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“You hurt me when you mated my best friend.”

“Yeah, okay, fair point,” he said. “So, maybe there was a part of me that was afraid back then, and that fearful part wanted a way out, wanted to escape. Maybe it was that part of me that took whatever Opal offered me. Maybe it was my fault. But that doesn’t change the fact that it was an impulsive decision I would never have made if I hadn’t been in such a heightened state, because no matter if there was a part of me that felt that way, most of me did not.”

I believed him, for whatever reason. I believed that most of him had wanted me. But some part of me was still disappointed by that. Was most of a man enough? Shouldn’t I have all of him?

He was still talking. “I’ve regretted it ever since. And I’ve spent my whole life thinking about what it would have been like if you were here with me. The first time I held my son in my arms, you know what I thought? I thought, ‘What would it have been like to have a baby with Leo?’”

“Well,” I said tartly, “I haven’t had any babies at all.”

“Yeah, fair point,” he said. “We have a second chance here. We have to take it. But let’s do it right this time.”

“And right is how?”

“Slow.”

“We took it slow before,” I said.

“Did we?”

“Yes.”

“You said you wanted to wait until you were sixteen to be kissed, and I couldn’t wait that long. I kissed you two years early. I fucked you before you were sixteen.”

“These were not only your decisions to make. They involved me, and I had a say.”

“Slow has never been our strong point,” he said. “Anyway, some part of you doesn’t want me now. Some part of you hates me. Some part of you doesn’t trust me. So, we’d be crazy to rush into anything.”

I shook myself. “I’m not trying to say we should jump into this, actually.”

“Good,” he said.

“Slow,” I said. “Yeah.” I licked my lips. “But also, I am not a sure thing, Damian. We do not automatically end up together.”

“If you were going to be with someone else, you’d be with them already,” he said. “I think it is sure. Certain and preordained. I know I fucked up, and I’m going to spend the rest of our lives making that up to you. But it was always supposed to be me and you, and it will be. Just… slow.”

I sighed. Why was I here? “I should go,” I said.

He nodded. “Yeah, okay.”

I shifted on my feet. “We should, um, exchange phone numbers maybe.”

“Okay,” he said.

I got out my phone.

He took it from me, and he put his number in, and then he sent me a text from my phone so that he would have my number. The text said, Omega.

In my phone, he’d labeled himself as Alpha.

I felt a little tremor in me at it, a sexual tremor.

He gave me a little smirk. “Off with you, then. Be a good omega and go.” His voice had gone silky.

I swallowed and I turned away. I crossed the room towards the door, and I opened it.

Just before I closed it, I heard Jace’s voice. “Inevitable, huh, Dad?”

I didn’t shut the door all the way. I left it open a crack. I stayed. I listened.