Chapter 104 - 103. US - Lonely

Anthony opened the door to Connor's bedroom and found him lying on his bed, his butterfly knife spinning around his hand, staring at the ceiling.

"Nono… You're moping," The cute boy stated. Anthony Everett had been seeing his big brother with a sad look for days and he didn't know what to do to cheer him up.

Connor and Glen had finished high school and as a gift for finally graduating, their parent left the house for them for a whole weekend so that they could invite their friends over and have a party.

Despite this opportunity that would have driven any teenager overjoyed, Connor didn't seem to be interested in the preparations. He was more gloomy than ever. His big brother, whom he knew as a cheerful jokester, spent the little free time he had outside of his training staring into space, without any motivation.

Connor's head turned to his little brother. Anthony showed the big bowl of popcorn he had prepared.

"I made popcorn, you want to watch a movie?"

When Glen came home from the supermarket with his arms full of paper bags containing snacks and other packets of crisps and food for their graduation weekend party, he was about to unleash on Connor, because the latter had ditched him.

The werewolf ended up shopping alone. Just buying the snacks had taken him nearly an hour. That's without mentioning the time it took him to put all the bottles in his trunk. He was already moving towards the noise of the television when he heard the sound of the microwave. Glen turned his head and saw Anthony waiting for the bowl of popcorn he had been preparing to be ready.

"Anny? Why do you look so sad?"

He walked towards the little boy and put the bags away before patting his head to dispel his bad mood. Anthony forced himself to smile but the corners of his mouth dropped quickly.

"I'm not sad. Connor is and I don't like it. For the past few days, he hasn't joked like he used to, he even stopped teasing everyone all day long."

"Yeah, I know," Glen replied with a sigh. "And? You're worried?"

"I don't like to see him like that. I want my big brother back. I won't complain that he's clingy anymore I want him back." Cheeks puffy and eyes red, Anthony paused as the rang alerted them that the popcorn was ready. "Why is he like this anyway?"

"I think he's in love."

"In love? But it's a good thing, right? Why is he so sad? Does the girl doesn't like him back? I can tell her. Nono can be a bit annoying sometimes but he's nice. I'm sure she will like him if she gets to know him."

"Well, for starters it's not a girl but a man." Anthony and Glen turned to the voice and found Connor standing in the doorway of the room. The teenager trotted over to them and stopped near Anthony whom he grabbed under the shoulders and made to sit on the kitchen counter

"A man? You're in love with a man?"

"You think it's weird?" he asked his little brother.

"No, werewolves don't care about that. They have male omega." The little boy turned to his other big brother and Glen guessed the question he was about to ask him.

"I have no intention to have an omega partner. Male or female."

"I think you should have a boyfriend too."

"Why?"

Anthony shrugged.

"You're doting on me but you don't care about your girlfriends at all. I think a male omega has more chance to tame you."

"This and that are different matters." retorted Glen, offended by the truth that came out of the little boy's mouth. Connor snorted and almost choked on his saliva. He caught his breath and ruffled his brother's hair who continued.

"And that man, he doesn't like you?"

"No, actually he told me that he loves me way before I realized that I was in love with him."

"Then, why?"

"Well, I rejected him… Badly. And he moved on." Connor shrugged. The smile he gave Anthony was bitter.

"I don't like him," Anthony said with his arms crossed and a pout on his face.

"Why? He's a great guy! I was the dumb one."

"Then he should have waited!"

Connor didn't react to his little brother's remark, because it was exactly the fact that Greg hadn't waited that was holding him back from confessing his feelings.

The brown-haired boy knew he had no right to feel like this, but he couldn't forget how his heart was throbbing when he saw the scientist with another man that night.

"Let's forget about that, we have a party to prepare."

________

Leaning on a bar counter, Greg was quietly drinking his glass of bourbon. He hadn't given a single glance to the other customers, and the bartender who had noticed his regular's bad mood decided to talk with him.

"Not in the mood for some flirt tonight?"

Greg lifted his head and looked at the man who stared back at him with a teasing smile. The scientist had been particularly aggressive the last few weeks. He needed to distract his mind. The thought of Connor flirting somewhere in town with a man left him restless.

Even if they hadn't seen each other since that famous evening, the teenager hadn't left his mind for a single moment and it was starting to affect his mood. He shook his head in response.

"I think I'm done with that."

The bartender's smile widened before he spoke. "It's only my opinion after eight years behind this counter, but most men who show up one night and start hitting on anything who has two legs, have someone they can't forget."

