Chapter 264: Leo, The boyfriend.
Miller
The words Andrew said continued to echo loudly in my head even after we left Glacier Dome and started heading home, and no matter how hard I tried, I could not stop thinking about them.
An Enigma who truly falls in love becomes terrifyingly devoted.
The sentence alone was enough to make anyone uncomfortable.
But the problem was not Andrew saying it.
The problem was the fact that Leo had gone unusually quiet afterward, which only proved that those words had affected him just as much as they affected me.
Leo had barely spoken since we left the Dome.
Normally, even when he was tired, he would still throw in sarcastic remarks or start medically diagnosing everyone around him for breathing incorrectly, but now?
There was nothing.
Just silence.
And honestly, that silence felt heavier than anything else.
I leaned my head slightly against the window of the car before turning to look at him again.
Streetlights reflected faintly across his face while his hands remained steady against the steering wheel.
"Hey," I muttered quietly, trying to start a conversation before the silence swallowed both of us completely. "Is everything going alright with you?"
Leo finally turned slightly toward me, his eyes narrowing behind his glasses like he was waiting for me to say something more.
I knew that look.
It was the look he always gave whenever he was pretending everything was fine when, in reality, it was not.
And honestly?
Leo was terrible at pretending.
What Andrew said was definitely still sitting heavily inside his mind, and even though I desperately wanted to understand what exactly he was thinking, I could not because he refused to speak.
That was the unusual part.
Leo always had something to say.
Even if it was criticism, medical lectures, or insults disguised as professional concern.
But now, it was just silence.
"Why are you staring at me like that?" he finally asked after a long moment of silence.
I blinked once before realizing I had been openly watching him for the past several seconds.
"Your eyes should remain focused on the road and not on me," he continued calmly. "Visual distraction while operating a moving vehicle significantly increases delayed reaction time, spatial miscalculation, and collision probability. Considering we are currently traveling above urban speed limits, I would strongly prefer not to experience blunt-force trauma tonight because you decided to stare emotionally at the driver."
That made me snort softly.
"There he is."
Leo frowned slightly. "What does that mean?"
"You are talking again."
"I was always talking."
"No," I said while shifting slightly in my seat. "You have been acting weird ever since we left the meeting."
"I am not acting weird."
"You are."
Leo sighed quietly before looking back at the road ahead.
The city lights stretched endlessly around us while soft music played faintly through the speakers, but somehow the atmosphere inside the car still felt tense.
It was uncomfortable.
Like both of us were thinking too hard about things neither of us fully understood yet.
"You are overanalyzing things," Leo finally muttered.
"Andrew literally told us that Enigmas become terrifying when they fall in love," I pointed out immediately. "And then right after that, you suddenly started looking like you were preparing to dissect somebody in a laboratory."
"That is an exaggeration."
"Is it?"
Leo remained silent.
I stared at him for another moment before speaking again.
"You know, normal people would probably be concerned after hearing something like that."
"I am concerned," he admitted quietly.
That answer surprised me slightly because Leo rarely admitted fear out loud.
Ever.
I straightened a little in my seat afterward.
"About what exactly?"
For a moment, he did not answer.
His fingers tightened slightly around the steering wheel before relaxing again.
Then finally, he spoke.
"My instincts have been worsening recently."
The casual way he said it immediately made my stomach tighten.
"What does that even mean?"
Leo exhaled quietly through his nose.
"It means there are moments where my biological responses become irrationally aggressive before logical thought catches up."
I frowned. "Aggressive how?"
His jaw tightened slightly.
"Territorial," he admitted after a pause.
I blinked once.
Then twice.
And suddenly my mind immediately replayed every moment over the past few weeks where Leo looked ready to commit murder over the smallest things involving me.
"Oh."
Leo glanced briefly toward me before looking away again.
"Yes. Oh."
A small silence followed afterward.
Then suddenly I laughed softly under my breath.
Leo frowned immediately. "What exactly is funny?"
"You."
"That explanation lacks detail."
I shook my head while laughing quietly again.
"You are seriously sitting here talking like you are some kind of dangerous science experiment."
"That is because biologically speaking, I practically am."
"Leo."
"I am being serious."
The laughter slowly disappeared from my face after hearing the tone of his voice.
He really meant it.
"That is what worries me," he continued quietly. "I do not know where the line exists between control and instinct anymore. Even though we agreed to make things work between us, I do not want anything to come between us."
The honesty in his voice caught me completely off guard.
Leo never talked like this.
Never.
And suddenly, for the first time since Andrew’s conversation earlier, I realized this was genuinely terrifying him.
And somehow, it felt even worse than what happened on the island.
I leaned back slowly into my seat afterward.
"You are not going to hurt anybody," I said quietly. "We already talked about this, Leo. Everything is definitely going to be fine."
Leo did not answer immediately.
And honestly?
I hated the silence, but there was nothing I could do about it, at least not for now.
So the rest of the drive passed quietly after that.
By the time we finally reached my apartment building, it was already late into the evening.
Leo parked the car smoothly near the entrance before turning the engine off.
"We should probably eat something," I muttered while unbuckling my seatbelt. "I am starving."
"That is because your eating schedule is medically irresponsible."
"There it is again."
Leo frowned slightly. "What?"
"The doctor lectures."
"They are necessary."
I laughed softly before stepping out of the car.
Cold night air immediately wrapped around us while I shoved my hands into the pockets of my jacket.
Then I froze.
Someone was standing near the entrance of my apartment building.
It was a familiar figure, and I could immediately tell he was an omega from the faint lavender scent surrounding him. Dark curly hair fell messily against his forehead, and the moment he noticed me and stepped fully beneath the light, his face lit up instantly.
"Miller?" he said softly.
My eyes widened in shock.
No way, I thought.
The omega immediately started walking toward me with a huge smile stretched across his face.
"Oh my God," he laughed. "It is actually you."
"Jace?"
Leo stopped walking beside me instantly.
Meanwhile, I was still too shocked to process what was happening because the omega standing in front of me was someone I had not seen in years.
This was Jace.
My first omega boyfriend back in college.
Jace finally reached me before immediately throwing his arms tightly around my neck.
And because my brain completely stopped functioning from shock, I hugged him back automatically.
"You disappeared completely after graduation," Jace complained dramatically while pulling away slightly. "Do you know how many times I tried contacting you?"
I laughed awkwardly. "I changed numbers."
"That is offensive."
Only then did I suddenly remember Leo standing beside me.
The atmosphere around us shifted almost immediately afterward.
I slowly turned my head toward him, and instantly my stomach tightened because Leo looked too calm.
Jace finally noticed him too.
"Oh," he blinked while looking between both of us curiously. "And who is this?"
Neither of us answered immediately.
Then Leo finally spoke."Leo. The boyfriend."