Page 50 of The Omega Archives: Part Three

“I’d take you on a date.”

I bet he would. It probably would be a sweet date too. Maybe a movie and ice cream. I smiled. “I’d let you take me on a date.”

His face brightened. “Really.”

I nodded. “If I could.”

“Maybe…”

I shook my head. “You know it wouldn’t work no matter how much we’d want it to.”

“But you’d want me?”

I paused, looking down at my hand he was still holding and breathing him in again. Everything just felt so easy with him. Even the chaos of everything around me. “Yes, Lucas. I’d want you.”

I did want him.

I shook my head again. This time, it was mostly at myself.

“Courting is more than all that stuff going on though that’s ruining my brain,” I replied, a spark of defiance igniting within me. “It’s a twisted game we’re forced to play, with rules set by those who hold all the power.”

Lucas regarded me thoughtfully before speaking, “What if you don’t play by their rules? Maybe we both don’t have to.”

A rush of exhilaration surged through me at his words.What if I didn’t play by the rules? What if I found a way to forge my path, to defy the traditions that sought to confine and control me?

A smile tugged at the corners of my lips as I met Lucas’s gaze.

“I think it’s time for a change, don’t you?” His eyes gleamed with a mixture of determination and curiosity as he waited for my response.

Too bad I had to disappoint him. Because I don’t think that running off with yet another alpha that I liked would end well for me… or him.

And I wouldn’t have anything happen to Lucas.

“Unfortunately, I can’t.”

“What do you mean?” he asked, leaning forward until his elbows rested on his knees. “You could sneak through this courting season, you know. I can’t find a way to get into this one. Or at least, I don’t think I can just yet, but you could pass or try to stay away from the alphas who are interested and wait… for me.”

There was such hope in his eyes and all I wanted to do was?—

I reached out and grasped his hands between my own. I saw the flash of hope in his eyes. Until I shook my head. I shook it over and over again as if I needed to get it through the universe’s brain that I didn’t get the thing that I wanted. Maybe I never would, but I didn’t want to get into a self-pity zone again. I was there too long and now I needed a plan.

A better plan than what I was pretty sure I had at the moment.

“I can’t do that, Lucas,” I said.

“What do you mean?”

“I would if I could but…”

“There is something else, isn’t there?”

There was a long pause between us. I nodded.

His voice dipped to a whisper. “You can’t tell me.”

“I want to,” I said. “I really want to.”

“I won’t tell anyone. Just between me and you,” he said.

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