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Oh.

I didn't know what I had expected, but 'oh' definitely wasn't it.

The word landed harder than any punch ever could.

Because it wasn't indifference.

It was understanding.

And that was somehow worse.

Chapter 12

Christa

Having Anton pacing around the kitchen like a caged animal, hair wild, words falling out of him like broken glass... is not what I expected when I agreed to let him speak to me alone.

I also wasn't expecting an apology.

I mean, what the heck? They hadn't done anything to me.Iwas the one that had run away without even talking to them.

But he was sorry.

Sorry they hadn't come back for me.

Sorry they'd left me withher.

And he sounded like hemeantit. It sounded like it had been eating him alive for years.

I'd come into this confrontation ready to stand strong, to defend my independence and my decision to run off. I'd evenrehearsed a little speech about how I wasn't some frightened girl anymore and I was ready to move forward. Forget the past.

But then he called me his little Omega. And showed me that raw, deep hurt.

Shared his pain with me.

It gutted me.

And it made no goddess damned sense. Anton and Drew were Tracy's sons. Her Alpha sons.

But Anton's voice, his face... he wasn't lying. Heknewwhat she was like.

"Oh," I finally managed to push out the only word I could find.

He stood there. Stiff and silent. Like he couldn't speak or move any more.

I didn't know what to do. What to say. There was no box to put this big revelation into.

This big, strong Alpha hadsurvivedher too. And now he was looking at me like he'd failedme.

Like he needed my forgiveness.

How couldn't he see I could never blame him? I understood better than anyone. He and his brother had obviously gotten out as soon as they could and refused to look back.

And why would they look back for a random girl they'd never met before?

His agony made my chest ache.

And it stirred something deeper. Something I've ignored for way too long.