Page 43 of The Omega Archives: Part Two

“I think we have a few things to talk about too.”

I followed him back up the stairs towards the guest room I was in. It didn’t smell like anyone else still, and I was grateful when Cal pulled back the blankets and waited for me to crawl into bed before he sat near my feet. A nervous look pulled at the corners of his eyes.

“You wanted to talk?” I asked, swallowing.

This was it. He may have been happy that I was okay, but he wanted to talk since I lied to him.

This was the first time I had seen him, just us two since the club the other night.

“We need to talk.”

Chapter

Fourteen

CAL

Iwas a coward. If I wasn’t sure about that very clear fact before Ella ran off, and even more so after, I was one hundred percent sure now.

Ella curled in on herself as she sat tucked into the guest bed. She picked at the seam of the cotton sheets.

Were the sheets too itchy for her? Too stiff?

Omegas usually were more sensitive than anyone else and had specific needs when it came to the places they felt at ease. It was why they had nests.

Did Ella have a nest? From what I saw from her apartment, I hadn’t seen one other than the mound of blankets she accumulated on her bed.

Had she ever been able to have a nest?

She looked more tired than she had even said she was through the past week, pulling long hours at her job at the library on that stupid alumni project alongside picking out information for me and my pack when she had more difficult problems to figure out without me adding to it. Her eyes were ringed with dark circles and her shoulders slumped over her frame.

We’d worry about making sure she was perfectly comfortable and treated the way she should’ve always been soon enough. I was sure of it.

For the longest time, all my life, I was the calm and collected beta. But now something serious settled in my chest when I looked at Ella.

I'd make sure she was comfortable and taken care of.

“We really need to talk,” I repeated the same words I'd said before in front of everyone. “I...”

“You don’t have to– if you don’t want to,” Ella spoke up quickly before I could say anything. Was she… afraid? “You don't have to teeter around what you want to say. I already know what you are going to say."

"You do?"

"It's not like you have to break up with me now or anything like that if you feel the responsibility to," she said, continuing to keep herself busy, picking at the sheet seam. "I know that you probably hate me.”

“What?” My eyes popped open wide as I stared at her.

What was she talking about? Out of everything I expected, that was not it. Completely one hundred percent, not it.

“I don’t hate you, Ella.”

“You don’t.”

“Of course I don’t.” I almost wanted to laugh right then and there if I hadn’t noticed that confusion on her face still. “It’s the opposite.”

She narrowed her eyes on me. “You haven’t spoken to me or anything since...”

“Since you went all omega on us?” I huffed a small laugh.

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