Page 8 of Unable Omega
“It was a nightmare, Sage,” Rob whispered. Oh, he was here. Sitting in a chair next to me. I opened my eyes and looked over to him. He had creases on his face, eyes drooping as if he’d just woken up. His sleepy look was as sexy as he was.
“Yeah. Nightmare.”
I pulled my legs up and encircled them, resting my forehead on my knees. I’d stayed in that position, lying on my side on thefloor, for most of my time at the lab. The fetal position became my only comfort.
“Omega, please. Can I…can I hug you?”
I gasped and looked up at him. Goddess, I hated nothing more than the look in his eyes. Pure pity. “No. I don’t need your pity. Just leave me be. I know you hate me.”
The words flew from my mouth. Rob jerked back as though I’d slapped him across the face. “I don’t pity you. Please, let me hold you. You’re shivering.”
“It was always cold there. I’m used to it.”
“Well, I’m not.” He got up and sat on the side of the medical bed where Markus had me hooked up. He reached for my knees and with warm, soothing touches, pushed my knees down. Then he opened his arms for me. It had been so damned long since I’d been held. Touched. Even when I was little, the comfort of my parents was few and far between and only for a second. “Sage, please.”
Ugh. He kept saying my name. If I had to leave here, to let him leave in peace, the sound of the man that could’ve loved me would haunt me forever. More than anything they’d done to me in the lab, Rob’s hurt would ache the most.
I leaned forward, intending for the hug to be quick but as soon as my head landed on his shoulder, all those ideas vanished. I melted into his hold. He growled low and deep, the sound weaving into all the crevices of me that I’d tried to keep anyone and anything from penetrating.
He undid me with one hug.
“You’re okay,” he whispered. “One day you’re going to be okay. You’re so strong for escaping and surviving. It was only a dream. You’re free now.”
I hung on every word from my mate. Did he know he was mine and that I, most certainly, was his?
We stayed like that for a while until I felt the shift in the room. The air popped and crackled. Rob’s hold became stiff and cold like the dream. “I-I have to go now. It’s getting late, and I need to sleep.”
I sat back, whiplashed from the change. “Sure. Of course. Thank you. I’m sorry to have wasted your time.”
Pulling up the covers to retain some of his warmth, I turned my head toward the window. He wouldn’t get to see the hurt I was sure was written all over my face or the tears welling in my eyes. No. Only mates got to see tears.
“Maybe I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said, the ice thinning a bit. It was too late. He’d frozen me out and I wouldn’t fall for that again.
“Probably not.” I closed my eyes and willed him to leave. Not because I wanted my mate to leave but because I couldn’t stand the gorge of distance between us when he was standing only a foot away.
The tears broke the dam and fell down my face as his steps left the room. The door closed behind him. His scent grew more faint by the second.
The physical pain I was in and had been in for months or years couldn’t compare to the way my heart broke as my mate walked away.
Chapter Seven
Rob
I can’t get the omega’s scent off of me.
I tried.
As it clung to me, woodsy and spicy at the same time, and my bear was totally there for it. I, however, was still unconvinced and even more worried about the omega’s lack of memories about his time in the lab.
The more I thought about that, the more it brought up my own nightmare time there. I tried not to think about it most of the time, had given my life to helping others escape it. Wasn’t that enough? This omega was either a spy who had somehow found his way here or truly had no memories to deal with. Markus said that wasn’t necessarily a blessing, not knowing your past. Even if your mind had tucked it away deep down inside, at some point, it was going to come up again. Heck, it did that even when I did know what happened. But the healer said locking away memories was a less healthy response. In most cases.
Sure, if a person was in a position where outside circumstances meant they couldn’t deal with it—like while imprisoned in the lab—their mind might do that, hide something, just to keep going. And it was okay, for that moment, but when they came out on the other side, they would have to face what happened. Remember it…if they were going to be intact.
So, if Sage was not a spy, then everything that happened was locked behind a wall in his brain. And if he did not manage to remember, it would fester there, like an untreated splinter, until it either burst out or spread poison through his mind and body.
Even if he was not my fated mate, I didn’t want either of those things to happen to him. After dinner was done and acouple of the others remained to put the food away and wash the dishes, I went out for an extra perimeter run. Locke had doubled security, and I offered to take the first turn. What I didn’t say was that I wanted to run off the scent of the omega. It should have been gone when I shifted, but as my paws pounded the earth, the scent drove deeper into my snout. And then when I shifted back, it was still there. The night was beautiful, the berries everywhere, but I didn’t stop. Wasn’t tempted. Even at dinner, I’d only managed to put away about half a taco. The omega and his recovery, his memory occupied the small part of my brain that was not battling the thoughts of him being my mate.
Returning to my cabin, I climbed into the shower and turned the water on hot, scrubbing away at my skin in an effort to replace the scent with the sandalwood soap. And I thought I’d succeeded, until I was toweling off and there it was. The omega’s scent, if anything more vibrant than before.
