Page 13 of Knot Her Beta

My head whips back to Jared. “What?”

He releases one of my elbows to touch my stomach. “We can make one.”

“It’s not that simple,” I say, the objection brittle with all the dreams I gave up on.

“No, but it’s possible. Let me give you a pup.”

“We don’t even have an official pack,” I protest. “How are we supposed to⁠—”

“It doesn’t matter.” The soft brush of his lips cut me off. “Let me give you a pup, Em.”

“Hey, lovebirds, get over here before we eat all the lasagna without you!” Blake hollers.

Jared sighs and steps back. “Just think about it. No pressure. Just... you should know it’s an option I want, too. That’s all.”

I nod, not trusting myself to speak. Because it’s not just an option, it’s a door I thought had closed, and hearing it laid out so simply, with no drama, leaves it impossible to dismiss as fantasy or wishful thinking.

I used to think losing my pack meant losing this future forever. But sitting here now, surrounded by loud conversation and people who care without making me earn it, the possibility becomes real again.

It’s not with the people I thought I’d spend my life with. Not in the life I planned. But with the ones who are here, who see me clearly and choose to stay.

Leif wants another chance.

Jared wants a family.

And across the room, Grady keeps looking over as if he still hasn’t figured out where he belongs in all of this, and I find myself wanting to prove there’s space for him with me.

The terrifying part isn’t losing them.

It’s wanting all of it badly enough to try again.

Chapter Four

Jared

The drive from the docks back to Emily’s cottage stretches longer than it really is.

The Wright pack had offered us a room at the Homestead. Kyle was in no condition to run the water taxi, and it would have been the easy thing, the obvious thing. Instead, I’d made some excuse about Mixie, our cat, being alone since morning, borrowed the water taxi with a promise to handle the morning dock pickup, and gotten us out of there.

Now, the road home slips beneath our old truck’s wheels, with only the rumble of the engine and the occasional crunch of gravel to fill the silence. Emily sits in the passenger seat, one hand resting on my thigh as I drive us home.

I keep my focus on the road. The Homestead would have been fine. But I needed her on her own ground tonight, surrounded by her own things, as far from everyone else’s noise as I could get her.

Let me give you a pup, Em.

My throat goes dry just thinking about it.

The words had fallen out of my mouth before I could catch them. Not planned, only this naked truth I’d been carrying since the night I realized what I wanted with her. I’d seen her watching Chloe, the way she tracked every shift of the Omega’s pregnant belly, the way her own hand had moved to rest on her flat stomach.

That wounded sadness, as if remembering a dream she had buried a long time ago.

I hadn’t thought she’d agree when I threw out the suggestion. But the way her breath had caught, the way her eyes had gone wide and dark… It’s been playing on a loop in my head ever since.

I don’t look at her now. If I do, I’ll pull the truck over to the side of the road and try to put a pup in her belly right now. She hasn’t even said out loud that she wants to try. My hands tighten on the steering wheel to stop myself from reaching for her.

The headlights cut a swath through the darkness as I turn into our driveway. The place appears different at night, the porch light we left on casts a warm glow over the front garden, and Mixie’s silhouette perches in the window, waiting for us to come home. The first time Emily brought me here, I thought the cottage looked as if it had come straight out of a fairy tale, and I still think so.

I pull to a stop on the gravel, cut the engine, and sudden quiet fills the cab.