Page 68 of Eclipse Sector

Cillian’s praise reverberated through my mind, conflicting with the pain and heartache he’d inspired over the last few weeks.

Everything he’d said—his explanations, his words, hisclaim…“It goes against every instinct for an Alpha to try to convince his Omega to pick someone else.”

My belly flipped as his statement played through my mind once more.

HisOmega.

He’d referred to me ashisOmega.

Sort of, anyway. It’d been implied. Or maybe I was thinking too deeply about that single phrase.

I nearly sighed, irritated with the hope sparking to life inside me. I knew better. This Alpha didn’t want me.

And yet…

He says I’m perfect.

But he also called me overconfident and annoyingly persistent.

Because he wants to believe that?I wondered, recalling everything he’d said to me this morning.Because he thinks I’m in another league. A goddess-like league.

That seemed too good to be true.

Just like when he kissed me…

I narrowed my gaze. “You’re taking pity on me again, aren’t you? Saying what I want to hear as some sort of lesson, similar to this morning, right?”

My eyes rolled, irritation prickling at my nerve endings.

Nothing he’d said was true. He simply wanted me to move on, find another Alpha, and leave him alone. Which I couldn’t do while moping in the shower.

“You can stop trying to make me feel better, Alpha Cillian,” I told him, cutting off whatever reply he’d just been uttering. “I don’t need or want your pitying remarks, or any more pity kisses, or whatever else you feel you need to bestow upon me. I accept your rejection. Just leave me alone.”

I forced myself to stand in the shower. Because it was time to focus on today.

And stop sulking over a man who doesn’t want to be with me.

Closing my eyes, I allowed the water to wash over my face and drown my ears. Cillian was speaking, but I didn’t want to hear him. I didn’t want to see him. I didn’t want to be near him.

He’d made his feelings clear.

And I was done?—

His hand on my nape sliced through my thoughts, causing my eyes to pop open. “Cill?—”

He yanked me around into his body with a force that left me winded in his arms, my startled reply dying on my lips in an instant.

“I donotpity you,” he growled, his chest a hot wall of masculine flesh against my breasts. “And I’ve certainly never rejected you, Ivana.”

Despite my breathless state, I managed a snort and muttered, “Six years of suffering through heat cycles alone says otherwise.”

Both of his eyebrows flew upward. “Ivana.”

“What?” I demanded. “What are you going to do? Kiss me again? Maybe you think the earlier lesson didn’t stick. Or, I know, maybe you’ll give me a pity knot this time, hmm? Demonstrate how another Alpha should properly fuck me, right?”

His dark eyes resembled midnight storm clouds, his expression positively thunderous. “If I knotted you, Omega, there would never be another Alpha. I promise you that.”

I huffed a laugh and rolled my eyes again. “Whatever,Alpha Cillian.” I tried to step back from him, but his grip tightened on my neck as his opposite arm encircled my lower back.