Later that Night #2
So instead, I breathe in her scent, watching her slip her fingers along the edge of a pale pink quilt.
She looks so fragile, so sad.
Then, she finally speaks.
“You didn’t have to do all this,” Tansy whispers, finally looking up at me. She looks like she wants to cry, and my body reacts before my brain can catch up.
Everything in me jerks toward her.
An overwhelming urge to pull her to me, to wrap her up, and rumble something low and soothing from my chest. To purr.
I freeze.
Am I allowed to purr?
Is it the same as talking?
My heart hammers as I stand there, half-panicked, caught between instinct and my pack alpha’s command, terrified of doing the wrong thing. I swallow it down, locking it behind my ribs, my hands curling into fists at my sides.
“Um, Gray?” Tansy swallows hard, her eyes brimming with tears. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Yes,” I say immediately. Too fast. Too eager. But it’s allowed. She spoke first. “You can ask me anything,” I say, softer this time, forcing my hands to uncurl, then flex.
Fuck, I want to touch her so badly.
Tansy picks up the edge of a blanket, squeezing it like she needs something solid to hold on to. “Why did you pick me?” Her voice trembles a little. “At the black market. Why me?”
I don’t have to think about it. Not even for a second. The answer has been sitting on my tongue since the moment I saw her.
“Because the second I saw your big brown eyes, the rest of the room faded away.” It’s a little cheesy but true. “And then I caught your scent. Even from across the room. It pulled me in so hard I didn’t stand a chance.”
Tansy’s cheeks flush, and I keep talking like an idiot.
“We really didn’t want to claim an omega without Cass,” I tell her, needing her to know.
“I honestly hated seeing the omegas there like that, but…” I suck in a sharp breath, not wanting to remind her that the only reason she’s here is because Cass was sick.
“I felt drawn to you,” I say. “Unyielding. Like if I didn’t touch you, something inside me was going to rip apart.
” I swallow. “Warren felt it too. The same way. He didn’t even have to say it. I could see it on his face.”
I open my mouth to say more. To explain it better. To tell her all the other things I felt that night. The wrongness of it all. The urgency to find a mate. The certainty that Tansy was the only one for us.
But I stop myself.
I’ve already said enough.
Tansy exhales slowly, her eyes dropping to her nest before lifting back to me. “Cass says we’re fated,” she says quietly.
“Did he?” I say, not really surprised that our pack alpha would say that.
Under all those scars and barking orders, Cass is a sweet, hopeless romantic. He likes to believe that the universe has a plan and that the people he loves were destined to find each other.
I really love that about him.
“What do you think?" I ask Tansy.
She goes still for half a second, like she’s turning the idea over in her head. One shoulder lifts in a small, almost apologetic shrug.
“I don’t know. I mean, omegas have loved the idea of fated mates since forever,” she says. “Prehistoric times, even.” Her mouth twists faintly. “It makes things easier to accept.”
“Easier?” I tilt my head, my attention snapping fully to her. “What do you mean?”
She opens her mouth, takes a quick breath, then she shakes her head once, a sharp, dismissive motion, like she already regrets saying what she has. “Nothing.” Her fingers loosen from the blanket, then curl right back in, grip tightening.
I step a little closer, keeping my voice low. “Hey,” I say gently. “I really do want to know. Tell me, please," I add, giving her my sweetest smile.
It always gets Beck to cave.
“Okay.” Tansy looks past me as she talks.
She stares at the shelves, shoulders rounding inward, knees drawing closer together.
“It’s like with forced matings,” her voice is so soft, almost like she’s scared I’ll fly off the handle.
“If you believe a higher power compelled an alpha to force a bond on you, then it hurts less. Or at least, that’s what omegas tell themselves. ”
I take another step closer, slow and deliberate, careful not to scare her. Then I lower myself to sit next to her nest, bringing my eye line closer to hers even though she won’t look at me.
