Page 24 of Fated Secret Baby

“Calista?”

“Hmm?”

“Can I ask you something?”

She stiffens. “Why?”

“I just want to know the truth. Whatever it is, it doesn’t change anything. It doesn’t change how I feel about you now, or what we have here,” I murmur. “But I do want to know.”

“What is it, Orion?” she asks. I hate the nerves in her voice.

I sigh and ask. “Why did you leave?”

Calista tucks a lock of hair behind her ear. She shuts her eyes and takes a deep, deep breath. “I heard you tell your mom that you would never be my mate.”

The words seem to tumble out of her all at once. I shift, pushing my head up with my hand so I can see her.

“What?”

“I came back from shopping early, and you were talking to your mom. She was telling you something, and I heard you say that you would never mate with me…”

“I never said that,” I say, interrupting her.

Her eyes pop open. “What?”

“I never said that, Calista. I don’t know what conversation you’re talking about, but I know I never would have said that.”

She bristles. “I know what I heard.”

Gently, I move my hand, touching the lock of hair behind her ears that she keeps nervously touching. “I would never have told her that, because I told her that I was going to ask you to be my mate.”

Calista blinks rapidly, clearly stunned. “What?”

Slowly, the pieces click into place. “I told her that I was going to ask you to be my mate. She got mad and said that she had someone else she would rather I ask. I told her no, that I would never mate her…”

“And that’s when I walked up and heard only part of the conversation,” Calista finishes in a horrified whisper.

I nod. “I’m so sorry, Calista. I wish you had just asked me.”

Her face flushes, and she looks away. “I’m… shoot. Orion, I’m the one who’s sorry. It never even occurred to me to ask you. I heard that, and I just… left.”

I let out a breath. If she had just asked me that day, we could have avoided years of heartache. I can’t help but feel a flicker of frustration. We lost so much time, all because of a misunderstanding.

But dwelling on the past won’t change it. The important thing is that we’re here now, together. And this time, I won’t let anything tear us apart. There’s no point in worrying about what we should or could have done. The past is the past. With another deep breath, I let it go.

“It didn’t work out for us then, Calista. We did what we did. But we don’t have to let that define what happens for us now.”

Her eyes widen. “What?”

I run one of my hands down her arm, lifting her hand to my lips. “I’m saying,” I start, pressing a kiss against her palm, “that I want to figure out what we should do moving forward. Not what we should have done five years ago.”

“Orion…”

“You don’t have to answer now. But Calista, I’ve lived without you. It sucked. I’d rather not do it again. So maybe we could talk more about what it looks like for us to make different choices. In the future, this time.” I smile.

Calista opens her mouth. Shuts it. She looks to the side, then back at me.

“I’d like that,” she whispers.

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