I wish it didn’t feel like this is something I absolutely need to do.
It’s almost like the choice isn’t mine, that it’s out of my hands.
Shayne turns away, taking his hand from mine and reaching for the door handle.
“Wait!” I run a hand through my hair and let out a soft sigh. “We can forget this. We can turn around and go home right now.”
He hesitates before he lets the handle go and leans back in his seat.
My heart starts to hammer as I wait for his response.
“We’re not going home,” he tells me, giving me a wry smile. “This means too much to you.”
“You mean more to me than any of this,” I murmur, wondering what the hell is wrong with me.
I know this place reminds him of the past.
I should have said no the second he suggested coming out here.
“I’m okay. It’s weird to be here, sure, but I’m only worried that you might not get the chance to see her, and I think you really need that. I can’t say I fully understand, but I want you back to your old self, and that’s not going to happen if we don’t at least try. So, we’re trying.”
This time when he reaches for the door handle, he opens it and steps out of the car before I can think of a response.
A flush of guilt rushes through me as I sit there.
It takes a second to follow Shayne out of the car.
He’s waiting for me when I get out there.
Side by side, we walk toward the front steps that lead to the building’s side entrance.
I know no matter what happens tonight, regardless of whether I get to see the girl or not, I’m going to have to let it go once we leave.
It’s in the hands of the fates now.
I can only hope I get what I came here for.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Shayne
Way back when I was young enough not to know better, I used to dream about coming to Goldcrest to meet my true mate. That dream was always roughly the same, though I could never quite remember the details when I woke. All I ever recalled was that my true mate was beautiful, and we both knew we were meant for each other from the second our eyes met across the room.
It was cute, and my parents liked that I was eating up the lies they were feeding me about my future.
Then I got older, and I realized my mom and dad were trying to bully me and my siblings into going to the academy so we could meet the kind of women they deemed acceptable for us to marry.
That’s when I started to see the cracks in that dream.
Goldcrest wasn’t designed to help true mates find each other.
At least, that wasn’t what it was for when people like my parents were funding it.
Before it started to make the changes to become a real school, with socials that might help people find their mates, it was meant to let rich asshole Alpha types meet Omegas with acceptable backgrounds and grooming, to potentially get engaged to, and with the side-effect of letting those Omegas be hurt when some of the assholes were also creepy and opportunistic.
I’ve heard stories. More than a few.
If it was still like that, I wouldn’t have suggested coming here to help Falcon find the woman he helped rescue.
