Page 42 of The Rejected Omega

“Talk to me, Birdy. What happened? What are you so afraid of? Heat is natural for omegas. A necessary part of your biology. As normal as your period.”

I’m on the verge of breaking. I clench my teeth and try to bite back my words. To stuff them down into the vault where I keep all of my locked up emotions, but my secrets are tired of being caged.

“I don’t need a fucking sex ed lesson, Connor. My first heat was alone, okay? I can’t go through that again.”

Connor pales, and he squeezes all the bones in my hand together. “What’s his name? I’ll fucking flay him alive.” His voice vibrates with fury.

His indignation on my behalf, his rage athimself,is so ridiculous that I almost laugh.

“Who is he? Why isn’t he with you? Helping you? Have you reported him to the registry?”

“No. There’s no point.”

“Want me to kill him for you?”

“Spare me the fucking hypocrisy, Connor. I don’t owe you answers. We stopped being friends a long time ago.”

He looks like I just slapped him.

I bite my tongue until I taste blood. He’s not going to let off until I give him something. This is the mostrealinformation he’s learned about me in three years.

“He’s dead.”To me,I finish in my head. Mac could always tell when I was lying. I think he suspected about the black-market drugs, but was too stuck in his own blame spiral to admit it to himself. I hope that ability doesn’t extend to his son.

“What?”

Guilt roils in my belly as I weave the web of lies tighter around myself.

“It was an alpha from out of town. He died. He crashed his motorcycle on the way to the ceremony. So his scent was still there…”

Connor’s eyes blow. His expression grows pained. “So you went through your first heat alone?”

I give a stiff nod.

“Fuck, Birdy. I’m so fucking sorry.”

“The bond was weak,” I say, the words bitter in my mouth.

He swings back toward me again, his face ashen. “The ceremony I missed?”

I consider the questions he must still have about that night and clench my teeth.

Then I nod.

“When he didn’t show, the elders wanted me to use a surrogate alpha. You…you were the only one I was comfortable considering.”

Connor looks like he’s seen a ghost. “Fuck. The calls. That’s why Mac was so mad…”

I can see the gears turning in his head.

“And you wanted—me?”

“Yes.”

I want you, I want you, I want you.

There’s a hungry edge to Connor’s gaze when he looks back at me. His hands clench deep dimples into his jeans.

“And when I didn’t answer?” the words are terse and tight. Barely a whisper.

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