"It's not—"
"Liam." Her hand comes up. Touches the bond mark on my shoulder where her teeth went in. Not tender. Not claiming. Just acknowledging it. "You're my alpha. The bond says so. My body says so. There is no version of this where that isn't true."
"Star—"
"But, I don't want to be your omega anymore."
The bond stutters. Actually stutters. "What?"
She doesn't repeat it. She doesn't have to. "I went to a clinic," she says. "Two days ago. I asked what the process was. For breaking it." The room goes white at the edges. "There's a protocol. It's not pretty. It takes months. But it can be done."
"Star."
"I just wanted you to know that's what I was doing while you were on a plane to Singapore."
I can't speak.
The lock between us is loosening. I can feel it. The body slipping away, while the rest of me is still trying to process the wordsbreaking it.
"You'd—"
"I don't know if I will. I asked. That's all."
"You asked how to cut me out of you."
"Yes. I'm not telling you this to hurt you." Her voice cracks. "I'm telling you so you understand. You'remyalpha. There won't be another one. There can't be. But the omega in me is done, Liam. She isdonebeing the one who waits for you to choose her."
I move. The lock isn't fully gone, but I don't care. I sit up under her, careful of the body she's still attached to, and I get my arms around her ribs, and press my face into her collarbone, and I do not cry because I haven't cried in twenty years, but my eyes water even if the tears don't fall. "Don't," I say. Into her skin. "Don't break it."
"Liam."
"Don't break it. Don't—Star. I ambeggingyou."
"Alphas don't beg."
"This one does. If it means I get to keep you, I will."
She goes still against me.
I press my mouth to the bond mark. Not to claim. To plead. "Anything. Anything you want. The shop, the city, the company, all of it. I'll move here. I'll sell the penthouse. I'll—"
"Stop."
"—do whatever you need me to do for as long as it takes for the omega in you to want to stay."
"Stop, Liam."
I stop and lift my head. Her face is wet, and she is looking at me like she has never quite seen me before. "You'd do that?"
"Yes."
"You'd really—"
"Star, you went to a clinic."
She closes her eyes. The tears come faster. "I just wanted somewhere to put it," she whispers. "All of it. The pain. I had to put it somewhere that wasn't the bond, because the bond was the only thing keeping me alive and it was also the thing killing me, and I—I had todosomething."
"I know."
