Chapter Twelve
Noble
I got on my phone and googled when the sun was going to rise that morning.
I had a few hours, but my stomach buzzed with nervous energy.
“Are you sure about this, omega?” he asked. Hearing him call me that sent a direct line of lust right to my groin. “Your scent changed.”
“I…I have to take my mask off.” No reason in trying to deny it. If I was going to let this happen with Oren, and my wolf wanted it to, then he was going to see my face.
“And that makes you upset?” He slid his hand across the console and lightly touched my thigh.
“Yes. There’s a reason I wear it to the club. I have seen enough reactions from people to know…”
“Now, now,” he admonished. “It’s dangerous to assume the reactions and action of others, Noble. Don’t you trust me by now? Even a little?”
I did. Goddess help me, I did. Somehow over the course of the night, Oren had woven himself into my heart, and I found myself laughing with him. Telling him some of my secrets. The things that made me tick.
All my walls came crashing down without my permission.
He did that.
“Yes. I haven’t trusted someone else in a long time. Only two other people, if I’m honest.”
“Who?” He didn’t move his hand and I didn’t want him to. “Who do you trust?”
“Dave, the owner of the convenience store and his wife, Wendy. They are good to me. They have never treated me as a monster. They look at me as they do anyone else.”
Oren drove out of the city and to a large patch of forest. Enough to run in. I rolled the window down and drew in a breath of fresh, pine-scented air.
My wolf was clamoring to get out of me. Oren put the car into park and then turned to look at me. “Noble, you are no monster. Trust me. I’ve known some in my life, and you are not one of them.”
I laughed. “You haven’t seen my face. You haven’t seen all of me.” I’d done my best while we had coffee that day to keep him from getting a real look.
“Then let me, baby. Trust me with this. It’s just me and you here. No one else.”
I looked out the passenger window and where the wind blew through the trees, setting their branches swaying. The grass grew without permission or fear.
All of nature lived and thrived without an ounce of terror.
Fear consumed me, but something in that moment clicked inside me. I was so fucking tired of being scared.
If I showed Oren my face, and he was horrified or scared or disgusted, that was his to own, not me.
I couldn’t change who I was.
“Okay,” I whispered and reached for the string that tied behind my head. I untied the knot and let it go. Pulled the mask from my face and turned to him. I kept my gaze on the console between us. There was more than my face. My ear. The side of my neck. Down one side of my chest.
Oren sucked in a breath as I unbuttoned the top button of my shirt. Slowly. Giving him time to take in my face and neck while I revealed the rest.
Finally, I pulled the shirt from my shoulders and tossed it onto the back seat.
I waited.
And waited.
My head filled with the pounding drums of my heart. The car shrank around me. Everything became too hot.
A part of me would shrivel up and die if this alpha ran from me or was repulsed. Would he hate me? Never speak to me again?
“Noble, look at me.”
Tears rolled down my face. My chin quivered. “I can’t. I can’t bear it.”
“You can. Please, omega mine. Please.”
The yearning and desperation in his voice gave me the bit of courage I needed. I lifted my chin and met his stare.
Wait, he called me omega mine.
I was his?
Even…even now?
“It’s okay.” My walls built back up. “It’s okay if you take me home. I know I’m a monster. We don’t have to see each other anymore. I won’t go to the club I…”
“Hey.” He reached over and put his hands on both sides of my face.
I leaned into the touch with a soft whimper. If this was the one time he had his hands on me, it would be a memory for the rest of my life.
“Look at me, Noble. I’m not going anywhere. I see you and your scars, and there is no monster there. You are so goddamned beautiful, I can barely breathe.”
“But…”
“No buts. I see you. Inside and out, I see you.”
Then Oren did something that cracked my chest open and healed all the cuts in my heart.
He leaned forward and kissed my face, right on my scars.
My ear. The side of my neck. He moved his lips to the sensitive spot between my neck and shoulder, hovering there long enough for me to imagine what his bite might feel like.
He put one hand over my heart as he kissed my chest.
“All of you is beautiful, Noble. And I won’t hear a single argument against it.”
“Not a monster?” I asked, laughing through still-falling tears.
“You couldn’t be a monster if you wanted to be.”
We sat there for what seemed like hours. The sun rose, but not one single ray of light captured my attention like the alpha in front of me.
He saw all of me and was still here.
“Wanna run with me, omega? My wolf is eager to meet his… He’s very eager to meet your wolf.”
We stripped down right there in front of his car and shifted to our wolves. We were similar in size and strength and speed, so running with him was fun. He didn’t leave me behind like my former partner had. Didn’t run off and leave me on my own. We nipped at each other’s legs and played.
Something happened that morning at dawn. Oren saw me. All of me. As a man. As a wolf.
We dressed, sneaking looks at each other’s bodies.
“I have work or else I would…” He trailed off. I got his meaning.
“I know. I should get some sleep before my shift tonight. But thank you for this…for today. All of it.”
“You’re welcome. Thank you for trusting me. Can I take you to dinner? A date?”
I let out a laugh. “Not dinner. At the club? Maybe we can go together?”
“I’d love that.”
When he dropped me off, he kissed my lips, and my wolf howled inside me.
He was my alpha, despite everything.