Page 108 of Heat & Deceit
“No,” Lycus says.
With a sigh, I glance at each of them. The looks on their faces tell me there’s no way I’m getting out of explaining where I’ve been or why I’ve been hiding who I am. The past I’ve painstakingly tried to bury threatens everything I have with these three, and while it isn’t much, at least not yet, this relationship is ready to bloom into something more.
Something I’ve been too afraid to hope for.
I waver with indecision. Telling them means exposing every ugly piece of who I am, but if there’s any hope for us, they deserve to know. Casting my gaze down, I suck in a breath and gesture to the couch. “You might want to sit down.”
* * *
“And that’s my story.” By the time I finish telling them everything, the craving has fully subsided.
Silence settles between us. I avoid their probing gazes. I told them everything, from the beginning. I told them my real name. I explained how the pack I was assigned to refused to mark me, sold me, and rejected me. I told them about Curtis and his omega. I told them about the dancing and the drugs and every horrible thing in between that I remember. Once I started talking, I couldn’t seem to stop. I told them everything.
And now they’re not speaking.
They’re realizing what a horrible decision they’ve made.
They’re regretting having ever liked me.
“So, your name isn’t Carmine?” Lycus asks, seizing on perhaps the least important detail.
“No.” I refuse to look up. I can’t bear to see how they’re looking at me.
“Nova.” He tries out the name, and I suck in a breath, loving the way it sounds coming from his lips. “Nova,” he says again, this time more pointed. “I think I like Rain better.”
“I don’t understand that nickname.”
“The rain is my favorite,” he says.
And that means I’m his favorite? After everything I just told him? When I don’t acknowledge him, he moves from his seat and drops to his knees in front of me, gripping my chin with a tattooed hand and forcing me to meet his gaze. His eyes sear into my soul, imprinting themselves.
“Did you really think that would be enough to scare us away?” He lifts an eyebrow.
“It’s a lot,” I counter.
“So what?”
I sit there, searching his face, desperately trying to figure out theso what. I come up with nothing and look at Javier. He’s staring straight at me, but there’s no disgust in his gaze. I glance at Rome. He doesn’t even seem fazed.
“You guys deserve—”
Lycus clamps his hand over my mouth, brown eyes burning into mine. “If you say we deserve a better omega, so help me god.”
I glare at him and he smirks. “Get your hand off of me,” I try to say, but it comes out a muffled mess of vowels and consonants.
“Did you guys hear her?” He glances at the other two and they shrug.
My nostrils flare in irritation, but Lycus simply chuckles. “I’m going to move my hand, and I don’t want to hear you say anything about another omega or I’ll—” He cuts off. “Well, I don’t know what I’ll do, but you won’t like it.” He moves his hand.
“You’re an asshole,” I hiss.
He smirks. “You love it.”
“Whatever.”
His hands fall on my thighs. “Now that we’ve gotten the hard part over with, are you ready to come home?” He blinks up at me, eyes wide and pleading, like a puppy waiting for a scrap of food.
“This is my home.”
