Page 116 of Stolen Omega

If she already remembers, then she won’t automatically doubt what we have to say.

If she doesn’t, it could be like hitting our heads off a brick wall.

She might never remember that way, because the seed of doubt will already be there.

I can’t risk that. I need to get this right.

I need to help her get her memories back.

I open the tin and leave the light on in the windowless kitchen.

Stopping outside the door to her room, I pause and listen, waiting for a chance to slip the key into the lock as quietly as possible. She’s growling in frustration inside, which makes my Alpha instincts go a little crazy. I want to comfort her, but I can’t. She doesn’t know me. She won’t trust me. Not yet.

“Why the fuck am I here?” she yells.

I unlock the door quickly and move back into my observation room.

Locking the door behind me, I watch the monitor and see her stomping around the bedroom, yanking drawers out of the dresser and knocking toys off the shelves. Letting off steam. This was the reaction I’d expected from the start. Her quiet curiosity had surprised me when she first woke in the room.

I’d hoped it might mean she would regain her memories faster, remember who she was, because she seemed so open to what she was experiencing. All the experts told me it wouldn’t be instant.

I’ve already waited for most of my life.

It’s not going to kill me to wait a little longer.

Days, weeks, months. Any amount of time is worth spending to give my mate back those memories that were stolen from her. She deserves to know who she is, where she came from. She needs to know the Ortegas aren’t her real parents.

I spend a bit longer in front of the monitors, waiting for her to wear herself out.

She eventually sits down by the side of the bed, hugging the unicorn toy to her chest. She loved that thing almost as much as she loved us. If she remembers that, even instinctively, then I have hope that everything else is going to come back to her.

I get up and walk to the back of the room, taking a second set of keys from my other pocket.

Dale isn’t going to be happy with me.

Giving him time to cool off was a gamble.

This plan was made while I thought he believed Zelena was Zoey.

He felt something when he heard Zelena sing, but by that point I’d let him down so badly that it didn’t matter.

He let Zoey go after those first couple years, like most people would.

I’m the one who wouldn’t let go, and that fractured our friendship.

I have a lot of work to do to repair it, and a lot more to convince him I’m good enough to be his Alpha.

He might not want to accept me.

He’s had to wait so damn long already.

I won’t make him wait any longer.

He needs to know what he means to me.

Chapter Forty-Three

Dale

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