I held my breath, waiting for Liza’s reaction of disbelief.
She didn’t react. She stood perfectly still, staring a hole through me. Then her lips twitched, and she started to laugh. Her laughter quickly turned into an all-out cackle.
Well, fuck. That wasn’t the reaction I’d anticipated.
Liza continued to laugh until she doubled over, clutching her stomach and wiping tears from her eyes. She finally stood up and looked at me, gasping for breath. “I know what I am.”
My jaw dropped. Too stunned to speak, I stared at Liza as she recovered from laughing so hard. She already knew? Not only that, but Liza had chosen to keep that part of herself a secret from me. I clenched my jaw so hard I thought my teeth would crack. “What do you mean you know what you are?”
She glared at me. “You’re not seriously pissed off at me right now. Because let me tell you something, buddy, you of all people have no right to be upset with me. You’re the one who’s had your fucking ‘man on the payroll’”—I could’ve lived without the air quotes—“digging around, trying to find out informationabout me. And don’t forget all these conversations you and your BFF Bryce had behind my back.” She shook her head, her glare striking me right in the heart. “You told him private details that should’ve stayed between us. I don’t… can’t even fucking imagine what made you think it was a good idea to hash out the way I look and act with Bryce, then with my own fucking parents.”
She was past angry now. Past furious. This was a kind of rage I hadn’t seen before.
“All you had to do was come to me. You should’ve asked me, Ty.” Her voice softened, but the fury was easy to spot in her red cheeks, the dark eyes, and her lowered tone.
I growled in frustration as I ran a hand through my hair and paced the edge of the clearing. “Fuck, Liza. You make it sound like it was that simple. I didn’t even know if it was a possibility. I’d always thought omegas were a fucking legend.” And she hadn’t trusted me enough to tell me, even though she’d said she trusted me. I stopped and whirled around. “How could you keep something like that from me?”
Liza scoffed. “It’s none of your fucking business.”
My mouth fell open. “Are you fucking serious? Not my business? You have no idea how much I’ve agonized over having this conversation with you. It’s been tearing me apart.” I raked my hand through my hair and stared at her before looking away. I considered all the scenarios that had run through my mind up to this point. “You were so worried about your hormones and wondering why you were so different from everyone else. Can’t you understand that I was worried about being the one to tell you? In my mind, you were an omega, and your parents and everyone else in your life had kept it from you, even going so far as putting you on hormone pills to conceal your true identity.” I’d thought telling her would destroy relationships. Hurt her. I didn’t want to be the one to do that.
“They didn’t keep it from me. They protected me from it. Taught me how to protect myself because I had to.” Liza held up a hand and cut me off. “I’ve had to protect myself from being who I am since I was thirteen years old, at which point I was almost sexually assaulted by my fucking neighbor.” She shook her head and choked back a sob as the anger immediately seeped out of my body.
Maybe I was an asshole. “Liza.” I reached for her, but she jerked away. That was a bad sign.
Her voice cracked as tears spilled onto her cheeks. “I can’t describe to you the struggles I’ve lived with. Once I realized the weight I carried on my shoulders as an omega, my life was never the same.”
I opened my mouth, but no words came out. My fury over Liza keeping her identity from me had completely dissipated. I stared at my fated mate as she let her walls crash down. I wanted to pick up every piece and toss it for her. She didn’t need walls with me.
She sobbed into her hands, releasing the emotions she’d held back from me for the entirety of our relationship. “My parents were scared out of their minds after the attack. It took a while—some consultations with the doctor and some long talks with me—before they realized the truth about why it had happened in the first place. They kept it a secret from everyone because they wanted to protect me.” She blew out a breath.
I wanted to go to her and hold her, but I wasn’t sure she would accept the comfort from me right now. “Oh, Liza.”
“They were worried that if word got out, I would be a target for multiple reasons.” Her icy blue eyes were even more striking from the tears. “I was going to tell you when the time was right. There’s no way I’d allow us to officially mate without filling you in on something of this magnitude.”
I nodded. I believed her.
“You have to realize that I had reason to be cautious. You said yourself that you thought omegas were just a legend, so surely you remember the myths. Omegas have always been depicted as overly sexualized wolves who just want to get fucked and pregnant.” She shook her head and stared off into the distance. “Can you imagine the number of people who would want to take advantage of me based on that stupid myth alone?”
The sound of a snapping branch interrupted our conversation. I turned and crouched low, searching the forest floor for the culprit. A deer stopped, turned its head our way, and stared at the two of us.
Liza’s emotions were powerful. I’d seen her tears heal a dying rabbit. It made sense that the animals were curious, and I was relieved we weren’t being followed. The last thing we needed was another shifter hearing us talk about Liza’s true identity as an omega. Gossip, especially when it was true, was dangerous.
I turned back to Liza to see her whole body shaking now. Her emotions hit me like a ton of bricks. “Liza, I’m so sorry for looking into you without your consent, and I apologize for keeping the omega suspicions and information from you instead of just coming directly to you about it.” I took a step closer because I needed to touch her. “Please forgive me for getting upset. You’re right, I had no reason for getting mad. I can’t imagine what you’ve been through. You have every reason to be cautious.” I brushed a strand of hair from her face and tucked it behind her ear. “I’m your mate, though. You should know that I would never do anything to harm you.”
Liza’s shoulders shook violently as a new wave of emotion washed over her. It was impossible for me to keep my distance, so I pulled her close against my chest and wrapped her in my arms.
She buried her face in the hollow of my shoulder. “I never wanted any of this. I spent so many nights wishing it would all just disappear.”
She was trembling, so I held her tighter.
“I always worried what might happen if someone found out.” She pulled away from me and froze. “Stone knows. Oh, fuck. He fucking knows what I am. Is that why you’ve been so angry with him? And why you almost ripped him to shreds back at the banquet hall? He’s been threatening to expose what I am if he doesn’t get what he wants from you. Am I right?”
My heart dropped into my stomach. After what just happened, I should have told her everything and got it out in the open so we could figure out what to do about it, but I wanted her deeply in love with me before I told her the absolute worst thing I’d ever had to tell anyone.
This was my chance to tell her the truth, but instead I was spinning an entirely new lie to feed her. I was such a piece of shit. In my defense, this was the only way I could prevent her from learning the truth of what my father had done to her family. I had to figure out how to tell her without losing her. I wouldn’t survive losing her.
I nodded. “Yes, Stone wants money. A lot of it. He’s been threatening to reveal your secret to anyone who will listen if he doesn’t get what he wants. That’s why I wanted you to stay away from him.” I wished she would see through me, call me a fucking liar, and demand I tell her what I was hiding. When she didn’t, though, I kept going. “When I saw him hovering over you tonight, I couldn’t contain my wolf. That son of a bitch shouldn’t be stepping within a mile of you.”
