She shook her head, her eyes glassy with tears. “I don’t understandwhat’s happening. Why is it a problem if you’re not on suppressants? We can figure this out.”
She reached for my hand again, and panic surged through me. I was probably too weak right now to hurt her, but what if I snapped? I flinched away from her touch and she froze, tears dripping down her face.
“I’m sorry it’s ending like this, but that’s just how it is. You need to leave now. Do not contact me again.”
She crossed her arms. “I don’t know what is going on, but I’m not leaving until you explain yourself!”
Tension roiled through my body and I could practically feel my alphosferone levels rising. She had to get out of herenow.
So I did the only thing I could think of to protect her.
“Leave now with King and Leo.” The force of my alpha bark hit her like a tangible thing. She lurched back, eyes wide, and let out a heartbreaking whimper. She shook her head, but her omega couldn’t resist the force of the command. She tripped over the chair and I lurched forward, but she righted herself, opened the door, and then was gone.
Taking all the goodness in the world with her and leaving me alone.
Like I always knew I would be.
62
Leo
King’s knee bounced furiously inchesfrom mine in the hospital waiting room until I finally broke and rested my hand on it.
“Everything will be okay.”
He made a very Wilder-esque grunt, but his leg stilled.
“I don’t like being away from her,” he said. “Actually, I don’t like being separated from either of them.”
“Who knew the grouchy mountain alpha would win over the grumpy business alpha?”
“Grumpy business alpha?” His glare made me laugh.
“Seems like an accurate description to me.” I searched for something else to say to fill the silence. “How’s the property sale going?”
He shifted in his seat. “I don’t know. I’m feeling kind of…conflicted. My parents bought the coastal land decades ago. I guess they were considering building a vacation home there, but it never happened.”
As a beta, I wasn’t particularly sensitive to scents, but the more I was around King, the more attuned I grew to his, which had now grown bitter.
“Why is that?”
I realized my hand was still on his leg. My cheeks burned and I went to move it, but he stopped me. A rough palm surrounded mine and I shuddered at the heat of it, at this hint that King might be interested in me the same way I was him.
“They bought the property before my brother got sick. He died of cancer when I was little, and after that, the only thing my parents hadtime for was work. They never did anything with the property, and I just wanted to sell it as fast as I could, but…”
He shrugged, trailing off.
My thumb brushed along the back of his hand. “But what?”
“The development company wants to build all these high-end vacation homes without caring about the environmental impact. There aren’t many stretches of untouched coast like that anymore.”
“You could always hang on to it.”
He shrugged. “I thought seeing the property would be a reminder of everything I lost. A brother…parents who actually wanted to spend time with me. But being in Starlight Grove has brought me a new family.”
I wanted to wrap my arms around the huge alpha, brush my hand through his hair, and kiss his forehead. But before I could do any of that, King’s body went on full alert. I followed his gaze to find Lucy standing in the doorway across the waiting room. A haunted, devastated Lucy, who took one look at us and started sobbing.
“We should just goto his house once he gets back to town and force him to talk to us,” I whispered. Lucy was sandwiched between us in her nest and I didn’t want to risk waking her. She’d sobbed the entire drive home, falling asleep only after King carried her into her nest. All she’d managed to tell us was that Wilder had rejected her, which made no sense, but he hadn’t answered any of my one million calls.