Greg chuckled and his heart sank. He sipped his drink in one gulp.

"I'm going home for tonight."

Greg had just reached his door when his phone vibrated in his pocket. He fished the device and took a look. His eyebrows furrowed when he saw the number of the person calling him. He unlocked the screen and held the device to his ear.

"Glen, it's late what…" He listened to the young alpha's voice stuttering and scrambling on the other side of the phone.

"Calm down, I'm coming right away!"

Greg hung up and walked back. His car was near the bar because he had returned with a private driver company. He looked in his call list for the number of the driver who had just dropped him off and dialed it.

"Hello! Excuse me are you still nearby because I have an emergency. If you don't have any more errands scheduled, I have to get to Red Creek General Hospital."

________

Greg walked through the automatic hospital doors and looked around to spot the reception desk, which he strode towards. He waited for his turn, not without displaying his nervousness and impatience to everyone in the queue. When the woman behind the counter asked him to move on, the man rushed toward.

"I was called to tell me that three people had been brought here after a road accident. A couple with their child."

"Give me the names of the patients please."

"Laurent, Maria, and Anthony Everett."

The woman looked at her computer. She gave him the information he was looking for and Greg started running.

"Hey, where do you think you are? Don't run in a hospital!"

The man ignored her words and ran to the waiting room near the trauma ward. He stopped breathlessly in front of two people who looked like they were on the verge of a mental breakdown.

"How are they doing? What happened?"

Connor and Glen looked up at the same time to find the man disheveled in his wrinkled shirt and if they were any closer they probably would have smelled alcohol on his breath.

"What are you doing here?" Connor asked and it was Glen who answered.

"I called him" The young werewolf forced himself to explain. "Maria's family lives abroad, Laurent has no siblings, and Grandmother Autumn has already passed away. We're alone and…I thought… Greg is the closest thing we have to a family member." He blinked and shrugged after finishing his sentence. "I didn't mean to burden you," Glen uttered as he realized what he had just said and his head dropped. The young alpha's eyes were red and tears threatened to flow at any moment.

"It's okay, it's not a burden at all. Have the doctors come to see you?"

Connor shook his head in response and the man put a hand on his and Glen's shoulder.

"I'll see if I can find any information? Do you remember the name of one of the doctors?"

Again the two boys shook their heads and Greg squeezed their shoulder lightly.

"I'll be back in a moment, wait for me there."

The man walked away before he got an answer and went in search of information. When he returned, the hope of good news to announce to the two teenagers was growing dim.

He had used his status as a WIA doctor to override the rule of confidentiality and he regretted having done so.

Laurent's car had taken the full brunt of a freight truck whose faulty brakes had no longer responded. The driver had ended up losing control of the vehicle and the truck had left its direction of traffic to crash into the car of the Everetts. They were leaving for the weekend to let their boys celebrate their high school graduation.

The list of their injuries was so long that it would be more effective to mention the organs that had been spared. Just hearing that the medical team had taken three hours just to disengage Laurent from the dashboard which had sunk into his abdomen during the impact had made the young scientist lose all hope.

As for Maria, after a piece of the windshield severed her carotid artery in addition to her extensive internal damage, her vital prognosis was poor. She had lost too much blood and the team had taken too long to extricate them from the wreckage of the car.

Anthony was the least injured of the three, as he was furthest from impact. His body suffered primarily from the damage caused by his organs which had been propelled against his rib cage during the impact. His lungs were severely affected and the medical team was considering a transplant to save his life.

Greg ran his fingers through his hair. He had no hope for them. He walked back to where he had left the boys and saw that a middle-aged man was standing near the two teenagers and looking at them worriedly. He approached them and they looked up at him with hopeful eyes and the scientist's heart sank. He swallowed and shook his head and settled on a watered-down version.

"The three of them are in the OR now. The vital prognosis of your parents is engaged, but the surgeons are doing their best."

"And Anny? What about Anny?" Connor asked.

"He might need a lung transplant, but for now the doctors are trying to stabilize him to see if he can be put on the waiting list."

Both young men looked down, their eyes red, and Greg frowned when he saw the middle-aged man put his arm around Connor's shoulder to comfort him. When he saw his expression, Bradley Stevenson decided to introduce himself.

"I am Stevenson. Bradley Stevenson. I'm Connor's mentor in the academy and Maria has been a friend since high school."

