Chapter 163: Love and tears

Noah’s POV

Our kiss is salty in a weird way; I’m sure tears and snot have mixed in our mouths, but I don’t care as long as he isn’t complaining.

Elias presses his body closer to mine and my sobs slow down.

"I’m sorry" Elias whispers and I shake my head. He has no reason to say he’s sorry to me. Me on the other hand? I have every reason to be sorry. This is the second time he’s saving me from something like this.

Another sob escapes my lips, and I turn my head to the side. Elias keeps hovering over me like he doesn’t know what to do, and I don’t blame him, even I don’t know what to do with myself.

"Why are you crying, Noah? What do you want?" he asks and I keep my face turned away from his.

"I missed you" I say in a shaky voice.

"I missed you and I’m not fucking crying" he says in a half-gentle, half-rough voice.

"I missed you and I was scared...I thought you’d hate me and let me go..."

"Noah" he calls my name grimly and I force myself to look at him. His eyes are even darker now. They look like they’d suck the life out of me and still protect me. "Y-yeah?"

"Even if you beg me to let you go...I’m never letting you go. I’d have to be dead if you’d ever get rid of me. And even if I was dead, you’ll still be mine" he says and I get lost in his gaze.

Goddess, I love him. I love him so much. I love Elias Deus so much that I might cry again.

"No more tears, Angel. I hate when you cry" he says with a blank look on his face, and it makes me laugh softly.

"You haven’t changed one bit" I murmur under my breath. I love and hate that he’s still the same rude, blunt, and emotionless jerk I met back then.

His eyes leave my face and he scans my clothes.

"You’re fully dressed" he notes and my cheeks start to burn. "Well...I woke up without you, and I wanted to have a shield" I say and he blinks like he doesn’t understand what I’m saying.

I look at the tip of his nose as I do my best to express my thoughts as coherently as possible.

"I thought you didn’t want to be with me because I kissed Ro-"

"Don’t say his name" he snaps.

"Okay."

"And what?"

"And I had...well...I went right back to that place with Freya and her men. I was scared you were sick of saving me...and when you came back, I wanted to pretend everything was normal but then you wanted to kiss me and I felt so ashamed" I rattle and Elias’s brows draw together.

He has such nice brows, if we had a daughter, I’d pray every day to the Goddess for her to inherit Elias’s thick dark brows.

A lone tear slides down the side of my face and Elias catches it with his thumb. My chest feels so hot. I’m a ball of emotions and he can’t understand them. He can’t feel them.

"What else, Cherry?" he asks and I start to sob again.

"The baby..."

"The baby?" he echoes.

"I remembered the time when I thought I was pregn- when I...I thought I was having a baby, and I thought I lost it and I wanted to die because it hurt so much" even in my own ears, I sound devastated.

The hiccupping and stammering take up sixty percent of my words, but Elias doesn’t move or complain. He listens, he catches as many tears as he can with his fingers, and his eyes track every expression.

He watches my mouth, my wet nose, and flooded eyes. I bet I look ugly up close and snotty. I bet I don’t look like the elegant omega they marketed me to be, but he doesn’t seem to mind.

"What can I do? Angel, what can I do to make it better?" Elias asks and my heart breaks at the uncertainty in his voice. "Stay with me" is all I ask.

"I’ll stay" he says in that robotic voice, and I lift my shaky hands to cup his face.

"You won’t abandon me, right? You won’t give me up to someone else?" I ask and he nods.

"I won’t" he says.

"O-okay. I’m tired of being traded" I stutter and sniffle. The alpha keeps on studying my face. "Does it bother you that I don’t know what to do?" he asks.

"What?" I ask in confusion while hiccupping.

"I’m odd. I want to feel what you’re feeling but I can’t...I can feel you through our bond but..."

"Just stay with me" I repeat my only request and he relaxes on me. The smell of blood from his shirt hits my senses and it makes my stomach churn.

"I hate how you smell" I say and he looks down at himself.

"I’ll wash up" he says simply.

"Can I do it with you?"

"You can if you want to, Angel. If you want to take a seat and sit right in front of shower, you can do that" he says and I pause to decipher his words. Is he telling a joke to make me feel better or is he just being Elias?

"I can do that?" I ask.

"Yes" he says and I nod. I will do it. I’ll sit and wait for him to wash the blood off his body, then he can cuddle me through the night.

He gets off me and takes off his shirt. I wait for him to head to the bathroom before dragging his black chair into the space.

The alpha washes up and I sit in the comfortable seat with my legs folded.

The tears that were flowing down my face minutes ago are now drying and I have subconsciously wiped my nose with the sleeve of Elias’s hoodie.

I guess I just wanted someone to hear me today. I didn’t need his comforting words; I just wanted to be heard.

I turn my head slightly and find my forgotten boxers hanging off the washbasin with white stains on it. I lean forward to take a closer look. Why does that look like...dried cum?

"Elias...why is my boxers here?" I ask and the alpha pauses with his hands in his hair.

"I came a lot in it" he says bluntly and I shake my head slowly. I think it’s safe to assume he loves me too.

Right?