Chapter Fourteen #3
“It most certainly isn’t that,” I say, I can hear the heat creeping into my own voice now. “I never agreed to anything permanent, Hyunwoo.”
The impatience in his gaze hardens. “You don’t have to agree,” he says. “You’re my omega.”
I flinch. He’s said those words before, but it was during his rut, in the blur of sex, his face pressed against my neck and his cock buried inside me, and I dismissed it at the time as something primal and unconscious, something his rut was saying that his brain didn’t mean.
But right now Hyunwoo is stone cold sober and he’s looking at me like he genuinely believes I belong to him.
Not as a figure of speech. Not as dirty talk. As a fact.
“I am not your omega,” I say. I mean for it to come out firm and final, but my voice wavers at the edges, undermining me.
Hyunwoo points at my belly. At the prominent round swell of it beneath my crossed arms, at the life growing inside me that is half his DNA.
“You’re pregnant with my baby,” he says, his tone dropping, quieter and more dangerous.
“And lawfully, that makes you mine as well. Impregnation is one of the legal grounds for claiming an omega regardless of other circumstances. You know that.”
I gape at him. My hand moves to my belly on instinct, cradling the underside of the bump, and I say, “This is rented, not bought.” I jab my finger at him. “And you haven’t even paid me yet.”
Hyunwoo scoffs, a sharp exhale through his nose that drips with derision. “So you’d rather be a rent-a-daddy instead of an omega with an alpha who actually wants to take care of him?”
“I didn’t even think it was an option!” I nearly shout, bouncing off the bedroom walls. Machete lifts her head from the foot of the bed, her ears swiveling toward me. “We’ve never discussed this, Hyunwoo. Not once. Not seriously. You just assumed it was settled without ever asking what I want.”
“What is there to discuss?” he says, brittleness beneath the confidence now, a hairline crack in the facade.
“It’s simple. And besides, we’re bonded.
” He touches his own neck, mirroring the spot where his teeth left their mark on mine.
“You’re not going to be receptive to other alphas’ pheromones now, and I’m not going to be able to knot other omegas.
Our bodies already made the decision for us. ”
“I don’t have to date alphas,” I say stubbornly, “and you don’t have to knot to have sex.”
Hyunwoo’s expression darkens. A wounded look flickers beneath the anger, visible for just a fraction of a second before he buries it. “Is that what you really want?” he says, his voice lower. “You’re really that determined to get away from me?”
I throw my hands up, frustration boiling over.
“I didn’t know I had to get away! You just assumed everything was settled without ever discussing what any of it means.
Without asking me how I feel about it.” I take a breath, trying to steady myself, and say more evenly, “If you’re proposing something, then say it properly.
Because none of this is what we agreed to, and you never asked me if this is what I want. ”
Hyunwoo stares at me. His jaw is tight, the muscle in his cheek working, his arms still folded but his fingers digging into his own biceps now. The room is so quiet I can hear Kal breathing from his spot on the floor by the nightstand.
“So you don’t want me?” Hyunwoo says, there’s an edge of vulnerability audible beneath the stubbornness that I’ve almost never heard from him.
Not when his family pressures him, not when his plans fall through, not when anything in his charmed and cushioned life goes sideways.
Seo Hyunwoo does not do vulnerable. But he’s doing it now, standing in front of me with his reading glasses still on and his guard cracked open just enough for me to see underneath, and the sight of it makes my throat close up.
“That isn’t what I meant,” I say quietly.
But Hyunwoo has already closed off. I watch the walls slamming into place, his expression hardening, his posture straightening, the crack sealing shut so fast it’s like it was never there.
His arms drop to his sides and his chin lifts and he’s Seo Hyunwoo again, untouchable, unbothered, too proud to bleed where anyone can see.
“No, I get it,” he says, his voice flat and cool.
“This was all about the money from the start. I understand completely.” He takes a step toward the bedroom door, then another, moving past me with stiff, controlled strides.
“You just want this to be over so you can get your payment, go do your own thing, go fuck whoever you want again. Fine.”
“Hyunwoo—”
He pauses at the door, his back rigid, his hand white-knuckled on the frame. He doesn’t turn around. The pheromones rolling off him hit me in waves, sharp and bitter with anger and a taste of hurt. The bond in my chest throbs so painfully I press my palm flat against my sternum.
“You’ll get your money,” he says to the door.
“Exactly what we agreed on. And you only have to put up with me for another month.” His voice is even, controlled, and completely empty of the warmth that’s lived in it for months now.
“Then you’ll have your precious freedom. Whatever the fuck you want.”
The door slams behind him. The sound echoes through the apartment and then fades, leaving behind a ringing silence and the fading burn of angry alpha pheromones that coat the inside of my throat and make my eyes sting.
Machete whines from her spot on the bed, a high, anxious sound, and Kal lifts his head from his paws by the nightstand, both dogs looking between the closed door and me with wide, worried eyes.
Machete’s tail thumps once against the duvet, uncertain, and she noses at my hand when I sink down onto the edge of the mattress.
I stare at the door, my hand still on my belly where our daughter is turning slow circles inside me.
I feel completely off-center, like the floor has tilted beneath my feet.
I replay the conversation in my head, trying to pinpoint where it went wrong, where the casual comment about stretch marks turned into Hyunwoo walking out of the room like I’d put a knife in him.
Underneath the confusion and the shock and the lingering ache of the bond pulsing unhappily in my chest, I keep circling back to the look on Hyunwoo’s face when he asked if I didn’t want him.
I press my face into my hands and breathe, exasperated and totally unsure what the hell just happened.