Chapter 6
PEYTON
Dalton led me to an apartment above the diner, the keys jingling in his hand like a nervous wind chime.
The place was larger than I expected, with a large open space for the living area and a kitchen that looked too pristine, proving that Dalton had never used it.
My beta was a disaster in the kitchen on his good days A hallway led to a few doors I assumed were the bedrooms.
I wanted to drag him through one of those doors right now. I wanted to strip him bare and mark him until he remembered who he belonged to. But the set of Dalton’s shoulders, tight and drawn up toward his ears, told me that wasn’t going to happen. Not yet.
“This is Jace’s old apartment,” Dalton said, his voice flat. He walked to the window, keeping his back to me. “He and his omega bought a house a while back and they’re letting me stay here while I figure some things out.”
Figure things out. The phrase grated on my nerves.
“There’s nothing to figure out, Dalton. You belong with me.”
Dalton spun around, and the look on his face stopped me cold. It wasn’t the relief I had expected. It was misery. Pure, unadulterated misery.
“Don’t,” he whispered. “Don’t just say that like it’s a fact, Peyton. Like I didn’t just spend the last three weeks tearing my heart out to give you what you need.”
“What I need?” I stepped forward, but Dalton took a step back, putting the kitchen island between us. That small movement hurt more than the distance of the last three weeks. “I need you. I’ve been tearing the world apart looking for you.”
“You need a legacy!” Dalton’s voice cracked, the volume rising. “God, Peyton, listen to your father for once! You are the last of the Claybournes. You need an heir. You need a biological connection to the future. I can’t give you that. I’m a beta. I’m a dead end.”
He gripped the edge of the counter so hard his knuckles turned white. “I left because I love you enough to let you have that. Don’t you get it? I’m trying to save you from waking up in ten years and hating me because your line dies with us.”
I stared at him, seeing the ghost of the young kid who had rear-ended my truck years ago. He had been terrified then, too, but he’d stood his ground. He was standing his ground now, fighting for my future even if it meant destroying his own.
It pissed me off.
“So you get to decide for me?” I asked, keeping my voice low, dangerous. “You get to decide what I want? What I value?”
“Someone has to be the adult,” Dalton shot back, though his lip trembled. “Your dad—”
“My dad isn’t in this relationship!” I slammed my hand on the counter, making Dalton jump.
“My dad cares about a name in a history book. I care about us. I care about waking up next to you. I care about the way you know how I take my coffee, and the way you calm me down when I’m about to lose my shit, and the way you look at me like I’m the only alpha in the world.
You are not a dead end. You are the future of my family.
You are the reason I will never be alone. ”
I walked around the island. Dalton didn’t retreat this time. He just stood there, shaking.
“You think a kid is worth losing that?” I asked, stopping inches from him. “You think some hypothetical biological heir is worth the misery I’ve felt every second of the last three weeks?”
Dalton looked down, refusing to meet my eyes. “It’s not just about what you want now, Peyton. It’s about what you’ll regret later.”
“The only thing I regret is letting you think for one second that you weren’t enough.” I reached out, cupping his jaw. He flinched, then leaned into my touch, a ragged sigh escaping him. “Look at me.”
He didn’t.
“Dalton. Look. At. Me.”
Slowly, he lifted his eyes. They were wet, red-rimmed.
“I am not my father,” I said, enunciating every word. “And I am telling you, right now, that if I have to choose between a legacy and you, I choose you. Every single time. I choose you.”
“You say that now,” Dalton whispered, a tear leaking out.
“I’ll say it tomorrow. I’ll say it in ten years. I’ll say it until you finally believe it.” I used my thumb to wipe the tear away. “I’m not leaving this apartment without you, Dalton. So you can keep fighting me, and we can stand here all night, or you can accept that you’re stuck with me.”
Dalton let out a choked sound, half-laugh, half-sob. “You’re so stubborn.”
“I’m an alpha. It comes with the territory.” I wrapped my arms around him, pulling him in. He resisted for a fraction of a second—a final, token protest—before collapsing against me. He buried his face in my neck, his hands clutching the back of my shirt like a lifeline.
“I missed you,” he mumbled into my skin. “God, I missed you so much.”
“I know.” I held him tighter, resting my chin on his head. “I know. But we’re not fixing this with just a hug, Dalton. You hurt me. You left.”
He stiffened in my arms.
“We’re going to talk about it,” I promised. “We’re going to deal with my dad, and we’re going to deal with this insecurity of yours. But not tonight.”
I pulled back enough to look him in the eye.
“Tonight, I just need to hold my beta. Can I do that?”
Dalton nodded, the fight draining out of him, leaving only exhaustion and a fragile hope. “Yeah. Yes, please.”
I led him to the couch, sitting down and pulling him into my lap.
He curled into me, his legs bracketing mine, fitting into the spaces of my body like he’d never left.
But as I ran my hand down his back, feeling the tension still lingering in his muscles, I knew we hadn’t magically fixed everything.
He was back in my arms, but I still had to convince him he belonged there.