POV: Christopher
""What makes you think you can just move out?!" The words just flew around his ears. He grinded his jaw, it was a bad habit of his when he was pissed off.
"You're lucky I found someone to marry at all," Christopher grumbled.
"But not someone like that! We've done our research! The man has a child! And he doesn't even have a family tree! He's an orphan!" his mother argued.
"Is it really that important?" growled Christopher. "I'm not having any children anyway! I don't want to bring a child into this family just so you'll treat it the same as me," Christopher became louder.
His mother came closer to him and gave him a slap. "You egotist! I only married your father back then because I had to! Do you think it's only because you're temporarily in love? That will pass, believe me! So stop being selfish and do what you were born to do with your strong dragon blood! Produce strong offspring!"
"Tsk, shouldn't you know exactly how shitty your life is, mother?" growled Christopher and received another slap. "That's no way to talk to your mother! You've really become a dirty child! Can't you even be a bit more like your brother?" she shouted at him, almost desperately.
Christopher clicked his tongue, not even looking at his mother. "Then let him become head, or my little brother. Why me? You have enough children to follow your footsteps." "We've already been over this! The dragon blood you inherited is the strongest in you! Of course only you can become the next head of this family!"
"Fuck this fucking dragon blood!" He saw the last of his mother's nerves fray. "Take him away and bring him to his senses!" The men in suits, bodyguards standing around him, grabbed his arm. "If you don't behave yourself and don't spend the evening with Camilla Fahras tonight, we'll dig up dirt on your 'loved one' and gladly destroy his life with it too!"
Now Christopher's last thread of patience snapped. He tried to free himself from the hands of the four men. He knew that Leo's file was sealed, but his father was higher up and had far more contacts than he did, so he didn't know whether his family would be able to get hold of Leo's documents.
"If you do that, I'll kill you all." His expression was grim, he struggled, but there were too many of them. "Try it," his mother laughed. "You're not the only one here with outstanding abilities, remember." Christopher swallowed. His mother was right, especially since his ability wasn't particularly well suited to combat, unlike his father. He really wouldn't stand a chance in a fight. Right now he probably had no choice but to track, so he followed the men without putting up a fight. "Fuck."
"Oh, and bring me his cell phone so he doesn't call his lover." "Yes, miss." With those words, they reached into Christopher's pocket and took his cell phone from him and gave it to Christopher's mother.
Even before he left the room, his phone started ringing in his mother's hand. At first she just looked at the screen, Christopher was still staring at her while the others tried to push him out of the room.
It's not Leo yet, is it? He doesn't even have my phone number, does he? His mother smiled falsely and took the call. The voice on the other end began to speak, but Christopher couldn't understand what it was saying. His mother answered though and he knew immediately who was on the phone, she only needed to say this one sentence.
"Hello? Who are you? And who is Oliver? Were you the one who put such a strange flea in my son's ear that he could do whatever he wanted?" Christopher heard his mother hiss. "In a place where neither you nor this Oliver can reach him. He will fulfill his duty as the new head of the family whether he wants to or not. There's nothing you can do about it. I'm hanging up now and don't you dare do anything or turn up here. Otherwise there will be consequences for you!" With those words, she hung up the phone. She had this grin on her face. She meant what she said.
Where did Leo get his phone number? Ah, probably from Jasper - he thought to himself - Was Leo worried about him?
Christopher felt an irrepressible rage inside him, which he tried to swallow. If he escalated now, it would probably cause problems for Leo, which is why he had the bodyguards take him to his changing room to prepare for the appointment with his fiancée. Inside, he felt torn. Once again, he had to do things that went completely against the grain, but Leo and Oliver's safety came first.
His clothes were carefully selected, he wore the old, traditional clothing of the Black Dragon family. Accordingly, the clothes were black with purple, shiny patterns. They were tight-fitting and emphasized the pronounced muscles on Christopher's body. He didn't feel particularly comfortable in such clothing. He plucked at the tight collar with his fingers as the head butler came into the room with a knock on the door.
"Young sir, the Fahras family has just arrived. Your own family is already waiting impatiently for you in the reception room." Christopher growled: "Are Jason and Damien here too?" "Yes, the other young gentlemen are also present." Christopher clicked his tongue. "I don't understand why they can't just take over. My older brother is much more interested in running the family business. Fuck this fucking dragon blood, I never wanted this, I never wanted this fucking fame, I never wanted this responsibility."
"Young sir, you must not say such things, you come from an honorable house, others envy you for it." "You have no idea," Christopher added, annoyed, and then followed the butler into the reception room.
