Page 67 of Broken-Hearted

“Come back tonight. Maybe I can make us dinner.” Burn it more likely because lord knows I’m no cook. Whoever dished out those life skills skipped right over me when it came to knowing how to throw a meal together.

He grins, his expression happy and surprised. “I’ll see you tonight. You look beautiful, by the way.”

“I look like a mess.” My hair will be a bird's nest and I’m all sticky and sweaty, in desperate need of a shower. I don’t need a mirror to confirm it.

Nathan winks. “Butmybeautiful mess.”

“Go,” I order him so I won’t tell him to stay.

When Martha doesn’t answer the phone, I’m relieved and disappointed. I’d wanted to catch up with her and to talk about me and Nathan.

It’s probably a good thing I don’t talk to her about Nathan. She’ll think I’m staying, and I don’t want to disappoint or worry her when I inevitably call her a few days or weeks from now and tell her that my feet are itchy and I’m moving on.

I return the phone to the charger and get up so I can have a quick shower, brush my teeth, and make myself a cup of coffee.

I take the coffee and phone outside with me, sitting with my back to the wall as I take advantage of Nathan’s cell phone by scrolling through the contact list to call someone I hadn’t thought I’d be calling today or ever.

The phone rings three times.

“Hey, Nate!” Regan’s cheerful voice greets me. “What’s up?”

“Hey, Regan. It’s Clara. Do you have a minute?”

“Sure, I do. Give me a sec’.”

Footsteps sound across hardwood floors. A door creaks open, then clicks shut. “Okay, no one is liable to interrupt me here.”

“Jackson’s office?”

She laughs. “Uh, a closet. Nowhere else is safe. When you’re in charge, someone always needs you for something.”

I briefly smile.

“Is this about Nate?”

My fingers tighten around the phone and I blush for literally no reason. “Uh…”

She laughs. “Talis has the biggest mouth in case you didn’t know. She and the rest of my packmates have been delighted as they fill me in on you and Nathan.”

“And Martha…”

“I don’t think she knows.”

Martha hasn’t brought up Nathan once in our brief text exchanges. Mostly because she knows I’ll clam up until I’m ready to talk about it. “I see the anguish in him, and he keeps triggering my abilities,” I tell her quietly. “My omega ones.”

I immediately hold my breath as I wait for her response. She’d briefly hinted that she knew what I was, though I was very quiet about it. This is the first time I’m admitting to anyone outside of my dead pack that I’m an omega. It always seemedsafer to keep quiet about what I was, especially because I don’t have a pack for protection.

“Hmm,” Regan’s tone is thoughtful. “The same thing happened with Jackson when I first met him.”

I brighten. Maybe she can help me figure this feeling out. “It did?”

“Yes. He was hurting, and I wanted him not to hurt.”

That’s it. That’sexactlyhow I feel when Nathan hurts.

“And did you?”

“Yes, but not in the way I thought I would.”

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