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Pulling her away from the crowd so that we were both looking out at the sparkling water and the cheerfully lit Ferris wheel in the distance, I gave her my full attention.
Ciara’s normally confident demeanor, her shell I’d quickly realized once we’d met again after the Olympics, was down. It made her features softer as she seemed to be contemplating her next words.
“Why do you like me?” she finally said in one, long whoosh. “I don’t have any characteristics that make for a good partner. I’m selfish, brash, and I’ve got issues pouring out of my eyeballs.”
Her accent, which was usually an interesting mix between American Midwestern and Irish, became a little stronger as she spoke.
“Why wouldn’t I like you?” I countered, bumping my shoulder into hers. “You say you’re selfish, but I don’t see it that way. Selfish would mean you do things without thinking of anyone but yourself, and frankly, I think you think far too much of everyone else.”
Ciara blinked at me as if I’d solved a puzzle she’d been fussing over for her entire life. Her expression closed off, but I wasn’t letting her put her walls up again in order to shut me out.
Pulling her hand up to my chest, I pressed it over my heartbeat so she could feel the flutter underneath her palm. “I like you, Ciara, point-blank-period.”
“It’s just instincts…” she began, but I shook my head.
“Maybe it started out that way—not that there’s anything wrong with following your instincts when it comes to people like us—but I’ve been watching you since coming here. You are so loved by those around you because of who you are, why is it so surprising that I might feel the same?”
“You’ve been watching me?” she asked, sounding surprised.
Giving her a dry smile I shrugged. “In the least creepy way possible, yes. It’s really weird, but I almost always know when you’re nearby. My eyes naturally find you even in a crowded room, like I’m some kind of compass and you’re my true north.”
My mom had known the moment she laid eyes on my dad that he was it for her. The way she described it was like everything clicking into just the right place—finding her other half–and they were both betas who were free from the biological instincts that alphas and omegas possessed.
On some level, I’d known it since I couldn’t take my eyes off the TV when Ciara was skating during the Olympics. My obsession had only grown from there.
Ciara’s full lips pressed together and she shook her head. “But… I’m a mess. It’s not like being in a relationship will magically fix all of that, Wiz, you do realize that right?”
“Why would I want to fix you?”
She rolled her eyes.
“Everyone wants to fix me.”
“Not me.” I liked her just the way she was. I wanted to know more about the things that had hurt her so much that she refused any sort of commitment, but it didn’t matter to me either way.
Pale teeth worried at her bottom lip as her eyes finally lifted to meet mine fully for the first time since we’d stopped to talk. “What if I run away? I do have a nasty habit of doing that.”
I’d gotten that from the countless times she’d seen me at the Complex and quite literally ran in the other direction.
“Then I’ll run away with you.”
“And what if I also like someone else?”
There it was, what I’d been afraid of. “Is it that pack you’ve been with?”
She shrugged. “Maybe, would it bother you if it was?”
“Would you want me to join you? I’ve never been in a pack before, so I’m not sure I’d be very good at it.”
Ciara snorted. “I have a feeling you would love a pack, you’re very levelheaded, especially for an alpha.”
It sounded like she was on the verge of giving in, her earlier refusal almost a fading memory as her expression softened while she spoke.
Cupping her face, I tilted her chin up so we were looking directly at one another. “Just say yes, Ciara, I promise you won’t regret it.”
With her lips pinched together, her brown eyes searched my face. Searching for what? I wasn’t sure, but her next whispered words nearly broke my damn heart.
“I swore I’d never get into a romantic relationship because of what I lived with when I was small.”
