“I’m never going to forget you,” Quincy said, reaching for a tissue from the box on the desk next to him to blow his nose and wipe his eyes. “I’m never going to love anyone else but you.”
“I don’t think it’s possible for me to love anyone else,” I said, taking a tissue as well. “You’re the only person I’ve ever loved or ever could love.”
The tragic love in Quincy’s eyes as he looked up at me was enough to pierce my heart. My alpha roared at me to do something, to fight for my omega until I didn’t have a single breath left in me.
My alpha didn’t understand the power of the evil we were up against.
“I’d better go before someone finds me up here and you get into even more trouble.” I said, cupping the side of Quincy’s hot, damp face and brushing my thumb over his cheekbone. “You still have my number, and I’m not going to delete yours from my phone, no matter what my dad says.”
“I won’t delete yours either,” Quincy said.
We stood there in silence for a few seconds, both probably wondering if we dared to risk using those numbers, even if we still had them.
I quickly reached the point where it was more painful to stay than it was to go.
“Goodbye, Quincy,” I whispered, heart in my throat. “I love you.”
“Goodbye, Jack,” Quincy said, lip quivering. “I love you, too.”
I leaned down to kiss him but thought better of it and straightened. We would just make things worse for both of us if we held onto an impossible hope.
I took a step back, then another, then another. There had to be a way out of this, but I couldn’t see it and felt weak and powerless to do anything to find it. It sucked so hard that the only way I could protect my omega, and dozens of other innocent people, was by walking away.
But that’s what I did. Feeling sick at heart and so miserable I didn’t think I’d ever recover, I turned and walked away from the only man I would ever love.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Quincy
Iwas pretty sure I was going to die.
It was ironic that the severing procedure hadn’t killed me all those years ago, but being separated from the alpha who I wasn’t bonded to, who I’d known for less than two weeks, was what was going to finally push me over the edge.
My well-meaning Papa tried to console me by saying I didn’t really know Jack, it was just an infatuation, and that the whole family would do whatever they could to make me feel safe, loved, and happy again. I loved them all so much, and I was incredibly lucky and grateful to have them in my life.
But they weren’t Jack.
“We’re all going out to get ice cream,” Dad said after supper, a good month after the Tech Expo. Do you want to come with us?”
“No, Dad,” I said, sitting hunched over my place at the end of the kitchen table as he and Papa set the table for dinner. “I wouldn’t be much company.”
“But you need to get out, honey,” Papa said. “To find another job, maybe? I know that one at the call center didn’t work out, but there’s bound to be another position for you out there.”
My face flared hot, and instead of being encouraged by my papa’s words, they made me feel sick.
Immediately after Amelia was forced to fire me, and probably riding a wave of impulsivity and panic after walking away from Jack, I’d rushed to find another job so that I could still contribute to the family finances, which were always iffy, considering how large our family was. I’d landed the job at the call center fairly easily…and then been fired within a week for snapping back at customers and bursting into tears in the middle of the day for no reason.
No reason except how heartsick I was that Jack and I had been separated.
We were really and truly separated now, too. For the first two weeks or so, Jack had texted me and even called me a few times, though those calls never lasted long. According to Jack he was constantly being watched, and his parents had packed his social calendar so full of events and, I suspected, dates that he hardly had time to breathe, let alone call me.
Two weeks ago, Jack’s calls and texts had suddenly stopped.
I knew one of two things had happened. Either his dad had found out that the two of us had been texting and had put a stop to it, or Jack had found someone or something more interesting than me and had moved on.
I tried not to believe that the fun and magic of someone like Jack discovering a broken and spiky omega like me had worn off and Jack had decided to cut me off suddenly instead of letting me down gently. I really didn’t think Jack would do that.
But was I worth it? An omega from an ordinary family who had extraordinary problems?