Hearing his introductions, Greg relaxed and held out his hand to introduce himself. When the man walked away to make a phone call, Bradley turned to his protege.

"So, you like them older?"

Connor cracked a weak smile.

"It's not like that, Brad."

"It's Sir Stevenson and stop lying. If look could kill, I would be dead now! No one is that possessive if it's not like that."

Before Connor could answer his mentor's attempted joke, two surgeons walked towards them. Being a man of the field, Bradley was a veteran of this kind of situation. One look was enough for him to realize that the hearts of these two boys were about to be broken.

"Are you the family of Laurent and Maria Everett?"

Glen and Connor sprang up and the two doctors exchanged a look.

"We did our best to repair the damage and put all the organs failures under control, unfortunately…" Connor's chin quivered and the boy collapsed into his best friend's arms who himself started to cry.

When Greg returned from his phone call, he found the two boys clinging to each other as the doctors spoke with Bradley about the different arrangements to be made. Without saying a word, he put an arm around their shoulders and let them suffer their loss.

Doctors had managed to repair most of Anthony's injuries and the boy had been placed in the recovery room. They had to wait to see if his constants improved to put him on the waiting list for a donation.

Glen and Connor hadn't left his bedside once. Their faces were eaten with huge dark circles and Greg hadn't been able to make them swallow anything.

The man entered the room with a paper bag in his hands and gently called the two friends to get their attention.

"I bought porridge. How about a little break to eat something?"

Both boys shook their heads in refusal, but the man was unfazed.

"The nurses will let us know if anything happens. C'mon if you don't swallow anything you'll end up collapsing. Especially you Glen, don't forget that you are a werewolf even if you have a particular constitution."

Reluctantly, Glen and Connor left the room and Greg accompanied them to the cafeteria where they had a quick meal.

They were heading back to Anthony's room after not even a quarter of an hour in the dining room when they heard the alarm of a code blue. Nurses and doctors rushed to a room and the two boys quickly realized that it was their brother's room.

Connor started running and Glen followed him. When they crossed the threshold, a doctor was holding paddles which he placed against Anthony's pale, frail chest. Electricity coursed through the little boy's body, forcing him to heave, but the tracing on the heart rate monitor remained stubbornly flat.

The doctor persisted for about ten minutes and after the last discharge without any reaction, his deep voice announced after a sorry look towards the two boys.

"Time of death, 1:18 p.m."

________

Greg and Bradley helped Maria's family arrange the funeral. When their mother's brother had arrived, he had consoled his nephews and supported the boys as best he could even if, in the end, the teens felt like they were facing a stranger. They were, however, grateful to have someone to hand the reins to.

Too young and too sheltered by their parents to have thought of such a situation, Glen and Connor were helpless in front of the medical staff questions and the funeral director's form.

When Greg took over answering questions until their uncle arrived, Connor felt his heart swell with a new kind of affection.

Sadly, the boys' pain didn't end on the day of the funeral. When they realized they were going to have to return to a, now, empty house, both of them were heartbroken a second time.

They hurried to apply late to enter the dormitory of their respective universities. While Glen was able to secure a back-to-school spot, the WIA Academy administration couldn't find an available spot for Connor until the second semester.

"I can stay with you and delay my entry if you want," Glen offered as he watched Connor fold up his mail with a frustrated look on his face.

"No, don't! What if you can't find a place next semester?

"It's ok. Beta Tomas found me a place right away. I don't know what is going on in my genitor's head, but he seems to want to grant me privileges even if I'm a defective object.

"You are not a defective object. And you should beware of Alpha Carter. He's not a good alpha. I'm sure he'll ask you something at some point."

Glen shrugged and walked over to his best friend to sit beside him.

"What will you do? I don't want to leave you here all alone."

"Don't worry! I'll find something."

________

Connor pressed the bell and waited for the door to open. It was late and he had no idea if the man he was going to disturb was at home, but he couldn't bear another night in the house where his family was gone. Glen had gone to his dorm three days ago and he couldn't bear the thought of spending a third night there all alone.

He heard the clatter of pots falling to the floor and after a few curses, footsteps approached the door.

The door opened and Greg blinked as he saw Connor standing in the doorway. The light-brown-haired boy gave him a faint smile and lifted the travel bag he had in his hand.

"I know I'm shameless but… Glen is gone, the house is a bit big and I guess it's a bit lonely…"

Without a word, Greg let go of the door to let the younger boy come in.