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She freezes and I curse myself again. Fucking hell, I need to work on staying calm when she tells me about her past. I’m doing nothing but traumatizing her further with my inability to keep my emotions in check.

“The people who taught you that are wrong,” I correct. “The omega-alpha relationship, it isn’t a subservient kind of relationship.” I scowl. “Or at least it shouldn’t be. A true omega-alpharelationship is symbiotic. They both have their strengths and their weaknesses. They’re two parts of a whole, made to support each other.”

“I’ve—I’ve never heard it described like that before,” she whispers.

“That’s a shame,” I say, returning to my work, and finishing up her bandages. “You deserve to be taken care of.”

CHAPTER 13

Luna

Even after Archer carries me back to the quiet of the room I’ve been given, his words still echo in my head.

The omega-alpha relationship, it isn’t a subservient kind of relationship.

All I ever did was serve Alpha Niall. All I was ever trained to do was serve him.

A true omega-alpha relationship is symbiotic.

Can I really offer this pack a true omega-alpha relationship? They’ve been so helpful, will the small things I’m able to do for them really be enough to count as a symbiotic relationship?

Because right now I feel more like a parasite.

They both have their strengths and their weaknesses.

I bury my head into my pillow. I don’t know what strengths he’s talking about. Because I only feel weak.

They’re two parts of a whole, made to support each other.

I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to ward off the tears that want to fall. I’ve never ever thought I’d hear something like that, let alone from an alpha’s mouth. The only place I ever thought these sorts of ideas existed was in fictional stories. Notreal life.

A knock sounds at the door.

“Yes?” I answer, quickly wiping my face with my hands and trying to appear more put together than I feel right now.

“Can I come in?” Madden asks from behind the door.

“Of course,” I say, sitting up in bed.

Madden opens the door with a warm smile on his lips. “I brought your tablet and some ice upstairs. I know you probably want to lay down in bed and rest and thought it’d be nice if you have something to do.”

“Oh! Thank you, that’s really sweet of you.” I return his smile.

He walks over to hand them to me, glancing to the side and seeing the four t-shirts I got from Chase last night neatly folded beside my pillow.

“Are those our shirts?”

A blush covers my cheeks. God, what must it look like, having all four of their shirts folded next to me?

“I—I don’t know if Chase told you, he—he got one shirt from all of you. He—he said it would help me get used to your scents. Is that okay?”

“Of course,” he says. “I’d offer to give you a fresh one, but I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

A fresh one? I glance down at the t-shirt he’s wearing now, a white one this time. Is he talking about giving me the shirt off his back?

My mouth gapes open. My brain short circuits. I don’t know what to think.

I do know that warmth gathers between my legs, my sweet perfume swirling in the air around us.