“I have someone I need to see.”
There’s a question in his eyes, but I shake my head. “There's no guarantee he will agree, but I have to try. I’ll take a cab.”
“I’ll go back to the house,” Callum says, meeting my gaze in the rearview mirror. “One of us is going to have to stay there to keep an eye on Veronica.”
“You laid me out for something that I rightfully deserved,” I say to the dark-haired alpha, who meets me at the front door of his mansion.
Kylian Sutton is barefoot, in a creased t-shirt and blue jeans, gray eyes narrowed in suspicion. He hates me, but it’s the hate I need. He would stab me in the front rather than the back, andhe can help protect Juniper, because once, he protected her from me.
Getting the address of one of the three owners of Ever Safe, beta-guarded free heat clinics wasn’t difficult. They’re the safest free heat clinics for omegas in the city. I hadn’t recognized him before. I learned his name—and his reputation—after, and I’m lucky to be alive after our run-in.
We sent Juniper to one of his free heat clinics instead of taking care of her needs as we should have. It’s a decision I will never forgive myself for, even if Juniper somehow, impossibly, lets us back into her life.
I don’t deserve her forgiveness. None of us do. But I’d get on my knees and beg for the next five years for a second chance to prove I can be the mate she deserves.
Kylian crosses his arms and leans against a wall outside his mansion. He tilts his head to study me. “You gave Juniper an order.” From the flash of anger in his gaze, he’d like nothing more than to lay me out all over again.
“I was trying to stop her.”
“By giving her an order that she’d have no way to fight?” his eyes flare with anger, though his voice is soft.
Alphas have power over omegas. We’re dominant, and omegas are submissive. It’s how nature designed us. An alpha has more control over his mate. So when I ordered her to stop as she walked away, she stopped, even though it went against what she wanted.
I hold Kylian’s gaze. “I wasn’t thinking, and I should have been. She was leaving, and I… I panicked. I did the first thing that popped into my brain to stop her. What I did was unforgivable, and it’s one thing in a long list of wrongs.”
His slow blink makes me think I surprised him. “What do you want?”
“We brought her into our world, and now she’s in danger.”
“You went after her.” His voice is soft, but his eyes threaten deadly violence.
I once heard whispers about how he was responsible for a certain alpha winding up with a bullet in his brain for hurting his omega. One look into his eyes, and it’s clear those weren’t rumors at all.
Knowing what’s coming, I step back with my hands up and palms out. I keep talking, and I talkfast. “To apologize. I know we don’t have a right to her forgiveness. We all do.”
“Keep talking.” He snaps.
“Our parents were involved in Asylum. We thought she was a spy, which is why we weren’t good to her.”
“You’re a fucking idiot,” he snarls.
“I know.”
He studies me for a beat, head cocked. “What do you want? An award for finally seeing something you should have seen all along.”
“I came for your help. Not now. But there’s a chance that we might not be able to protect June.”
“Then walk away from her.”
“My family might hurt her anyway, if only to makemehurt. The second we met, she was in danger.”
“And the reason you’re here…”
“You laid me out without hesitation. That’s what I need. Something might happen to June, and I need someone who won’t hesitate to do what needs to be done.”
I hope I’ve read him right.
“This is your family you’re talking about,” he says, and there’s a warning in his voice. He knows what I’m asking him to do, and he wants to make sure I know it too. “There’s no walking some things back. Some actions arepermanent.”
