Rise Above ✓

Chapter Twelve

He was certain now. He couldn’t remember everything exactly but he had a good grasp of most of his memories. Now he just had to tell Tom. The thought of Tom just jumping his bones the minute Chris cleared the air made the alpha shiver giddily in anticipation.

This is ridiculous! Tom thought with desperation when he got to the corridor outside Chris’s apartment. How on earth was he going to wait for Chris until the fog cleared? How long was that going to take? There was only so much his self-control could handle!

He froze from his pacing, suddenly remembering that Tania had called him concerning Chris. Gods, he hasn’t told Chris yet, has he? He immediately made his way back into the house, his arousal now at a manageable level, and walked up to Chris who was scrunching his nose up adorably in confusion as he tried to work out the dishwasher.

Tom couldn’t help the fond smile spreading over his face as he made his way up to the alpha.

“Let me help.”

Chris startled and then smiled gratefully and Tom moved up, showing him how to make it work. He watched the omega with unadulterated longing in his gaze and realized with a start that if his memories were correct then Tom would be his first mate. In fact, Tom would be his first everything. Had already been his first everything – his first kiss…

That thought made him hotter than hell inside for some reason; the fact that he was giving himself to Tom, untouched and wanting was making the alpha side of him so happy because no doubt Tom would be pleased.

“I remembered something.”

Tom turned to look at him, eyes wide with a little bit of excitement. “You have?” and then the omega’s excitement suddenly dimmed when he realized that Chris could have remembered something horrible.

“It’s – it’s nothing too bad,” Chris murmured, “Just –”

“Do you want to take a seat and have a cuppa maybe?” Tom asked, already making his way to the cooker to put the kettle on, unable to hide his nervousness. God, what if Chris remembered that he was a murderer? Or a fugitive from the law? Or some sort of other scary shit? How was he going to handle news like that?

If he’s a fugitive, I’ll protect him. If he murdered, it was probably a mistake. It doesn’t matter who he was and what he did. I can’t – I WON’T let him go.

At that thought, Tom realized he was in this shit too deep. Oh god. His hands shook. He’d never felt like this for anyone in his life. It was terrifying.

“Hey,” Chris whispered, walking up to Tom and taking his shaking hands in his, “It’s nothing too awful,” Chris lied. If his memories served him correct, then his family – he bit his lip and absolutely refused to even think about it. A small part of him hoped that that bit of his memory was a lie.

You killed them.

“Chris?”

Chris snapped out of it, blinking and then glanced down at Tom who was looking up at him with nervous determination. It took a second for Chris to realize that Tom was expecting him to say something horrible – like Chris was an assassin for a terrorist group or something – but yet, he was ready to stand by his side.

“Oh Tom,” Chris whispered, leaning down to kiss him gently on the lips.

“Chris,” Tom whispered back breathily.

“I don’t know how – that part of my memory wasn’t…isn’t clear – but I was held in captivity in the mountains of Sendorai, since that’s where I met you. There were…there were other alphas as well and I feel that the weres that captured us were experimenting on us.”