Page 67 of Stolen Omega

He’s always been a hard guy to read, and this obsession feels like it’s depleted all of his other qualities, chipping them away until all that exists is his desperate need to possess the woman I helped him kidnap.

“I know,” he says, his jaw tightening again.

“You’re starting to worry me now.”

“Just starting?” he asks, giving me a weak version of his famous wry smile.

The old Zane is still in there, somewhere, then.

He’s just being held hostage by this obsession.

“No, actually, I’ve been worried about you for a long time,” I admit.

I can only hope that when he gets the chance to talk to Zelena, it breaks the spell that’s been cast over him. Grief can make people crazy. I know that. I’ve experienced it. But it doesn’t last a lifetime, at least not like this.

“You don’t need to worry about me.”

“I didn’t need to help you with this tonight either and look where I am,” I tell him, wondering if he even understands how awful it is to be rejected by a true mate.

It’s like being stuck in limbo. I’ve tried to move on, but it never feels right. I keep being bounced back, waiting and hoping he’ll come to his senses. Someday. Well, someday hasn’t come in over a decade, so I doubt it’s going to suddenly happen now.

“I’m sorry,” he murmurs.

I blink at him. “You are?”

“I wouldn’t have dragged you into this if I could have done it myself.”

Oh. Right. That.

I shrug, slouching back in the seat. “You can tell the cops you used an Alpha command on me if you’re really sorry about that.”

At least then it’ll feel like he did something heroic for me.

And I can tell myself the reason we’re not together is because he’s behind bars.

“It’s not going to come to that,” he tells me.

Back to delusional already. What did I expect when I entered this crazy merry-go-round?

“I know I didn’t tell you this, but there’s a reason I’m doing this the way that I am.”

“There’s always a reason.”

He lets out a sigh. “When someone’s memories have been fucked with, the way hers have, it’s not a simple thing to just give them back.”

“And if they don’t have those memories in the first place?” I ask, testing the water.

He curses under his breath.

The van slows, and I see a turn up ahead.

We’re almost there. I don’t know where there is, exactly, but I don’t want it to turn into the site of a body dump, and considering Zane still thinks Zelena isn’t really Zelena, I’m pretty sure that’s the general direction of the situation we’re headed into.

“You don’t believe she’s Zoey,” he mutters, shaking his head.

“Zoey’s from our past, Zane. We were kids when she went missing. Zelena might sound like her, but there are hundreds of people out there who look or sound or walk like someone else. It doesn’t mean they aren’t who they say they are.”

“You got shivers when you heard her sing. You knew it was her, just like I did.”

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