Or a focus.
Something that wasn’t how Kiara had felt in my lap. How she felt in my mind. How she would feel being in mylife.
Obsession was a dangerous game, I fucking knew it. I’d nearly fallen apart from obsession once. This time, it was Kiara’s obsession and mine combined that was fucking combustible. We would explode from the pressure of rash decisions and need.
She’d gotten jealous and she’d bitten me.
I might have done the same damn thing, if she’d been mated to anyone other than Leighton. If she’d been fooling around with anyone other than my pack.
“I think she’s going into heat soon,” Leighton murmured.
Kiara got further away with every second, Ambrose and her vanishing to the rooftop pool. I wanted to run after her and have her purr for me. Fuck, I wanted Leighton to purr for me. There was no way she would. She was an alpha, and I was an alpha, and alphas didn’t purr for each other.
“Why do you think that?” I asked, not looking up at her.
“She was in pain. That’s why she was desperate to come. The heat hormones might have been why she was so jealous, too. I shouldn’t have pushed her.”
Leighton didn’t sound regretful, though.
Was she eager to see me crash and burn? That’s the path I was heading on, at this rate.
“I’ve never seen an omega close to heat before. Is there pain?” I asked.
She snorted. “You think I have experience? There’s heat cramps, from what I’ve heard. I’m not sure if they’re typically soothed by an orgasm, but that’s not the kind of thing my brother would divulge to me.”
I stiffened, gaze snapping to hers.
If I was going to be here, I had to acknowledge that Leighton may occasionally talk about… him. My scent match. The man who we should have been perfect for. The omega who decided we were anything but perfect.
I’d never been perfect to anyone in my life, but I should have been perfect to him.
Last time he’d been brought up, I’d been fine. That was before I was faced with the terrifying risk of being claimed… but then rejected.
“Fuck,” I muttered.
I pushed up to my feet, intent on pacing. Leighton stood in front of me, stopping me. Concern swirled in the depths of her eyes. I’d avoided looking into her eyes for years, any time we saw each other. They were so much like his. Now I looked, though, and saw what I’d been missing.
Theyweredifferent, after all.
Her eyes had flecks of gold, the green a hint more muted than his bright orbs.
“How do you feel about her claiming you, Dash?”
I scoffed. “How do you feel about her loving you, Leighton?”
I’d seen the look on her face. The shock and a hint of hesitance. I was fucking jealous and a bit angry, because it looked like she was tempted to deny she loved Kiara back. If that omega said that to me, I’d be tripping over myself to prove my affection in return.
Which meant I might love her.
Were love and obsession the same?
“You’re deflecting,” Leighton said, her voice a low growl.
“And you’re not?”
“Fuck you.”
“You don’t want to, and I doubt she does either when the haze of this fucking upcoming heat blows over.”
