Page 35 of Torment Me Knot
Kev’s rage settles into cold determination. “What do we need to figure out?”
“Everything for our omegas. And our alpha.” Lex's dry humor has an edge tonight. He moves to the coffee maker, starts measuring grounds. His hands are steadier when they have a task. “None of them have clothes. No belongings. Sera followed Espie here with nothing.”
Sera's jaw tightens. “Don't worry about me.”
“Of course we're going to worry about you. That's non-negotiable,” Kev says.
I hide a smile against my sleeve. His shoulders have dropped. He's watching Sera the way he watches a problem he wants to solve, not one he wants to remove.
“What else?” he asks.
“The omegas.” I stir the pot. The smell of chicken stock is starting to cut through the mate-scent fog. “They panicked at the nest room. Wouldn't go near it.”
“Nesting is instinct,” Lex says. The coffee maker gurgles to life. “The most basic comfort-seeking behavior an omega has. If they're rejecting it entirely...”
“Something is very wrong.” I don't sugarcoat it. “Omegas need nests. It's biology. Without them, cortisol spikes, sleep fractures, immune function drops. Long-term, they fail to thrive.”
“So why are they rejecting them?” Kev asks.
“Because they're terrified of them,” Sera says quietly.
We all turn to look at her.
“At Haven. Wallace's operation.” She sets down her coffee mug. “They used nests for punishment. Comfort items became tools. Build a nest, get it destroyed. Or worse.”
“Worse how?” Lex's voice is barely a whisper.
“Build a nest and have someone use it against you. Make you think you're safe, then...” Sera doesn't finish. She doesn't have to.
My stomach turns. Bile rises in my throat.
“Bastards,” I mutter under my breath.
“So they associate nesting with danger,” Lex says slowly. “The softness itself becomes the threat. The comfort becomes the warning.”
“That's… fucked-up.” Kev stops. Starts again. “How do we fix that?”
“I don't know.” Sera's voice is raw. “I've seen omegas with nest trauma before. Most of them never fully recover. They usually choose something that isn’t a nest in the traditional sense and they make it theirs. If at all.”
The soup bubbles. Nobody speaks. “We'll figure it out.” My voice sounds more confident than I feel. “There has to be a way.”
“Maybe.” Sera doesn't sound convinced. “Or maybe we learn to work around it. Build a nest for them in other ways.”
Lex passes out coffee. Sera wraps both hands around her mug like she needs the warmth, even though the kitchen isn't cold.
“There's something else,” I say. “At the OHC. In the common room. When Espie went to Aubrey, he reached back. Whatever Espie is to him, whatever they recognize in each other, it's breaking through when nothing else could.”
“He reached for Sera too,” Lex says.
All eyes turn to Sera.
“I might be an alpha, but I'm also female.” Tension holds her shoulders tight. “His trauma template doesn't have a slot for me. Male alphas hurt him. Female alphas...” She shrugs. “There's nothing in his experience that tells him to fear me. Not yet.”
Not yet.I feel those two words land in my gut. She knows. One wrong move, one moment where she pushes too hard or reads the room wrong, and she becomes just another alpha who hurt him.
“That's an asset.” Kev's voice loosens, just a fraction. The first hint of something other than grief or rage since we walked through that door. “You can get close to him when we can't.”
“I don't want to push too hard. If I become another alpha who forces things on him...” Sera's voice is careful.
