Page 93 of Fight

Sighing, I sip my emotional support drink, trying to decide how much to say. “My mom wasn’t well,” I begin. “My fathers aren’t good men, and she believed they were always trying to find her. I don’t know how much was paranoia and how much was true, but they did drag her home the first time she attempted to escape while she was pregnant with me.”

There’s a lot of emotions that cross his face as he processes my words.

“Choices,” he grunts as I nod. “Where’s your mom now?”

“She’s living in a special place for omegas who can’t live alone,” I sigh. “She’s taking medication for schizophrenia, but she hasn't had a lot of good days lately. I don’t know if she’s always had it, or if what they did to her triggered something.”

Tommy emits a low growl at my words, frowning. “I get the feeling there’s a lot you’re not saying,” he mutters. Sucking hard on his straw, he takes a second to think. “I don’t want to assume anything. Can you explain your need for control? Alphas often feel the urge to fix things, helping omegas to submit, but because they want to. The power play shouldn’t outweigh one another, unless the alpha in question is a shithead.”

“Well, I can definitely say her pack resembles that remark,” I mutter. I know he’s trying, so I take a fortifying bite of a French fry and nod. “Alpha barks, scent matches, all of that… In my head, it takes away my ability to choose for what? Biology rolling the dice for me? What happens to the omega who is given terrible alphas?”

“Is that what happened to your mom?” Tommy asks, forehead wrinkling. I’m not giving him the full picture, and I know it has to be confusing.

“Mama was kidnapped on her way home one night,” I explain, shaking my head. “She was a college student, and they thought they’d take her. There was no pull or draw, or scent match. They were rapists who decided to claim her.”

“Fuckers,” Tommy snarls. “True alphas have a difficult time being mean to their omegas once things begin to sink in. There’s this insane instinct to mate, claim, protect, but not against her will. Jas and I lost our minds a bit in Chicago.”

“Good to know,” I snort as I eat my last French fry.

“Our instincts were riding us after we found you, and we were idiots,” he mutters. I have a feeling he doesn’t apologize easily, but I still don’t count this as an apology. “I’ve been forcing myself not to track you down all day. I kept myself busy, but once I was done with work, it was difficult.”

“Okay…” I say, confused by why he’s telling me this.

“You owe me nothing, but I need a little help here. I don’t want to make you feel chained or anything. Could you possibly check in throughout the day with me?” he asks, blowing out a breath. “I need to know you’re safe.”

Auggie knows where I am at all times for the most part, but I never really thought anything about it. It makes sense that his protective instincts as my best friend and scent match would drive him to this.

“I… There are times where I can get forgetful or I’ll hyperfocus on something and nothing else exists,” I explain. “I have to make sure things are perfect, so sometimes it’ll take me longer to complete things. If Augustine gives me a timeline like he did tonight, it helps, but it still took me an hour longer than we thought it would. I could try, though.”

The last part comes out as a squeak, and Tommy covers my hand with his, dwarfing it as his thumb rubs over my pulse.

“Trying would work as a start,” he rumbles, giving me an encouraging smile. Fuck, my anxiety is snapping at me, and his request wasn’t even that serious. I may suck at this relationship thing.

“Why is your pulse racing, Bluebell?”

“Because.” I pout. “I have all of these quirks that make me really bad at being around people. The people I work with at the club are so used to it they don’t blink an eyelash anymore. However, now I have to worry about what it looks like from the outside in.”

Snorting, Tommy shakes his head. “Absolutely not, baby girl. Don’t change or worry about what I’ll think. I want to get to know who you really are. I don’t want you to shrink yourself into some sort of idea of what you think I want. I just want to be part of it all,” he says gently.

“If I know you’re at the club all night, then I’ll know you’re safe and good to go, you know? I want to hear how your day is going, if you remembered to eat, or if you need a milkshake fix. That’s what I want.”

His words are so simple, yet they’re everything.

“Wow,” I whisper, feeling tears prick my eyes. I was not expecting that at all.

“I fucked up, but I will do my best to do better moving forward, okay? I’ve never been in a relationship, and Jasper is my longest running friend,” he says with a shrug.

“I may fumble a bit, however, I very much want to be your forever, even though we’re just beginning, Bluebell.”

Sniffing, I take a shuddering breath as I nod. “Uh-huh,” is all I can say as the tears overflow. “Fuck.”

“I wasn’t expecting quite that reaction,” he murmurs, getting up and moving into the booth next to me to wrap me in his arms. Sinking into him, I give a watery laugh as I hug his waist. He’s solid muscle, smells amazing, and he’s mine.

Even if we still have a long way to go. Sometimes, you can belong to someone, even if you’re not sure where you’re headed. The attraction between an alpha and omega still isn’t something I fully understand, but I can admit that it’s not as one-sided as I thought it would be.

Not with someone who is willing to give more than he takes, and doesn’t want to change you. I think that’s the greatest gift Tommy could ever give me. My quirks are deeply ingrained in me, groups of routines and thoughts created in an effort to give me something normal in a life that was chaotic while I was growing up.

It doesn’t mean I won’t continue to find ways to fuck with him, though. What would be the fun in that?

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