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“Why is it that I don’t feel like that’s what you really want?” he asked.
She looked down, tried to look away from him, but he pulled her face back toward his, cupping her chin in his hand to look into her eyes. She was on the verge of tears and holding it back. He didn’t know what to make of it all.
“I love you, Niamh. I want you to be happy. This . . . thing. This imprint. It doesn’t have to bind us together if this isn’t what you want. We can go our separate ways if you feel like you’ve been bound into something you didn’t ask for. I know you were married young to someone you didn’t know. Perhaps you came to love him over time. Maybe, despite anything he might have done, you still love him.”
“No, no, no,” she squeaked, full of tears as she bolted upward from his lap. “I have to go. I have to go.”
“Niamh? What is wrong with you?”
“I can’t, Olcan. I’m too afraid. Just give me a few days. I need space.”
“Fine,” Olcan replied, unwilling to beg a woman to stay or force her into it.
Whatever was going on in her head, she certainly wasn’t as devoted to him as he was to her. Imprint or no imprint, she was hellbent on maintaining her emotional distance, and he didn’t have time to be jerked around. Perhaps it was for the best to just let her go and deal with whatever pull there was toward her as best he could. He had more important things to focus on with Fergus gone anyway.
He didn’t try to stop her as she bolted out the front door and ran across the street, practically getting run down by some kid on his bike in the process. She stopped in the street for a moment, staring after the kid as he sped on down the street and then ran the rest of the way across and into the house she was taking care of.
Olcan turned away from the window and went to his phone, calling each of his younger brothers to ask if they felt up to going out to The Factory, a local dance club where they often went to blow off steam. Perhaps the best way to get one woman off his mind was to spend an evening with another. He couldn’t ever remember having to “get over” a woman before, and he wasn’t sure how far he was willing to go to get over this one, but a few drinks and some harmless flirting might be enough to at least put her out of his mind for a while.
Niall and Ronan met him at the front doors, and they all went in together. If Fergus had been there, it would have been like old times, but for the past couple of years, it had been a rare occasion when their oldest brother had come with. Before today, he’d viewed him as hamstrung by a wife and kid, no matter how happy he seemed. As he sat, looking around at all the hot women he had zero desire for, though, he began to realize what it felt like to find the woman you genuinely wanted.
The only difference between him and Fergus was that his brother had chosen a woman who loved him just as much as he loved her, despite having met in some unfortunate circumstances. He pondered this as he sat drinking beer and watching his younger brothers mingle with the crowd. A few women approached him, tried to be friendly, but he blew them off.
There was only one woman for him now.
“Fuck me,” he muttered as he drank another pint and seethed, though he wasn’t sure quite where his anger should be directed.CHAPTER ELEVENNiamh
NIAMH HAD DONE NOTHING but pace since she got back to the house. What was she going to do? James and Hannah would be back in a couple of days, and she’d be moving farther away from him, but she knew he’d still be just as much on her mind. She’d still want him, and the truth was, she loved him. She knew that too.
The other thing she knew was that crossing the Maguire family was a death sentence for her, but if that were the only matter of it, she’d let that happen to protect him. She would tell him the truth and he wouldn’t want her anymore, but he would know what was coming for him and his family. Her life would be the one placed on the line, and it would likely be a death of a thousand cuts for her. Still, that was the only solution.
He would know soon enough, anyway. Either she continued to learn what she could about his family and their business, something she knew much more about than she’d revealed to him, and she gave that information to her Alpha, or she told the truth to him. Perhaps he would kill her for it and save her the pain of what her own clan would inflict upon her. She preferred that; death at his hand would likely be quick and painless, at least.
