Callum speaks. “Fitz Waterford, I am your Alpha. Come down. In our pack we don’t run away from our problems.”
Fitz blinks for a moment and I can’t tell what he is thinking. His expression is carefully blank. Then suddenly he starts moving and he climbs down the tree with an agility and gracefulness that is breathtaking to watch. His black backpack is on his back and I’m really starting to hate that thing.
He lands on the ground and all of a sudden there is a sharp kitchen knife in his hand. I’m going to have to get Sarah to start locking the drawer.
Callum calmly holds out his hand for it. Fitz’s green gaze darts around us. The little shit is calculating his chances of taking us all on. His gaze meets mine and he flicks the knife over to offer it handle first to Callum. I swallow. My presence made Fitz surrender, that much is clear, but whether it was because he has feelings for me or because he knows I’m a magic weaver who can take him down, I have no idea.
“Now shoo!” insists the dark haired Brightsky omega. “Let me and Fallon talk to him.”
We back off until we are out of earshot but Fitz’s green eyes are fixed on me. He glances apprehensively at the omegas standing by him and my heart cracks. He has never met another omega before. He is the only one in our pack. I should have thought of that and found an omega to come talk to him and explain everything. Another failing for my list.
“His name is Fallon?” whispers Callum.
I sigh, “Sounds like it.” I want to fixate on trying to figure out what Fitz is telling the other omegas but maybe a distraction will be better for me.
“Is he unmated?”
Seeing Callum like this is unnerving, but he is my friend and my Alpha so I focus on his question. Even shifters without magic can usually sense a mating bond and just know by being in someone’s presence if they are mated or not. Failing that omegas usually show off their mating marks proudly. The imprint of their alpha’s teeth on their neck.
The hood of Fallon’s hoodie is down but the top is zipped up high. His neck is mostly hidden. I can’t sense a clear mating bond but I reach out with my magic, which is what Callum is asking me to do. I find the cold remnants of one.
“Widowed,” I say.
Callum winces. “That’s awful, he is so young.” He doesn’t sound upset that his chances are shot, he sounds genuinely sad that Fallon has experienced loss. I don’t believe in fated mates or love at first sight but Alpha is giving a good impression of both.
“It’s an old bond, his alpha died five years ago at least,” I say, trying to give Alpha some hope. Fallon could be over his grief and ready to love again.
He sucks in a breath and stares at me in horror. It takes my mind a moment to unscramble. I look at Fallon again. He is what, twenty-one? Twenty-two? Surely no older than that. So five years ago is …ick. And that’s five years ago the alpha died. I can’t tell when he was mated.
I give Callum’s shoulder a squeeze. Alpha Brightsky’s rage at thinking I was hunting down an omega who didn’t want to be mated is starting to make more sense.
Callum stares at me, I can see he has put the same puzzle pieces together as I have. He looks devastated and like he wants to kill something.
I’m trying to think of something to say when my attention is snatched away by the sight of Fitz receiving a hug from Fallon and then the other omega. He looks shellshocked at the affection and it hurts my heart.
The omegas walk over to us and Fitz comes and stands next to me. He fiddles with his backpack and gives me a sheepish look. He is coming home. It feels like fireworks are exploding in my soul.
The dark haired Brightsky omega points at me. “You! Stop being a dickhead!”
I want to. I really want to. But I have a sinking feeling that it’s easier said than done.
Chapter twenty-eight
Fitz
Jakecamelookingforme. I can’t quite believe it. I think he knows I wouldn’t try to go back to a clan, so I’m surprised he bothered. He saw what a pathetic mess I am and didn’t want me anymore. So why did he come?
I try to shoot discreet glances at him as we trudge in awkward silence back to the pack house. But the man is giving nothing away. He just looks as gorgeous and brooding as ever. His amazing smell is filling my nose and making my head spin. I just want to fling myself into his capable arms and let him deal with everything. I don’t know how he does this to me and it’s infuriating.
I need him to turn it off. He doesn’t want to have sex with me anymore. Fine, I’m a big boy. I knew he would get bored eventually. But I can’t stand the torment of his presence. I want him too much. I want far more than his dick, but at least when I was getting that, it kept the starvation at bay. I can’t be around him and get nothing. That’s why I left.
I can’t stand it anymore. Pining for him is driving me nuts. The very first moment I saw him, I had thought he was hotter than hell. Then later that day when I lured him to the alleyway and stabbed him and he had just stared at me in confusion. My heart had started to beat for him. Then he saw the clan and I’d seen his desire to save me in his eyes, in his movements. Talk about swoony. That was the moment my soul had decided it was his.
And I’ve been fighting my attraction to him ever since that moment. First, because I still believed he was a monster, a werewolf, a creature of the night who had no right to walk god’s green earth. Then later, because it became quite clear that he doesn’t want me. Pining over unrequited love is a stupid waste of time. People feel how they feel. Nothing can change that. Look at how I feel about him. I never chose it. I didn’t want it. I certainly can’t control it.
And I can’t deal with it anymore. I’m too exhausted to fight it. I want him so much it hurts. And I can’t make it go away, so I thought I would. Go away. Problem solved.
I sigh. Here I am back by his side. I should have taken those other shifters’ offer to stay with them. Seems like I’m a sucker for punishment.
