Page 78 of Stolen Omega

He’s grown up a bit in the last year. He’s sixteen now, and he’s a little taller. His hair looks different. Blonder, maybe. The angles of his face are sharper. He’s lost that tiny bit of puppy fat he used to have. The softness that made him look so cute and sweet.

The guy staring back at me now is far from cute and sweet.

His golden eyes are icy-cold as he looks me over.

“I thought you might want to know I’m going to prom tonight,” he says, his tone clipped like he’s mad at me.

I catch the faintest whiff of alcohol on his breath, and I realize it wasn’t easy for him to come here.

Omegas don’t enjoy confrontation, and Dale is about as typical as Omegas get.

The fact that he’s standing here staring at me accusingly while he’s full of Dutch courage is enough to make me worry about everything I’ve missed while I’ve been so preoccupied with my own shit.

“Come in,” I tell him, keeping my voice close to a command.

He frowns at me, but he doesn’t resist the urge to do what he’s told.

Stepping inside, he looks around my poor excuse for an apartment.

“I’m not really here to start an argument,” he admits, turning to me as I close the door.

“You look good,” I tell him, making him smile.

“I’m hanging with the cool kids at school these days,” he says. “It’s … different.”

“You’re going to prom with them?” I can’t picture it.

It makes my heart hurt to imagine him taking a date to a dance.

The future felt so perfect when Zoey was with us. I saw the three of us doing all this stuff together.

I never imagined Dale would be going to prom without us.

“We’re doing a group thing,” he says, shrugging.

Feels less serious than a date, I guess, but it would be dumb not to expect him to move on.

I pushed him away a long time ago, because I knew my life was over.

He still deserves to have a life.

A great one. The best.

“This place … it’s kind of empty,” he tells me, looking past me at the bare walls.

“It’s fine,” I tell him.

“You’re still looking for her?” he asks suddenly, his eyes locking with mine.

I shake my head, not elaborating.

He lets out a breath. “I’m glad. I miss her too, Zane, but I came over here because I miss you.”

His eyes are sad now, and the instinct to comfort him washes over me so strongly that it takes everything I’ve got not to wrap my arms around him.

He was supposed to be mine, just like Zoey.

I know it, and he knows it.

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