A shadow falls over the floor, and I swallow. Freshly washed laundry. An intoxicating scent for anyone, but especially an omega. “Can you move, please? I can’t see.”
“Kennedy.”
My throat tightens. “Go away, Jake. You made your stance perfectly clear.”
“It’s not that easy, and you know it.”
A hand appears in my face, and I instinctively slap it away. “Don’t touch me.”
“Let me help you—,”
“I don’t want your help,” I snap. Rising to my feet, I hold onto the pan of glass. “I don’t want anything from you. We can forget the bond even exists, okay?”
Gods. They’re all sotall. I’d almost forgotten. My eyes barely level with Jake’s shoulders as he sighs. I don’t look up. Rumpled brown hair - the shade of chestnuts - and deep blue eyes will not help me here. Not when it feels as though I’m clinging onto my sanity with every second that passes. When every part of me wants to reach for him. “I’m not sure that’s possible, Ken.”
But I’m not listening. A new thought enters my head, one that has my breathing speeding up again.
What happens to them? When I die?
I’ve heard stories of bonded alphas unable to live without their omegas. Of accidents, followed by heart attacks on the same day.
Once, I might have dreamed of that kind of love. Before reality set in. Now, it sounds like a nightmare.
I could drag them down with me, after everything. After my silence, and my pain, and their anger – all of it will be for nothing if this bond links them to me.
Shit. “I have to go, Jake.”
But he blocks my way, forcing me to look up at him. Jake’s eyes are dark, his brows scrunched. “Just gonna ignore this too, then? Like everything else?”
The sharpness of his words barely makes a dent in the pain. But my hurt rises up anyway, taking over my mouth. “I wasn’t the one who just stood there and rejected their fated fucking mate in front of half the town. You did that. Therefore, there is nous. So back the hell off and let me finish my damn shift before I lose my job.”
He doesn’t move for a long minute. But I hear his murmur well enough as I push past him. “This isn’t done.”
The hell it’s not. It was done the moment they left me on my fucking knees. Dying or not, I won’t beg for scraps from a table I’m not invited to.
Easier this way, I tell myself.
If things were different, if they cared, it would be so much worse.
I toss the glass shards away before resuming my post. Mick doesn’t ask me to go back out again, grunting each time he drops a new stack in front of me.
Mates.
I havemates.
I found them. And they’re the boys I would have given anything for just a year ago. I would have sold my soul for a chance to be theirs, would have crawled on broken shards of glass for something as permanent as a mating bond. Something that meant I could stay with them.
Funny how things change.
By the time I’m done, I can barely keep my eyes open. Every part of me aches, and I know my bandages are leaking again. Mick lets me out of the back door before locking up and shoving some cash into my hand. “Same time tomorrow. No trouble this time.”
I don’t have the energy to muster up any sort of response. And I have to walk home, thanks to my broken fucking bike.
“Kenny.”
I whirl at the sound, my hands flying up. Max holds up his own hands. “Sorry.”
Slowly, I lower them. “What are you doing here?”
