Page 67 of Dark Sold Mate

But Elle deserved to know the truth. All of it.

Silas started talking. “I felt a connection to you a long time ago. You were really young then. Every time I was close to you, I felt this strange sensation. I did not know what it meant.”

He kept talking. “I did not understand what was happening. I just knew that being around you made me feel weird, and it scared the shit out of me.”

“Why?”

“It was because you were human. At least we thought you were. My father hated humans. He taught me and my brothers that humans were weak. That they were not as good as us. He said that the future leader of our pack could never be with a human.”

“When I started feeling this connection to you, I got really scared. I was young and stupid. I listened to my father. I tried to push you away. I tried to make myself hate you.”

“You were mean to me.”

“I was worse than mean. I tried to kill the feelings I had for you. I thought that if I was cruel enough, I could make myself not care about you. It did not work.”

Elle's hands were clenched into fists. “You bullied me to try and fight the connection between us.”

“Yes.” He swallowed. “That is what I did, and it was a terrible thing to do. I was a coward. I let my father’s hatred dictate what I did, and in the process, I hurt you and made your life really hard.”

“And other members of their pack followed your lead.”

“Yes. They did…and I let them. When I started being mean to you, others joined in. It became okay to tease you and leave you out. I set the example. Everyone else followed.”

“So it was your fault.”

“Yes. It was my fault. But I also stopped them from going too far.”

Elle looked visibly taken aback. “You what?”

“I know it does not make sense. Even when I was trying to push you away, my wolf would not let anyone hurt you. So I drew a line. I said that some things were not okay.”

“So you were mean to me, but you also protected me in a twisted way? That is fucked up, Silas.”

He leaned back and shoved his hands into his hair, grabbing it tightly. “I know it does not excuse what I did, but I could not let anyone hurt you. Even when I was trying to convince myself that I did not care about you, my wolf would not let me hurt you.”

“That day in the library. I asked you if we could be mates.”

“You had a vision.”

“I saw the bond between us. I was so confused. I forgot that you had been mean to me. I just asked you because I needed to know if what I saw was real.”

“And I laughed at you. I remember, Elle. Trust me.”

Elle went quiet.

Silas stared at her and forced himself to continue. He had started this. He was going to finish it.

“There is one more thing I have to say to you. It is something I ought to have told you long ago. Margaret actually figured it out first.”

Elle's eyes sharpened. “Figured out what?”

“You bear an Omega designation. You were dormant your whole life because you weren't with a pack, no Alpha, nothing to start it. But it was always there.”

He waited for the reaction. The rage and the sorrow. He had prepared for all of it. What he did not prepare for was the sound she made.

Elle laughed.

Not a short laugh, not a bitter laugh, a true one, the one that made her jump as much as it made him jump. She pressed the back of her hand against her mouth as her shoulders trembled, and Silas sat there all at a loss.