Page 44 of His Innocent Omega
Grayson’s dark eyes widened, “I don’t want you to. I…like being in charge, I’m not going to lie. It just comes naturally to me, but I don’t want a sub all the time, Wyatt. If I did, I could have had it years ago, or at any given time. I like your fire, your independence. I like you standing up to me and calling me out on my bullshit. Truth be told, I probably needed someone in my life to do that before now.”
“I’m just having a hard time believing that you suddenly have decided after all these months that you want a mate, when you didn’t before. It’s too fast. It doesn’t make sense to me, and I need things to make sense, Grayson. It’s just how my brain works.”
His lips pressed together in a firm line, and he looked fierce, but I was coming to quickly learn that was just Grayson. “There’s not been one day–not one–since I left you asleep in that room, since I walked out on you, that I haven’t thought about you. I didn’t know your name, or how to find you, but you invaded my life, my dreams. Can you honestly tell me that Ihaven’t affected you the same way? Tell me you haven’t thought of me too, and I’ll go. I’ll leave you in peace, and we’ll do our best to figure out how to raise Jules.”
My teeth scraped my bottom lip nervously. “I can’t tell you that, because I haven’t been able to forget you. But I still need you to go. For now. Please, just give me some time.”
He looked hurt, but after a minute of us staring at each other not speaking, he pushed up from the bed. “Please let me know if you need anything, and when I can see Jules.”
And then he walked out of my room and did exactly what I asked him to do.
He left me alone, and it felt ten times worse than it had when I’d woken up alone in the hotel room.
Chapter Twenty
Becks
Two Weeks Later
Grabbing my cup of coffee, I stepped out onto my porch, closing the heavy door behind me. The floorboards creaked quietly under my feet and I smiled at the sound. I could have it fixed but it helped serve as security.
Breathing in the morning, I brought my cup up to my lips, my eyes scanning my property line. The woods separated my property line from the open area that most shifters in town used. It was public property that ran up to the beginning of the hundred acres owned by the Sinclairs.
When I had decided to stay in Sweet Alps,Jamie had offered me this sweet little spot of land. His brothers had agreed to sell me the two acres at a reasonable price, and I hadn’t wasted any time clearing part of it and having my small log cabin built on it. It was my little piece of heaven that few people knew about. It was close to town, and through the tree line that bordered the back of the property I could easily keep my eye on the resident shifters as they wandered the woods.
I hadn’t done much with the cleared land around the cabin, but I was already picturing a swing set over in the corner. Maybe one of those cute turtle sandboxes, and a trampoline when Jules was bigger. Much bigger. The thought of her getting hurt sent swirls through my gut, and not the fun kind. Best not to think about things like that.
Adding on to the cabin was definitely a must. It was two bedrooms and two baths. But the second bedroom was small and served as my home office. I would need another bedroom for Jules when she got bigger. And the second bath, while an en suite of the master, only had a shower and not a tub and wasn’t all that spacious.
I’d run out to the big box store on the edge of town and spent a truly horrifying amount of money last week. Picking up one of those Pack ‘N Play things for Jules to sleep in, a few bottles, some formula, diapers, and anything else I could think of that babies might need. Wyatt was tentatively open to letting me have the baby for visitation, starting with the upcoming Saturday, so I wanted to be prepared. And it seemed easier to have stuff at my house and not have to haul everything back and forth.
Today would be my first day back in the office since Jules’ birth. My shift didn’t start until eight, which gave me about two hours to enjoy my coffee and get a workout in.
Run!My wolf huffed, pacing restlessly.
I should shift and go for a run, let my wolf out to stretch his legs. We hadn’t shifted since Jules’ birth, and he was chomping at the bit.
Let me finish my coffee, then we’ll run.
He grumbled, but I was good at ignoring him. Leaning against the railing on the porch that ran around the length of my cabin, I raised my cup up to take a sip. My eyes caught on movement through the trees, my ears picking up the soft sound of hooves tromping on the leaves that were just beginning to fall to the forest floor.
My nostrils flared as the slight breeze carried a tantalizing scent on it. Blackberries. Setting my mug on the railing, my eyes were glued to the movement I could see between the tree branches and leaves.
Patches of golden brown, the glimpse of a shoulder, a long neck. One of the tree limbs shook, high up, and my head followed the movement. A giraffe head poked through the opening between the limbs, leaves brushing his face. He stretched his slender neck up, his long pink tongue snatching a leaf off the tree as he chewed.
There was a giraffe in my backyard. Okay, not really my back yard technically, but close enough.
Wyatt.
He moved along slowly, picking leaves here and there. He was so freaking tall! He had to be at least sixteen feet high, possibly taller. It was hard to tell for sure, with the trees mostly blocking my view.
I needed to see him up close. Needed to see if he was as beautiful in his shifted form as he was in his human one.
Of course I knew what giraffes looked like. Had even fed onesome lettuce at the zoo once, but this was different.
This was Wyatt.
My Wyatt.
