"I just wanna help you."

I smirked slightly, "we\'re both ȧduŀts here. Stop playing fantasy and get to it. You\'re not the first nor the last to use me as their pet so don\'t worry about hurting my feelings."

"I promise, I only want to support you and help you. But if I am to support your friend, I would like to insist on a few things." I stared at him in a way to encourage him to go on. "I\'d like to give you a job," he stated bluntly and I froze. What is wrong with him? "And I want to give you a place to live."

I gesture to the room around me, "I already have that."

He looked to me with worry, "but clearly it is not safe. For you to be attached just walking home makes me terrified. I worry for you and your children."

"What kind of job?"

"I want you to become my personal secretary."

I laughed, then quickly quieted down to not wake the kids. "I have never worked in a company that was creditable. I certainly cannot just jump into a job like thay."

"I think you would be perfect for it. Part of the reason why I could not get you out of my head these past 2 years and know how dedicated and hard working you are, regardless of the job." He paused with a smile, "I can also ȧssist you in legally changing your name."

I looked at him with confusion, "why would I want to do that?"

"If you begin working in a true company, people will find out that your name is not Nick."

I paused, "I didn\'t think of that?"

"I can also make it where all the contributions to your friend are anonymous."

I sighed as I rubbed the back of my neck above my mark, "why are you doing this for me? We have no relation and I certainly don\'t deserve it."

I froze as his hand gently was set on my knee. "You deserve a lot more than you think you do. And, as I told you, I have not been able to get you out of my head for 2 years. With my finances, I could have anything or anyone I want. You are the first person to ever make me feel comfortable. I am naturally a loner and do not find anyone very interesting until I met you. And to top it off, you were not interested in my money other than to support your children and now to save your best friend\'s life. Even with them, you have only requested what is absolutely necessary. It takes a special kind of person to do that when they are offered an unlimited supply of funds."

I pushed his hand off my leg and stared him down again. "You need to understand that there is only one Alpha I will ever trust in my entire life."

"From a previous statements, I know that certainly cannot be the father of your children." I nodded, "is it the man that gave you the ring you wear?"

I look to him and sighed, "it is. I\'m gonna warn you that by ȧssociating with me, especially as an Alpha, you\'re putting your life in danger. There is a reason I did not stay with the man that gave me this ring and it was not because I didn\'t love him. My destined partner will stop at nothing to find me and trap me along with my children. As a dominant Alpha, if he finds you, he will surly kill you just for being near me."

"Are you referring to J…"

I rushed to my feet and covered his mouth with my hands. "Don\'t say that name," I hissed. "I don\'t want to know what will happen if I hear it ever again. With the bond we are forced upon, it could ruin everything just by hearing his name."

"Were those children created by what he did during that video?"

I paused as I fought back tears, "how do you know about that?"

"With your former job, things like that will never disappear."

I looked to him with a scowl, "I think you already know the answer to that. Otherwise you wouldn\'t ask."

"But why would you hate Alphas just because of one bad one?"

I stared him down, "I thought you looked into my history. You didn\'t see my family? I\'m the and only Omega in over 6 generations of solely Alphas." I crossed my arms over my ċhėst, "I bet your little search on me didn\'t tell you the stories. Being identified as an Alpha as a child then suddenly nearly getting killed by a pack of Alphas when my hormones exploded. The fact that my parents kicked me out of their home within a few hours of finding out that I was not who I thought I was. Being attacked by 6 Alphas all at once until they had to be taken off of me." I laughed as my heart hurt, "that was all just before 11th grade," I mumbled as I fought back tears. "The man that gave me this ring is the only Alpha I will ever trust because he stood at my side for 8 years helping me through my heat while still respecting my want to not have a mate. I even found out about my destined partner and asked me to marry him. He was a fool but he was what Alphas should be."

"I want to help you learn that Alphas can be trusted. Some of us can make mistakes but that does not mean that we\'re horrible people or a horrible gender."

