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Her eyes skip to the side, red staining her cheeks. “You were there when I fucked everything up. I feel confident you can put story A with story B and come up with the answer. And I’m fairly certain that your pack would rather me be here than there.”
“Onyx forgives you!” I shout at her. “All she wants is her sister.”
“Maybe I don’t forgive myself!” She shouts back at me. “Maybe my life is one disaster after another, and I’ve given up. Maybe I exist to die?”
I haul her close to me until our chests are touching. My rage is incandescent.
“Why did you leave?” I growl out so low it almost needs subtitles.
She tries to pull her arm away. “You hate me. Ian hates me. Ross and West pity me. I’m not staying where I’m not wanted.”
“You are wanted. You’re so badly wanted I could fuck you, knot you, and bond you right now,” I hiss in pure, white, blinding fury.
My words shock both of us. Her eyes go wide, that blue deepening into sapphires. Her pouty bottom lip hangs open, and her tongue dips out to lick it.
I almost groan. Why did I say that? It doesn’t matter why, it’s true.
“You can’t stay here,” I say resolutely.
“I can.”
“If you stay, I stay. I’m not losing you again.”
She huffs. “Why have you suddenly taken such a damn interest in me? We’ve been good for three years. What’s changed?”
I grab her wrist, pull her sleeve up, and show her Ian’s bond. “That’s changed. Maybe I want an omega. Maybe I want my omega to be you. Come home and let’s talk about this.”
She grunts. “This is crazy. It’s insane.”
“I don’t care. I thought I didn’t have a hope, there was nothing left, but this…this bond on your arm, this is my second chance, and I don’t care who you are or what happened in the past, I want a chance for a future.”
She stares up at me with strangely old eyes. Her face is expressionless. I have no idea what she’s thinking or feeling. She’s just blank.
“You want to wipe the slate clean and start again? With me?” She asks, her voice devoid of emotion.
“Yes. I want that.”
“Not because of who I am, but because I’m here with this?”
“Yes.”
She looks away. “You have no idea what I’ve done to survive, Quint. What I am. You don’t care? All you want is a chance with an omega. It doesn’t matter who? Ian really fucked you over, Quinton. You deserve better than someone like me.”
“Maybe, or maybe not. Maybe you’re still the omega that our pack chose,” I snap back.
She flinches, her expression turning vulnerable and unsure. “You can’t say things like that.”
“Why? Because it might be true? We saw you, and we chose you, long before we met our scent match, and forgive me if I’m wrong, but you liked us. For a few days there, you were happy, and something happened…something changed. What was it?”
The fear is not what I expect from her. She shuts her expression down quickly, but the stench is thick in the air.
“What happened at the Omega Meet, Silver?”
She shakes her head, backing away from me, as far as her arm will stretch. I refuse to let her go.
“Did someone hurt you, someone threaten you?”
She hisses when I say threaten. My instincts sharpen.