Page 79 of Pin My Alpha

---

“I know enough.”

“You know the version of me that saves your bar and sleeps in your bed.”

“I know the version of you that acts like being called good is a personal attack. I know you pretend you hate my music, but you know every song on that second record. I know you text your friends to make sure they got home even when you’re mad at them. I know you’ve been carrying everybody else since you were too young to have to.” His voice cracks on the last part. “I know you, Shay.”

My eyes sting.

I hate him a little for knowing.

I hate myself more for wanting to believe him.

“You’re making this worse.”

“I know.”

“Stop saying that.”

“I’m trying to tell you I’m not going anywhere.”

There it is.

The promise.

The thing every alpha says when the room is warm and the omega is soft enough to hear it. The thing that lasts until it doesn’t.

I zip the duffel shut.

Declan watches me do it like I’m closing a door on his hand.

“I can make this easier,” he says.

A warning prickles down my spine.

“Don’t.”

“You don’t have to worry about money. Or work. I can put you on my account. I can give you a key, and you can stay here when you want. You don’t have to take shifts at that boutique if you don’t want to. You can finish school, figure out what you want—”

Every word is a lock clicking shut.

My chest starts heaving, and I can’t get enough air. He must see it, because he stops talking, but it’s too late. All I can hearis my mother on the phone, crying because some alpha who promised he’d take care of her stopped answering his calls. I can see her at the kitchen table, staring at an empty bank account like it had personally betrayed her.

He was so good to me at first.

I pick up my bag.

“Shay.” Declan’s voice goes careful. “I’m not trying to buy you.”

“No?”

“No.”

“Because that sounded a lot like you trying to buy me.”

“That isn’t what I meant.”

“But it is what you said.” I face him fully. The rage comes up clean and cold, burning away the tears before they can fall. “You want to put me on your bank account?”

“I want you to have security.”

---