Page 27 of Captivate

“You sure there, bud?” Fox adds, his brow furrowed.

I glare at him. “Of course, I am. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Maybe because you’re trying to eat your pasta with a dinner knife.” He looks pointedly at the utensil gripped in my fist. I drop it on the table like it’s a hot pan.

“I think,” Levi says, tenting his fingers and staring at me, “I think Riley has unsettled you. Do you want to talk about it?”

Fuck. He’s going to analyze me. This is what I get for paying for him to get his master’s in psychology. “Nope. I don’t want to talk about anything. Absolutely nothing at all. Fox, Miles, you’re on clean-up, since you disappeared before clean-up yesterday.” I give them a pointed look because we all know what they were up to last night. We allheardwhat they were up to last night. I can still smell them on each other.

Fox sighs, picking up his plate roughly. “This is what I get for chopping parsley,” he mumbles to himself before gathering up the rest of the dishes and heading to the kitchen, Miles behind him.

I don’t get up, and neither does Levi. With a heavy sigh, I glance over at him. “Go on. Get it over with.”

He won’t give up until he does. I should get him a leather couch for Christmas, just so we can lie on it while he tries to diagnose us.

“Why don’t you want an Omega with us?” he asks, patiently waiting for my answer.

“Look at us,” I say, gesturing to the house around us. “We’re living the perfect life. It’s the four of us, just like we’ve always wanted. We’re living comfortably. Why would we want to bring in another entity to the equation that could possibly mess everything up? I mean, fuck, Levi, we’ve talked about it. At length.”

“Not for a long while.”

“We’re fine just how we are. Why do we need an Omega?”

“Perhaps because it’s what we’re meant to do.”

I grit my teeth. “Physically, sure. But it’s notnecessary.”

A weak argument and I know it. It may not be necessary to our survival, but not having one could one day become detrimental to our overall pack health.

But it hasn’t yet. So why rush it?

“Not for you,” he says, and I close my eyes, because of course it’s going to be this argument. “Because you’re blocking your ruts. It’s not natural.”

“Of course it’s not natural,” I say. “Because, as I keep saying, we’ve advanced beyond the need to live like animals.”

“There’s nothing bad about being an Alpha, Thane. Ruts are normal for us, just like heats are for Omegas. Sure, there are reasons to block our instincts with medication sometimes—the perfect example is upstairs right now, or even you working in the field you’re in, surrounded by Omegas all the time. But both you and Riley are doing something that is going to mess with you badly in the long run.” He paused. “I think that’s half the reason you’re acting weird around her.”

“Oh, yeah? And what is the other half of the reason, Dr. Stark?” My head is starting to hurt because he hasn’t said anything that wasn’t absolutely true and I hate that my rational doctor brain is already fitting new pieces in the puzzle. If Iwereto bond to an Omega I could go off rut blockers altogether. I wouldn’t be tempted by the other Omegas I treat anymore. They would no longer be at risk from their Alpha doctor losing his control or composure while treating them.

“Well, spit it out,” I urge him. “What’s the other reason, hmm?”

Levi gazes at me with brown eyes too mature for his age.

“I think you’re scared. I think because you spent so many years comforting Alphas who had just lost their Omega, you’re terrified of letting in any opportunity that could end in the same heartache.”

No.

Yes.

Maybe?

I clench my jaw. I hate it when he makes sense.

I think of the Alphas that have cried on my shoulder, that have shouted at me for not doing enough, that have begged me to save their Omega in the eleventh hour. I don’t want to bethatAlpha. The one who winds up broken as he is forced to watch his bonded die a slow, painful, quiet death.

“The session is done, doc,” I say, standing up from the table so quickly that the chair teeters on its legs.

“I’m sorry, Thane,” Levi says, grabbing my wrist. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

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