Harrison…“He’s got it bad, but it’s sweet. It seems like just spending time with you is enough.”
Kerry telling me that he was different, asking,“...how would you feel if things were reversed and he was always hiding you?”
Craig… eyes wide after he’d said those words, voice desperate,“Talk to me… Please.”
My body shook with the need to both run to him and from him.
My alpha…
I sat there—frozen—until my shivers were less from my warring emotions than from the chill that had seeped into the room.
My muscles complained about how I’d been sitting, and my fingertips were cold.
I slowly got to my feet. It was dark, but muscle memory would carry me to the bed.
But Craig was still down there. I’d never heard him leave. Was he pacing, ready to explode?
I let out a shuddering breath. There wasn’t a lock on the door. Craig hadn’t tried to force his way in before, but…
My fingernails dug into my palms again. I had to man up and tell him to go.
It was better to end things now, when the hurt would be manageable, than watch him leave with another omega on his arm in a few months.
I couldn’t do it again. He meant too much.
I pressed the heels of my palms to my eyes and wiped away the tears.
I turned to the door and cracked it open.
Silence. Not even the sound of footfalls on the wooden floor.
I eased the door open a bit more—until I could step through it. I crossed the strip of loft between the bedroom wall and the railing, then looked into the living room below.
My resolve to tell Craig to leave shattered.
Instead of the angry brooding alpha I’d been expecting, he was asleep on the couch in what had to be one of the most uncomfortable positions—half sitting, with one foot on the floor, the other leg on the cushions, and his body twisted so his arms were on the back, head resting on top.
On his lap… the blanket we’d been cuddled under during the movie.
And Russy… He was doing his best to stay on his designated plaid blanket and provide comfort at the same time. His head rested on Craig’s foot.
I started toward the landing and was about halfway to the stairs when a floorboard creaked underneath my feet. Russy lifted his head, ears, and eyes on me.
Craig stirred, but didn’t seem to wake.
I made it most of the way down the stairs when one of the stairs popped.
Craig jolted, and his eyes cracked open. A smile started to cross his face, his eyelids still heavy with sleep. Then his memory caught up with him. The smile fell, his eyes darkened, and his jaw tightened.
My heart ached at the change in expression.
I took the final few steps down and then stopped at the bottom. I crossed one arm over my chest and held the opposite elbow.
Time seemed to stop as we stared at each other.
I jumped at a loud pop from one of the logs in the woodstove.
Russy hopped down from the couch, padded over, and nosed the hand dangling at my side.
