AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I grip the front of his shirt as I shake my head, lowering my eyes to his chin. “I can’t.”
So why are you holding on so tightly to him then, Everleigh?
“There’s no reason you can’t.” He tilts my head back up so we’re eye to eye. His voice is as soft as mine, but his expression is determined. “In fact, there are more reasons you should stay. So stay.”
“You’re wrong.” I pull my hands from him. Not because I want to, but because I have to. “There are multiple reasons staying would be destructive to your livesandyour business.”
He combs his fingers through my hair again, slower this time, never looking away. “None of those reasons are insurmountable.”
Pushing these alphas away is getting harder with each passing day. The urge to pull them closer is what seems to dominate my mind more times than not. “My heat…”
“We can help you through it,” he says softly. “We won’t hurt you.”
“I know you won’t hurt me.” The words surprise me. Not only the words, but the speed with which I say them. And mean them. Because Idomean them.
These alphas have kept their distance, giving me a space that’s all my own, treating me with a level of care I hadn’t believed an alpha was capable of. Because wistful omega was right. The alphas Lawrence surrounds himself with treat their omegas like pieces of meat.
Kylian invaded my sanctuary to save my life. Otherwise, I doubt he would have stepped one foot into omega territory.
Kylian blinks. Guess my words surprised him as much as they did me. “You do?”
“I do,” I say. “But I have to find my sister, and I need to know what happened to my mom. She’s probably dead already, but I need to know.”
“Then you should come downstairs,” Rune says, startling me.
He’s at the end of the hallway, standing at the top of the stairs.
I have no idea how long he was there, but he’s serious. “You should both come downstairs. Cian has some news that isn’t going to be easy to hear. For any of us.”
Chapter28
Cian
“Isaw something when I was getting the suppressants.” I keep my eyes trained on Everleigh’s face.
This news isn’t something I want to share with her at all, but she needs to hear it. She needs to know.
Keeping hold of my anger at myself for letting things go so far in the ballroom that it triggered Everleigh’s heat isn’t easy. And anger at what I wish I didn’t have to tell Everleigh. She has precious few reasons to trust alphas. What I’m about to tell her is about to shatter that trust even more.
Maybe enough that she will want nothing to do with us.
“I was waiting for the dealer to meet me at our assigned spot downtown,” I say.
Everleigh peers back at me, well-rested, wearing an oversized gray T-shirt. She has her arms wrapped around her raised knees as she sits in an armchair in the den we like to relax in after a long day. For now, her expression is calm. Curious but calm.
What I tell her might mean she walks out.
“Cian?” Rune prompts. “What is it?”
Shaking my head, I continue. “I saw a car. A white Audi R8. It pulled down one of the side streets near where I’d parked. I wouldn’t have thought anything of it but…”
“But?” Now Kylian is doing the prompting. From the line between his brow as he leans against the wall beside Everleigh’s chair, he knows I’m drawing this out. It’s not like me to be so reluctant to share information, and Iamreluctant to share any of this.
“There were two businesses within walking distance. It’s why I agreed to meet the dealer there. Less opportunity for anyone to see me or guess what we were up to. I thought maybe he’d parked there to pick up suppressants like me.” I speak slowly, working out how to say this in a way that causes Everleigh the least amount of pain.
I have a feeling that way doesn’t exist.
“You said he,” Everleigh says quietly. “Was it Lawrence?”
