Page 73 of Generation Omega: Claimed (Originverse #3)

Tillie warily eyes the sides and the back, before refocusing on me. “I will, just as soon as you come sit with me. I’m worried Gideon or Ory will sense my feelings, and you’ll become the ping-pong ball they toss around for fun.”

Now, I glance suspiciously at the interior of my cage and understand exactly what she’s thinking. Those fuckers would totally beat me senseless without even getting their hands dirty. It takes an act of will, but I approach and sit on the other mattress, as far from Tillie as I can get.

“Thank you,” she whispers.

“Talk,” I bark, and she winces again.

“Careful,” Tillie warns in an almost threatening tone.

“About what?” Flippant again—I do have a skill set, or is it just an unavoidable default?

“You don’t have the right to compel me right now, and if you do, I’m calling Ory to deal with you. I thought we could have a conversation, but if you…”

Tillie shudders, and I realize the vulnerability she’s facing alone in this box with me.

I could fuck her six ways to Sunday before they could get back here.

I could even coerce her into loving every second of it and then make her forget it after we’re done.

Holy crap—I’m a damn date-rape drug if I want to be.

I almost hurl at the thought. What the hell is wrong with the omegaverse to create this fucked-up dynamic and call it progress?

The clenched fist around my heart compresses, reminding me that it’s more complicated than I’m making it sound.

I scrub my hands over my face, and while it’s still covered, I mutter, “What do you want from me, Tillie? I explained about my limitations. Why are you now pretending they don’t exist? Or that I kept them from you? Why are you acting like it’s fair to expect more than I have to give?”

Tillie wraps her arms around herself, seeming even more fragile. “I accepted your terms of being my alpha, until you broke them the second I needed to create one boundary.”

“It was an enormous boundary, sweetheart, and you fucking know that!” Still lashing out—still a dick. “You got your first alpha to block me from your mind. It wasn’t me who broke the terms of our bond—it was you .”

I want her to fight back. I want her to yell at me.

But she just sits there thinking about what I said, every one of her thoughts poison because I can’t hear them.

I can’t refute them. She shut me out, and I’ve been struggling to survive ever since.

The damn woman relit the lighthouse inside me and then took it with her when she left.

And now she has the nerve to blame me for instituting the boundaries she forced on me. That’s fucking rich.

“I guess that’s it then.” Her words falter, and my hands ache in their tight fists.

“What?”

“It doesn’t matter now. It’s done.” Her silence is a threat, because I don’t know whether she’s communicating with Gideon right now. Or god forbid, Ory.

“What doesn’t matter? Tell me.” I’m two seconds from begging just to hear her voice.

“Maybe you’re right.”

Maybe you’re right —words that cause a smart man to brace for impact. “About what?”

“About me breaking the terms you set.”

You set … those words are heat-seeking missiles aimed directly at me.

Didn’t she set them too? Didn’t we make them?

But even asking those questions in my mind makes me the idiot, because I was there when I declared the rules and shoved her off balance, forcing her to accept my way or the highway.

How the tables have turned, says the man who may literally meet the highway in a second or two.

Combative, little details emerge, presenting a solid judgment—what I did and how I did it prove I didn’t view Tillie as my equal.

I fell as hard as the professor for my elevated role, missing the same damn point of these bonds as that total asshat. That seriously blows.

When confronted by faults you aren’t ready to own, there’s really only one thing to do—cheat.

I affect the gentle tone Gideon used in one of his most famous roles, Tillie’s favorite.

It turns out my range is too narrow to manufacture such an earnest attribute on my own, so parrot life , it is.

“Why couldn’t you just accept my terms, my limitations? Can you just tell me that?”

Tillie drags her gaze from the floor and looks at me. “Your terms will get us all killed.” She’s practical, not melodramatic, as she speaks.

Like a fool, I seize the drama. “What the hell does that mean?”

“It doesn’t matter now. No matter how much I want you to be my alpha, I can’t let you destroy this pack and the omegaverse with it. So, I’ll just reach out to Gideon and…”

“No.” I’m gesturing wildly again. “What are you talking about? How are we in more danger if I can hear your thoughts?”

