Page 62 of His Snowbound Omega

“The plan was always for you to end up here, omega. Bearing my mark. Did you really think you could pack up all my things and be rid of me? Have you forgotten the part in our contract where you aren’t allowed to walk away?” He pinched Thorn’s chin and lifted his head even higher. “I thought if I courted you properly, you would learn to want me back. I see now that was wishful thinking.”

“It…wasn’t.” Thorn licked his lips when Baal’s eyes widened slightly.

“Don’t mess with me right now. I’m warning you. That claiming mark is permanent. Whether you like it or not, you belong to me now.”

“Do you mean it?” Hope was starting to seep its way past Thorn’s defenses, his stubbornness no match for the warmth spreading through him. “You meant to give me the bite? It wasn’t just because you were delirious in the midst of a rut? You wanted—”

“I’ve always wanted this with you.” The alpha gave him an incredulous look. “Was that not obvious?”

Maybe it really had been, and his brother was right about that as well.

“I think I was too scared,” Thorn admitted. “If I looked too closely and misinterpreted things, and it later turned out to be all in my head…I couldn’t risk that.”

Baal’s hold on him softened some. “Why not?”

“Because I…” Screw it. He’d already been bitten. If they couldn’t be honest with each other now, they never would be. “I think I may be at least somewhat in love with you, and if you didn’t feel the same way—” The air whooshed out of him, and he found himself on his back yet again.

The alpha set a forearm at either side of Thorn’s head, caging him in, so the only place he was able to look was straight ahead, directly at those blue eyes he’d become so fond of.

“I’ll let the uncertainty slide,” Baal told him. “But just to be clear, of course I love you, frosty omega. Would I have wasted all my efforts like this if I didn’t?”

“Do you?”

“Yes.” His gaze dropped to the mark. “Maybe I should have bitten you at the cabin and avoided all of this.”

“No,” Thorn said. “I would have hated you.”

He stared down at him. “YouknowI’ve been playing your emotions, trying to get the reaction I desired.”

“Yes.”

“You don’t feel cheated?”

“Was it hard being nice to me?” Thorn countered. “Did you struggle thinking of kind things to say, gifts to send?”

“Don’t be absurd.”

“Exactly.” Now that his eyes were truly open, Thorn could look back on all of their memories and see the sincerity in every gesture. “If you’d forced yourself to pretend to be someone you’re not, told me things you didn’t mean, gave me things for the hell of it, then yeah, that would have been purely manipulative. But that wasn’t the case.”

“I’m not a good person, sweetheart.”

“You’re not a terrible one either.” He shrugged. “But it doesn’t matter either way.”

“No?”

He shook his head. “My brother told me I’d be an idiot to give you up.”

“Ah, so you’re only deciding to be with me for Aster’s sake.”

Thorn rose and brushed his lips against the alpha’s. “No one’s ever taken care of me before. No one has texted in the middle of the day just to tell me they miss me. I spent all my time keeping my family afloat. I don’t even remember when I usedthis fireplace last before you came along. I don’t want a baby, Baal.”

He cupped the alpha’s face in both hands when he went to pull away. “I don’t want to share you. I want all of your attention solely on me. I want your ruts and your knots, and I want to be able to fuck you whenever we feel like it, and not have to worry about sneaking off and doing it behind locked doors and between PTA meetings. Is that okay? Can I be selfish?”

Lots of people loved having big families and children, and that was great for them. But that wasn’t the future he dreamed of.

“For once in your life?” the alpha chuckled. “Yeah, omega. Yeah, you definitely can be.”

“Void the contract,” Thorn said.