My Angel Baby

Chapter One

*Cameron*

"Cameron's here!"

Little voices yell and scream out with joy as I walk through the gate of Little Creek Orphanage. With a huge smile on my face, I quickly drop the bags I was carrying onto the ground before Chelsea threw her little body in my open arms, followed by Logan, Mary, and Trinity.

They all tackled me to the ground causing me to laugh as they hugged the crap out of me. I should be used to this by now, coming here every Saturday for the past two years. But it never gets old, and I loved it more than I show it. Their ages ranged from four to ten years and while there were always new faces here, these four were the constant.

Standing back up as Mrs. Lawson came walking out, a huge smile on her face, she chastises the kids for being overly dramatic. At this point, it was a ritual between all of us. Brushing the dirt and grass from my backside, I grab the bags I brought for them.

"Are those for us?!" Seven-year-old Logan barks out with wide expectant eyes.

Rolling my own he knew they were. I try my best to provide whatever I can for them with every paycheck I get. It wasn't much but it was something. More than the state would ever give them unfortunately.

"Of course, when do I ever come empty handed?" I say as I start pulling out the gifts, I got for each of them.

No matter what it was, they were always so happy with whatever I brought. Squealing in delight they each take their new toy and dash away from me as they start comparing to each other's. Shaking my head I watch them sit on the grass and start playing together.

"You spoil them." Mrs. Lawson states as she comes to stand next to me.

"They don't get spoiled enough." Was always my response.

And it was true.

I wish I could take care of them all, wish I could provide them with everything that they needed. But I couldn't. I could barely afford to take care of myself. I was lucky enough to even get a good decent paying job.

Being an Omega had its disadvantages. Being a rare male one was even worse.

I had my fair share of misfortunes over the years and being only twenty years old, I was way too young to know half of the shit I already had gone through. And being used was one of them.

Shaking the unwelcome thoughts off I reach the other bag I held up to Mrs. Lawson. "Here, this if for you."

She takes it and looks inside, giving a smile of gratitude. "You didn't have to do this."

She always says that when I provide the orphanage healthier produce when the state only provides the cheapest versions. Which was half rotten food that needed to be used that same day, or it was no good.

"I don't, but I want to." I say every time.

She thanks me again and together we go inside where I'm greeted by the other employees and children. It was always like this. No matter how much I help out it always never seemed enough. Not enough people volunteered to help the children and seeing the younger get adopted always made the older ones feel unwanted and hopeless.

I walk through the halls of the building until I get to my destination. The door was ajar, and I knock to get her attention. Fifteen-year-old London was sitting at the beat-up desk that held so many children names, before her, carved into the wood.

She looks over to me and gives a tiny smile.

"May I come in?" I ask looking around the room that held four sets of bunkbeds with old, mismatched pillows and blankets.

She just shrugs as she sets her drawing pencil down and faces me fully while I stepped through the door. London was a recluse. She hadn't always been like that but after witnessing others who had been here with her get taken back by their parents or adopted the light of hope within kept dying.

She was the oldest kid here. I had read her file.

Her mother abandoned her when she was just five years old, leaving her all alone at a park where she had been playing on the playground. When she looked up her mother was gone and never came back. Her father was never in the picture and when they found out where her mother had gone off to the woman heatedly stated that she didn't want her, that she was too much of a burden and she's been with Little Creek ever since.

Thankfully London wasn't around when the statement from the police was recorded, but she still, till this day, remembers the feeling of being left behind and feeling unwanted even by her own parent. In her eyes if her mother didn't even want her than no one did.

I have been trying to prove her wrong since the first day I arrived here, but with little success.

"What are you drawing today?" I ask as I come to sit on one of the beds nearest her.

She just shrugs, looking back down at her work. "Nothing important. There's nothing else to do around here. I just got bored is all."

That wasn't it. I knew what was really going on.

One of the kids were adopted yesterday. Every month there was a "viewing" of the kids. Eligible couples would come to the orphanage and meet each and every child to see who they wanted to adopt. It was barbaric if you ask me. I get they want to meet the child first, but they weren't pets. They were human beings who all deserved a happy and loving home with people who genuinely cared for them.

Every month London tries to stand out, be the perfect child in hopes that someone will adopt her. And every month she gets let down. It wasn't that she was inadequate, she was categorized as an Alpha on her fourteenth birthday, but that didn't matter.

It was her age that was the problem.

She was just three years shy of being an adult and already conformed in her ways. And apparently no one wanted a child that was just going to go off on their own in such a short amount of time. But since when did that matter? Even at adult age a person still wanted to feel like they were wanted by a family, a home they could always turn too when things got hard and rough.

And no one felt that more than I did.

"Mrs. Lawson told me there was going to be an art competition at your school next month. Are you entering?" I ask, watching her expression.

She tenses then her shoulders sag followed by a heavy sigh. "I don't think I should." She mumbles, making my eyebrow arch hearing it.

"And why not? You're good, London. The best I've ever seen. You could win hands down." I press.

"I already have a hard enough time with people in my art class, I don't want to draw more attention to myself because I'm better at it then they are." She huffs.

She was being bullied at school. It was something I had to find out about myself since she was a closed book when it comes to these things. But when I came to visit one day, and she had a black eye I knew she was dealing with more difficult things than what she was dealing with here at the orphanage.

But she refuses to have me do anything about it.

"I heard the prize is a thousand dollars and a full scholarship to The Art Institution. Why not beat them and hit them where their future is concerned with winning and getting the hell out of this town?" I offer.

She cracks a smile. "That would royally piss them off. Some of them are already stressing on the project and I even overheard Palo say that if he didn't win the scholarship then his lifelong dream would be shattered."

I smile in return. "There you go. Make it your ambition to win and crush all their dreams." I say and we both laugh.

"You really think I should enter?" She asks timidly.

Nodding my head, I say, "Absolutely. Because it isn't just their future, it's yours too. Imagine of all the things you could do with a degree like that."

Puffing out her chest I watch her eyes lit up for the first time in a long time. "Alright, I'll do it."

And I'll make sure to cheer her on as she does.