Chapter 14

The next day.

Snek sent the text message. He announced he was going to take Drax out again, and insisted Angela say home. "Someone wants to talk to you… Don't be alarmed okay, Melee is coming by."

Angela froze.

"Why… why is she coming over?" she asked nervously.

"Just… hear her out okay, she isn't going to hurt you."

"You planned this didn't you!" Angela demanded.

"NO! It wasn't my idea! Please… Melee just wants to talk with you, I told her how uncomfortable you were…"

"WHAT!"

"MOM!" Drax yelled. "Calm down, you think we're in constant danger, we aren't! We're not on the streets anymore, we're not getting by day to day. We're living for once. Melee Brawler is legendary. Even I know about her. You do realize what family she comes from do you? The Brawlers? They defeated monsters long before the heroes association was formed!"

Angela didn't say a word. "Just… go." She said.

Snek nodded as he took Drax out of the house, just as he opened the door, Melee stood there waiting. He stepped off to the side as Melee leaned in. "Angela?" she called.

She stayed outside of the apartment door. "I won't come in if you don't want me to."

However there was a look of reluctance, with a sigh Angela invited her in. Snek and Drax walked out shortly after.

#

The two women stood before each other, neither one uttering a word. Angela however kept staring at her, her eyes kept following the scales on her arms and the ones that appeared under her throat. "They aren't that bad to be honest with you. My whole body is nearly covered in them now."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to stare."

"Go ahead, people do it all the time and not as tasteful as you looked at them. May I have a seat?" Angela nodded. Melee knew to keep her distance so she sat on the couch as Angela kept near the kitchen dinning area. "Just so you know, Snek has nothing to do with this." She insisted.

"I doubt that. Why are you here?"

Melee gave a sigh. "I want to make sure you don't break his heart."

For a moment, Angela froze. She appeared more confused than anything. "Excuse me?" she questioned. "You do know he broke mine!"

"Being young and foolish yeah, I know that. But now learning from it, being older and wiser now than he was before. He's learned a lot about himself with his time with us, he's taken the time to reflect on his past actions. I could hear him in his sleep talk about you back in the day. It sounded like you meant a lot to him, he was too stupid to realize it at the time."

She smiled to the news, but it quickly vanished. "I am not that afraid of monsters anymore. It's just that… with what he becomes, what he will turn into again…"

"You don't think a normal life could be made if you are with him, do you?" Melee questioned.

"How could it?"

There was a grin on the face of Melee. "Can I tell you something?" Angela nodded. "If I never became this… even if Garou didn't mark me as his mate with his own scales. I still would be with him. If I were human still, I would be at his side. Whether or not if we were able to have children, I would have taken the chance. He meant a lot to me, despite what he became, and I was with him through the whole process when it happened all over again."

"How did you manage?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "There one thing about Garou, you don't tell him what he can and can't do. You can't tell him he's going to do this or that, yet oddly enough, when I did… he listened to me. There was a moment when he became more monster than man, he was about to let it take over himself when I told him he could control it. I didn't think he would at the time, it was so much to contend with and his mind, body and spirit were nearly to the brink of breaking. Yet… he managed to overcome it. Taking every ounce of his strength and fought through. I doubt he did it for himself… he did it for me."

Angela shook her head to it all. "What does this have to do with Snek and I? Look, he's become the man I have dreamed of, even more so than I could have imagined. He's changed drastically…"

"That's because of what he turned into." Said Melee. "I knew Snek too, back before he became the serpent man. He was cocky, arrogant and full of himself. He still is, but, he knows now of his strengths, his power and also his vulnerability. He has endured so much in his time with us. He saved the lives of my family and I, if it weren't for him, we would certainly be dead."

She was stunned to the news. "How?"

Melee explained about the incident with the house of evolution, how they took the bio energy of not just her family, but the three martial artists living with them, Snek was the first to turn back, regaining his legs for the first time in nearly two years. Despite how happy he was to get them back, he knew it wasn't right. So, he pretended to betray everyone, helped the one in charge to achieve his plan yet sabotage it throughout the process. "He could have let us die, since he was human again. He gave that up and saved my family, releasing the monster bio energy that would turn him back into the serpent. He did that for us. My daughter Alley was going to make the same extraction device for the three to turn them back, he flat out refused, not wanting to take the risk that a weapon like that could fall into the wrong hands."

"I had no idea…"

"Angela," Melee said. "Are you more scared of Snek becoming a monster or is it the idea that he is back in your life and there is something you haven't told him yet?"

Her face drained of color, Angela began to tremble but shook her head to the whole thing. "How did you…"

"My sons, Draven and Goliath. Despite their age, they are very astute to things. Drax in particular, I remember them telling me, they asked Snek if Drax was his. I don't think Snek quite understood the question he was being asked." Melee paused. "It was why you broke up with him after that dinner, you wanted to tell him but he dismissed the idea of having a family."

Angela began to tear up. She broke down crying but nodded her head. "He wasn't there!" she wept. "He wasn't there when Drax needed him most… when I needed him most!"

"He can't make up for that lost time. I know that. You're worried though, when he returns to his monster form, he won't be there again."

"HOW CAN HE!" she demanded. "HE'S AN M CLASS DRAGON, HOW CAN HE BE THERE FOR US!"

"You have no idea how much he has changed… you know damn well, in your heart of hearts, Snek would do anything and everything he can to be there for the both of you, human or not."

Angela tried to settle herself down. "What would people say… that I am connected to him? I'm dating a monster."

"You're dating a hero." Corrected Melee. "Snek is an M Class Dragon, that's a hero ON PAR with the S Class!"

She smiled to the thought. It was what Snek always wanted, he thought he had a chance to being an S Class hero before, but, she knew better. Now, he was on par with them thanks to his serpent form. "What about my son? What will people say when they learn…"

"That you cannot control," Melee warned. "No matter what you say, what you do. There are going to be people who will be pissed off that he is who he is, or there will be those who think that he's the luckiest kid alive. Even when people find out the truth as to who his father really is, it won't matter how you explain it. He is connected to Snek either way."

"I never thought you would have such profound advice…"

"Oh darling, I've been at this rodeo for a while."

Angela cleared away what remained of her tears, she grew comfortable enough to approach Melee and sit across from her. "Drax wanted us to move in with your family…"

"You are welcomed to, we can make arrangements…"

"I don't want us to impose, besides, your daughter worked so hard on this for us!"

Melee blew it off. "Please, this was three hours if that of work. To her that's nothing more than a bathroom break project. Seriously, my daughter can complete tasks in the bathroom. It annoys her brothers to no end when she hogs the facilities and not really doing anything in there."

Angela giggled. "I will consider it, but for now. I think we will remain here, perhaps we will spend a night or two at your place when Snek returns and see how that works out. Would it be okay to do so?"

"That would be no problem."

"Melee… I'm sorry for how I acted."

"I don't hold it against you, besides, you've been through hell!" she announced.

"So have you by the sounds of it."

"We're women, we can go through hell and still come out with a smile on our face!"