Page 39 of His Forsaken Alpha

“I’ve done it alone. For over four years, I’ve raised our son and worked to provide for this family, without a single ounce of help from you.”

“I’m sorry,” Wynter said. “I’ve gone through the program, and I feel stronger now. I’m ready to try and be the omega you need me to be. I just need help to get there.Please.”

“You forget that I, too, am trapped in this misery,” Warden said. “Yet, I found the strength to rise above, ensure our child was cared for, and work my fingers to the bone. I have nothing left to give you after all that.”

Ensure our child was cared for? Do you mean‘hired the manny’.“You’d rather we remain as we are?”

Warden sighed, pinching his nose. “I’m at my wit’s end, Wynter. You’ve already taken too much of my time and attention, as it is.”

“Then we’re doomed. We’ll remain miserable. Isthatwhat you want?”

“I wanted none of this. I didn’t want you. I didn’t want Jamie. I didn’t want this life. You forced it on me.”

“I forced it onyou?”Wynter shook his head. “We werebothvictims of circumstance. My therapist at the center has helped me come to terms w?—”

“Did you tell him we’re not mates?”

Wynter stiffened, noting the anger simmering in Warden’s eyes.

“When we dropped you off, I specifically told you to avoid the more…indecentparts of our arrangement, if asked.”

“I never came out and said we’re not true mates… but I think he deduced it.”

“Lovely.What other family secrets did he drag out of you?” Warden demanded.

“None!”Wynter said. “And I never admitted what we were to one another.”

Warden searched Wynter’s face, clearly disbelieving. “I knew this was a mistake. Why I listened to my papa, I don’t know.”

“Your papa is the only one who’s ever shown me a lick of compassion,” Wynter spat. Even that lick had been meager, at best, but it was better than nothing. “Had it not been for him, I’d likely be six feet under right now.”

Warden eyed him with disdain, silent a couple of heartbeats. He didn’t say the words, but Wynter could see it in his eyes.

Warden wished Wynterhaddied.

Wynter’s bottom lip trembled, and he hated allowing Warden to see how weak he was. His mind spiraled, the dark whispers returning. He closed his eyes, forcing those thoughts away. “I made a mistake. I was in a dark place… and I made a decision I now regret.” Wynter drew in a steadying breath, reminding himself of the tools his therapist had given him. “I’m trying to make things between us better, Warden. Wouldn’t a life as friends be better than what it is now?”

“A life apart sounds better.”

“We don’t have that luxury,” Wynter said. A glimmer of hope sparked in his chest. “Or do we?”

Warden searched Wynter’s face. “Sadly, no.”

Wynter narrowed his eyes as the spark died. “I know you’re angry. I have been, too. If we continue battering one another,wheredoes that get us?”

“I’ve got to get to work.” Warden stepped away, the distance—both physical and emotional—widening more. “Have you put some thought into the spa I suggested? I don’t think either of us is ready to face another heat together quite yet.”

While he wasn’t looking forward to spending another heat with Warden after six months in the facility apart, Wynter knew they couldn’t continue to avoid one another forever. “We have to face reality eventually. We are mated, and that is part of it.”

“The past months have been heavenly. I’m not ready to be forced into your bed again.”

“Do you think I enjoy it any more than you do?”

Warden growled. “It sickens me when I rouse from a rut and see what I’ve been forced to do.”

“You act as if I have some control over my heats. I promise you, I don’t.”

“Sure.”

---