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“So why did you keep it on?”
“Um,” he began, but I cut him off.
I made my voice stern and let a little alpha slip in. I’d never done that before because I wasn’t sure whether Waggoner would appreciate it. I couldn’t help it now, though. I wanted a truthful answer.
“Foxy, tell me the truth. Why have you been keeping the brace on?”
“Because I didn’t want this to end!”
He seemed to have surprised himself as much as me with his outburst because he looked at me with wide eyes and then tried to jerk his hands back out of my hold.
I held on, making sure my hold was gentle.
“What do you mean by that? Didn’t want what to end? You don’t want to go back to work?”
“No, I love my work.”
“So what then?”
“This. Us. I didn’t want you to go.”
It was my turn to be surprised. “Why would I go?”
I could feel the nervous tremors in his hands as I held them, and the hard strapping of the brace under my thumb. It can’t have been comfortable to wear the brace all the time, so I didn’t understand why Waggoner would have been doing that if he didn’t have to. Whatever his reason, it had been enough to make him keep that brace on and think it was worth it.
“Because you’re only here until I’m better.”
I stared down at my omega. Was that—? Was that what he thought?
“Foxy, I’m not going anywhere! Not until you tell me to. I’m staying here with you.”
“You are?”
“I thought we agreed I was your alpha. Why would I leave you?”
“Oh.” His bottom lip was shaking, too, now, just like his hands. Instinctively, I gathered him into my arms and held him to my chest. He burrowed his face between my pecks and seemed to be trying to crawl right inside me. I wrapped my arms around him and held him tightly.
For a long time, we just stayed like that. Then I realised I was still sweaty and disgusting from my run. I loosened my arms.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to get you all damp.”
Waggoner clung to me, not letting go. “I don’t care about that.”
It made me smile. I ran my hands over his body, smoothing them along his back and over his shoulders. I ran the other hand over his head gently.
“So how long have you been keeping that thing on when you didn’t need to?”
“A few days,” he confessed.
“Foxy.” My voice was stern again and I eased him away from my body to look him in the eyes. “You can’t do that. You can’t lie. I was worried.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I can’t believe you thought I’d leave once you were well again.”
“I- I don’t really think that. Maybe I do. I don’t know. I was just, um, afraid that you would go. That you were just being kind.”
“Maybe I didn’t make it clear by knotting your ass every night, but I’m here to stay. You don’t have to worry about that. And you really don’t have to pretend. I’ve been worried that your wrist wasn’t healing. I even asked Professor Gatwick about it. By the way, he’s really scary. I nearly felt sorry for the mugger who met him in a dark alleyway. Except that’s the bastard who hurt you, so I didn’t.”
