Page 120 of Forget

“I don’t like being manipulated,” I scream, annoyed that he caught me. I shouldn’t be surprised since he’s fucking huge with longer legs than me. “Why do you think I have blockers at all?”

“About that, I don’t want you wearing them anymore. You’re wearing my pack’s bites, it’s unnecessary and dangerous,” Hayes growls.

As far as I know, it’s not dangerous, outside of making me unable to scent when an alpha is present if I’m not looking. They become invisible to me, because I’m alpha scent blind.

Maybe it’s because I’ve been using them for so long, because no one else that I know has this side effect.

It also doesn’t escape me that he said his pack had bitten me. He hasn’t. I also haven’t claimed them back, and I don’t fucking plan to. I have too many unanswered questions.

“Was Dad in on this?” I ask, blinking away tears as he trudges back toward the house. Hayes has to be careful with where heplaces his feet, since the fresh snow on the ground isn’t packed down.

I guess he doesn’t want to fall in the way I did. I’m shivering with cold, my stolen sweatshirt drenched with wetness.

“What? No, Aisling, why would you think that?” Hayes asks.

“He was acting really oddly the other day,” I mutter. “Did he know the entire time that we’re scent matches?”

Hayes slams back into the house, tossing me onto the couch as if he can’t stand to touch me anymore. It’s nice to know where we stand, because I can’t stand the sight of him.

Caelin, Evan, and Domh watch on in shock as Hayes and I scream at each other.

“Yeah, he’s known since I broke into your nest,” he says uncomfortably, pulling back his tone. Rubbing his neck, he sighs. The guys all found time to pull on sweatpants at some point, and I resolutely ignore them.

I won’t be manipulated by good dick and delicious abs.

“What the fuck?” I ask, remembering the way I kept smelling his scent in my closet.

“Domh hadn’t heard from you, and you didn’t go to work,” he grunts. I need to search Omega’s Haven for bugs I guess. “I snuck up to your room, and found you hooked up to all of these wires, in pain.”

“The sedation stopped working as well,” I mutter. “If you want to complain about something dangerous that I was forced to stoop to, it’s that. I was terrified of my heats when I was forced to ride it out without any fucking aids. I didn’t go shopping for sex toys because I’m a whore or overly horny, and if I did, that’s none of your fucking business, Hayes. Some part of me knew that as an eighteen-year-old omega, I could go into heat at any time.”

“I didn’t think about any of that,” he mutters. “I was crazy with your scent, and jealous of those stupid toys.”

He still has the knife in his chest, and I stand, moving over to pull it out of him.

“That’s mine now,” I say sweetly as he hisses. “I think I deserve it. I’m going to my nest to cleanse it of your scents. I want to go home, but you obviously aren’t going to let that happen. I have a life and a business. People who depend on me.”

“My cousin is one of those people,” Evan says cryptically. “We’re your new favorite shadows now, Aisling. One of us will always be with you from now on.”

“Why?” I ask, sighing. “Why are you ruining my life, forcing me into this charade of a bond?”

“Because it’s not a fucking lie!” Domh roars, making me flinch. “I understand this is a lot to process, but don’t make light of what we have. We’ve been obsessed with you for months, in awe of everything you face head on. I know Aiden fucked up.”

“We didn’t know the full extent of it until recently,” Caelin says softly. His glasses are perched on his nose, though slightly crooked, his wavy curls messy. “You have us now, you’ll never have to suffer a heat alone, poppet. You can forgive the asshole.”

“Don’t tell me what to do,” I tell him automatically. I’ve always despised being dictated to. Tell me to do something, and I’ll do the opposite. Call me a brat or openly defiant, I don’t care.

“I’ve been chasing this phantom scent for a month, thinking I was going fucking insane. You can’t tell me to get over it.”

“I didn’t—” Caelin begins, eyes wide, realizing this isn’t going the way he expected.

Standing, I shake my head. “You did,” I say. “I kept mentioning this mysterious scent I was smelling, and no one bothered to tell me they knew who it was. I’m going to a therapist to unload all of my goddamned trauma to her. This is one of the many things that the world decided to saddle with me. I’m tired, so fucking tired. I want to be left alone.”

“Aisling,” Evan rasps, his face stricken as I start to move past them.

“No,” I grunt. “If I could just disappear, I would. If Pack Mohan wasn’t dealing with so much, I’d just move into their basement. I think they’re the only ones who have never lied to me at this point.”

“What is it with you and that pack?” Aiden asks. It also makes so much sense now. Aiden Hayes. They’re one and the same.

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