"But you don't believe that?" I ask, my voice a careful whisper. "You don't think a higher power would ever be that cruel."
Tansy’s gaze darts to me for a split second before flickering back to the shelves, a flash of surprise in her eyes. “Yeah,” she whispers. “I guess you could say that.”
I lean in a fraction more, my elbows resting on my knees. “Do you believe in a higher power?”
“I do.” Her throat works as she swallows hard. "But fated mates…it's just a coping mechanism," she whispers, the words barely audible. "A pretty story to make the ugly truth bearable."
I nod, encouraging her. "Even since prehistoric times?”
“Yeah.” Tansy nods again. “A lot of early omega art and symbolism frames mating as destiny.”
“Really?” I hold her gaze to encourage her to keep speaking. It seems to work.
“Yes.” Her voice rises a bit. “You can see it in pretty much any prehistoric cave art depicting an omega. Omegas are almost always shown being pursued, cornered, or taken by a larger, alpha figure.”
I lean in, desperate to hear more.
“Early cultures didn't frame forced mating as harmful,” she says, her confidence growing with each word. “They framed it as a sacred union, a joining fated by the gods or Mother Earth herself. If a mating is ‘fated,’ then it’s not a violation. It’s destiny.
It gives the omega a framework to process what happened to them, a way to find a sense of purpose or even honor in their own subjugation.
” She gives a small, rueful huff. “It’s easier to survive something you can’t escape if you believe it was always meant to happen. ”
Worry slips over me, and I stare at the omega, suddenly not sure if she’s simply sharing the fascinating things she knows or if she’s talking about what’s happening to her right now.
But I know Cass.
He wouldn't force a mating, not in his right mind. I think…
But the fact is, I wasn't there when his teeth sank into Tansy’s skin. And the thought is a poison in my gut, because while I’d love to believe that Cass would never do that, I also know what an omega can do to an alpha.
Hell, I struggled with some dark, primal urges when I held her unconscious body in the back of that SUV. The desire to bite down on her soft, warm flesh roared through me the entire time.
I shake my head as guilt and shame slam into me. “I’m sorry,” I blurt out.
Tansy’s head snaps up to me, her eyes wide with surprise.
“I’m sorry you ended up at the black market,” I say, suddenly feeling like shit. “I’m really fucking sorry that all of this happened to you. That you were there and…” My jaw tightens, too chicken shit to ask out loud if she was violated. “No one deserves that.”
My words feel inadequate, but they’re honest.
Tansy’s breath catches a little, and her eyes shine again, but this time she doesn’t look like she’s bracing for impact. She looks…happy?
“Thank you,” she says softly. “For saying that.”
I nod once, thankful that she’s kind enough to appease a bit of my guilt. “So, um,” I clear my throat. “How do you know all that stuff? About the prehistoric omegas?”
Tansy shifts slightly, sitting a little taller. “It was actually the focus of my thesis,” she says with a clear note of pride in her voice. “I just finished it a few weeks ago.”
A wild, involuntary grin spreads across my face as my mouth falls open with shock. “You went to college?”
She laughs softly at my reaction. “I was not actually accepted into college. I just took college courses through a remote program.” Then she laughs again. I’m sure it’s because of the goofy grin on my face, but I can’t help it.
The sheer, unexpected brilliance of this woman is intoxicating.
I feel a sudden surge of pride, followed by a deep, undeniable pull of attraction that has nothing to do with Tansy’s curves or her scent, and everything to do with how extraordinary everything about this woman is.
“That’s so fucking impressive,” I say, because it is. Because she is.
Tansy rolls her eyes as she snorts, the movement quick and practiced. “My mother didn’t think so,” she says dryly. “She said it was a waste of time.” She gives a little wave of her hand like it’s no big deal. “That no one cares how smart an omega is.”
“Then your mother’s an idiot,” I say without missing a beat.
The words are out of my mouth before I even think about softening them, and I instantly regret insulting Tansy’s family.
