“Thanks.”
“I need to check your bandages now,” he says after I’ve drained the glass. “Can you sit up a bit more?”
I push myself up with my good arm, gritting my teeth against the stab of pain that shoots through my ribs. Kieran’s hands are immediately there, supporting my back, helping me lean forward. The heat of his palms seeps through the thin fabric of my pajama top, leaving scorching imprints on my skin.
He nods, his jaw tight as he carefully lifts the hem of my shirt. “Tell me if it hurts.”
The bandages around my ribs need to be changed daily to prevent infection where the bones broke through the skin. It’s a humiliating process, being so helpless, so dependent. But Kieran has never once made me feel embarrassed. His clinical efficiency almost makes it bearable.
Almost.
I hiss as the adhesive pulls at my tender skin. Kieran freezes instantly.
“Sorry,” he whispers. “I’m trying to be gentle.”
“I know. It’s okay.”
The silence between us grows heavier with each passing second. Kieran works methodically, cleaning the wound, applying fresh ointment, and wrapping a new bandage around my torso. His hands seem to linger longer than necessary, his breath warm against my neck as he leans close to secure the tape.
When he finally sits back, his eyes meet mine, and the raw emotion I see there makes my breath catch. Grief. Regret. Longing.
“Why are you doing this?” I blurt out, unable to contain the question any longer. “Why not let Drake or Rowan or Elias take care of me? Or my sisters?”
Kieran stills, his hands resting on his thighs. “Is that what you want? Would you prefer someone else?”
It’s not what I expected him to say, and it throws me off balance. “I... that’s not the point. I’m asking why you’re sleepingoutside my door. Why are you changing my bandages, giving me medication, and helping me to the bathroom?”
“If you want someone else…”
“That’s not what I want!” The words explode from me, sharp and jagged. “What I want is to understand why you’re doing this after you threw me out of your house and your life! You made it very clear how you felt about me, about my connection to your parents’ death. And now you’re caring for me like none of that ever happened?”
Kieran takes my outburst without flinching, his face carefully blank. But his blue eyes are full of pain.
“I had no right to reject you the way I did,” he says quietly. “No right to punish you for something you had no part in.”
“You think?” I laugh bitterly, feeling tears pricking at the corners of my eyes. “You knotted me, Kieran. You told me I was yours, that you would take care of me forever. If I were really your true omega, you’d never throw me out like that.”
He flinches now, his hands clenching into fists on his thighs. “I know.”
“Do you have any idea what that felt like? To be rejected not just as your omega but as a person? Because of what my mother did?” The tears are falling freely now, hot tracks down my cheeks.
“I take full responsibility for my actions,” he says, each word precise and heavy with regret. “There’s no excuse for how I treated you. None.”
“Then why are you here? Why are you doing all this?”
Kieran reaches out slowly, telegraphing his movement as if approaching a wounded animal. His thumb gently wipes away a tear from my cheek. “Because I will always love you and take care of you, even if you decide to leave me at the end. Nothing will change that.”
I stare at him, searching his face for any sign of deception. “Love me? You don’t even know me.”
“I know enough,” he says, getting upset now. “I know how you are with Nora. You’re a gentle soul but also fiercely protective of her. I know how your scent makes my wolf howl with recognition. I knew from the moment I scented you that you were ours.”
“Then why…?”
“Because I was afraid,” he admits, his voice dropping to barely above a whisper. “I was afraid that loving you meant betraying my parents’ memory somehow.”
“Oh,” I say, my heart sinking with sadness for him. That makes sense, in a way.
“I couldn’t stop thinking about what I’d done. How wrong I was. I went to your apartment to apologize, before the accident.”
