Page 116 of Captive Omega

Garrison and I are Resa’s scent matches. I know Vaughn, and I know he would not want one of us to wield the axe and reinforce her negative association with alphas. Especially just as she looks like she’s starting to trust us.

Vaughn returns to leaning against the kitchen island and folds his arms. He looks at ease, relaxed, but there’s a tension in his shoulders he didn’t have before. “We found out something about?—”

“Your fiancé,” I interrupt. I created this situation. It’s only fair that I’m the one who tells Resa. “I found out something about him. Not Vaughn.”

She sits back in her seat. “What did you find out?”

“He’s getting married,” Garrison speaks before I can. I’d almost known he would. Vaughn is trying to take the heat off me and Garrison. I’m trying to take it off Vaughn, and Garrison is saying the thing that none of us wanted to say at all.

I should have known it would happen like this.

The tension leaves Resa’s body and a smile curls her lips. “Well, of course he is. To me.”

“No. He isn’t,” Vaughn says quietly.

A tiny line forms on Resa’s brow. “I don’t understand.”

I open my laptop, unlock it, and we pass it down the table toward her.

And we watch as her expression turns blank. Utterly blank.

She shuts the lid with a soft click. After the way she stomped up the stairs when I scared her, I thought she would slam the lid down, furious.

Something about the gentle way she closes my laptop, about her easy breezy smile as if it doesn’t matter, is more painful than having to replace a three thousand dollar laptop if she’d broken it.

And I wish she had broken it.

Better a destroyed laptop than her too wide eyes and the sudden rising and falling of her chest.

“That’s fine. I mean, I’d disappeared.” She pushes the laptop away from her.

Why hadn’t I listened to Garrison when he told me not to pry? “Resa?—”

“It’s fine. People move on. It’s no big deal.” Her smile is brittle as she stands. “Was there anything else?”

Garrison shakes his head.

“Then I’ll go upstairs. I was close to finding out something about Dexter. So, I’ll be doing that today.”

I don’t remind her she just came downstairs to ask for my help. None of us do.

You just had to go digging, Blaine.

Vaughn straightens. “I could?—”

“No,” she snaps. She swallows and continues in a calmer tone. “I just want to be alone. Thanks.”

She walks out, and she’s silent, but I swear I hear her heart breaking.

Chapter 33

Resa

You disappeared, Resa. What did you think would happen?

The kitchen I just walked out of is silent. I stop at the foot of the stairs, and my eyes burn as I rest my hand on my belly. It feels like someone just punched me. Like I can’t breathe no matter how much air I drag in.

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

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