Chapter 113: Kain Evans likes me

Reid’s POV​

The sudden warmth of Kain’s palm pressing against my mouth cut the words right out of my throat.

I froze, my heart racing so violently it felt like a puck slamming repeatedly against my ribs. My mind was completely on fire.

​He liked me.

​Kain Evans liked me.

Those were the words repeatedly playing in my head even as I told my own side of the tale.

Kain Evans, who I have secretly admired for so long, just stood there, tears blurring his beautiful, fierce eyes, and confessed that he liked me a lot.

That he couldn’t help but inch closer to me. I never—not in my wildest, most arrogant dreams—expected to hear a confession like that from him.

I thought he loathed the very ground I walked on. I thought I had ruined any chance of him ever looking at me with anything other than pure defiance.

​I knew I’d been a jerk. A stubborn, selfish asshole. But that was just how I had been raised—to see what I wanted, to reach out, and to take it without asking permission from the world.

But I had been trying to be better. God, I had been trying so hard lately. I didn’t want to hurt his feelings anymore.

These past few days, I had been actively trying not to push him, trying not to just take whatever I wanted. I’d been holding myself back until my own skin felt too tight, but I also knew that if I didn’t push him even just a little bit, nothing would ever happen.

He would just keep retreating behind that heavy, suffocating mask, and we would both sink. That was why I could never exactly just leave him alone.

​Because I love him.

​I love Kain Evans.

​It wasn’t a sudden thing, either. The love had been quietly stemming from a long time of raw admiration, watching him dominate the ice when everyone else thought he was just ab average Beta.

It stemmed from the heavy, intoxicating nights where our bodies joined together, listening to the guy I had looked up to for so long moan underneath me, completely unraveled, despite what a son of a bitch I was to him.

It stemmed from the quiet, domestic moments I’d secretly hoarded in my mind—watching him interact with his family over dinner, watching him sleep beside me, watching his fingers tightly grip my shirt for comfort in the dead of night.

​This love... it wasn’t going anywhere. It was rooted too deeply inside me now.

​But as I looked at his trembling hand, hearing the raw, fragile edge in his voice as he told me he wasn’t ready to hear my confession yet, the desperate urge to force the words out faded.

If he wasn’t ready to hear it, I wouldn’t force him to carry it. Not yet.

​Slowly, carefully, I reached out. I didn’t grab him, didn’t force his hands away. I just wound my arms around his shoulders and pulled him forward, burying his face directly into my chest.

I held him tight, letting him lean into my weight on the cold floor, silently promising myself that I would wait. I would wait for the exact day he was finally ready to hear it.

​And when that day came? I was going to scream it out for the whole damn world to hear. Beta, Omega, Alpha? None of those labels mattered. The only thing that mattered in the entire universe was that I loved Kain Evans.

​A breathless, incredibly happy chuckle escaped my lips at the sheer relief of it all.

Without me even realizing it, a single, hot tear spilled over my eyelid and slid down my cheek. It dripped off my jaw, landing softly against Kain’s damp cheek.

​He shifted in my arms, a profound confusion crossing his face as he pulled back slightly and looked up at me.

​"Reid... are you crying?" Kain asked, his voice barely a whisper.

​I smiled, showing all my teeth, trying to swallow down the thick lump in my throat. "You’re imagining things, Evans."

​But I couldn’t wipe away the evidence—the long, glittering trail of wetness running from my right eye all the way down to my chin gave me away completely.

But I didn’t care. I kept my arms locked around him, my grey eyes dropping down to his slightly parted lips, my chest swelling with a sudden, overwhelming ache.

​"Evans," I murmured, my voice dropping an octave as I tightened my grip just a fraction. "Can I kiss you right now?"

​I watched his throat bob as he gulped, his eyes locking onto mine. I stayed completely still, holding my breath as I watched the thoughts absolutely spiral behind his eyes.

He was overthinking it again. I could practically see the gears turning in his head, analyzing the risks, weighing the consequences—doing that thing he always does where he tries to build a wall out of pure logic to protect himself.

I wanted to tell him to stop thinking. I wanted to tell him to just let me carry the weight for once.

​Then, the small expressions shifted, and his gaze softened as he looked at the tear track on my face.

​Slowly, his hand moved away from my mouth, his fingers sliding up to cup the side of my jaw. His thumb brushed right over the faint redness where he had punched me earlier, the touch so gentle it made my chest ache.

​"Yeah," he whispered, the word barely carrying any weight. "Yeah, Reid. You can."

​I didn’t waste a single second.

​I leaned down, my lips meeting his. But the way I kissed him wasn’t like before. There was no dominance, no desperate struggle to force him to submit to me, no toxic need to prove I could break him. It was just me searching... pleading, tasting the incredible sweetness of his lips.

​So sweet, I thought, a shiver running straight down my spine.

​As the realization of what was happening washed over me, my Alpha pheromones began to flare out, thick and heavy, wrapping around the two of us in the quiet room.

Instead of tensing up or pushing me away like he usually did, Evans let out a soft, breathy sigh against my mouth. His fingers tangled deep into my unkempt hair, gripping tightly and pulling me closer until there was absolutely no space left between us on the floor.

​Evans likes me.

​The thought echoed in my head, over and over, shattering every insecurity I’d carried since the day I walked into the Serpents’ locker room and laid my eyes on him for the first time in real life.

My heart swelled so painfully, so gratefully against my ribs that I thought it might burst. He wasn’t running. He wasn’t hiding behind the Captain mask. Right here, in the dark, he was choosing to hold onto me. And that was enough.