“What I mean is,” I keep my tone even and cool.
“Anyone who can’t see what an accomplishment that is, isn’t worth listening to. ”
Tansy’s brows lift, surprise flickering across her face, and then she laughs. Really laughs this time. Not polite or restrained. And it does something dangerous inside my chest. “That’s very kind of you to say.” She beams at me.
“I’m serious," I say, feeling a little bolder. “School is hard, and anyone who tried to make you feel small for it can go fuck themselves.”
Tansy studies me for a second, her smile still in place. There’s something soft and stunned in her eyes, like she can’t believe I came to her defense. Then her shoulders relax a little.
“Well,” she says with a little sigh, “it’s nice to know someone thinks it matters.”
“It does matter,” I say firmly. “A lot. And I have half a mind to call up your mother and let her know.”
Tansy goes completely still, like every muscle in her body locks at once. The air shifts. Her fingers curl into the blanket again, knuckles whitening as she stares at nothing in particular.
“Am I…allowed to do that?” she asks quietly. “Can I call my mom?”
“Of course, you can,” I say without even needing to think about it.
Tansy’s eyes narrow slightly. “Cass would be okay with that?”
“We would never keep you from your family,” the pack alpha’s voice drifts from the doorway. “Ever.”
I hadn’t even heard him come in.
“You don’t need permission from me to talk to your mother,” Cass says, his cane braced at his side, posture careful but solid, his gaze fixed on Tansy. “You’re not a prisoner here.”
“Thank you,” Tansy smiles sweetly, before opening her mouth again, but then quickly closes it. The hope that lit up her face a second ago dims, replaced by a flicker of dread that makes my stomach sink. It’s so swift, it’s jarring.
Cass notices it at the same time I do. His gaze sharpens, a subtle tension running through his posture as he stares at Tansy’s face.
“There’s no pressure, omega,” Cass says carefully, watching her reaction. “If you want to call your family, you can. And if you don’t, that’s okay too.”
Tansy nods, her soft brown eyes locked on the blanket in her lap. When she finally speaks, it’s a weak, “Thank you.” She shifts, letting go of the blanket. “I don’t think I want to call them right now.”
My jaw tightens as my mind races.
They hurt her.
It’s the only fucking thing that makes sense.
I can see it in the way she folds in on herself. The way her gaze drops, locked on the blanket like it’s safer than looking up. That’s not the reaction of someone who misses home. That’s the reaction of someone who learned the hard way that home isn’t safe.
“Of course,” Cass says softly. “It’s getting late. How about a bath before bedtime?”
Tansy nods again before pushing herself onto her feet.
The blanket slips from her lap as she stands, falling back into the nest in a soft heap. She doesn’t look at me. Doesn’t look anywhere except at the floor as she walks toward Cass, her shoulders drawn in tight.
Cass shifts his cane to one side and reaches for her without hesitation, steadying her with a hand at her elbow. She leans into him immediately, small and tired.
“Grason,” he says softly, like he’s scared of scaring Tansy. “Run her bathwater.”
It takes half a second for it to register.
Oh. Right.
The bath.
“Shit,” I mutter under my breath, blinking like I’ve just been woken up. I completely forgot that was on me. “I’ll be right there.”
Cass gives me a tight smile, silently telling me not to take too long, then turns his attention back to Tansy. She’s still not looking at anyone. Her shoulders are tucked in, posture small with exhaustion.
“Come on,” he murmurs, his hand settling at the small of her back. “It’s been a long day.”
They leave together, the quiet tap of his cane and her soft footsteps fading down the hall.
I stand there for a beat longer than necessary, surrounded by the quiet hum of everything I built for her. I stare at the blanket she dropped, still warm where her hands were touching it, and my chest tightens until it almost hurts.
Whoever broke her before will fucking pay for what they did.
And I will tear the world apart before I let them hurt her again.