"You mean it? Really mean it?"

Nora hadn't not meant it, but she certainly hadn't ascribed as much weight to her words as the vulnerability in Evi's voice indicated. "Mm-hmm," she replied with a tentative smile. "If I didn't, I'd say we were already friends."

Evi nodded, mock-sagely. "Yeah, I guess it'll take some time to un-learn that bitchiness."

"Don't push it."

Evi's response was interrupted by a breathless coworker stumbling into the break room. "Um, those Carters are making trouble again," he told Evi, swallowing hard. "It's bad. They're in the parking lot now, and there's....um." He winced. "Touching."

"Well, we literally don't get paid enough to deal with that," Nora declared, throwing her hands up in the air. Evi scoffed in disbelief. "What?" she snapped. "This just became sexual harassment by an uber-wealthy jerk. They'll bury us if we do anything. You of all people should know - you work for them."

"That's why I came to you, Evinori," the coworker cut in. "You've been their employee for years, so they might not be as harsh-"

"It's the opposite, stupid," Nora retorted. "He's even more - oy! Where d'you think you're going?"

Nora jumped up and gave chase as the omega stalked out of the room, rolling up his sleeves. "Hey, stop!" she cried. "Didn't you hear what I said?"

"Oh, I heard," Evi snarled, undoing his bun. "Here. Hold this. I'm going to turn that sexual harrassment case into a double homicide."

"Where the - what the - why the hell d'you have a tie pin in your - wait, fool!"

Evi was already halfway across the lot by the time Nora had yanked open the door. One twin had Yohanna pinned against his car while the other stood by with Arya pulled forcefully into his side, laughing. So busy were they with being overly handsy with the omegas that they didn't even notice the enraged man barreling towards them with fists balled and ready.

Nora set off after Evi, partly to honor her newborn friendship with him and partly to get a closer look at his incredibly sculpted, veiny forearms. "Don't you do it, you crazy-"

He did it.

In a move straight out of Tekken, he spun himself on one leg and drove the heel of the other into Elwynn Carter's temple. The Alpha toppled sideways like a bowling pin, taking Arya down with him. Kicking a groaning Elwynn aside as if he were a garbage bag, Evi roughly pulled Arya to her feet and shoved her away from the melee.

It gave Emory enough time to come up to him and, with an enraged roar, land two swift punches to Evi's gut. As the omega reeled, Elwynn staggered to his feet and grabbed Evi's neck from behind, pinning him so Emory could hit him more.

The victorious grin had not even fully spread on Elwynn's face before Evi had launched the former over his shoulder. Elwynn crashed onto the asphalt so hard everybody except Evi yelped. He then proceeded to get trampled as Evi dodged Emory's fists, grabbed Emory's head by his ears and drove his knee into his nose.

Ten seconds.

It took Evi all of ten seconds to lay two Alphas out flat. A deafening silence followed. Arm curled around his throbbing stomach, Evi straightened up as much as he could. The pain simultaneously knocked his breath out - and his senses back in.

Yohanna and Arya were crouched by the car the former had been pinned against - coincidentally, their friends' car. All four were staring at him with a mixture of admiration and terror. Off to their left, Nora stood frozen with her jaw on the ground.

A whimper from behind him drew his attention. He turned to find his nieces and nephews crying into the skirts of their mothers who, like the others, simply stood there utterly stunned.

Evi's stomach spasmed, but not from pain this time. Slowly, unsteadily, he turned to face Nora again. Her eyes displayed the exact same thought that was now racing through Evi's brain.

No news is good news. Wasn't that how the saying went?

Then why was Evi getting more and more anxious with every passing day?

A whole three days had passed since he gave his twin brothers the thrashing of their lives. The two had picked themselves up and hobbled off into the sunset chanting the classic defeated villain's promise to 'make him regret this', but nothing had happened yet. He had been expecting his mother to be waiting at the entrance to the estate ready to shoot him in the head. Instead, all he'd encountered was radio silence.

He chuckled bitterly. Maybe his parents had stopped caring what little they did when he acted out. Or they had decided to give him a taste of his own medicine without getting their hands dirty.

The mop Evi had been holding clattered to the floor. The thought had started merely as a dark joke, but it was a real possibility. It could happen today. He was on closing shift at the cafe - at his own insistence to delay going home, fool that he was - and he was alone. Suddenly, he couldn't tell whether the night felt too silent because of paranoia, the late hour or real lurking danger.

