Page 46 of The Alpha's Fake Mate
Orion said, “Yes, no one will ever have to know.”
All this still meant I stood in the way of him dating, or finding a real mate. Forever, if it turned out that way. We needed to talk about this more.
Guilt clawed through me. I hated feeling that when I was the one who still had no rights. “I didn’t ask you to claim me.”
He swung his hands behind his back. “I am well aware of that.”
He moved closer to me. I almost backed up but Orion looked down at me with a gaze gone soft in the late afternoon light. His hand came up as if to touch me, but stopped within inches of my arm.
“I want you to hear me,” he said firmly. “I will never hurt you.”
I turned my head away.
“Holland.”
He said my name calling my attention back to him. When I flicked my gaze back up to his dark eyes, he said it again. “I will never hurt you.”
I stood dumbly in the center of the room. I could think of no reply.
It seemed he waited for a good ten seconds. When I remained frozen, voiceless, his words echoing like already broken promises in my head, he turned abruptly and strode from the room.
Over his shoulder, he called, “My cook likes to serve dinner at seven.”
I had wanted to discuss this more, but obviously he didn’t.
With his presence gone, the air immediately cooled around me. The walls seemed to undulate. Dizzy, still in shock at my new surroundings, I sat hard on the edge of the foot of the bed. The softness of the covers bunched up around my thighs.
He’d given me too much. He was everything I ever could have wanted six months ago. Before Bosk. He would have been my fantasy come true. But now all I could think of was keeping him at bay. Remaining cold and aloof and unlikable.
So why was he compelled to keep me safe?
*
I couldn’t find the dining room.
When I came downstairs, I blinked at all the brightness. I saw again the huge front room, and the long shining hall that seemed endless.
I smelled food from the kitchen, but where was it? Where was the dining room?
Starting down the hall, I saw no one about, which was a relief because I did not want to see any Alpha walking toward me, even a servant.
Hearing footfalls behind me, I turned to see Orion and a bit of my heaviness lifted. He wore a blue dinner jacket and black slacks. His unruly brown hair was slicked back and he looked—well—stunning.
“The dining room is this way,” he said calmly.
We continued to walk down the hall and as it curved it opened to an area with windows all along one side and buffet tables lining the long back wall where it curved into a large hearth. Before the hearth was a couch.
A huge table that could have easily sat eighteen people took up the center dining space.
The table was already set, tall candles flickering in the shine of the plates. At one end sat a large basket of bread and rolls, butter and cream at each plate, and wine glasses with the wine already poured.
I’d had wine at lunch and it had done nothing for me except maybe make me a little more unfiltered in my speech. I didn’t need that. But I eyed it with longing. The wine at lunch had been pretty good, a luxury I’d never had before.
Orion pulled out a chair at the end of the table and motioned me to sit.
I hesitated. At the farm, no one sat at the heads of the boys’ tables. At the tables of the Omega workers, the head of their table was always reserved for Warden Chirl.
“Go ahead, sit,” Orion said. “I’ll sit here.”