Tillie’s hopeless in a way I haven’t seen before, and I hate it. I hate this.

“Please, explain what you mean, because I have no fucking clue what you’re saying. I need to understand, and I don’t . I don’t understand at all. Please , help me understand.”

Her voice is a barren wasteland, and I can barely catch even a hint of her orange and vanilla spice that’s still the best fragrance in this world. “I didn’t want to push you out. I had to… there wasn’t a choice for me.”

“But why ? Why was it so bad to let us in… to let us hear your thoughts, to be soothed in your inner world? Why was that so terrible?” I need to stop because now she’s confused and curious, and if I’m not careful, she’ll discover how hollow I truly am.

“It wasn’t… but it was.” Tillie’s about to sob, and Ory is about to neuter me, because that’s precisely what he’ll do before burying me up to my neck in the desert somewhere and leaving a bucket over my head.

She wipes her eyes and attempts to shake off her unsteadiness. “It’s reality TV,” she blurts at last.

“It’s what?”

“Reality TV—the way they act. They know they’re on camera, and they know it’s going to be edited.

They know other people are going to react to how they’re presented.

They can’t act like normal people, because there’s nothing normal about having cameras recording everything you do or people watching your life as a form of entertainment. ”

Tillie is imploring me to understand, but even without any reaction from me, she continues.

“ That’s what it was like. I was self-conscious about my own mind.

I was modifying what I thought to make you happy with me, to make sure you would accept me.

And it will get us killed if I do that, because I’m the one and only omega—just like you said—and I have to be present, just like you commanded.

This is what being present looks like. It means having the freedom to consider anything, not just what pleases others. ”

Tillie wipes away a tear. “I’m sorry it hurt you, but I have to care about the omegaverse and the world more than any one person, including you.

” She covers her mouth with her quivering hand, as though that will prevent her emotions from overwhelming her.

“I still can’t believe you dropped me as soon as I did what I needed to do.

You broke my trust, Jameson. You broke my heart.

Because, yeah, you’re the bad boy, and I promised myself I wouldn’t fall for you, but, stupid me, I did.

I fell hard for the man I think you want to be, but won’t let yourself become because… ”

Her eyes fill with horror, and she shakes her head. “It’s fine. I’ll get Gideon, and we’ll set you free.”

“No, you won’t. You’re going to finish that sentence.” I didn’t bark, but it was definitely bark adjacent.

“No, I’m not. It’s not my place. You’re not my alpha anymore.” With a bitter edge, she adds, “You’re just a trust-fall gone wrong.” Who says words aren’t as lethal as a shotgun?

“Tillie, finish your sentence… please .”

“You really don’t want that.”

“I’m telling you I do. Why don’t you believe me?”

She tenses, her fingers digging into her arms. “Because I don’t trust you anymore.”

My craving for her answer is like an instant addiction, just like everything about my omega. “Maybe I deserve that…” Maybe is a stretch, but I’m not there yet. “… but I still need you to finish your thought before you dump me out.”

Tillie rolls her eyes. “Fine, but you asked, so don’t be an ass about my answer.”

I simply nod.

Tillie dares me to look away as she says, “I think the man you want to be is the man your mother raised you to be.”

The fist that’s been around my heart this entire time constricts, stealing my ability to react.

“And I think you won’t allow yourself to be that person because that man would love me heart and soul. But you can’t let yourself do that because I could die and leave you, just like your mom did.”

Tears stream down her cheeks, and I’m moving toward her, scooping her into my arms and cradling her.

“I’m sorry,” she cries. “I’m so sorry you lost her, but she wouldn’t like what her death did to you.

She loved you with everything she was. You were the best part of her life.

She wanted you to have the world. I want you to have the world.

I want you to have everything. But I can’t force you, and I can’t accept this shadow you created to protect yourself.

” I’m trapped with her, with no possible escape, as her truth aims all its weapons directly at me.

“It’s not fair to expect me to always be naked while you clothe yourself in lies. ”