Clutching his keys in his hand like brass knuckles, he flew from one entrance to another, making sure every door and window was locked. It wasn't just his personal safety he was concerned about: if someone did try to come in and attack him, he would definitely put up a fight and get fired the next morning for the resulting property damage.

Assuming he was able to come in to work the next day, of course. He couldn't imagine the hired thugs would simply rough him up a little.

No, his parents, especially his mother, knew he was no easy target. What if he got beaten within an inch of his life? Or murdered? Or worse, raped? That would be the perfect excuse for his parents to ship him off to God-knows-where. That was the one thing he absolutely couldn't let happen. It had been the condition his father had set when granting him permission to get a job: one scandal resulting from his being an omega and he'd never see the outside of his cottage ever again.

"Well, would you look at that! You're not all beauty. There's brains in there as well."

In a flash, Evi hurled one of the knives he'd grabbed from the kitchen earlier in the direction of the voice. He turned to find a woman lounging in Mircea's favorite booth with her boot-clad feet on the table, her form obscured by the shadows. Without batting an eyelid, she caught the knife in one hand and tossed it aside. "Combat tip: don't throw knives if you're not trained to do it. You're needlessly losing a weapon."

Evi raised his other knife threateningly. "Get out," he growled. "We're closed."

The woman only laughed. It was a beautiful, tinkling laugh - a disconcerting sound to hear in light of the situation. "Relax, Evinori. I'm not here to hurt you. Though I could have if I wanted to. You're sharp - most people can't sense me coming - but not sharp enough. I was already inside."

"And I'd prefer if you got back outside again."

"You're not going to ask me how I know your name?"

"I don't try to hide it. Now leave, please. I don't know how much you've been paid to come after me, but I promise it's not worth-"

"Like I said, I'm not here to hurt you. I just want to get to know you better, so why don't you join me?"

Evi didn't move. Suddenly, the air around his visitor changed. Who had been a mysterious but strangely amicable intruder transformed into a presence that chilled Evi to the bone. She leaned forward into the dim light to reveal brilliant green eyes flashing menacingly. "Sit," she hissed.

This was it. This was how he was going to die.

Evi sat, refusing to let her out of his sight — not even to blink. "Who are you?" he demanded.

The woman leaned forward some more, allowing the light to finally light up her form clearly. Very tall and rather muscular for a Beta woman, she had a heart-shaped face set atop an enviably long neck and framed by waist-length locks of platinum blond hair. Evi could sense it was wise to not take her lightly: she may have looked like a wallflower, but her presence was as impressive as her features were plain. "I'm Reyna," she said, holding her hand out to him. "Reyna Ackerman."

Evi tensed as he accepted the handshake in case she decided to slam him into the table. "Evinori."

"And therein lies my first question. What's the deal with all the secrecy about you?"

Evi's heart, which had been beating so loudly he could barely hear Reyna, suddenly stalled. Still, he couldn't let her have the upper hand that easily. "This is not how we're going to do this," he stated. "Quid pro quo. Who sent you?"

Reyna giggled playfully, making Evi's hair stand on end. "I'm sure you'll find out eventually, but it can't be now. How about I tell you why I'm here instead?"

Evi only glared.

"I'll take that as a yes," she chuckled. "See, I'm supposed to learn what kind of person you are, but there's red tape in my way. Way too much red tape."

"Then I can't help you," Evi responded tersely. "I don't know anything about it. I'm not the one who put it there."

"Oh, I'm not worried. It might take a little more effort than usual, but I will get through it." Reyna's eyes flashed again, and Evi shuddered as he felt his tenuous sense of control over his circumstances slipping. "What interests me is who put the tape up. Why are the Carters so heavily invested in keeping you secret if you're a mere employee?"

Evi's hand tightened around the knife until a white-hot flash of pain shot up his arm. "I don't know. Maybe they're not entirely comfortable employing an omega."

"Oh no, honey, they don't hide that. They couldn't even if they wanted to. What they're hiding is your parentage."

"I don't understand."

