He’d seen them torn apart, seen them lose the fight either to the world or themselves, and as he stared at her, as she curled against his chest to fall asleep, he felt a fear he’d never known before.
He wasn’t sure if he could survive losing her like that.
Chapter Twelve
Kyle hadn’t missed Alison leaving Trent’s room early, like some walk of shame she tried to hide.
Her scent hadn’t changed, so they hadn’t had sex, but they’d still spent the night in there together.
She’d had the choice to pick any room and had chosen his.
Jealousy wasn’t what Kyle felt. He didn’t tend to get jealous, not even with Trent, who he wasn’t exactly close with. Instead, it was interest.
He liked a puzzle, something to figure out, and Alison sure was a puzzle worth spending some time on.
“Morning,” he said as she entered the kitchen.
Her jump said she hadn’t expected him to already be there, and a petty part of Kyle enjoyed startling her. It was probably the same childish part that wanted to pull her hair until she paid attention to him.
Seems I’m a bit of a brat myself.
After one sharp look, she smoothed her hands over her shirt and tried to pretend she wasn’t annoyed—probably because being annoyed made her admit she’d been startled. “Morning.”
“Sleep well?”
She went to the coffee pot and poured herself a cup into one of the mugs set out in front of it. “Yeah, I did.” Her sharp words created a clear message—don’t ask.
Too bad Kyle didn’t care for boundaries. “Why’d you pick Trent?”
She poured in a splash of cream before turning, holding the mug between her hands. “He seemed like he needed it.”
That’s what I thought.
Damn, she was more observant, and sweeter, than he’d have expected, especially from the girl who’d broken his nose. “And you thought that made it your job?”
Her shoulders rose in a quick shrug before she brought the coffee to her lips and took a slow sip. Her expression as she savored it was sinful, a soft moan leaving her. Once she’d swallowed it down, she lifted her gaze to him again. “Why’s he like that? I have to admit, when he was ordering me around, I didn’t expect him to be that fragile.”
Kyle considered telling her to ask Trent, but the tight-lipped bastard would never say anything. He liked to put forward his best face, his ‘I am an island to myself’ persona. “Let’s just say he’s seen the bad side of what men can do. He’s always taken it the hardest. I think playing that part hit him harder than he thought it would.”
“I always figured alphas…” She paused, pressing her lips together as if reconsidering. “Especiallydominant ones, wouldn’t want someone to help them.”
Kyle huffed a soft laugh, crossing his feet at the ankles while he leaned against the kitchen counter. “That’s just what we like to pretend sometimes. The fact is that alphas, and Doms, need help too. We aren’t superhuman. We screw up, we get upset, we have days where we just can’t deal with shit. Trent, he’s steady as they come for the most part, but even he has his triggers, those things that wiggle a blade right into a crack he already has. And you? I figure you’re exactly the balm he needed last night to help.”
The snort Alison let out was full of disbelief. “I doubt that. I’m just the only one who isn’t mad enough at him to go talk to him.”
“You really don’t get it, do you?”
“Get what?”
Kyle tapped his fingers against his coffee. “You’ve spent little time around alphas and it shows. You’ve got this simplified view, where alphas are these hulking laws-unto-themselves and omegas scamper around their feet trying not to get crushed. Is that another lesson your father gave you?”
Her eyes closed and she breathed in the tendrils of steam from her coffee. “Yeah, it was. My mother wasn’t my father’s mate by choice. She was a slave—bought and paid for—and the only omegas I knew growing up were slaves, too.”
Kyle’s stomach dropped. Her father had been a piece of work—he knew that—but to think she’d grown up knowing her mother was a slave? That would warp any child, especially one who had to seewhere she expected her life to end up, too. “What happened to her?”
“She killed herself when I was ten. I used to be angry about it, felt like she abandoned me, but I realized as I got older that she’d been dead long before then. A beta male who had worked as her bodyguard faked my death, setting a fire to help cover it all up.”
“He took care of you after that?”