There were seven important people in this room, the head of the Farah family, his wife and Christopher's fiancée, as well as his own family, his brothers, his mother and his father. The young lady of the Farah family immediately jumped up when she saw Christopher.
"Christopher!" she jumped into his arms, but he pushed her away from him. "Camilla," he spoke distantly. "I've missed you," she purred and threw herself against his neck again and once more he pushed her away from him. "Nice to see you again too," he growled and took a step back. But she grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the sofas in the room, forcing him to sit next to her. She kept stroking his thigh with her hand, but he kept pushing her away. However, she didn't let up.
"Oh Christopher, why are you being so dismissive of me?" Christopher looked to the side and ignored her. "I heard my brother already has a lover, that's why he's so dismissive," grinned his older brother, a man with dark brown hair and violet eyes. His mother pinched Jason's side. "What? I'm just being honest! I'm sure he was shagging that person while you two were engaged." "Shut your mouth," Christopher hissed, but the head of the yellow dragon's family intervened, while his daughter almost sat down on Christopher's lap.
"Is that right, Christopher?" Christopher's look was grim and pissed off: "So what?" He crossed his legs and pushed Camilla away from him again. "Father, I don't care if he sleeps with someone else as long as he marries me and gives me a child." "My dear daughter Camilla, you are a proud woman of the yellow dragon's family. You will not play second fiddle to such a man who does not respect your worth." "We agree," added Christopher's father. "We will make sure that our son does not repeat his slip-up, you can count on that."
"Wonderful. By the way, my son sends his best wishes." "Oh, thank you, how is your son actually doing? As far as I know, he's also engaged? Did he put up as much of a fight as my wayward son here?" "My son is doing reasonably well. I'll put it this way, he accepted the engagement with more than just thanks, but his fiancé fled years ago and has been disappeared without a trace. We are still looking for him until today with all our resources, but to no avail. That really took its toll on my son, of course, poor lad," his voice sounded almost melancholy, but Christopher knew it was just hypocrisy.
When he thought about the statement in more detail, he noticed some parallels to what Oliver had said about Leo and the relationship with the yellow family. Curiosity gripped him. "You could tell us what the young man's name was and what he looked like, so that we can keep our eyes open for him too. It's terrible what happened to your son." Christopher's father almost took the questions out of his mouth.
"Hm." The older man thought for a moment. "Back then, that was almost 10 years ago, he had very light, blond hair, blue eyes, was about six feet tall, he'll probably be taller now, he was 16 years old when we last saw him and a rather slim guy. His name is Leon Fahras." Christopher found the description quite familiar, but the name didn't fit. "He's also a broken Omega. We took him in and engaged him to our son because that was his late father's wish, my old best friend. I wanted to fulfill his wish."
"That's very gracious of you, Mr. Fahras. Was your former best friend at least an heir to a dragon's blood? Otherwise that would be a contamination of your blood," questioned Christopher's father critically. Camilla's father considered whether and how he should answer the question and decided to answer at least halfway honestly: "Yes, he was the last survivor of the green dragon family. Now only his son remains. All the more reason to worry about him."
"All right, then I understand your decision, very commendable to take in a broken Omega at all. It's extremely rare to hear something like that. Normally children like that are abandoned in a forest somewhere and left to die, at least that's what we would have done, wouldn't we, darling?" Mr. Wollseif turned to his wife, who just nodded.
During the conversation, Camilla continued to fondle Christopher, despite his refusal. Christopher, on the other hand, listened to the words without attracting too much attention. But this one they are talking about couldn't be Leo, after all, Leo was not an Omega. Leo was an Alpha. And his name was different too, even if the first names were similar. He had probably made a mistake, although the description did fit him pretty well.
"But then I don't understand..." Christopher's mother intervened "... why does the boy have blue eyes, even though he belongs to the green dragon family? Are you sure it was his son? The characteristics of dragons are always inherited, one hundred percent." Mr. Fahras shrugged his shoulders: "I don't know, but I tested his DNA and he is his son." He knew exactly why this was the case, but he would take this secret to his grave and this secret was the reason why he would never give up looking for Leon.
"So a broken creature from top to bottom, I see." Before anything else could be said, many different phones and a deafening alarm started ringing throughout the house. The bodyguards went on alert, the house became restless and the bulletproof shutters began to close.
"Don't worry, we're safe here. Everything here is bulletproof." "Are you sure?" a distorted voice echoed throughout the building. Those present looked around in irritation, but found nothing. "We have been ordered to free Christopher Wollseif from this building. Let him go before unnecessary casualties occur."
The bodyguards drew their weapons and the chiefs stood up from the couch. "Who are you?" Christopher's father asked unimpressed
"We are an independent liberation unit, we are also known as Squad 001." The voice was not only distorted, but also double-sounding, it sounded technical.
