Page 57 of Omega's Forbidden Heat
“Is he ok?” Alarm suddenly swims across her face.
“Totally fine. He was waiting in the same spot in the forest. What happened?”
She rubs the back of her head. “I don’t really remember. Something spooked him, a farmer’s gun, I think. And he took off and the next thing I’m flying through the air and that branch came down on my leg.” She winces at the memory, peering down at her ankle.
“I’d kiss it better,” he says, “but I think it might do more harm.”
“You’ve done enough,” she says, then tugs his head back towards her. “And you’re here now.”
“I’m sorry,” he says, “for everything.”
“For everything?” She arches an eyebrow.
“Not everything. But most things.” He stares down at their joined hands against the blue blanket and a trolley rattles down the corridor outside the room. He needs to say this. “I missed you, Amy.” She goes to speak and he holds up his hand to stop her. “Let me finish, please. I am not good enough to be yours, Amy—”
“You are—”
“I’m not. But I want you anyway. And I’ll try to make myself worthy of you.”
“You are worthy of me,” she says in annoyance, “don’t talk bullshit.”
“I will be,” he says with conviction. “I will be.”
She leans back against the pillows and he can tell she’s tired.
“I’d better go.”
“Not yet.” She shakes her head and peers down at her hands. “It can’t be a secret though, Jack. I can’t keep secrets from my family. It would tear me apart.”
He nods, thinking of his mum and his dad and their secrets. The things that they thought were keeping them apart. In the grand scheme of things, what did it matter? What people thought, or didn’t think? They might have been happy together. But they never even tried, they never fought for one another. His mum thought she was being noble and brave, letting his father walk away. But she was wrong. You have to fight for love, for the people you love, because they can be gone in a moment. Amy has known that all along.
“They won’t like it,” he says.
“Does it matter?” She squeezes his hand and swallows and her eyes are wide from the medication and he wonders if it’s loosened her tongue when she speaks again, “I’ve always been in love with you.”
“I know.” He leans back in his chair, spreading his legs and rubbing his knuckles into his eyes. He needs to be honest, too. “I’ve been at the bottom of a dark hole with the walls slowly caving in. Breathing has felt like an effort. Everything has been so dark and so miserable.”
“Your mum—“
“No, Amy, it’s not that.” He inhales, steading himself. “You have been the brief flicker of light in my life these past few months. So bright it almost hurts my eyes to look at you. You lift away all the heaviness and the sadness and for the moments I’m with you I forget about everything else. It’s frightening.”
“It is when you’re in love.”
He removes his hands from his eyes to look at her. There’s no tease. She’s deadly serious.
“Yes,” he says, “I didn’t realise that’s what this is. But it is.”
“It is.” Her eyelids drift shut and he leans over and kisses her forehead. She murmurs in satisfaction and he sits and watches as sleep overcomes her, and he formulates his plan. He is going to be a worthy Alpha. Her Alpha.
Chapter Twenty- Two
Five years ago
“Are you cold?” he asks.
Out here on the steps, away from the ram of the school dance, the day’s heat is waning and she shudders once, twice.
“A little,” she admits, rubbing her hands up and down her arms.
