Chapter 5
DALTON
Peyton wasn’t supposed to know where I was.
How could he be sitting at the diner, looking so effortlessly good in his tight jeans and snug t-shirt, the sleeves stretched to their limit over arms that bulged with raw, masculine force?
Every inch of him exuded strength—his biceps practically straining against the fabric, threatening to tear away from the pressure.
My heart seemed to stop at the sight of him, a flood of emotions crashing through me like a violent storm.
God, I missed this man.
He was my everything, and for the last few weeks, I’d been nothing but a miserable sack of shit without him.
The void in my chest had been intolerable, a hollow ache that throbbed day and night.
Seeing Peyton now, flesh and bone, sitting only feet away from me in the Hillbilly Diner, seemed like a cruel illusion my heart had conjured up from sheer longing.
And yet, everything about him felt undeniably real.
Peyton’s scent hit me first, that familiar, heady mixture of sagebrush, lupine, and some flower I didn’t have a name for, thanks to the expensive soap he used.
It wrapped around me like a comforting cocoon as Peyton stood and walked toward me, instantly grounding me in the present and breaking the walls of disbelief as he wrapped his arms around me.
He was really here.
Not a figment of my imagination.
Not a dream.
Peyton Claybourne, my alpha, in all his glory.
I’d known we could never truly be together again, not after the way I had left things.
As much as I still loved him, as much as I still wanted him, it wasn’t right, or fair, to have come back like nothing had changed.
Only… right now, wrapped in the solid warmth of his embrace, my resolve weakened.
All the reasons I’d come up with for why we shouldn’t be together, why Peyton deserved someone better, someone who could give him a family, blurred into nonsense.
Nothing else mattered when I was in his arms. The safety.
The sense of belonging. His scent, rich and intoxicating, made my mind foggy with want. Need.
Peyton made everything better. That had always been his unspoken gift.
And for the first time in weeks, my fractured self began to knit back together, one fragment at a time, until I wasn’t unraveling anymore.
I wanted to lose myself in him, to let go of all the pain and heartache and simply exist in this moment.
Except…
There was a thorn in this otherwise perfect reunion.
As much as I wanted to immerse myself in Peyton, there was no ignoring the glaring fact that something had shifted in me, something I hadn’t expected. A revelation I wasn’t ready to confess.
The omega.
His absence echoed in the space where he’d just been, sitting next to Peyton moments ago.
His empty seat glared at me, challenging in its silence, and guilt immediately clawed at my insides.
The memory of his face, the instant zing that had hit me when our eyes met, flooded back with an intensity I couldn’t shake.
I hadn’t even spoken to him… hadn’t exchanged a single word.
But it hadn’t mattered. The energy had been there, visceral and raw.
He’d triggered a reaction deep within me, a primal stirring I couldn’t explain away.
It had felt like fireworks going off in my veins, an electric current thrumming through my entire body and stealthily lodging itself in my heart, right next to the place where Peyton had always and unquestionably reigned.
What the hell was that feeling?
How was it possible to love Peyton with every fiber of my soul and yet find an intense attraction blindsiding me in the space of a glance?
An omega, no less—someone I’d never even imagined would provoke such a powerful reaction in me.
Not the ache in my chest that persisted even in the solid warmth of Peyton’s hold.
Not the way my stomach churned with a confusing mix of longing and guilt when I thought of the omega’s face—the softness of his features, his shy eyes, dark lashes brushing his cheek.
That fleeting moment still clung to me, as though branded into my consciousness.
I had no idea when or even if I’d see him again.
Maybe it was a fluke. Maybe just a momentary blip in an otherwise complicated life. But as I held onto Peyton, and let him hold me, I couldn’t shake the gnawing feeling building inside me.
When I finally found the strength to pull back from Peyton’s chest, I saw his eyes scanning my face as if he wanted to memorize every nuance etched into my skin.
His thumbs brushed against my cheeks, sending a ripple of warmth down my spine.
How was I supposed to tell this man about the turmoil that raged inside me? About the omega?
“I came to get you, Dalton,” Peyton whispered, his voice raw, shaky enough to betray the cracks he had hidden so well until now.
He leaned in, his lips brushing against my earlobe, his breath hot against my skin as he spoke.
