The Omega's Predicament

Chapter twelve

Max was running as fast as he could, sliding around in the fresh snow in his worn boots. He couldn't believe he had had to leave the bar, just after how successful they had been, but it couldn't be helped. He had to stop this nonsense now before Lukas talked to her. Before Bella made a grave mistake that he, admittedly, had probably, maybe, potentially caused. But that was just all the more reason for him to stop it.

He charged through the street, his thin shirt clinging to his skin as the thickly falling snow was soaking him through. His hair had fallen loose around his shoulders, the elastic bounced out as he ran. There! They were still there, talking outside of the Archive. He was probably in time.

But then something else happened. Lukas leaned closer. And kissed her. Lukas was kissing Bella. Max stopped dead in his tracks, his breath a cloud of mist before him as he stood there, frozen, unable to believe his eyes. What the hell was that? Something inside of him cracked and churned, something was terribly, terribly wrong.

Lukas left, practically bouncing down the garden path. Max wanted to hide, wanted to conceal himself somehow, anything not to see the stupid smirk on his brother's face, but he couldn't move a muscle. Luckily Lukas moved in the opposite direction, towards their home, and didn't even see him standing there in the open, in complete and utter disbelief at what he had just witnessed.

And Bella? She stood there, watching Lukas leave, her fingers playing on her lips. Where Lukas had kissed her. This wasn't happening. When she finally turned to walk into her house, he set off, running to her.

Bella was just about to close the door after her when a giant barreled through the door, stopping her. She screamed and fell back, catching herself on the stairs. She didn't recognize him immediately. His hair was all over the place, and he was wet and frantic, looking like a madman right out of the wilderness. But it was Max. She didn't have time to say anything before he demanded, "What the hell just happened? What the hell was that?"

"What was what?" she barked back. "What are you doing here?"

"Never mind what I'm doing here. You. Lukas. On the porch. I saw you two kissing," he spluttered, throwing his arms around, breathing heavily from his run. Then slammed shut the door behind him. "What the fuck, Bells?"

Bella swallowed, avoiding his eyes, and began wringing her hands in her cardigan. "You saw that?"

"Yes, I fucking saw that," Max screeched, "What the fuck was that? Why did he have his- his- his lips on you?"

"Well, because-" she answered, steadying herself, "Well, because we are going to be mated soon. Or not soon. I don't know when. We're going to be mated."

"The fuck you are," Max growled. "No, you are not going to be mated. No, I forbid it completely. You can't do this."

Bella huffed, getting more and more confused by the second. "I can't? Why not? I don't understand. I thought this was what you wanted all along? Why is this such a horrible thing seeing as this has been the plan from the beginning?"

"Yes, yes it was the plan," he hissed, growling at the ceiling. "But not anymore. That was the plan when we weren't friends. That was the plan between the old us, not us now. I can't do this to you, I can't watch you walk into a loveless mating. I can't. You deserve better than this."

"It's alright, we have an agreement, an arrangement I suppose," she explained. She knew Lukas didn't love her, she knew a loveless mating was all she could ever hope for from him. And she had accepted it. Although for some reason, she didn't feel completely comfortable with it at the moment, it was what she had always wanted. And she knew they hadn't really spoken about the arrangement, and what it entailed and didn't entail, she was sure there would be some talk at some point about it. "An arrangement," she repeated, mostly to herself. It sounded so clinical and impersonal she wanted to smack herself in the face.