"I never heard this name before," General Wollseif replied. "What is your goal?" "Repeat: the liberation of Christopher Wollseif." "Who is your client?" "Christopher Wollseif." All eyes turned to Christopher. He just shrugged his shoulders, thought for a moment and then a broad grin crept onto his face. That had been a clue for him. Now he knew who was behind the action.
- I hope those 'someones' thought carefully about the possible consequences beforehand -
"You don't stand a chance." Christopher sat back down on the couch and leaned back. "You should give them what they want." "Nonsense! There's hardly a safer place than here! Haven't you heard, everything here is bulletproof!"
Christopher just grinned, but only said: "Do you think someone like that would approach a mission without a plan?" You could see his mother gulp, but his father reassured her: "Whatever our wayward son was thinking, remember, we have the best trained soldiers here as bodyguards and we men can fight too."
"So you want to fight and trust your defenses, too bad. We had hoped to get the whole thing over without any casualties." A loud bang sounded and one of the bodyguards, who was standing right next to Camilla, went down. The women in the room screamed, the men looked puzzled at the body that fell lifeless to the floor and Camilla clung to Christopher, who had gotten up. "Christopher, protect me! I don't want to die. These are your people!"
He pushed her away from him and grinned smugly. "It's your own fault. You didn't listen to me." "Tsk." General Wollseif clicked his tongue and stared stunned at the hole in the bulletproof shutters.
The head of the yellow dragons whispered something in his wife's ear and then to his head bodyguard, but Christopher couldn't hear a word of it. The commotion was too loud.
The whole house was in turmoil and people started rushing out of the house to apprehend the attackers, but everyone who left the house fell dead on the floor within a few seconds.
"Do you still not want to follow our instructions?" the technical voice spoke again. "Be real men and fight with us one on one! You cowards!" General Wollseif now roared.
The technical voice laughed. "Only because we have the upper hand. It's sad, General Wollseif, really sad. Just follow our orders and no one else will be harmed. But if you don't, the next victims will be the ladies of the yellow family and then your wife."
Camilla shrieked. She wasn't used to fighting and situations like this. "I don't want to die! Please! Please Christopher, do something about it."
"I'd love to." He smirked. "If you promise to let me go with my things without further ado. I knew from the beginning that you would try something like this, Mother, Father. Preparation is everything," Christopher lied. He hadn't known anything about this action, but they didn't need to know that.
"You didn't honestly believe that I would dance to your tune forever." His parents exchanged strained glances. They didn't want to let their son go, not in front of the yellow dragon's family, his fiancée. They didn't want to show any weakness, so there was no answer.
"Make up your mind now, you have ten seconds, then the next shot will follow." Camilla continued to screech, General Wollseif biting his lip. Christopher's brothers had been lying on the ground since the last shot to protect themselves, as they had been taught.
The head of the yellow family poked General Wollseif in the side and nodded. His face was clearly whiter than before. He also knew that he was not up to the situation with at least one sniper and unprepared.
"9...8...7...6" "Okay, okay! We'll let him go." They couldn't risk letting Camilla's death be on their heads. "First of all! You'll regret your actions," roared General Wollseif.
"We'll see about that. You're not out of danger yet, don't forget that. We will not withdraw until you have followed these instructions: Christopher is to get his most necessary things, two bodyguards, unarmed, will carry his things to a black, unmanned, parked car 500 meters from here. After that, let Christopher drive away, at least one kilometer, then we'll retreat. Just don't get any funny ideas, or we'll kill everyone in your room one by one."
"All right," grumbled General Wollseif. Almost nobody here was in a position to defend themselves against snipers with their skills anyway; the most they could muster were protective shields, but if the shots could penetrate bulletproof armor, the probability of these shields breaking was also quite high. They couldn't take any chances.
So they followed the instructions exactly and Christopher drove off with his things. He had already driven almost 2 kilometers when a person he knew waved to him from the side of the road. He stopped the car and let the person get into the passenger seat. She had a large, closed bag with her, which she then lovingly placed on the back seat.
"You never cease to amaze me, how did you do that, dear Mr. 001?" Christopher grinned. Leo grinned. "I'm just the world's best sniper."
POV: Leo
Leo placed Lea lovingly on the back seat of the car and answered Christopher's question with a grin: "I'm the world's best sniper." Now that he was sitting quietly in the car, he was overcome by fatigue. Using many skills at the same time was tiring. "I'll explain later," he yawned. "Let me take another ten-minute nap first, that was exhausting enough. Oliver is waiting for you." His eyes fell shut with the words. He only realized that he had Christopher's eyes on him as he fell asleep.