“I came to take you home. Or hell, stay here with you if that’s what it takes.
But I won’t… I can’t lose you. Never again. ”
He leaned back, his blue eyes soft yet intense, flashing with both desperation and hope. His grip on my shoulders tightened, his fingers trembling. “Why didn’t you just talk to me? Tell me what you were feeling? I could have helped you, baby. I would’ve done anything if you’d let me.”
I swallowed hard, guilt immediately weighing me down. Cold sweat prickled my skin. “I couldn’t tell you, Peyton. You’re… you’re better off without me.”
He shook his head, cutting my words short before I could even begin justifying my cowardice. His voice dropped to a guttural whisper, as if speaking any louder would shatter whatever fragile understanding that had formed between us. “And why the hell would you think that?!”
Please don’t make me explain, Peyton.
“No… listen to me.” His large hands cupped my face, the heat from his palms warming my cheeks. “I need you to see me, Dalton. Really see me. I love you. I need you. I don’t care about biological kids or… or fucking omegas. Do you understand that? None of that matters if you’re not in my life.”
Before I could respond, his lips pressed against mine, impossibly soft at first, then harder, more insistent.
His desperate kiss took the air right out of me.
The sensation flooded my senses, and for a moment, just a blinking moment, everything felt right.
The storm within me quieted as warmth swelled through my chest.
But then his mouth moved away, leaving me gasping, and the guilt surged back with full force.
“You don’t get it,” I whispered, pushing a hand through my hair as I tried to avert my eyes from his deeply piercing gaze.
He frowned. “What don’t I get?”
I looked at the counter again,where the omega had been sitting, that small void suddenly taking up way too much room in my brain. “There was… there’s something you don’t know.”
Peyton’s brow furrowed. “What don’t I know?”
My stomach knotted briefly, but I knew what I had to do. Avoiding the truth wouldn’t protect us, and I owed him more than that.
I took a steadying breath, glancing at the empty seat. “There was this omega.”
Peyton visibly stiffened, but I glimpsed surprise dancing in his eyes before he quickly masked it. His jaw clenched, but the harsh, distant stare I’d feared wasn’t there. Instead, he stared into my eyes, silently asking for an explanation, patience radiating from him despite the tension between us.
He glanced toward the counter, his gaze tracing the path back to where everything had unraveled for me. “The omega? The one sitting next to me?” I nodded, swallowing the knot in my throat.
His face was unreadable for a second, but though the air between us felt heavy, there was the slightest softening at the edges of his expression.
The cold tension I had feared was instead something much warmer, like he was waiting, giving me space to say what I needed to say.
Still, it felt like I was walking a razor’s edge.
“He, uh…” My words faltered in my mouth. I couldn’t hold Peyton’s gaze, overwhelmed by the weight of my guilt. “I… I don’t know what happened. But I felt something… with him. Something strong.”
Peyton didn’t interrupt, his eyes still locked on me, but he didn’t seem hurt, or angry. Not in the way I expected. His breathing was steady, even as I felt mine hitch, my doubt and confusion trying to claw out of me.
“It… it wasn’t like with you, though.” I struggled through the explanation, rubbing my hands over my face as though I could wipe away the mess of emotions flooding me.
“But it scared the hell out of me because I’ve only ever felt like this with you.
And now… now I don’t even know what’s real anymore. ”
The silence between us stretched, the sounds of the diner somehow muted in the background. I was ready for condemnation. I wouldn’t have blamed him for feeling betrayed. But Peyton didn’t retreat into coldness. He didn’t look away.
Then he took a deep breath.
“Dalton.” His voice was calm, a stability I sorely needed, and his grip on my arms lightened until his touch felt more like reassurance than restraint. “Look at me.”
I hesitated, but finally peeled my hands away from my face and met his eyes.
He wasn’t angry. He wasn’t even upset, at least not in the way I had expected.
Instead, there was understanding there, layered beneath the steel of his gaze.
He didn’t look at me as if I’d broken something between us.
His brow remained slightly furrowed, a quiet thoughtfulness behind the intense blue.
“You’re scared. I get that,” he said, his voice a little softer. “But Dalton, this changes nothing between us. What you felt… it doesn’t alter what we have or what I feel for you.”