Page 50 of Rejected Bullied Mate

She gave a tired, knowing smile. "I was waiting for you."

Damn, this woman had me all tangled up in knots. With five words, I was overcome with the need to hold her. To touch her and feel her heartbeat against my skin. The bond between us was growing stronger every day, and sometimes, I could feel her emotions through it. There was a warm tingle in the back of my mind, her worry for me clear as day.

I sighed heavily, feeling my shoulders droop. "I'm sorry I didn't come home earlier," I said. "The meeting ran late."

"It's fine," she said softly. "I just wanted to make sure you ate." She nodded toward the kitchen counter, where a plate sat covered by a glass lid. "I made you dinner."

The words sounded foreign to me. It had been a long time since I'd had someone take care of me like that. Not since I'd taken over the pack, at least. It was a simple meal—a grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup, but it made my throat tight just to look at it. I'd been so preoccupied with finding out who had attacked us that I'd hardly been able to think about anything else, including food. I'd barely eaten anything today, and I suddenly felt ravenous.

I ate like an animal, only stopping when Kiera joined me at the table, sliding a second cup of cocoa over to me. I finished off my soup, and she sat with me while I ate. She didn't say anything, and I was grateful for that. It was nice to just be silent with her.

After I ate, she took my plate away and washed it, putting the leftover soup back in the fridge before joining me at the table. She sat close enough that our knees bumped together, but she still didn't say anything, just linked our hands together. The silence was comfortable, though, and I was glad I wasn't alone. It felt right. Like some time over the past few weeks, the Omega sitting across from me had turned my old, empty house into a home.

***

Kiera left for bed a few minutes before I finished my cocoa, and I was halfway down the hallway when a soft snore stopped me. As quietly as I could, I stepped into my son's room, watching the peaceful rise and fall of his little chest. I reached out, brushing a piece of dark blond hair off of his forehead, and pressed a kiss to his temple. His nose wrinkled as he scrunched up his face, but he didn't wake up.

God, I’d missed so much of his life. I’d spend the rest of my own life making up for it if I had to.

I watched him sleep for a few minutes longer before I slipped out of the room and made my way back to mine. Kiera was still awake, lying in bed with a book open on her lap. She glanced up as I closed the door behind me, closing her book and setting it on the nightstand.

Wait. She was in my bed? We'd slept apart since the last night of her heat, and I hadn't realized how much I'd missed her there until now.

"Is Kit okay?" She asked, her eyes wide.

"He's fine," I said, smiling despite myself. "He was just snoring."

"Oh," she let out a soft laugh, her shoulders relaxing as she smiled back. "He always did that when he was little. It was cute when he was a baby, but then he got older and started sounding like a chainsaw."

I laughed, and she looked surprised by the sound of it. My chest squeezed, and I knew I wanted to tell her. I had to tell her. I'd already kept so much from her, and it wasn't right. She looked at me, a soft frown tugging at the corner of her lips. “What’s going on, Samson?”

I didn't know where to start. The guilt and the shame in the way I treated not only her, but the rest of the pack, was gnawing on me relentlessly. I had been proud to be an Alpha, to take my father's place, but I wasn't proud of the things I'd done to cement my authority. It took the woman lying in my bed to open my eyes, and for that alone, I owed it to her to be honest.

“When we first met,” I began slowly, sitting down next to her. “I was a fucking asshole. Then you presented as an Omega and went into heat, and you were the first Omega in heat I'd ever encountered. I told myself over and over again that I was doing the right thing by knotting you when you needed it, but you got under my skin even then, Kiera. You brought out every protective instinct in me."

Kiera was watching me, stunned, her eyes wide and owlish.

"Part of me rejected you because I wanted to shield you from all this—the pack, my responsibilities, everything that came with it." I continued, "I thought I was doing the right thing then, too, that I was protecting you from something ugly. But, like I said, that was just part of me. The other was just an unredeemable asshole who had convinced himself that it was beneath him to make the first Omega he ran into his mate."

She opened her mouth to say something, but I kept going, feeling the words tumble out of me. It was like a floodgate had been opened, and I couldn't stop now that I'd started. "I was just a selfish bastard who only cared about power. I wanted to impress my father, to prove I could be the strongest, the best. I didn’t care who I hurt in the process. And I hurt you. I hurt you so much, Kiera."

I looked down at my hands, unable to meet her eyes. They were shaking, and I clenched them into fists. "I'm sorry," I said, my voice hoarse. "I'm so fucking sorry."

She stared at me, her lips parted in shock. She looked like she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. The room was silent, save for the sound of our breathing. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she spoke. Her voice was soft, but there was a steely resolve behind her words.

"You're right. You were a selfish bastard. We missed out on a lot of time together. But I forgive you."

I looked up at her, my heart pounding. I couldn’t believe what she was saying. "You do?"

"Yes. Because you're not the same person anymore. You've changed, Samson. And I can feel it. I can feel you." She leaned forward, resting her hand on my knee. "I feel our connection in my heart, and I know you feel it too."

I nodded slowly. I did feel it. I couldn’t deny that. It had been there ever since the night we'd first slept together, and it had only grown stronger since then. "I'm a better Alpha with you around, you know? You balance me. You keep me calm when calm was a totally foreign concept for me before."

A small, watery laugh burbled out of her. "Come here. Please?"

I didn't hesitate. I slid onto the bed next to her, pulling her into my arms. I rested my chin on top of her head as she curled against my chest, tucking her face into the crook of my neck.

"I missed you," she said, her voice muffled. She didn't clarify if she meant she'd missed me today, or if she meant the entire time we'd been separated. I didn't have the heart to dig into the question.

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