“No, you don’t need to remind me, Timber,” I say quietly. “Why do you think I can’t let you go?”
I’d told him I was sorry so many times, but I wouldn’t forgive anyone who did that to me. The idea of meeting Ollie and not knowing she was my mate seems wild now. If I met my omega and never knew there was a future there for us because I couldn’t scent her… my heart would ache for something I could never have, and I was the one who took that from him. I always wondered if loving him could make up for all of that.
“Do you still think I ruined your life?” I ask.
“I never said you did.” Normally, he snaps at me to shut up whenever I bring it up, but something’s different this time.
“But you can’t say I didn’t after everything that happened in your life since I smashed up your nose.”
“You keep thinking you’re important enough to me for me to give a shit about what you think? Go ahead and assume all you want, but I’m the one who gets to decide if you ruined my life or not.”
“Then why do you keep reassuring me when I hurt you like that?”
He sighs as he runs his hand over his buzz cut. “Kane, I’ve said this a million times. You were a kid, you didn’t do it deliberately. Stop trying to push this onto me and make out like I’m the one who hates you and just look at yourself for a change, for fuck’s sake.”
“Then why are you so angry at me now?”
“Because you’re fucking annoying. I keep telling you to leave me alone, but you won’t fucking drop it. Fuckinglistento me: I’m not interested in whatever shit plan you have cooking up with me and this omega. Look at it from my point of view instead of pushing your fucking agenda on me. I don’t want an omega, I never want to be in a pack, and I don’t want you near me like this anymore.”
The tension hangs in the air as he waits for me to react, but I can’t give him up.
I reach out, walking my fingers up his chest, and he sucks in a sharp breath. He doesn’t stop me, staring at my fingers as I creep higher.
“If you don’t want me, then why are you reacting like this when I touch you?” Because there’s a pink blush creeping up his neck, and I want to taste it so badly.
“Fuck this bullshit. Get off me.”
“You’re not pushing me away, baby. You can’t lie to me and say you don’t care when I can feel your skin heating up.” I brush my thumb across his neck, and I don’t miss the way he trembles.
“Kane, I swear to fucking God. Stop now, or I’m going to beat the shit out of you and leave you here for someone to find.”
I whip my hand back as he keeps growling, swiping another sausage roll instead. I'm going to finish them all since that's where Ollie's scent is the strongest.
Silence hangs heavy as I play with the sausage roll, crumbling it over my thighs.
Timber sighs loudly, breaking the painful tension building between us.
“Look, you keep going on with all this shit about you ruining my life—you’re obsessed with it. But you helped me as well.” My head shoots up, looking at him in shock.
“What? What do you mean?”
Timber rocks back on the bench, and the lockers rattle as he thunks his head against them.
“Smashing up my nose wasn’t the worst thing that happened to me, okay? Only the roughest,” he says as he closes his eyes.
“You can’t just say something like that and not tell me what you mean,” I say quietly.
Even when we’re having a moment, I’m still thinking about climbing on top of him and kissing him until he’s breathless.
I’ve never been near enough to him to experiment and see if he can still taste my lavender like he had all those years ago.
“If I hadn’t lost my sense of smell, I wouldn’t have been able to tell what my ex-wife had been doing to me.” He turns his head to meet me with that pained look again.
I’m shouting at myself to not say anything. No snarky comments or snappy replies. I need to shut up and let Timber speak, because it’s the first time he’s opened up to me sober, and I need more of it.
“You keep talking about how this new omega is yours, and you’ve been saying it so confidently, but you need to wake up. Omegas aren’t all sweetness and love,” he says with a dark gaze. “They’re seen as soft and precious or so fucking playful and sexy that most people don’t realize what they can do to alphas. That’s why I’m telling you to quit with the ‘my omega’ shit. Because they can manipulate the hell out of us, and we won’t have a fucking clue.”
My instant reaction is to argue back, because Ollie isn’t like that. She laughs and jokes and likes to have fun, but she would never be malicious.
