Page 66 of Omega's Heart

He must have taken that as a sign to start, because he nodded and rubbed his hands down his thighs until his fingers found the top of the prosthetic. “You aren’t bothered by the leg. Or the fingers, the scars here.” He ran his two remaining fingers on his left hand over the side of his face where the flesh was still seared and reddish-pink, the ear mostly gone.

“It’s just you,” I said simply.

“But you don’t think it’s ugly.”

I shrugged. “It’s you,” I said again, uncertain how to explain it. His scars didn’t mean the same things to me as they seemed to mean to him. I knew he saw them as a weakness; they made me feel safe, knowing he had that honor and strength inside him. “I’m sorry it happened to you, but it reminds me that I have as much as I do because of what you were willing to give up.” Then, brave, or maybe silly, I reached out and let myself touch the slick-smooth surface of the scars, where I’d never allowed myself to impose that much before.

His hand slid over mine and held it there, two fingers as strong as five. “It took me a while to figure that out. You’re right, I look at the scars and I see what I lost. I like what you see better.” He got up and limped over to sit beside me. “I want to see myself that way forever.” His arm slid around my waist, an intimacy I’d long since stopped imagining.

My breath caught and I almost missed his next words in the clamor of my body, demanding more of what we’d done earlier.

“I’d planned my campaign a little better than this,” he muttered, his voice oddly wistful. He leaned in to rest his chin on top of my shoulder and all I could think was kiss me again. “I guess it’s a lesson to me to always follow the general’s orders.”

“Which general?” I asked inanely.

“General Holland. Omega’s a new territory for me. I don’t know the terrain.” His fingers tightened on my flesh, stealing my breath. “Maybe I should try again.” He leaned in, his eyes fixed on my mouth, and I sat there in mute terror until our lips touched.

I don’t know if this kiss went better or worse than the last one. I didn’t run off in a panic, but I was for sure a lot more clumsy. Kaden was patient, though, and seemed understanding when I awkwardly tried to reciprocate. I wanted him to feel the things in his body that he roused in mine, and it frustrated me that I didn’t know what to do.

In the back of my mind, I wondered how many people he’d had to kiss to be this good at it, then let the thought flit away. He hadn’t asked any of them to mate him.

He pulled back suddenly, turning his face away and gripping his thigh so hard the knuckles of his damaged hand turned white.

“Are you okay? Is your leg...?”

He laughed and shook his head before turning back to me. “Your pack really are a bunch of idiots.” Abruptly he stood up from the couch, but as he walked past me toward the kitchen, the shape of his jeans where they lay between his hips caught my eye. Was that...me? It had to be. Right?

“Kaden?” I got up and followed him to where he stood, staring into the refrigerator like it was the door to Aladdin’s Cave.

“I’m fine,” he said. “Just needed a moment.”

“Do you want me to leave?” To say I was disappointed would be an understatement, and then that sneaking thought, that maybe he’d just wanted to try on a giant for size, wormed its way into my brain, poisoning everything as it came. “I’ll go. And don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone, you can take it all back and we’ll pretend this never happened.” Well, it had been a nice dream while it was going on. At least now I could say that someone had kissed me.

“Why would I take it back?” he asked. When I looked at him, he looked like his ruff would have been standing up if he’d been in wolf form. “Do you think I wasn’t serious? I called your father.”

I opened my mouth to answer, but the words wouldn’t come. What I felt and what I thought, they were too complicated to explain. I didn’t think I had the right words for it.

And then the wall was hard and cool against my back and Kaden was hard and hot against my front, his hand locked around my biceps and holding me in place with a strength I didn’t want to fight. My entire body went on high alert, just before his mouth met mine. The tiny part of my brain that hadn’t dived straight into instinctive response poked me and pointed out that this kiss was a lot different from the one on the couch. I could taste the soldier, feel the alpha as he held me against the wall with just the sheer force of him. For once, the only part of me that I was aware of was the omega part—I didn’t feel that odd disconnect between who I was as an omega and the size of my body.

At the end of the kiss, he leaned harder into me and even though I had to look down to meet his eyes, I didn’t feel like I loomed over him.

“Does this make you feel more confident in me?” he asked through a growl. I nodded mutely and concentrated on breathing. His fingers twitched against my arms and I was certain he’d wanted to run his hand over my chest and down my body, a thought that both aroused me and frightened me. We weren’t mated, not even officially betrothed, I didn’t think. I’d have to call my father.

My father... I looked toward the couch, then felt in my pocket. “Where’s my phone?” My voice broke awkwardly on the word and I swallowed hard and tried again. “I should call Dad.”

“I’ll help you look for it.” He brushed the backs of the fingers of his right hand down my jaw and stepped back. I almost reached for him in the moment, but even with the space between us, I didn’t feel like we were separated by much except air. It was almost as if that first kiss had created some connection between us, a trail of scent or awareness that let me know he was there even when we weren’t touching.

“Do you have your ringer on?” Kaden asked, digging his own phone out of his back pocket. “I can call it.”

I stifled a laugh behind my palm, wrapping the other arm around my ribs to act as backup.

Kaden looked up at me with an amused expression. “What?”

I shook my head. “You alphas are never happy unless you have a problem to solve, are you?”

His smile stretched into a grin. “I’ve just solved my biggest problem, I need something to take its place.” He glanced at the screen on his phone and hit the call button. Something rattled against the floor underneath the couch and he leaned down and grimaced. “How did that happen?” He pointed to the phone, almost centered beneath the heavy furniture.

“I’ll get it.”