AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I gasp, “Oh my God! This must hurt like crazy! What are you doing working out when your shoulder is like this?”
Declan grunts, reaching up to pluck my hand away. “It’s. Nothing. Drop it.”
My knotted haze is a thing of the past. Outrage fires my blood. “No! You’re injured and you haven’t told anyone? That’s just—stupid! Dangerous! Reckless, Declan.”
His jaw flexes and his eyes flash before he suddenly rolls us onto our sides.
His right side, of course. Because the left one is injured.
But he’s also way smarter than I ever gave him credit for. Because instead of starting a full-blown shouting match while his knot is locked up in me, he starts purring again and pulls me into his naked chest.
“Don’t be upset,” he mutters, almost petulant. “It’s just a tweak, okay? Normal bullshit. Archer will stretch it out for me before the game tomorrow, and I’ll be fine.”
His voice drops back into the soft one I’ve never heard before tonight. “I don’t want you to worry about me. Okay?”
Damn these alphas and their warm muscles and their perfectly-scented skin and their purrs.
I can’t think.
It’s worse than being barked into submission, in some ways, because I literally cannot be upset when he holds me like this. But I do manage to sound a little bratty while I snuggle closer, grumbling, “What do you care if I’m worried? After tonight, I thought it was pretty clear where your priorities lie.”
Declan huffs out a sigh. “Because I embarrassed myself by walking away from my speech so I could chase my ex out and keep her from upsetting you? Trust me, I wish I knew why I care enough to do something stupid like that. But I do.”
Oh.
Wow.
My brain stumbles over that information. He only went after her to keep her away from me? Do I believe that?
I don’t let myself think about it for more than a millisecond because I’m afraid I’ll have another meltdown. Instead, I focus on the curiosity niggling at the corners of my mind. It’s as good a distraction as any, since we’re literally stuck here.
I lean back and watch this face carefully while I ask the question that’s nagged me since I googled famed quarterback Declan Howard weeks ago.
“Is it me? Because I know you’ve dated other omegas and—obviously—had a pretty serious relationship with one.”
His angelic bone structure seems tighter, somehow. The blue irises staring back at me darken while his teeth grind. “It’s a long story.”
I toss him a dry look and wave at our genitals. “I’ve got time.”
The tiniest flicker of amusement sparks in his eyes before he sighs, long and loud. He slumps all the way onto his side, his temple hitting the mat beneath us. Defeated, he lets his eyes drift shut.
“Her name is Trina.”
USA Daily said Ka-trina.
My Omega hates that he uses a nickname. But whatever. I can deal with that hoe’s irrational snit to get this whole story sorted out. I shove my instincts into their deep, dark hole and listen intently.
“She was a nurse,” he goes on, then smirks with his eyes still closed. “I thought she was a nurse. We met at a charity thing. When Ronan burned all his dad’s shit to the ground, the only piece he kept up and running was their family foundation. They built hospitals, funded underprivileged schools, and all that. He and Arch agreed it would be fucked up to dismantle it, so they let it continue running. We all make appearances for it when we have to. That weekend, a bunch of sick kids wanted me to teach them to throw a football, so I was at one of the hospitals we fund. That’s when she approached me.”
The hairs on the back of my neck wave to attention. “There aren’t many omega nurses who work in big hospitals,” I murmur. “The environment is chaotic, and most doctors are alphas. Too much risk, especially if heat hormones spike during a life-or-death situation.”
Declan’s jaw hardens as his eyes snap open. “That’s what Archer said when I told him. It pissed me off at the time. We’d all just moved into this house, the team was thriving; we were ready for our omega. And here I found one with?—”
He hesitates. I shoot him a glare. “Just say it.”
I get a hint of that cocky smirk I have such a toxic love-hate relationship with. “Well, I started to say ‘I found one with a good scent,’ but then I breathed and remembered what you smell like. Compared to this, she was like… a Glade Plug-In.”
But I’m a freaking masochist, apparently, because I have to know. “What was her scent?”
