No need to ease into the conversation.
She shook her head, and Kyle didn’t think she was lying. Alison could lie, of course, but she had more tells. Besides, as unsettled as she still was, with how she’d frozen, he doubted she’d expected to see him.
“So go on, pet, explain.” Trent leaned forward, using his gaze to trap her.
She rubbed her hands along the tops of her thighs. “I knew my father was connected to the slavery ring, but I had no idea what it was. I was raised in Texas. Why would I think he’d ever behere? I haven’t seen him in over twenty years. Hell, I didn’t even know if he was still alive.”
“He mentioned your eyes,” Daniel noted, not needing to finish the thought.
She shook her head. “He didn’t recognize me. I think it just reminded him of my mom. I hadn’t become an omega yet when he last saw me. There’s no way he would still recognize my scent, either.”
Trent nodded, coming to the same conclusion. Geoffrey had seemed nostalgic, but not as though he recognized her.
A small miracle.
“You should have told us about your father,” Kyle said, trying to gentle his voice so it didn’t sound like scolding. She didn’t need a lecture.
“I did. I told you my mom was a slave. I told you he bought her. He didn’t exactly bring his work home with him, so I didn’t know how he fit into the group. It wasn’t a part of my life, not the business of it. Of all the ways I thought tonight would go, seeing him wasn’t anywhere on the radar. If it was…”
Trent reached out and tucked her hair behind her ear. “If it was?” he prompted.
“I would have told you, I swear. I’m not trying to keep anything from you. I had no idea he would show up.”
Kyle took a deep breath, relieved at her honesty. After so many times when she’d blindsided them, at least they’d reached the same page on this issue. “Does this change anything, sugar? You know him, or at least knew him. Does him being here change anything we should know?”
She took her lip between her teeth, worrying it as though really thinking about what he’d asked. Finally, she shook her head. “No. He’s a businessman at his core. He wasn’t just spouting bullshit tonight—that’swhat he really believes. He honestly thinks you all are doing the lord’s work, that you’re putting things right for society. Really, knowing it’s him, I don’t think there’s a chance that he wouldn’t let you into the auction. You’re exactly the sort of person he would want to make a deal with.”
Kyle pulled her against him, wrapping his arms around her. Her bare skin was warm and soft, and he allowed himself to enjoy it. “Good. You doing okay?”
She didn’t answer right away, and that pleased him. He’d rather she took a minute and really think about it instead of offering up the quick answer of ‘I’m fine.’ At least if she really considered the question, she might be honest.
She snuggled back against him. “I don’t know. I never thought I’d see him again, and certainly not when kneeling at an alpha’s feet like he always wanted. Sad thing that it might be the only time in my life he would have actually been proud of me.” Her words came out bitter, but he got it.
“Is that why you’ve resisted this?” Trent asked.
She gestured down at herself, at how she sat in Kyle’s lap. “This doesn’t seem like resisting.”
Trent offered a half smile. “You do. Even when it’s something you like, something you want, you can’t give in fully.” He didn’t ask why—didn’t need to.
She shifted as if the conversation made her want to move, but Kyle kept his arm tight around her. “Sometimes I feel like when I give in, I’ve become what he always wanted me to be. It feels like, why did I escape? Why did I work so hard to be on my own if I was going to end up some brainless omega who relying on an alpha anyway? Why did I fight the way I did, suffer all I have, if I was going to end uphereanyway?Giving in feels like betraying all that, like betraying my mom and every omega I’ve seen forced into servitude.”
Kyle nodded, pressing a kiss to her head. The words didn’t surprise him, though she voiced them more clearly than he’d expected her to. He let Trent speak, since he was going to do it far better.
“Wanting something is different from being forced.”
“Is it? Even if the actual thing is the same?”
“Sex isn’t rape. You know that. Consent, that’s the difference. It’s everything. Just because you’ve seen what rape does to a person, the horror of it, that doesn’t mean you turn celibate.”
She frowned, as if the idea had some merit but she wasn’t quite willing to accept it.
Then again, it was a hard pill to swallow. Even if theyweredifferent, it was far too easy to see them as the same. Hadn’t Trent struggled with the same thing? Hadn’t theyallat one time or another? After watching what happened to omegas far too often, after seeing how they struggled, it wasn’t so easy to take any joy out of making one submit, even if they did it happily.
Still, that wasn’t the sort of thing they’d work out, not right then. It would take a very long time for her to get comfortable with it, but the more he was with her, the more he got to hold her like this, that he got to see the sides of her she showed to no one else, the more he knew he wanted that very long time.
Assuming he could convince her of that.
* * * *
