Chapter Twelve
Lars
“Forgot about you?” William scrambled off me as though I was fire and he was being burned. “What are you talking about?”
I sighed and shook my head. This wasn’t the best time for him to act as though he wasn’t the culprit behind our breakup, an inadequate word for what we went through. “That’s rich. Now you’re going to act like you don’t remember what happened? You left and then…nothing.”
“Nothing? Nothing?” His face reddened. Hands flew to his hips, and the vein in his neck bulged. If it wasn’t for all the pain he’d caused me, he would’ve been absolutely adorable in his anger.
“Yes. Nothing.” I stood up and dusted off my bottom and then my legs. “Are you okay? You’re not hurt?”
William bunched his eyebrows. “No, Lars. I’m not hurt.”
Goddess, I’d forgotten the way my name on his lips sparked life into me. My wolf howled at the top of his lungs, desperate for him to say it again, preferably underneath me.
He wasn’t hurt. That was good. Sure, he’d rejected me, but there wasn’t a cell in my body that wished William any harm.
“You aren’t? Well, that makes one of us.”
His eyes grew wide. “Did you fall on something? Are you bleeding?” While it was nice of him to be concerned, I wasn’t speaking of physical pain.
“No. I wasn’t talking about that.”
“Oh. I was hurt, too, you know. I went back home, and my mate was gone. He’d moved to another city and had a new boyfriend.”
The gossip train had clearly made a few unannounced stops, but that was a small town for you. “There was no boyfriend. There hasn’t been a boyfriend.”
That last part sounded desperate to prove something. It was hard to stay strong and angry at him. I’d been so desperate for his presence. All these years. I’d also replayed the conversation I would have with him in my head so many times, but now, with my mate in front of me, nothing I’d rehearsed was playing out.
In my mind, he would explain everything, and I would forgive him after speaking my mind.
“Well, that tidbit did come from Garrison.”
I chuckled. “Garrison? Come on, William. You know better than to get your information from him. He has liabetes .”
My omega. My former omega? He twisted his toes in the dirt. If we hadn’t ended the way we had, I would kiss the lips he was biting on and make him forget about everything. “But you did move away.”
“I did. You ghosted me, and I couldn’t take the pain anymore.”
“Ghosted you? Lars, I deployed overseas. You know this.”
“I know that there were opportunities for you to call and write and there was nothing. Not even a slip of paper telling me you were okay. Your parents heard from you. When I got out of my mind sick with worry, I went to their house, and they had gotten letters.”
“Lars, I…you promised to contact me, to send letters and care packages and I got nothing.”
“That’s not how I remember it. You know what? Save it, William. It was a long time ago. I’m sure you’ve moved on.”
He scoffed and it added a bit of gasoline to my fire. “Moved on? I came here in hopes of finding a new mate. Does that sound like I’ve moved on?” He had a point.
“Doesn’t matter. This was a mistake. I’m going inside to get some sleep. Are you staying out here alone?”
Squinting, he turned his back on me. “Why do you care anyway?”
“Because no matter what we were, I would never want anything to happen to you. Never. You know me better than that.”
“I thought I did,” he whispered.
“Me too.”
“I’m going in. I’ll walk behind you.”
I didn’t let him. I waited for him to walk ahead and I followed, making sure he reached the house safely. I doubted anything in Franklin’s heaven was dangerous, but my instinct roared to be sure my omega was safe.
My wolf had things to say as well, but I ignored them.
Once inside, I listened as he took the stairs and then eventually closed the door behind him. There had been a pause in between getting to the top of the stairs and going into his room, and I wondered if, for a moment, he waited for me to get up there. Would he have said something to change my mind? To take away all the pain?
There was so much confusion around what exactly happened between us. Too many unanswered questions remained, but how could they get answered if we were unable to cut through the tension long enough to talk.
Talking hadn’t gone so well.
When I got into my room, I noticed the light was on in William’s. I forced myself to not watch it, wondering if he was having trouble sleeping as I had for a long time.
I picked up my phone and tried to get on the airline website to change my ticket because coming here was wrong on my part, but there was no reason to make William suffer any more. He was distraught about our breakup. My wolf could smell his anger and his hurt.
I didn’t want to cause him any more anguish.
My phone didn’t connect to the Wi-Fi, and I didn’t have a strong enough signal to use my mobile data. No internet meant no flight change.
And no flight change meant I had to stay here and torture myself and William.
Franklin had made his first mistake. William might’ve been mine once but, after the conversation tonight, it was clear he didn’t want to be again.
Even if we cleared things up, a part of me would be scared he’d go silent on me again.
I couldn’t handle that level of pain again. I’d barely survived it the first time.