Page 22 of Knot As It Seems

I’ve spent enough time today avoiding what my entire pack is careening into, thinking while I was mindlessly assembling pieces. Sensing her distress, it’s bringing me right back to us finding her in that gods awful room, and I get a vision of my mom and aunties scolding me for being such an absolute asshole, for not falling over myself immediately to care for the broken omega.

When I find her, huddled in the bottom of my paint cabinet, curled in on herself and shaking for trying to stay quiet, anything I was feeling, all sense of caution so this doesn’t end like our last tryst with an omega ended, obliterates.

None of my experiences or personal feelings on the situation matter when she’s hurting the way she very obviously is.

She’s light enough to scoop up and carry to a more open spot, falling to my ass on the stained concrete floor with my back against the door.

I don’t ask her to tell me what’s wrong, not at first. I simply close my eyes and hold her, feeling her tremble against me, my heart growing bigger and bigger as she slowly starts to unfurl against me and seek out comfort.

The acrid notes in her scent dissipate slowly the longer we sit there, neither of us saying anything.

I check my phone while she’s regulating, checking to see if there’s a search party for her so I can tell them to stop.

The weird thing though is there’s nothing. No frantic messages asking who has eyes on her, no demands to fanthe property and look for her, nothing. It’s like no one is even tracking that she was missing.

Fuck.

Honestly, that lack of care would make me cry, too.

Determined to punish my pack now, I put my phone onto do not disturb and use the apps on my phone to shut off all the lights in my workshop, going so far as to lock the doors. I yank off my jacket and fold it up, lying myself down to use it as a pillow while I tug the omega on top of me.

“Not complaining that I’m the one you sought out, but can I ask what happened? It seemed like you were getting along with Calloway earlier? And Anderson? Where is he?”

She rolls off, lying on her side so her front is pulled into my side, her head on my chest, making it easier to see her.

I’m wiping her tears away without thought, then cringing at my dirty hands covered in calluses. The sink is on the other side of the workshop though, and I don’t want to leave her alone.

“Calloway got called into work, something about a broken window at the gym? Somebody crashed through the storefront. I was supposed to spend time with Moon because Anderson got a ride to his cousin’s house to get his stuff…”

“So, Moon did something. Tell me in exact detail so I can go punch him in the face. It’s been months since I’ve had a good reason to, and it always puts me in a better mood.”

She starts shaking once more, pulling away from me. “P-please don’t.”

I tighten my arms around her, measuring her expression. She doesn’t like violence. I guess that makes sense when she’s been through it. “Then tell me so I can lay into him about stepping the fuck up.”

“It’s embarrassing.”

“I doubt it’s embarrassing for you. I think whatever you’re about to tell me is going to be incredibly embarrassing for Moon, however.”

“He was showing me his dark room, showing me some of the shots he’d taken from a wedding he photographed a few weeks ago that he’s been editing, and I don’t know if it was the dark space or what…”

“But?”

She takes a deep breath, then starts fidgeting with the ends of her hair. “I thought he was going to kiss me. I know, naïve, dumb, whatever you want to call it. I leaned in though, slightly surprised, but he was just reaching for a clip above my head to hang up a negative. He saw me waiting for a kiss and laughed at me. I was mortified. I don’t know anything about how to be with alphas, or even if you guys want that. But he was finally letting his guard down and I just thought that…well…I don’t know. He told me I was like all the other desperate little omegas out there and shoved me out of the room, leaving me in the transition room alone.

“I thought about just going back to the room you guys let me sleep in last night, but I felt a throbbing in my stomach, the same way I’d get when Winslow would give me your scents so I’d perfume. I thought I was getting a heat spike, and I didn’t want to be around him when that happened. He already thought I was pathetic so I just startedstumbling as far away from him as I could. I heard your music and snuck in. Sorry. You weren’t meant to find me.”

“I’m glad I did.”

“You don’t mean that. You guys should just take me to The Omega Center and let me get matched with a pack that actually wants an omega. I don’t want to live like this. Ican’tlive like this. It’s been all of one day and I’m ready to quit.”

“Absolutely fucking not.”

Fable looks up at me, shocked. “So you guys don’t want me but no one else can have me either? How does that make sense to you? I’m invading your home, interrupting your routines, living off your generosity. I’m better off elsewhere. You guys are going to resent me in no time, if you don’t already.”

The thought of another alpha touching my scent match has me seeing red, but I already know she’s sensitive to violence, so I have to tone down the emotions threatening to spill over. “You still want that kiss?”

She shakes her head and pulls away, standing before I can stop her. “You’re mocking me.”