25. An Ending—Not A Dream （Part 3）

It happened on a quiet night,one of those nights with wispy, ghost-like clouds in the sky, the moon a huge silver coin between the buildings.

“When are you actually going to propose to me?” Olson asked. “You’ve been dragging your feet!”

George sucked in a snuffling breath, shock and humor on his face. He opened his mouth and paused. “Do you want the truth, or do you want to be surprised?”

“I want the truth!” Olson pouted. “We’re almost eighteen. I’m tired of waiting.”

“We’ve already exchanged bonding marks. You already have a ring!”

Olson rolled his eyes. “That you gave me when we were kids!”

“But it still holds. It’s still a promise.”

“Well, yeah.” Olson gave a grudging smile. “I just wanted a proper proposal like every other omega gets.”

“Iknow.” George hesitated as they walked through downtown Meadowfall, hand in hand. “Actually, we’re not going home right now.”

“We’re not?” Olson asked incredulously.

His alpha flashed a smile. “I’m taking you somewhere else.”

“Where?”

“It’s a secret!”

They kept walking, cars rumbling by, the clouds drifting in front of the moon.

“Remember our first kiss?” George asked. “We were twelve and in the washroom during science class. You’d somehow gotten hand soap all over your face.”

“And somehow I was so alluring that you had to kiss me,” Olson said dryly.

“It was a terrible kiss.” George laughed. “I missed your mouth and got soap in *mymouth.”

Olson grinned. “You weren’t supposed to just stick your tongue out.”

“That’s what people do in the movies!”

“It is* not.”

”Well, it’s not, but twelve-year-old me didn’t know that.” George squeezed Olson’s hand. “I’m glad I got to find out with you what a real kiss is supposed to be like.”

Olson blushed.

“I’m glad you’re my first everything,” George continued. “First kiss, first love, first—well. I only know this much about our bodies because of you.”

When he said things like that, Olson felt a little silly for wanting a big old proposal.

The proposal didn’t really matter. What mattered was George’s love, bright and happy like he was.

“Here—” George tugged Olson into the mouth of an alley. They’d been ambling along, and George wanted to let the other pedestrians pass. He turned to Olson and reached into his pocket, his breath hitching. “So I still really suck at proposals. I had this whole thing planned, but when all’s said and done...”

He pulled something out of his pocket. It was a ring, glinting and simple with an inlaid turquoise stripe running down the middle.

It was nothing like the twist-tie ring, and Olson’s heart missed several beats.

“There’s no huge gem on it ‘cuz I’m thinking this could be your wedding ring, not your engagement ring,” George said quietly, his cheeks flushed. “Sorry I wasn’t completely honest about where all my earnings went.”

“George, I—” Olson choked up, his eyes growing wet. “It’s beautiful.”

“Yeah?” George smiled, lifting Olson’s hand.

With utmost care, he slipped the ring on. It fit perfectly. Olson had a thought about what their wedding day would be like, how it’d feel when George put the ring on his finger in front of all their friends and family.

A shape materialized from the shadows before either of them noticed it. By the time they did, a man had gripped Olson’s arm, tugging him roughly away from George.

Olson struggled. “Let me go!”

But the man—an alpha—was stronger. Olson stumbled after him, his heart lodging in his throat.

“Let him go,” George growled, lunging forward. The man kicked him in the gut and sent him stumbling back.

“Hand over your phones, wallets, and the ring,” the man said. “Or you’ll regret it.”

He yanked so hard on Olson’s arm that Olson cried out in pain. George regained his footing and hurried after them. “Let him go!”

“Start handing things over.” The man stopped when the shadows were dark and ominous around them.

There was a flash of something—a pointed knife, long and sharp and deadly.

“No,” Olson cried.

George’s eyes were wide. “Release him, or else.”

“Buy him back.”

Olson wasn’t sure why he did what he did. He twisted around and clawed at the robber’s eyes; the knife came down.

Instead of feeling it slice through his body in an explosion of pain, Olson felt nothing.

George cursed.

When Olson looked up, he saw blood.

George’s blood.

“Let him go,” George snarled.

He tore Olson out of the alpha’s grip. But the alpha descended on George, that knife stabbing into him several times, over and over in a horrifying dance.

“Olson, run,” George roared as he grabbed the man’s wrist, trying to point the knife away except the man was too strong for him.

“No, no!” Olson screamed, stepping closer to yank the man’s arm away. “You’re going to kill him!”

George pushed Olson back.“Run!”

The man stabbed George again. His heart pounding, Olson ran to the mouth of the alley, screaming for help. Some of the passers-by gathered and followed him into the alley, but by the time they reached George, the man was nowhere to be found.

George was on the ground, bloody, and Olson couldn’t breathe.

“S-someone call an ambulance,” Olson begged, falling to his knees next to his alpha. “George. George!”

George’s breathing was shallow, blood soaking through his clothes. A sick feeling grew in Olson’s stomach.

“The ambulance is coming,” Olson said, covering George’s wounds with his hands, trying to stop the bleeding. “You have to stay with me.”

“Ol—son,” George gasped, pained. His eyes were clouding over.

“You can’t—You can’t leave me.” Olson choked on his words. The horror of the situation was only just starting to sink in.

George was too grievously hurt.

They might not both walk out of this together. “George!”

“‘M sorry.” George coughed weakly, his breathing wet. “S’rry I... can’t... can’t marry you... Wanted... wanted to...”

“Don’t say that. Please. You’re coming home with me.” Olson’s vision turned blurry. He pressed harder on George’s wounds, trying to stop the blood from leaving him. But there was so much of it.

“Ol... son...” George’s mouth moved. Olson had to lean in to hear him. “Love... you...”

“No, no, no. Please. Please hang in there. George. Please.” Olson’s heart felt like it was fracturing into a million little pieces.

“You... made... me... so... happy...” George looked pained. “S’rry...”

His breathing slowed. The sirens wailed.

By the time the ambulance arrived, George’s heart had already stopped.