Pounding footsteps as he stomped downstairs and across my living room.
I waited for the slam—for the sound that my alpha was walking out of my life… again.
It didn’t come.
I strained my ears—trying to hear Craig’s truck over the sound of my beating heart.
There was no engine roar.
My pulse in my ears… skittering branches along the sides of my cabin… the background drone of electricity.
Russy’s confused whine from outside the bedroom, a scratch at the door, then the jingle of his tags as he went downstairs.
I pulled my knees to my chest and rested my forehead on them.
“I love you…”
Three words, but they summoned the ghosts of every time they’d been said to me before.
I squeezed my eyes shut before tears could fall.
Why now? What did it mean?
How long until I lost him?
Had another omega already caught his eye? Was I just a bed-warmer until he could get the next man?
Did he want something?
I sucked in a breath as I started shaking again.
My alpha…
I wanted more time. The cabin felt empty the nights he didn’t stay. It was so comfortable in his arms.
How long until I lost him?
I wasn’t ready.
The tears fell, unable to be contained.
My alpha…
Some part of me had dared to hope—to believe that it would be different. Thathewas different. But it was the same pattern: date for a few months, a declaration of love… then the demands would start.
Or the guilt…
The silent betrayals that—of course—would never happen because…they loved me.
I shuddered.
It was happening again.
A memory floated to the top of my roiling emotions: Craig, unable to contain his panic and protective scent as he wrapped my injured arm.
Another: him giving me the yellow leaf and telling me that it was the first.
The way he always kissed the same spot on my shoulder whenever he hugged me from behind.
