Page 65 of Omega's Heart

They weren’t watching, they were staring. How could he not understand the difference? Thickly, I said, “I have to leave.” I got to my feet and bolted for the door.

C H A P T E R 4 1

J ulius was gone when I got back to the apartment. I was glad because I didn’t think I could stand any of his cheerful warbling on at the moment. And it meant the bathroom was free, so I could

stand at the sink and splash cold water on my face until I could get my brain to stop spinning.

Had Kaden been serious? He’d called my father! I stared at myself in the mirror, water dripping off my chin and the end of my nose, and touched my lips gently, trying to separate out the sensation of being kissed from all the confusing emotions that had surrounded it. It had been...nice. Had Kaden enjoyed it?

I bent to splash more water on my face.

Someone knocked on the bathroom door and my heart leaped up into my throat, but it was only Cale. “Can I come in?” he asked.

“Do you need the bathroom?”

He shook his head, stepped through the door and closed it behind him. “I think you might need an ear to listen?”

“No, I’ll be fine.”

He sat down on the side of the bathtub and patted the closed lid of the toilet to invite me to sit too. “Let me tell you something about my packbrother’s family, okay?”

Lysoonka, here we go. “Cale, really, there’s no need—”

He grabbed my hand and tugged until I gave in and sat. I didn’t want to, but it was better to let him have this small victory and give him a chance to say whatever it was he wanted to say because then he’d leave me alone.

Cale folded his hands in his lap, for all the world like he was someone’s old granny about to pass on some time-honored wisdom. “Kaden says he proposed and, in his own words, he ‘fucked it up because he let himself get rushed by the other team’, whatever the heck that means. What you need to understand is that all four of those boys have the most twisted, Machiavellian minds I’ve ever seen in an alpha. Having met and then avoided their mother, that’s probably where it comes from.” Cale held his hands up and shook his head. “Doesn’t matter, what does matter is that they over-complicate everything when it comes to their mates, unless the mates are over-complicating things themselves. Then they just roll straight over the opposition until they get what they want.” He patted my knee and grinned before getting to his feet. “He wants you and you’re over-complicating things.”

I watched him leave, my mouth hanging open in shock. And then, before I had a chance to organize my scattered thoughts, Kaden stepped into the opening. “Can I come in?” He’d put the prosthetic back in place and pulled his jeans and a t-shirt on.

Well, he was a big boy, he could make his own damn decisions about that now.

“You shouldn’t be here,” I said stiffly and got up to look for a towel.

Kaden stopped me with a hand on my arm. “I know I startled you. It’s been a long time since I’ve done anything as crazy as that.”

“Crazy is right,” I began but stopped when he squeezed my arm. “Did you mean it?”

“I did. Didn’t do a good job of it, there’s the problem. I was going to try for something romantic at Full Moon. Holland said you’d probably like that.”

He’d talked to Holland about me.

Kaden slid his hand down my arm until he could hook his fingers through mine. “Come on. I don’t want to have this conversation with Cale’s big ears down the hall reporting back to the top wolf.”

“I heard that,” Cale shouted from his bedroom. “If you two are going to do anything mushy, you can go do it somewhere else, please. I have to study.”

“Does he do anything but study?” Kaden whispered, ducking is head close to mine.

“Not often,” I whispered back, then stared at him doubtfully. “I’m really confused,” I confessed.

He nodded. “Only to be expected, I sprung things on you kinda sudden. Will you let me explain?” He waited for my nod of agreement then led me out of the bathroom, stopping briefly to pat my face with Cale’s facecloth.

“Cale’s going to be mad,” I told him, but Kaden only grinned.

“I can handle Cale.”

Across the hall, Kaden closed the door behind us. He’d cleaned up, putting the cushions back in place on the chair and against the arms of the couch. “Sit.” He did just that, taking the chair, and left the couch for me.

I sat gingerly, as if I was expecting the furniture to bite, and looked mutely over at him.