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“Sorry,” I said. “I needed a condom.”
“You—” He cut himself off, shaking his head as though he thought his hearing had become defective.
“Safe sex is important,” I tried gamely.
Evidently, it was the wrong thing to say. A growl rumbled up from Byron’s chest.
I sighed. “Right. I seem to be saying this a lot today, but I guess you and I need to have a talk.”
TWENTY-EIGHT
Byron
I’D MANAGED TO KEEPmy shit together when I’d walked into the kitchen after work to find Mia wearing a high-necked sweater—one that didn’t quite cover the top of a suspicious bruise decorating her throat. After hearing about Tony’s asshole parents showing up at Zalen’s office door and upsetting Mr. Cool badly enough that he had to leave work early, I tried to tell myself that if he and Mia had fucked, it was no different than when Luca and I needed stress relief.
I didn’t exactlysucceed, but I’d been willing to keep my mouth shut and pray that it was a one-off, rather than something more serious between the two of them. Then, I’d gone upstairs after dinner and opened my bedroom door.
The scent of Mia’s elderberry-flavored slick clung to my couch—damningly fresh. A few hours old, at most. And hanging in the air like an accusation, a hint of lime and coconut, sharpened by lust in a way I’d never smelled it before, outside of a heat nest.
At which point, I’d stormed down the hall to Zalen’s suite and barged in like a complete dick.
“You brought Mia to my room andfucked her on my couch?” I demanded, a red haze settling over my vision. “Because you needed acondom?”
Zalen’s eyes widened. “No! That’s not... we didn’t...” He cut himself off with a sharp headshake and ran a hand down his face.
Despite myself, I felt a small thrill at putting a more dominant alpha on the back foot like this. Instinct propelled me to lean farther over his desk, into his space. My lips peeled back, baring teeth.
Zalen let his hand drop. “We didn’t have sex in your room, Byron. And I realize now how incredibly inappropriate it was to intrude on your space the way I did. I’m afraid I wasn’t doing most of my thinking with my big brain, at the time.”
He didn’t mention that I’d just shoved my way intohisprivate space without an invitation. He didn’t back down, either... or show any discomfort or weakness in the face of my open challenge. I bit down on the all-too-familiar frustrated humiliation of not beingalphaenough to successfully dominate other alphas in a fight, verbal or otherwise.
That humiliation held a new dimension now. Before, I’d never challenged another alpha over an omega. I’d never had to fight for Luca. Outside of heats, he didn’t trust any other alphas with what remained of his sexuality. I was the only one he ever came to. Plus, he’d have hated it if I evertriedto fight for him, because we weren’t like that.
But with Mia, it was different. And didn’t that difference just scare the ever-lovingshitout of me? Terrifying sentences like ‘She was mine first,’ and ‘I won’t let you take her away from me’ fought to escape from behind my clenched teeth.
“You’ve got a lot offuckingnerve,” I barked instead, caring less and less about the consequences of my words. Instinct had already dragged my higher brain functions into the basement of my consciousness, bound and gagged.
“Stop,” Zalen said, his own bark understated, but no less effective for it.
I growled, the urge to resist a more dominant alpha’s bark an unfamiliar itch beneath my skin. But I hadn’t magically become less of a goddamned coward, just because I was jealous that Zalen had been balls-deep in an omega I’d thought was mine and Luca’s. Dark, placid eyes bored into my skull, and within seconds, my gaze slid away. Hot shame licked at my face, along with soul-deep desperation over the prospect of losing what my instincts had apparently decided was mine.
Fucking irrational.
Fuckingdevastating.