Chapter Twenty

Talon

I was so shocked that my omega feared my being around others who he thought I might find more attractive than him. Nobody drew me like him. My wolf and I were endlessly and helplessly in love with Rowan. We followed him with our eyes when he crossed the room and felt the light leave with him when he went to the kitchen for a snack.

Most of which he was restricted from doing now.

And don't even get me started about my admiration for his growing our baby in his body. He was doing something I had no ability to accomplish and probably not nearly enough courage even if I could. This had not been an easy pregnancy, and he hadn't felt good for most of it. Yet he almost never complained.

After our exchange of words, I still had to go to work, but I stayed no longer than I had to then went out to walk around for a bit and think. My heart ached for Rowan and for me. I had not looked at another omega with anything beyond casual or friendly interest since he walked into my office the day I hired him. And I thought he understood that.

After a couple of hours, I turned back to pick up my car from the club lot. I needed to return to my omega and try to work out our differences. All couples argued, and surely it was nothing insurmountable. Fateds were still people and still subject to moods and feelings and we would just have to talk things out.

My ex had hurt me enough to make me want to never get close to another omega, yet all those feelings fell away as soon as I set eyes on Rowan. Or certainly shortly thereafter. And I'd never talked to him about the past because it seemed so irrelevant, but perhaps that was a mistake. We were to some extent the product of our pasts no matter how much we loved one another, and it was time to open up and let some of that out.

If my omega was willing.

I drove home, keeping to the speed limit with difficulty. At the last moment, I pulled into a parking spot in front of a bakery we'd been frequenting lately. Rowan loved their peanut butter cookies, so I bought a dozen and set the box on the seat next to me. Small gestures were always better than grandiose in my opinion.

The lights were on in the house when I pulled up, which meant our house manager had turned them on before leaving, presumably. Since Rowan was on bed rest, he'd hopefully not gotten up and lit them. I parked in the garage, picked up my box of treats, and headed in through the kitchen door.

"Talon?" Rowan's voice carried down the stairs. "Is that you?"

"It is. Let me just get us some tea, and I'll be right up."

"I'm so sorry, alpha. I didn't mean to accuse you or hurt you. I don't even know what's coming out of my mouth sometimes."

He sounded closer than he should have. "Are you in bed?"

A few thudding footsteps followed then a farther-away voice. "Yes, I am."

Now he is.

I wondered whether he was staying in bed as completely as I'd assumed. I stayed home as often as I could, but did have to leave sometimes. I flipped on the electric kettle and got the tea things ready, rehearsing in my mind what I might say to him when I got upstairs. I wanted to invite Rowan to share with me how he got here and also to share my own story.

But when I pushed the door open, what I saw made me lose every thought in my mind. My omega lay tangled in the sheets, his eyes bloodshot and cheeks displaying the tracks of the tears he'd shed since I left.

What a jerk I was.

"Rowan, omega mine, it will be all right." I set the tray on the dresser and rushed to the bed to enfold him in my arms. "Don't cry."

"You came back." Not the time to point out that I lived here too. "I thought I hurt your feelings and you'd never come back."

"Rowan." I tipped his chin up, looking into his beautiful eyes. "Mate, that's never going to happen. No matter what."

"But we had an argument. And I accused you of cheating on me, or at least as good as."

"Mate, we are always going to have arguments because we are people, and I didn't read what you said as that, not exactly. You were feeling less attractive, and that's on me because I need to make sure you know that you're more attractive every day." I reached between us and stroked his belly. "How could I think otherwise?"

I kissed the top of his head and rested my chin there. "But we have things to talk about. We really haven't shared enough about our pasts."

"I didn't think you wanted to hear…"

"I want to hear everything, and to share my past with you, unless you don't want me to."

"No," he said "I do."

I settled him back in bed and went to get the tray of tea and peanut butter cookies. It was going to be a long night. But a very good one.