I sighed, "you\'re welcome to try to change my mind but I don\'t think it\'s going to happen. But I do have some requests for this agreement." He nodded in a way to tell me to continue. "I don\'t want you to interfere with my children. I do not want them to know about our arrangement nor about who I\'m trying to save."

"May I ask something?" I nodded but was skeptical and made sure to keep my eye on him. "Is that why you named your child Archer?"

I smirked sight slightly even though I felt like I would cry, "you\'re the 1st to figure that out. I did not want to copy his name but wanted to give a resemblance of his name to my son."

"Then who is Ashley named after?"

I grabbed the ring from behind my shirt. "She is named after him. They are the only 2 I want to have at my side for life."

"Then why are you not with them?"

"I have my reasons," I mumbled, "and I\'ve already told you a good amount of them."

"Is he your former boss Asher Douglas?"

I took a long pause as I felt like my breath was taken completely. "Yeah," I whispered, "he used to go by Ash which is what I call Ashley too." I sighed as tried to refocus, "I have one more request, I want to set up a safe haven for Chase."

Elijah looked to me with surprise bwfore nodding. "He is welcome to come and go as he pleases just like he is allowed to here. It shows your true character that you allow someone with no relation to you to be supported and part of your family just to keep them out of the situation you were in at his age. After what happened to you yesterday, I would like to have you move into my guest house as soon as possible. I checked and moving in with me would not affect your kids acceptance to their school. I also plan to not interfere much with your life other than supporting you." He paused as his phone began buzzing before letting out a deep sigh. "I need to get going but I will send a moving company over tomorrow afternoon. I have already called and terminated your lease so you do not need to worry about paying for rents this coming month. I hope to see you and the kids and hopefully Chase tomorrow night."

"Alright," I whispered before standing up and leading him to the door. He place a gentle kiss on my non-injured cheek before leaving. I made sure to use all the locks on the door before heading back to my bedroom.

When I came in I was saddened to see Chase with swollen eyes and he was sniffiling. "Why didn\'t you ever tell me those things? I\'ve been living with you for 6 years and I knew nothing." His face turned to a slight scowl as he began crying again. "Is that why you let me stay with you? Out of pity?"

I shook my head before going and sitting next to him on the bed. I took his hands in mine and squeezed them slightly. "When I met you, I did feel some pity as I could relate to what you were going through. But I also saw something in you that I never had. You\'re much stronger than what I was at your age. You were also much smarter and had more potential than I ever did. I do not pity you at all, rather I want to support you so that you can achieve anything you dėsɨrė. You do not deserve to be held back by being thrown out from selfish parents. I cannot fathom seeing you have to go through the horrible things I had to do just to survive. You are worth so much more than that and I could not help but meddle in your business. Now you are more of a support to me than I am to you," I said with a slight smirk as his tears finally stopped. "You are like the family my children deserve that I cannot give them. You\'re the 1st person that they have ever opened up to this much. Whenever you are at work or at school and they are with me solely, all they can do is talk about you. You are an important part of our family and I cannot imagine our lives without you. But I also do not want to strap you down and affect any of your achievements. That is why I encourage you to come and go as you please. And even though we are moving, I wish that you would stay in our lives. But I will not force you ever to do anything other than focus on your potential and your happiness."

He embraced me and squeezed himself against me. "I have a selfish request," he whispered as he let go of me slightly so that we could look into each other\'s eyes. "I want to be tested to see if I could be a bone marrow match to your friend."

I froze as I looked at him and saw true strength in his eyes. "I don\'t want you to, but I won\'t stop you either. If that is what you want, we can go to do it together. It would make me feel so much better if I could give him something to hopefully save his life. He saved mine and it is now time for me to do the same." I took a deep breath before composing myself and acting like the true ȧduŀt I should be. "Now, you should get some sleep." Chase took my hand and lead me into the bed.

He clung to me as he usually did but it seemed somewhat less for him and somewhat more for me.. With the amount of stress this day has held, it did not take long for me to drift to sleep.