Page 160 of Captive Omega

I’m not sure if he’s waiting for me to give the go ahead, or not.

After someone shot Blaine, I’m not sure what to do. I just don’t want anyone else hurt.

He pushes the meeting room door open. He—or someone else—has stripped the room of the maps and photographs. Now, it’s just an ordinary meeting room with two young men who stop talking as soon as the door opens.

One of those men is familiar.

“Jerome Walker,” I breathe.

His smile is sheepish. “Garrison asked me to come to the house. I’ve spent most of yesterday apologizing to a lot of people, and I figure you deserve an apology too.”

“Me?” I frown, taking a seat at the table.

As I sit and Garrison takes the seat beside mine, I realize the other guy at the table is familiar too. The dorm roommate.

“Tobias?”

His expression is sheepish. “I, uh, did a lot wrong and I am very lucky Jerome’s parents are as forgiving as they are.”

“I don’t understand,” I say, and then I do. “You knew where Jerome was all along. Didn’t you?”

“In my family’s cabin. We, uh.” He glances at Jerome. “We wanted to be together, but his parents were talking about him meeting alphas and…”

“You thought they wouldn’t accept you being together because you were a beta?” I guess.

He nods.

“My parents can be very stubborn about some things.” Jerome takes over the story. “And I made a mistake thinking they would push me into a relationship with an alpha. They always said they hoped I’d find happiness with an alpha the way they had.”

“Why didn’t you just tell them you weren’t interested?” I ask.

“Would you believe me if I said it was easier to lie than tell them they would never have the thing they told me they wanted since I perfumed?” Jerome winces as he speaks.

“I would.” It had been so hard to tell my parents what I wanted wasn’t what they wanted. I’d thought they wouldn’t understand, but knowing how much they loved me made it easier to push through my fear of their reaction.

“So would I,” Garrison says, surprising me.

I glance at him.

He meets my eye. “It’s not easy disappointing those you love. You want to make them happy, and they want to make you the same way. Sometimes you have to say things you know will hurt them, or say nothing and make yourself unhappy.”

Is he talking from personal experience? Because it sounds like he might be.

“It got more out of hand than we’d intended,” Tobias says, drawing my gaze. “We were just going to have Jerome hide out in my cabin for a couple of days while we thought of how to tell his parents we wanted to be together. Then there was more stuff about Asylum in the news and a white lie spiraled into real lies and then it got harder and harder to come clean.”

“What did your parents say when you came clean?” I ask.

The smile Jerome aims at Garrison is full of relief and gratitude. “Garrison found me and we all went to my parents. After they stopped crying, they apologized for making me feel like I couldn’t be honest with them about something that mattered so much to me. That all they wanted was for me to be happy.”

His eyes turn glassy and Tobias wraps his arm around his shoulder, resting his head against Jerome’s. “We hadn’t thought they would be okay with us, so it was a pretty shit feeling knowing we’d put them through all that for no reason.”

“So what happens now?” I smile, relieved things worked out.

Jerome and Tobias grin at each other and their love is so tangible, I know what they’re going to say before they speak.

“We get to spend the rest of our lives together,” Jerome says, still smiling. “No more hiding or pretending we’re just roommates.”

“And we never do such a stupid thing ever again.” Tobias kisses Jerome and the back of my eyelids burn because I think I’m witnessing their happy ever after and it’s the best feeling ever.

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