The moment they arrived home, he opened his eyes again. He had only closed them briefly, but he still had a strange dream. A dream of his mother, a beautiful woman with very light hair, whispering something to him, but he couldn't understand a word she was saying. He just had the uneasy feeling that he had forgotten something very important.
He shook his head. "Are you getting out?" Christopher stood at his side and held the passenger door open. It was getting pretty late by now, everything was dark outside and Leo just walked up to his apartment, drowsy.
A person was already waiting eagerly for Christopher and Leo outside the door, but it wasn't Oliver.
"Jasper. What are you doing here? Weren't you at a party, picking up women, what are you doing here at this time of night?" Jasper's look was serious. "You look tired." "Hmph," Leo yawned again. Jasper slapped Leo on the back of the head. "You're out of your mind. Are you telling me you've done all this on your own again? Didn't I tell you something about that before, you need to take fucking care of yourself."
"Man, what the hell do you want?" Leo slapped Jasper's hand away. "Just leave me alone, I'm just going to tell Oliver that everything's okay and then I just want to go to bed." Leo was annoyed as he was incredibly tired. "It's not like anything's happened, so just shut up."
POV Christopher:
Leo entered the apartment and disappeared into Oliver's room, Christopher wanted to follow him but Jasper held him back. "What do you want?" Christopher growled, still not trusting Jasper, but the look on Jasper's face told him that now was not the time to argue.
"Look, was Leo acting alone? What did he do?" Christopher explained the situation from his point of view. Jasper, unlike what Christopher had seen of him, was extremely serious and biting his lower lip.
"I rushed over here when I realized what Leo was up to. I'm glad he got out of there in one piece, but I'm warning you, please keep an eye on him. Make sure he doesn't overexert himself."
Christopher raised an eyebrow. "Why? What will happen, if I don't?" he asked coolly. Jasper sighed and took a step closer to him, then whispered in his ear: "Your father has the ability: Berserk (an ability that massively boosts physical abilities for a time), doesn't he?" "Yes, why?"
"Leo has something similar. When he overexerts himself or is in danger, this ability activates. His body changes and he goes out of control. He's incredibly strong and his other ability is absolutely not to be underestimated, but it has its consequences. When he gets into this state, I call it 'Rampage', hardly anything can stop him, only the time limit that it lasts. He puts everyone around him in danger, but first and foremost himself, because as soon as this state is over, he falls into a kind of comatose state with a massive fever and nightmares, which torments him beyond belief."
Christopher now raised both eyebrows. "Please don't force a situation like today on him again. I witnessed it once. He killed more than 30 people with one blow instantly in that state. It was traumatic for me and for him too. He regretted it very much afterwards. I told you from the start that he was something special and I didn't mean that in a positive way. He's an incredible danger."
Christopher nodded. He had never heard or seen anything like it before. He'd been in the military for years, he'd met a lot of people, but something like this was new to him. No wonder his file was so heavily sealed and there was little information about him in general, despite his past in the military.
"There's nothing we can do except prevent the condition. Trying to kill him is futile and also we both don't want that. So I repeat my request: take care of him and don't let him do that shit again."
"Got it." Jasper patted him on the shoulder and then took his distance from him again. "I'm going back now. Keep an eye on the idiot for me." Jasper said his goodbyes. Christopher stood outside for a few seconds before entering the apartment. It took him a while to really realize what Jasper had just told him.
"What a load of shit," he muttered.
POV: Leo
Leo found Oliver in the closet, snuggled up in Leo's clothes. He had hidden away, as Leo had taught him to do when he was home alone. So he lifted Oliver out of the wardrobe into bed and kissed him on the forehead. "Dad brought Christopher back," he whispered to him. Oliver listened for a moment and then fell asleep again. "I love you, my son," Leo whispered into his ear, before heading straight to his bedroom.
He passed Christopher on the way. "You can take the room next to mine. I'm going to bed." His voice still sounded a little annoyed, but he wasn't referring to Christopher. He just fell into his bed upstairs and went straight to sleep. "Too much...," he mumbled quietly.
The next morning he woke up completely exhausted. He had slept badly again, totally restless, and above all he had another dream like this. The more powers he used, the stronger the after-effects were. The worst were these realistic dreams that tried to tell him something, but he never understood. Mostly they were about his mother, her last words and how she died.
Each time it made more of an impression on him than a dream should. Headaches always plagued him afterwards and he felt incredibly tense.
He washed his face first, went to the toilet again and brushed his teeth before going down to the first floor of the apartment. Oliver was actually already awake and sitting at the dinner table with Christopher.
