Page 113 of Eclipse Sector

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I winced, his words slicing through me even more than his sigh had.

“Actually, no, I’m not sorry,” he went on, causing my lungs to stop working. “Even if I could have done it, I don’t think I would have.”

The world spun around me, his admission dismantling my soul. “Why?” I breathed out, releasing the rest of the oxygen inside me. “Why, Cillian?”

“Because I wouldn’t have wanted to,” he answered without hesitation.

Wouldn’t have wanted to, I repeated in my mind.

He hadn’t bitten me because he wouldn’t have wanted to bite me.

That… that…

I swallowed, my chest burning.

Cillian didn’t want to claim me.

I knew that. He’d said that so many times. But to choose him—tobitehim—and have him not return that claim…

Stars, it hurt.

It really fuckinghurt.

And now I’m pregnant,I thought, my palm going to my belly as my lungs demanded that I inhale.Oh, Gods…

What did this mean?

I… I was an unmated Omega, carrying the baby of an Alpha who didn’t want her.

Why did you see me through my heat?I wanted to ask him.Why are you here?

“Vana.” The way he said my name—with another damn sigh—had me wanting to shove him out of my nest. “I thought you wanted me here. I’m on your list. Hell, I’m the only one on your list. And you were thinking about all the times I wasn’t here, how much it hadhurt. I’d… I’d wanted to help.”

My nostrils flared, my walls inside seeming to slam upright, just like they had after he’d grounded me.

Because this had been about pity again.

A fucking pity knotting.

Just like the kiss.

Just like everything else.

“Ivana.”

“I don’t want to talk about this anymore,” I growled out, my mind trying to turn off the memories of my unexpected—andunwanted—estrus.

There were pieces that didn’t make sense. Pieces about him vowing to bite me. Something about love.

Made up or real?I wondered.

But I didn’t want to sort it out. Not now. I was too exhausted, toosore,to give it proper evaluation.

I needed a shower.Or a bath.

The thought made me still.That’s where it started… in the bath.

No. I’m not reliving this right now.

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