Page 60 of Seducing Selena

“You haven’t lost me,” Selena’s voice came from the hallway. She was still wrapped up in the blanket. “I was restless, and I realized I had more questions, nor was being alone great for my brain at the moment. But I would like some clothes, please.”

Nick stood and left immediately. He came back from his bedroom with a t-shirt and sweatpants. Selena stepped around the corner to change, but didn’t retreat entirely. It felt like a small victory. And honestly, seeing her clothed was refreshing. I loved the way Nick’s clothes seemed to drown her.

When she came back into the living room, I saw her glance at the cushion at our feet before sitting in a chair across from us. That was for the best. This wasn’t a conversation for power exchange.

“Why Betas?” She asked. “If you’re using Omega hormones anyway, why not just train Omegas?”

Derek cleared his throat. “Well, taking down the manufacturer was on the list. But more because it’s practical. Betas don’t have heats, and they can’t be bonded. It’s safer for them. Sending in Omegas could end badly even with the precautions.”

Selena nodded. Our cuffs were still on her wrists. God, I wanted to put real ones there. The three of us had had a permanent set designed a long time ago, in the hopes we would find someone exactly like her.

When we took her measurements I had them made. My cock sat up and paid attention to the mental image of Selena with our jewelry on her. Delicate white gold bands that didn’t come off. Once they closed, the only way to remove them was by cutting them off or welding them open.

Wrists, ankles, neck. I wanted her underneath me with nothing but the symbols of our ownership of her. Ourwillingownership.

My Omega looked at me like she could read my mind. “You have other questions?”

She looked so uncomfortable that it took everything in me not to go to her and take her in my arms again. “I don’t know.” Her voice was thin and emotional. “I’m so confused.”

“By what, sweetheart?”

Selena’s eyes filled with tears. Pulling her knees up onto the chair, she wrapped her arms around her knees. “I wish I had met you anywhere else,” she said, and the way she said it shattered me. “Any other time. Because I feel like I should be so angry and betrayed and hate you, and I don’t. I’m not sure if it’s because we’re scent matched, or because you gave me kindness when you could. But I don’t know how to feel, and I hate it.”

Standing, I went to the windows and stared out, unable to stay still without going for her. To her. Telling her the truth.

“And… I heard you,” she whispered. “I heard you say you love me.”

The air in the room went so still you could have heard our hearts beat. I turned to her, Derek and Nick already staring at her. Whatever she said next…

“And I want to say it back, but I feel like I shouldn’t trust you, and yet I do, and that’s why I’m confused. Because ofeverything.”

I couldn’t hold myself back anymore. Crossing over to her chair, I knelt in front of it. The reversal of roles wasn’t lost on me. “May I touch you?” I breathed.

The look in her eyes broke what little was left of me. Because that look told me, truly, how much damage we had done. “You’re asking?”

“I’m asking.”

Her shoulders wilted. “Okay.”

I rose up higher on my knees and gathered her to me. “I wish I could let you see into my mind right now,” I said. “Nothing I can ever tell you will be enough to show you what I feel, and how much…fucking regretI have.”

“We,” Derek said. “We have.”

“We have.” I felt like I was cracking open. “And I wish we’d done what Nick said. I wish we’d walked out with you and never looked back. Maybe then it would be different. But I don’t blame you, Selena. We don’t deserve your trust, sweetheart.”

She hiccuped a sob into my shoulder. “Would people have died? If you left?”

“Yes,” Nick said quietly. “The women they’re still selling. Maybe the Betas who we sent in, if their cover was broken.”

Selena cried harder. The dam we broke by making her confess hadn’t fully closed. “Then how can I be angry? It’s selfish.”

“Then be selfish,” I said, squeezing her harder. “Be fucking selfish, because none of this is fair. You’re innocent. Ripped out of your life and shoved into an impossible situation you didn’t deserve. And even though we were trying to protect you, we still hurt you. Made you feel like you were nothing.” I choked on the word. “I love you. You’re my Omega, Selena Martin, no matter what. But I know there might not be any coming back from this. And if that’s what you decide…” I forced myself to pull away from her and look at her face. “Then I accept that. And I’ll treasure every moment I had with you, even when you didn’t know how we felt.”

I lifted my hand to her face, brushing away some of her tears with my thumb. “But if there’s any way to make it right, we’ll do it. Anything.”

Moving away and releasing her felt like pain. And not the kind of pain we both enjoyed.

“My sister?”

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