Leo looked irritably at his watch and realized that he had slept a little longer than he should have. Christopher had apparently already made Oliver breakfast. Leo was therefore able to make himself a coffee in peace and sit on the balcony. He just mumbled: "Good morning." And walked past the two of them with his coffee.
The two of them exchanged irritated looks, but Leo ignored them. He was in a really bad mood. "What's got into him," grumbled Christopher. Oliver shrugged his shoulders: 'Dad's always like that when he comes back from this kinds of missions. Sometimes he's worse than that, sometimes better than that. He says he always sleeps really badly afterwards and that I shouldn't talk to him because he doesn't want to be mean to me." "I see."
Leo heard the conversation but ignored it. He said nothing and drank his coffee in peace, enjoying the view as much as he could. His headache continued to plague him, but he knew that not even pills helped in such cases. He had to get through it, in a few hours it would be over again, just like this tension.
After he had finished his coffee, he took a deep breath and went to Christopher, Oliver was just getting dressed in his room. "Thanks for making him breakfast. I overslept, I'm sorry,' he said soberly. He wasn't really sorry. He knew that Oliver had asked him to rescue Christopher and not Christopher himself, but he still felt physically unwell because of this mission. Why did he go through with it every time?
Christopher replied: "No problem. I live here now, I told you I'd give you a hand." "Hmph," Leo replied, "I want to say thank you for what you did for me yesterday," Christopher's voice sounded affectionate. "I didn't do it for you, I did it for Oliver. He asked me to." Christopher realized that now was not the time to talk to Leo about what had happened yesterday, rather than discuss something else with him now.
"I guess I'll have to thank Oliver then." "Yes. You should." They were silent for a moment. It was almost like in the past. "What are you going to do now? I'm not going to pay the rent here on my own, but I'm not assuming you're going back to the military to join your father, are you?" Christopher shook his head. "Nah, I'm not playing that asshole any further. I'm not letting him control me anymore. "I've heard it yesterday. He puts too much stock in his pedigree."
Christopher blinked for a second. "How much did you hear yesterday?" "About the Farahs' conversation, your familys opinion about everything and about Camilla's charming manner? Everything." "Are you angry with me?" "Why should I be angry with you? I'm just not feeling well. Let's just leave it at that for now, please." Christopher sighed, annoyed. He bit his lower lip. Apparently he wasn't comfortable with the idea that Leo had heard and saw all about it.
"So? What are you planning?" Leo asked again. "I thought I'd apply for the same job like you have." Leo looked at him skeptically. "Are you going to stalk me at work too?" "Actually, that wasn't my plan, believe it or not. I'm happy to apply for a job in another department, but I think I have the same motives as you for working there. I want protection from my fucking father, anonymity. I don't want him to have any control over me in my fucking life again. That was your reason too, wasn't it? Government protection against someone from your past, wasn't it?"
Leo sighed: "You're right. Good point." "I'd like to go to work with you today and introduce myself. The job change should actually go pretty quickly."
"All right, on one condition: You stay in the car when I drop Oliver off and we go into the building separately."
"Okay."
Oliver came out of his room, having finished changing. He was grinning all over his face and the moment Leo saw that, he was glad he had accepted the task yesterday. No matter how bad he felt now, Oliver's genuine smile made up for everything.
Leo forced himself to smile. "Let's get going then. Get dressed and then come to the car," he said to Christopher and took Oliver in his arms. Oliver happily clung to his father and whispered in his ear: "Thank you, Dad, for bringing Papa Christopher home." He kissed his father on the cheek.
"I'd do anything for you, my darling," Leo said with a forced smile.
- I would do anything for you, even if it meant the end of the world. Even if I had to kill everyone. Even if I completely lose my mind. You, my child, are the reason I'm alive. -
"I love you, Papa." "I love you too, sweetheart." He kissed Oliver's forehead. Even though he wasn't feeling well, he wanted to show as little of it as possible in front of Oliver. He wanted to continue to function, as a father, as a man, even if he didn't have the strength to do so at the moment.
Nor did he have the strength to discuss Christophers plan with him. Leo just accepted it, even though the situation could definitely become very (sarcastic) cheerful now.
After all, Christopher was now living with them and wanted to work where Leo did. He didn't trust Christopher to keep a certain distance during this time, he would probably have to beat that into him first and Leo and Oliver would have to be more careful at home now too.
He was glad that Oliver understood that he needed his eye drops and could do it himself, otherwise the situation could have been very different this morning. Unfortunately, that wasn't the only thing they had to pay more attention to now.
What had Leo got himself into again? Even if it was Oliver's wish, their lives would change drastically from today onwards.