"Your information is inaccessible in every database I tried. Not only could I not access it, I am pretty sure my snooping attracted attention. It took me ages to shake off the people tailing me." Reyna held up a hand as Evi opened his mouth to argue. "I know you aren't responsible for that. What I need you to tell me is why your last name is Carter, and why my finding that out is a big deal."

You could tell her. His inner voice, vengeful and evil, echoed in his head as the familiar resentment and pain at his family's attitude washed over him. You've waited all your life for someone to ask the right questions. Tell her the truth. She could be the key to wrecking all their lives.

But that was just it. He didn't want to ruin his family. He wanted them to acknowledge him, even if he had to strongarm them into it. And that would never happen if he didn't cooperate. "Coincidence," he mumbled, clenching his jaw and looking away. "Carter is a common last name. The family hides my last name because quashing the rumors of my being some secret affair child is difficult and expensive."

"Why even employ you, then?"

"The same reason I'm still employed here. I'm an excellent worker, I'm damn good-looking, and-" Evi casually leaned back to mimic Reyna's relaxed pose and placed his knife-wielding hand on the table- "I can take care of myself." The blade gleamed in the dim light filtering through the storefront, as did the widespread scars on his knuckes from years of punching people's teeth in.

Reyna's smile was playful as she assessed him, but her eyes were focused on him with the deadly ferocity of a tigress on the hunt. Evi held her gaze, resisting the urge to swallow convulsively. The seconds ticked past just like that, each sizing each other up and trying to read the other's mind. Presently, Reyna laughed, seemingly unfazed but unable to hide her heightened respect for him. "Well, that's true," she acknowledged, and licked her lips. "You're clearly worth the trouble. I go almost exclusively for Beta men and even I'm attracted to you."

Evi made a face. "Not interested."

"Oh, that's right. You're taken, aren't you? You have your heart set on Mircea Quartz."

The ground beneath Evi's feet seemed to crumble. He could feel the blood draining from his face as he stared at Reyna dumbfounded, his attempt at putting on a brave face completely forgotten. Abject fear and defensive fury bubbled within him like lava. A slow, deliberate scrape cut through the tense silence as Evi's nails scraped against the wood in barely restrained anger. Reyna raised an eyebrow, a knowing smirk spreading across her face. "I hope it's amply clear now that I know far more than you think I do," she crooned. "So let's speak the truth from now on, yeah?"

"What the hell do you want from me?" Evi demanded. "I told you I'm not one of those Carters-"

"Hush, darling. I did say I won't hurt you, but that's subject to my patience lasting. What with you lying and all, it's running real thin." Reyna placed her hands on the table in front of Evi's, revealing not only identical scars on her knuckles, but also multiple large, heavy rings on fingers sporting metal-tipped nails. "You are one of the Carters, at least on paper. The story goes that your parents were 'employees and dear friends' of Harold's father, and they died when you were a baby. To ensure you were taken care of, the old man put down a condition in his will that Harold and Gia would receive their inheritance only if they adopted you. It would be bad enough if people knew about an omega tainting a pureblood Alpha family, but for word to get out that said family made the conscious decision to bring a male omega into their ranks? Hah! So they buried your roots the best they could and the rest is history.

"But you see, Evinori, I call bullshit. People tend to accept that theory easily because you look so different - a brilliant rose in a field of weeds - but I'm not that easy to fool. You see, employers wouldn't routinely send men to watch a simple servant's every move. They wouldn't monitor your bank account. They wouldn't require you to turn in every single receipt. Employers wouldn't pay for custom-synthesized suppressants, nor would they go through the trouble of importing the new fast-action auto-injectable emergency suppressant that is not even available in this country."

Evi didn't say a word. He didn't breathe. He wasn't even looking at Reyna anymore. His eyes remained fixed on the knife as his whole body quaked and his brow beaded with sweat. Reyna felt a flash of guilt: this was not the condition she had intended to reduce him to when he was almost certainly innocent. But she had a job to do, and that took precedence.

Putting on a self-satisfied smile, she placed her hand on Evinori's. His was clammy and ice-cold. He flinched violently at the contact and released a shaky breath, but still refused to look at her. Oh, well. She'd take what she got.

"So you are going to tell me what I want to know," she quietly asserted. "Because there's plenty that I don't - for instance, I don't know exactly how Mircea Quartz will react to the revelation that his...inamorato is a Carter - but you and I know both know he won't take it well."