Xiyang hated seeing you like this. In tears over another asshole of an alpha who’d broken your heart, curled up in his bed with your face buried into the pillows. He wasn’t sure which he felt more of: concern, anger, or jealousy. But he did know his heart squeezed the longer he watched you, frown growing deeper.

“He didn’t deserve you.”

No one did. No one deserved your smiles, your sweet voice. Your love. Xiyang wanted it for himself, but Xiyang was a coward. You’d never want him either. Not in the romantic sense, anyway. It was all he could do to keep you by his side now. Common sense warned him that eventually, you would leave. One day you would settle down with one of those pricks you liked so much, pop out a kid or five, and end up as their pretty little omega spouse. He’d be some childhood friend you thought of fondly, maybe texted once in a blue moon when you were alone with no one else to turn to, but otherwise ignored. Left behind. An afterthought.

Was it so bad that he didn’t want things to end up like that? Xiyang felt guilty that you were so upset but he couldn’t bring himself to regret doing what he did. It was an innocent enough picture, you and him laying in bed together, your head on his chest. You’d slept at his place more times than he could count. Nothing much happened. Out of context, though, to your current fling…Well, it turned out they hadn’t much cared for seeing you cozied up to another man.

Xiyang wasn’t surprised. This tactic had more or less worked on the others, too. The only good thing about your penchant for chasing after alphas was that they had too much pride to say anything about getting their omega taken right from under their nose.

“Stay over tonight. I can go out and buy a tub of ice cream, if you want.”