Rise Above ✓

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Two

 

Markus kept pacing around his apartment, phone clutched in his hand while his gut churned with worry. He knew Dallas was probably okay - the omega was a grown ass man and he could probably take care of himself - but Markus couldn't help himself. After what happened in the restaurant earlier, after Markus had gotten over the pain of the rejection, his entire being was filled with worry for Dallas.

Was he okay? At that moment, Markus had been blinded by the severe agony of having Dallas so brutally reject him, but now that he thought back on it, why had Dallas rushed into a freaking alley? Why? Oh gods, had he been having a panic attack or something? Markus could remember smelling the faint tang of blood now that he thought about it and he felt like throwing up.

Fucking hell! He was so fucking stupid! Of course it was too early to give Dallas a collar - who the hell even did that? They hadn't even had a proper talk about their relationship, if Markus could even call it one, and the alpha had stupidly and naïvely gone and tried to make a commitment only people that thought of bonding did. And considering how much it had taken for Dallas to even submit to him once, fucking hell, he should've been smarter than that!

But I want him to be mine so badly.

You have to be patient.

Stop fucking psychoanalysing me!

"Fucking hell!" Markus growled as he stopped pacing, bringing the phone back up to his face, thumbing in the unlock code and dialling Dallas's number. His thumb hovered over the call button and he let out a harsh hiss of frustration before locking the phone again and barely resisting the urge to fling the damn thing at the wall.

He resumed pacing, raking his fingers through his thick dark hair, feeling like he was slowly losing his mind.

He's fine. He's probably fine and you're just worrying for nothing.

But what if he isn't? What if I actually did trigger something? What if he needs me?

Right now, he needs space. Let him be.

At that last thought, Markus inhaled shakily and tried to stop worrying. Maybe he should send a text. Would a text be too much? Just to find out if he was okay. He brought up his phone again and unlocked it, clicking on the message icon and staring at the empty white screen, the text cursor blinking glaringly at him like it was accusing him of something.

Fuck. He couldn't send a text. He didn't want Dallas to think that he was being clingy. The omega had asked for space - more like told him to fuck off, but Markus wasn't really going down to the details here - and Markus had to respect that, no matter how anxious he was. He could wait. It was just a couple more hours until it was time to go to work and if Dallas didn't show up, then the alpha would know that something was definitely wrong and he'd maybe ask Tania to check on Dallas and if that didn't work then Markus was saying to hell with Dallas's boundaries and was going to go after him. The omega could kick him to the curb after that but Markus just had to make sure he was okay.

With that thought in mind, he nodded to himself and went to his bedroom, eyes nearly boggling out of their sockets when the clock on his bedside table read 1:14 AM. Goddess, had he really been pacing that long?

He decided to take a shower to kill time because even though he'd slightly pacified his thoughts, he still felt too big for his skin and it was going to take a while before he felt like sleeping.