Part 21

Flashback to a night, few months before Taylor's confrontation.

Jay's POV

Feeling a movement beside me, I woke up with Kayden in my embrace.

My rut usually ended in the middle of the night, and I always woke up around four o'clock in the morning.

Deciding to get up to get ready for work, I did my routine that I usually did after spending the night in the omega's house.

I cleaned myself and went to find the spare clothes that I purposely left in his house. Opening the cupboard, I was satisfied looking at how my clothes in the wardrobe were always ready for me to wear whenever I came here.

Walking towards Kayden who was fast asleep, I carefully lifted him up to clean him next, but he was hugging the pillow that I used to sleep.

I tried to pull the pillow away, but he was hugging it too tight like his life was depending on it.

"Kayden, let go. I need to clean you up," I talk slow, but not really expecting a response from his side, knowing that the omega was fast asleep due to how spent he was a few hours ago.

He whined in pain as I proceeded removing the pillow quite harshly from his grip, and I was a bit perplexed when he cried in his sleep.

Did he have a bad dream?

However I ignored his cry and carried him up anyway, and his sobs soon subsided while he was in my arms.

His body was full of bruises, but I assumed that he'd recover well this time as well.

Just like how he recovered well every time.

Because the very next week he came back to the office, he was always in his cheerful self.

After cleaning him up, I wrapped his body with a clean warm bathrobe without waking him up and brought him to the guest room.

I needed to clean the main room after what we did.

As I placed him on the bed, he stirred in his sleep, but I could see that he was in pain with every movement he made.

The scene made me feel guilty for a second, but I brushed the feeling again since I knew that the pain will subside sooner or later.

He was a werewolf after all.

I stood at the side of the bed for a while without doing anything.

Just looking at the sleeping omega.

He seemed like he was grasping for something, but I couldn't pinpoint on anything.

I tried to make him rest on a better position since he seemed to be in a lot of pain, so I adjusted the pillows and comforter around him.

At that moment I felt a soft pull on my shirt, and I looked down to see his small hands grabbing my shirt and brought it closer to him.

I tried to remove his hands off my shirt but was stopped when I heard mumblings from Kayden.

"It – hurts"

His beautiful voice was so hoarse that it cracked my heart a little when I heard his cry.

I admitted that I had very little control over myself when my rut came, and my actions towards Kayden were all blurry when I gained my consciousness back.

But I could somehow figured out that all the things I did to him were harsh and even violent when I looked at the bruises that were formed all over his body.

However, I rarely felt the need to apologize to him for what I did.

Because I believed that it's his responsibility as an omega, to tend to my rut who was his alpha.

But sometimes, the guilt was a bit overwhelming whenever I saw how frail the small omega looked, just like right now.

In the end, I would end up going back and forth fighting with myself about apologizing to the omega.

However, after the week ended, the omega always returned to me cheerful as usual, making me think that he was okay on how he was being treated right now.

Resulting in me, never apologizing to the omega in front of me right now.

Not even a single sorry.

It suddenly crossed my mind on how he managed to take care of himself along the week he was absent from work.

Looking at his condition, I didn't think he could manage on his own.

Did he hire a maid?

I don't think so.

With his current living style and his income, I doubted that he could hire a personal maid for a week length without draining his savings.

Did his family come by and nurse him?

No, that's not possible as well.

I remembered in his resume that his hometown was very far away from here.

There's no way his single mother could come to the city every month, leaving his little siblings behind for a week.

I snapped out of my thoughts when I felt another tug from Kayden.

He had pulled my shirt close to his face and I realized that he was taking in my scent.

It occurred to me that omegas usually depended on their alpha's scent for comfort when they were in pain.

So, maybe that's what Kayden's trying to do when he was hugging my pillow.

And pulling my shirt.

Because they got my scent on them.

To think about it, even I was calmed down by Kayden's scent when I was near my rut.

Usually when my rut was nearing, I easily lose my temper and to manage it, I regularly called Kayden into my room and made him do his work there.

With Kayden's scent filling up my room, I was in better control over my temper and could focus more on my jobs.

I sat down at the side of the bed and carefully caressed his hair out of his face.

Kayden leaned into my touch so naturally and soon, his furrowed eyebrows eased down as he seemed to find his comfort from me.

I want to protect him.

The thought crossed my mind so effortlessly like it was already planted in my mind since forever, that I froze for a second realizing what I had just thought about.

What just did cross my mind?

Did that thought had really crossed my mind?

Me?

Wanting to protect him?

I shook my head in strong denial after I had that thought.

No.

I can't have that thought right now.

I need to focus on my job.

I need to prove to my father that I am worth being his son.

The pure alpha breed.

I have a name and reputation to keep.

I couldn't let an omega like Kayden to become my weakness and ruin what I had worked on for so long.

He was just an omega.

Taking my hands away from the sleeping omega without caring about his reaction, I left the room without giving a second glance to the omega.