Chapter 258: I Hate To Watch You Drown

"Reid!" I gasped out, my hands coming up to lightly grasp his forearms—not to push him away, but just to feel the warm, solid reality of him against me again. "No one could have told me! You, Sarah and I were the only ones there. And of course, unless Sarah can tattle to someone, you know no one would know... Know that you were speaking to my ghost that day."

"No! That’s a lie!"

I looked at him with sad, heavy eyes. How many dark, lonely nights had it taken him to finally convince himself to move on, to accept the bitter fact that I was gone for good and that nothing in this world would ever bring me back? How many times had he called out my name in the dark, wishing and praying that I would appear before him just once more?

"I tried so hard," Reid whispered, his voice trembling so violently it cracked down the middle. "I tried so hard to get over it, to reconcile with the fact... so don’t... don’t start stirring things up once again, I beg you... do not torture me any longer."

Tears slipped down his cheeks as he bowed his head, his broad, powerful shoulders looking suddenly small, fragile, and completely crushed under the weight of his grief.

"Reid," I called softly.

I reached up, gently placing my hands on both sides of his face, lifting his gaze so he was forced to look directly into the softness of my eyes.

"It was never your fault."

Those five words made something sharp and desperate sparkle deep in his grey eyes, like a spark catching in the dark. I let out a long, heavy sigh. I hated seeing him suffer. I hated watching him drown in a sea of guilt and grief, completely consumed by the ghost of who I used to be.

"I hate to watch you drown in guilt and grief," I murmured, my thumbs softly brushing away the moisture beneath his eyes. "So let’s do it like this. I miss you, and I want to get back to you as quickly as possible, so I’m going to use my ultimate trump card on you."

"What...?" Reid rasped, looking at me with a completely bewildered, wrecked expression.

"I’ll tell you about the secrets between us that the rest of the world doesn’t know," I said, holding his gaze with absolute certainty. "Secrets that no stranger could ever know."

"What are you saying?"

"I’m trying to convince you, Reid, because I can’t wait any longer," I breathed, my voice thick with emotion. "I’m just as hurt as you are."

He still looked utterly confused, his mind desperately fighting off the overwhelming tide of hope, but I didn’t wait for him to process it. I cleared my throat, taking a slow, deliberate step toward him.

"I, Kain Evans, was born an omega," I said clearly. "It had nothing to do with your rut, like the rest of the world believes. I did not suddenly become an Omega after sharing your rut, we both know that. I was already an Omega long before you knew me."

Reid’s eyes widened in sudden shock. He stepped back abruptly, my words hitting him like a physical blow. "How did...?" The rest of the phrase stuck in his throat, completely paralyzed by what he was hearing.

"Remember?" I continued, taking another step forward as he backed away. "We agreed on that false narrative so I wouldn’t be branded a fraud once the league found out I was an omega. I wasn’t entirely on board with it since the world would blame you, but you convinced me because we had no other way... I was already pregnant, and I was weak. So, Marina helped us cover it up."

With every word that left my mouth, Reid looked even more disoriented. But I knew that still wasn’t enough to fully shatter his defenses. More than three parties knew that truth, and in his mind, a secret known by three people could have somehow leaked to a stranger.

"You..." Reid breathed, his brow furrowing as a sudden, desperate suspicion flared in his eyes. "Who do you work for? Who sent you?"

His voice rose, sharp and defensive as he backed up against the wall. "Are you here to blackmail me right now with Kain’s secret? Do you have no shame, using a dead man’s memory to—"

"Oh, shut it!" I snapped at him, cutting him off completely.

I let out a harsh breath, shaking my head. "That truth doesn’t hit hard enough? Fine. Then I’ll have to say the things that only you and I, Kain Evans, experienced. There was no third party involved, so you’ll have to believe me then."

I cleared my throat, taking small, steady steps toward him.

"Our first time," I said.

Reid flinched as if he had been struck. "Wait, hold on... what are you...?"

I ignored him entirely, closing the distance until I had him completely cornered against the wall, my eyes locked onto his pale, disbelieving face.

"Back then, at Lake Placid," I said softly, watching his breath hitch in his throat. "I was about to take my heat suppressants when you sneaked up on me from behind. You made my vial fall right into the crevice. My heat flared up, and I..."

A sudden, warm flush crept up my cheeks at the vivid memory, but I forced myself to keep going. "...somehow got on top of you. I was grinding against you, and you got way too tempted. We were both virgins, but you didn’t waste a single second taking advantage of me, treating me like your fuck toy to satisfy that arrogant Alpha ego of yours. And then, even when we got back to our room, you pinned me to the wall and—"

Mph!

Reid’s hand suddenly slammed over my mouth, cutting off my words in an instant.

I stood there, looking up into his face from mere inches away. His whole face was completely, violently red, his grey eyes brimming with fresh tears as he stared at me like his absolute most embarrassing, buried past had just been dug out of the dirt and laid bare in the moonlight.

He left me no choice. I had to narrate it exactly as it happened, if not... he wouldn’t believe it.

There was not a single soul who knew when our relationship started, what we did in Lake Placid and how he found out about my secret. With this, he was bound to believe me

"You..." Reid choked out, his lips trembling violently. He bit down on his lower lip so hard it almost bled, as if acknowledging the reality of this moment would wake him from a dream and destroy him all over again.

"No one knows about that..." he whispered, his voice fracturing down the middle, raw with an agonizing, impossible realization. "No one but me... and Kain..."

His hand trembled violently against my lips, his chest heaving with sharp, frantic gasps as he looked down at my unfamiliar face.

"You..." Reid breathed, his voice breaking entirely as a tear spilled over his lashes and hit my cheek. "Are you really...? Please... please don’t mess with me..."