Page 114 of His Forsaken Alpha

“IwishI could be the man you deserve.”

Marlo nodded, forlorn. “I know.”

Silence hung between them for a few seconds.

“While I know there’s no future for us, I still care enough that I won’t let you destroy yourself, either. Not if I can help it. You shouldn’t have come here.”

“Ihadto have some answers,” Cav whispered.

“And did you get any?”

Cav shook his head. “Not really.”

“Stop chasing a man who clearly doesn’t want you. If I can do it, so can you.”

Cav met Marlo’s pained stare, hating that he was the cause behind it. “You’ll have to give me some lessons. Maybe write a book about it.”

Marlo smiled. “Maybe I should. Ididwrite your newest bestseller. With a little help, of course.”

Cav snickered. “Not much help, it seems.”

Marlo frowned. “I didn’t write as much as you seem to think. In all honesty, it’s basically all you. I just cut and pasted the hell out of it.”

“That was some cut and paste job. Do you think you could do that to me? Take out the parts I don’t need and shine the turd that’s left behind?” As soon as the words were out of Cav’s mouth, he knew he never should’ve said them, especially with the look on Marlo’s face. “Sorry, I didn’t mean anything… you don’t need to fix me.” He scrubbed his face with both hands.“Ineed to fix me.”

How he was going to do that, he wasn’t sure. He glanced over one shoulder and eyed the house, knowing his omega wassomewhere inside. Instinct screamed for him to climb the gate and ransack the place until he got what was his.

A medicine?

He’d heard it existed—one that faked a heat. But could it fake the bond he’d felt, too?

“Let’s get the fuck out of Alexandria,” Marlo said.“Please.”

Cav glanced up at the house again. “Yeah. Sure.”

Marlo all but shoved him into the back of the waiting taxi and slid in beside him. “Gregory’s packing your shit. He’s going to meet us at the airfield. It’ll be early, but we’ll just have to hang out there. Hopefully it shows our intent to leave—and you don’t end up arrested.”

“Yeah, but if I do, imagine the story it would make,” Cav muttered. He watched Wynter’s house fading from view, his heart shattering within.

From his bedroom window,Wynter spied Cav’s taxi disappear. His tears and massive sobs made it hard to see anything, though. His heart splintered into a million pieces, what little he’d managed to mend from their last encounter. He slid to the floor, curling into the fetal position, and lay there for what felt like hours. Unable to move, he remained until the sun slid from the sky and the stars appeared.

Sometime during the night, someone moved him into his bed in the room where he slept alone. He doubted it was Warden, whokept a bedroom on the other side of the house and rarely made an appearance near his rooms.

Wynter remained abed for three weeks, barely eating, sleeping the days away. Warden did seem to notice that after a while. He sent a chain of doctors to Wynter’s room to determine what was wrong with his broken omega, and none seemed quite confident in the answer. Wynter knew, but was unable to express it, fearful it would cause trouble for Cavanaugh. That fear had him near catatonic—trapped in a prison of his own body.

For all intents and purposes, Wynter appeared healthy, as did the babe. A bit dehydrated, sure, but that was easily enough fixed with an IV and a bag of saline or two. They juiced him up and assumed all would be fine in a day or two.

Only it wasn’t.

Another three weeks abed and Wynter didn’t care if he ever got out of it again. He’d soon be forced to though, when the third of his children was born. He spent hours gazing at his swollen belly, wishing it was Cavanaugh’s child, not Warden’s.

Since Wilder’s birth, Warden had made himself scarce when it was time for a heat—having business in Erieberg where Jaymes & Associates was constructing the new outer wall expansion. Months of fighting for the contract, then months of planning, negotiating, budgeting, and dealing with the provincial government had followed, before the years of construction had commenced. Sadly, a massive storm had hit nine months before and made air travel impossible—and Warden had been stuck servicing him.

Of coursehe’d ended up pregnant.

Another child he didn’t want from a man he could scarcely look at. When Vaughn was born and placed into his arms, he cried for the life he could’ve had.

The alphahe could’ve had.

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