Felix took a break from searing scallops and positioned himself between her legs, tilting her chin upwards with his index finger. “What’s wrong with you being you?”
“Everything?” Her shoulders sagged in defeat. “I’m not organized. I’m messy and hate cleaning. I dye my hair, wear bright outfits, and I’m loud and sensitive. I could never control a room or own a business. I could never be like Summer or our parents.”
“I don’t understand. I thought you were supposed to list negatives about yourself.”
“I am.”
Felix shook his head. “No. You haven’t. Your qualities may be different from those of your family, but those qualities matched you to us. Perfect qualities that I’m sure you share with your mom and dad.”
“I could never be anything like my mom.”
“Why not?”
Sonnet’s eyes finally met his, and in them a candle blew out. “Because she’s not my biological mother.”
Oh.
This was a conversation not meant to be held in the middle of cooking, but she was opening up, and Felix would be damned if he shut her out because of seafood. He squeezed her hips, quickly halted all his cooking so it wouldn’t get ruined, and pulled up one of the island stools to properly sit in front of her.
She was looking out the kitchen windows, her lips pursed together. She looked so small in this moment, as if she was trying to shrink into herself to disappear, something he had seen Kai do many times.
She was too scared to look at him. Did he ruin the moment?
Talk to me, he wanted to say.You can talk to me.
She turned back to him, her beautiful blue eyes glassy, and heaved another heavy sigh. “Katherine, who I call mom, is humbler and kinder than anyone could ever know because she took me in as her daughter, even though I only exist because my dad cheated on her. I’m an affair baby. And my mother, myrealmother, she—” Sonnet cut herself off, and Felix could tell she was holding back, but he didn’t care. His mate was giving him a piece of her past that was delicate and in pain, and he would hold it with gentle hands. “My birth mother and I were together for seven years before she left me at the police station, and then my dad came and took me home and Katherine has been my mom ever since.”
Felix brushed his hand into Sonnet’s still slightly damp hair, massaging her neck and leaning her towards him. “I cannot imagine how hard that was for you.”
She shook her head. “No, it wasn’t. It turns out being abandoned is the easy part. But looking in the mirror knowing I’m the reason for a wonderful woman’s pain is hard.”
“How could you even begin to blame yourself for what your dad did?”
“Because sometimes it’s easier to forgive and forget something when nothing exists to make it real. But I exist. I’m a constant reminder of my dad’s infidelities, and the worst part is, I’ve done nothing in my life to make up for it but be a burden. If I were more like my sister, a driven, hard-workingbeta, I might’ve rewritten all the wrongs I committed.”
Oh, God, no.
Our little omega is more like us than we thought.
Felix gulped, but his words were a thick lump in his throat. He moved his hands to cup Sonnet’s face and whimpered. As her scent began to burn, his blossomed to calm her down.
“Don’t ever wish you were a beta,” he begged. “And don’t burden your younger self with the burdens a grown man should own and carry. Damn what he did and damn the pain it may have caused, because it also made you, and you are my fate. My destiny. My mate. I have been waiting what feels like forever to be with you, so the only thing you should be upset about is taking so damn long to find us.”
She laughed, choking on a sob, and opened her mouth to say something, but Felix didn’t give her the time. With her face still cupped into his hands, he took the opportunity to lean in and kiss her.
And holy fuck was it a perfect kiss.
Her lips were soft and awkward, startled by Felix’s sudden approach, but then they melted into each other, and the kiss deepened into something like every cliche book wrote about. Fireworks went off like an explosion of emotion welcoming him home.
Could she feel it? Could she feel that she could no longer claim abandonment now that he was claiming her?
Home. She is home now.
Welcome home. Welcome home. Welcome home.
His fingers tangled into her hair, and when he finally forced himself to pull back, her eyes were glazed over with tears made from happiness, not sadness.
“Stop talking nonsense,” he whispered, “and help me plate the board while I finish up the rest of the food.”
