledged, carefully evading the latter part of Dante’s accusation. “I should not have left things the way I did. I have always regretted it. I’m glad I found you, though. I’d like to try and make amends for the immense harm you have suffered on my account.”

“Amends?” Dante cried, the word nearly a shriek. “What on earth do you think I could possibly want from you, after all this time?”

“Well…” The man hesitated, darting an uneasy glance toward Raf and Christina. He stepped closer to Dante, his voice dropping. “Perhaps this is a discussion that should be had in private?” he murmured. “It is a personal matter, after all.”

“These are my friends,” Dante ground out. “Anything you want to say to me, you can say in front of them.”

“Friends?” the man repeated, raising his eyebrows in surprise. He regarded Raf and Christina again, this time more appraisingly. His eyes lingered for a moment on Raf’s injuries. Raf glared back at him defiantly and took a step forward to stand behind Dante’s shoulder.

Satisfied, the man returned his gaze to Dante. His eyes were oddly sympathetic. “So they are,” he said softly. “My apologies. I’m so glad to see that you have found people who truly care about you. As I recall, that was not always the case.”

“Don’t,” Dante said harshly. “Don’t you dare patronize me. You have no right to say anything about how I live or with whom I associate. You were the one who walked away. I trusted you, and you just--” He stopped and swallowed, clearly fighting back the urge to cry. 

“Listen, Alexei,” he tried again, taking a deep breath and struggling to steady his voice. “I’m completely serious when I say that there is nothing I want from you. I’m living well. I have a job I love, and many people who rely on me. I am proud of everything that I have accomplished, and I did it all on my own. You can’t take that away from me.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” the man said, a small smile playing around the corners of his mouth. His voice sounded sad, yet he looked at Dante with a mixture of fondness and pride. “You always were a terribly determined child. As I recall, there never was any point in stopping you once you put your mind to something.” 

Dante bristled, his voice turning petulant. “I’m not a child.” 

“Of course not,” the man smiled indulgently. “Well, then. Since there is nothing that you want from me, I hope you will at least accept my good wishes. Also,” he pulled a card from his wallet and held it out to Dante, “if you ever change your mind, here is my contact information. Feel free to reach out at any time.”

Dante glared at him, the hostility stark on his face. 

“Fuck you,” he spat, then turned and stomped off without a backward glance.

The man looked after him and sighed. He turned to Raf and Christina.

“Please,” he said to them. “I know I don’t have the right to ask favors from either of you, but watch over him if you can. That boy carries so many scars.”

“You don’t have to ask,” Raf growled. “We would have done it anyway.”

The man smiled sadly. “Yes, I can tell he has good friends in you. I’m happy for him.” 

He hesitated a moment, and then held out the card again. “Could I ask a different favor, then? Will one of you please take this, and hold onto it for him? Dante is a proud man, and I know he hates to ask for help. Even so, if he ever needs anything at all, he can get in touch with me and I will do whatever I can.”

Raf scowled and folded his arms across his chest, but Christina, after a moment’s hesitation, stepped forward and accepted the card. Raf shot her a look, but she just shrugged and slipped it into her pocket. 

“Thank you.” The man nodded his acknowledgment, then turned and walked back into the restaurant. 

The instant the door closed behind him, Raf whirled on Christina. “Why would you do that?” he hissed. “Dante obviously wants nothing to do with him!”

Christina shrugged again. “You wouldn’t understand,” she said simply.

Raf reared his head back. “What the hell are you talking about? Why wouldn’t I understand?”

Christina regarded him evenly. “You’re not an Omega,” she replied simply. “You don’t know what it’s like to be helpless. In this world, it doesn’t matter how strong, or smart, or proud we are. It's so easy for it all to come crashing down. A single tragedy or a simple mistake could cost us everything. Trust me, I know.” She took the card back out and looked down at it. “Even if Dante never ends up using this, it would be stupid to throw it away. A resource is a resource, and you never know when those will be in short supply.” 

She looked back toward the restaurant. “Still, something about that man was strange,” she mused. “From the way Dante talked to him, I took him for an ex-lover, but the way he reacted was almost...parental?” She turned to Raf. “I don’t know. What did you think?”

“I think I want to go find Dante now,” Raf said gruffly. He turned his back on the restaurant and set off in the direction Dante had taken. “I’m worried about him.” 

Christina fell in step beside him and didn’t say anything more. 

In truth, Raf was more than just worried. His head was a complete mess. He was furious at the stranger for the way he had talked down to Dante. He was also annoyed at Christina for chastising him, and he was even a little ticked at Dante himself for running off instead of waiting for them. If he was honest, though, the person he was most angry at was himself.

The whole incident had shaken him to the core, and he barely knew where to begin in terms of processing all of it. Out of everything that had happened, though, the thing that haunted him the most was the single image of Dante’s anguished expression. It had burned itself into his brain and replayed in front of his eyes on a continuous loop, over and over and over again. 

Raf clenched his hands into fists at his sides as he walked. Christina had been wrong. He knew exactly what it felt like to be helpless. In that moment, those hazel eyes had been screaming for help, and there hadn’t been a single thing Raf could do to make it better. What was even worse, as soon as he saw it, Raf had known with inexplicable yet absolute certainty that Dante’s pain was much more than a simple reaction to the events of tonight.

No, it had been there all along.

How could he have missed it? The Dante he knew always seemed so calm and in control, and it had never occurred to Raf to question whether that outer demeanor was true, or merely a facade. The more he thought about it, though, the more Raf could recall other instances when he had caught glimpses of Dante’s true feelings. A flash of anger here, a moment of sadness there. Always coming out of nowhere, and gone in an instant. They were like brief disturbances on the surface of a calm lake, elusive and fleeting, but hinting at something powerful that lurked in the darkness beneath. 

An icy wind lashed at him as he and Christina continued to trudge down the darkened city sidewalk, but Raf barely felt it. His head spun with unanswered questions.

Who are you really, Dante Sullivan? he silently wondered. And more importantly, what the hell happened to you?

There was no reply except the howling of the wind around him, which did nothing to quiet the raging storm that was growing within.