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“How did you and Sam meet?” I knew it was an inane question, given the intense energy that was building between us with every breath, but I needed a sense of who they were. Or maybe I was just being a chickenshit and delaying the inevitable.
Dio took another small step towards me. “Is that what you really want to know? I’m happy to tell you. But what do you really need right now, Lexie? I get the sense you need more than to ask a few questions. Whatever it is, I’ll make it happen.”
Dio had his eyes fixed on my hands as I tapped nervously on the railing. This was an enormous leap for me, even if Dio didn’t know that. I didn’t let people in easily and I held my secrets close. I took a deep, steadying breath and plunged into the unknown.
“I need to know what I am. I’ve lived my life as a beta, but a faint scent haunted me on and off in my teenage years. Nobody else ever scented it. That they told me about, anyway.”
I crossed my arms as I searched Dio’s face for any sign of disbelief or derision as I was talking. I would shut this down so fast if he showed any signs of freaking out or not taking me seriously. His body was relaxed, and his scent hadn’t changed. Yet his head tilted to one side, as if he was curious and wanted to know more. He nodded at me as I paused, so I kept going.
“I’ve never mentioned it to anyone, even my brother. I worried it was just in my head. Presenting as an omega would have been dangerous for me in the house I grew up in as well. So I ignored it and shoved down the idea every time I even thought about it. Eventually, it seemed to go away.”
Dio stiffened and clenched his jaw when I mentioned my house being dangerous. “Dangerous in what way?”
I eyed Dio warily, but he was being open and honest with me and I’d only just decided to open up and ask for his help. Holding back now, as soon as things got uncomfortable, felt wrong. I needed Dio to help me figure this out, and he deserved to know what he was getting into.
“My father never hid the fact he hated my very existence. But when I hit puberty and developed what seemed to be the classic, exaggerated omega curves, he started watching me. A shady guy I’d never seen before came to the house when Leif wasn’t home and checked me over. I later overheard him talking to my father about what kind of price I might fetch if it turned out I was an omega. He said he knew people who would pay well for an omega that the Palace didn’t know about.”
I remembered my horror at hearing the conversation. It hadn’t sounded like a fate I wanted to endure. My life had already been hard enough.
“So when I started getting faint whiffs of a passion fruit scent, I panicked. My gut turned to lead every time. I started starving myself and visiting my brother’s gym when he wasn’t around to run for hours on the treadmill.”
It hadn’t been healthy, and I’d come damn close to passing out a few times, but I hadn’t known what else to do. I’d been determined not to become even more of a problem for Leif.
“When an omega scent didn’t present after a year or two, my father assumed I was just an unusually curvy beta and went back to being bitterly disappointed in me. The workouts became an escape, so I kept them up.
“I was never really sure if what I had scented was real, or just my imagination, but the thought of becoming an omega while living in my father’s house was terrifying. Eventually, it all came to seem like some horrifying dream I’d once had. Until now.”
Dio just watched me closely, his jaw ticking and a dark look in his eyes. I forced myself to uncross my arms and relax my shoulders a little. Saying this out loud for the first time was daunting, I could feel my hands trembling lightly, but it was time I dealt with it.
“Today, when I first saw you and Sam, though, the scent came back and not just a vague hint. It felt like a barrier was about to break and a torrent was going to unleash. It was the worst place and time, so I fought it, but it was a bare knuckle fight with you both so close and your scents flooding the area.”
Heat flared in Dio’s eyes, overriding the anger. He swayed towards me slightly before he caught himself.
“I’ve never reacted to anyone the way I did to you and Sam earlier. I need your help to figure out once and for all what it means.”
Dio seemed pensive for a moment, as he searched my face and my posture, but then he shot me a grin so sexy it made my toes curl, and held out his hand towards me.
“I think we need to get closer if we’re going to figure this out.”
I needed answers, and I wouldn’t get them by talking. I wanted nothing more than to take his hand and let him pull me towards him. But I needed to do this at my pace. I took another deep breath.
“I need you to stay perfectly still. Can you do that for me, Dio?”
Dio shivered lightly as he dropped his arm and shoved both his hands into his pockets to keep them still. His long eyelashes fluttered against his cheekbones as he closed his eyes briefly.
“I’ll do anything you ask if you say my name again in that sexy as fuck voice of yours.” Dio gave me a devastatingly potent smile that caused a dimple to pop out in his smooth cheek, and I almost melted into a giant puddle of need at his feet.
I took a small step forward and his smile grew even bigger. I mentally added that dimple to the list of things that should be illegal on men.
My legs felt like jelly as I got close enough to him to feel his body heat. His scent deepened in response, with a hint of caramel rising to the surface. I watched his face the whole time, mesmerized by that smile lit with moonlight. Half his face was in shadow, but that smile rivaled the stars floating above us.
“Hold still,” I reminded him in a whisper as I stopped only inches away from him.
He nodded gently, as he watched me with wide eyes, a look of wonder stealing over his face. I leaned forward slightly, as I dipped my head into the hollow of his neck and breathed him in deeply without touching him anywhere. His breathing turned ragged and the caramel popcorn scent became more potent, making my mouth water.
“Fuck,” he whispered on a long exhale. “You’re killing me, Lexie.”
A strand of my hair fell forward and grazed his neck. I felt his groan reverberate in my blood as it heated rapidly, taking up a pounding beat.
