Page 104 of The Beta's Blind Date

He squeezes his hands together, his knuckles turning white from how tight he holds them, a muscle in his jaw ticking.

“You’re telling me,” I say, my throat still tight, “you’re telling me, you knew the entire time we’ve known each other that I was your mate?”

“For some reason, the ingredient that is supposed to keep me from feeling the bond between us didn’t work on you. You have some kind of immunity or something. I don’t know. Dr. Russo isn’t sure—”

I growl, and he swallows, cutting his words short. “And you didn’t think to tell me? You didn’t think I deserved to know?”

“I—”

“You sat there on our date and agreed with me that it was a good thing we weren’t mates. You went on to explain how having a mate wasn’t for you, that you’d reject your mate. Your mate, who was sitting with you, eating a meal with you!” I look up at the ceiling, blinking. “You lied to me, Reid. What else was a lie? What else did you fake?”

“Nothing!” he exclaims, leaning forward in his chair, his hands coming to the edge of the mattress. “I never lied about anything else. Everything—everything else I said or did was true and genuine.”

“Then why lie about our bond? Why not tell me?”

“I was going to. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about last night, why I asked you to hear me out.”

“Okay, but why not before? Why didn’t you say anything to me on our date? Or after? Or any of the other times we’ve seen each other over the past three weeks?!”

“Because I didn’t know what else to do! Because I’m an idiot who thought I knew what I wanted, who thought I could figure it all out on my own so I could tell you and reject you on the full moon. But I was wrong, Taryn. I was so wrong.”

“About which part?”

“All of it.”

We stare at each other. Our hearts beat in unison, but the space between us is miles wide, uncrossable, a vast desert with no end in sight. The muscles and veins in his arms bulge as he grips the mattress. The raw vulnerability in his eyes and face is still there, and the waves of guilt, regret, sincere remorse, and sweet love flowing to me from him tell me the truth behind his words.

But I can’t think straight with him here, with his scent surrounding me, and his blue eyes staring at me, and his handsome, powerful body taking up my breathing space. He says he was wrong, but that doesn’t change the truth. He lied to me, and, changed heart or not, he’d planned to reject me.

The itching returns to my eyes, liquid lining the rims and welling within. My lip trembles, and my voice comes out weaker and shakier than I want it to. “You should have told me. You shouldn’t have kept that from me. I deserved to know the truth, but you took that choice from me.”

He lowers his chin to his chest, his hands fisting into the blankets on the bed. “I’m sorry,” he says, his voice quiet.

“Get out,” I whisper, pointing at the door. His head snaps up, and he opens his mouth, but I don’t let him get a word out. “Go. I can’t—I need—”

“Taryn—”

“Get out!”

He lifts his hands in surrender and stands, towering over the bed with his imposing presence. My wolf whines as he retreats, but I clench my jaw and tense my body, resisting the impulse to take it back, to jump on him and drag him onto the bed with me.

The pain in my heart from his betrayal, from his lies, is more than I can handle. It wraps around every cell, pumps through every vein in my body until it’s all there is within me.

He opens the door to leave, and a doctor—Dr. Russo, I’m assuming—is there, hand raised, ready to knock. “Oh,” he says, brown eyes blinking. “Are you leaving?” he asks Reid.

“He is,” I reply.

“I’m going to sit right here,” Reid says, pointing at the hall. “I’ll be right here if… if you want me to come back.”

He steps out without another word, leaving me alone, like I asked, and I already want him to come back, even though he’s not far. The bond between us stretches taut, and my heart clenches again from both the distance we’ve created and the lies he’s told me since the day we met.

“How are you feeling?” Dr. Russo asks.

“Physically or emotionally?” He chuckles and grabs his stethoscope from his neck, placing it against my chest to listen to my breathing and my heart. Can he hear it breaking with each beat? “I’m fine,” I say as he pulls away. “A bit sore and tired, but otherwise fine.”

“And you can feel your bond?” I nod. “That’s good,” he says.

I scoff and roll my eyes. “I guess.” He chuckles again. “I hope this isn’t the part where you try to convince me to give Reid another chance?”

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