No. I shook my head at myself.
If Logan were here, he’d tell me I was being dramatic. Paranoid. Easily manipulated by bad information and fear tactics.
And for the first time in my life, he’d probably be right.
This was stupid. I was fine. Tired, yes. Pregnant, yes. But fine.
I tried to keep reading, hoping I’d stumble across something so absurd it would finally snap me out of it.
Then—
“Violet?” Vinny’s voice carried down the hall.
My heart lurched and I immediately closed the internet browser, fully intending to slam the laptop shut and pretend I’d never been in here at all.
But then I saw his home screen and froze.
It was a photo, and judging by the clothing and lack of crows' feet on Vinny’s face, it was an old one.
He looked young, maybe twenty at the oldest. His arm was slung around an omega with auburn hair and blue eyes so bright they practically glowed. They both smiled at the camera.
They looked happy, and not the fake happy you learn to be when forced to be around someone. Real happy, the kind that came from being young, stupid, and in love.
My throat tightened as I stared at her face, at the way she leaned into him like she belonged there without question. Like there had never been fear mixed into it, like nothing about loving him had hurt yet.
Like maybe Vinny hadn’t always been the angry old man I’d gotten stuck with.
“Violet?” Vinny called again, closer now.
I snapped the laptop shut, the soft click sounding far too loud in the quiet room and straightened my spine before smoothing my clothing and forcing my face to be neutral.
The door knob turned and Vinny peered in as if he were invading my space and not the other way around. The second his eyes landed on me, he breathed a sigh of relief and pushed himself into the room.
“I got scared when I went to check on you and you weren’t in your nest.”
Something fluttered in my chest.
You check on me?I signed before remembering Vinny hadn’t been to a single one of the sign language lessons he forced me, Benji, and Skye to attend. He said they were so I could communicate, but if that were the case–
“Well, yeah. You’re pregnant with my baby, why wouldn’t I?” he said.
My brow pinched.
You can understand me?
He nodded. “Just because I’m too busy for class doesn’t mean I’m not learning–andyesthat means I know you called me poor yesterday.”
My cheeks burned scarlet.
“Here, get up, I want to hold you.” He stepped closer and opened his arms.
I huffed and looked away, not wanting to admit how badly I wanted to melt into his stupid, sexy, tattoo covered chest.
Being an omega wasn’t fair.
And, when I didn’t get up, Vinny plucked me off the seat as if I were a misplaced stuffed animal, he then sat and forced me onto his lap. And I… Well, I hid my face in the crook of his neck and inhaled as deeply as I could.
Instantly, the twisted nausea mangling my stomach faded, and I chalked it up to a placebo effect.
