Page 42 of Knot As It Seems

I spin at the sound of my name from Edric only a few steps away. I raise my eyebrows, telling him to continue.

“Don’t be a fucking dick to her, okay? She’s having a rough day, and I think she’s getting closer to her heat. Try to be nice? For me?”

I narrow my eyes, trying to figure out what exactly he sees in her, blocking out every alpha instinct I have because they’re useless at this point in my life. “I won’t be a fucking dick. I won’t even be a small dick.”

“Are you talking about your small dick again? I thought we were getting baked goods?” Fable calls. I don’t even know how she heard me, but she’s not funny.

Edric huffs out a laugh and shakes his head, then goes back to gardening. A clear dismissal.

“Your intelligent wit knows no bounds,” I pan as I open the door for Fable and help her in.

She doesn’t say anything to me at all as I climb into my own side and start the car, doesn’t say anything as I press my foot to the gas lightly and edge out of the driveway,but she does stare at me the whole time, intensely, making me almost sweat.

“You’re hiding something,” she correctly guesses. What superpower is that? Let’s see how strong my denying game is.

I whip my head to her when we get to the first stop sign, channeling innocence. “Excuse me?”

She traces my whole body with her finger in the air, narrowing her eyes further. “You’re up to something. You’re being way too fucking nice to me. What is it? The cookie offer was definitely a trap.”

“Can’t an alpha take an omega out without an ulterior motive?”

“They can, but you? Never. Spill. I’m not going to go crying to the rest of the guys, just want to be prepared for whatever it is you’re setting me up for. You’re happy, so there must be something awful about to happen to me. I’m sure I’ll be able to handle it, but I would greatly appreciate the heads up.”

I give myself a few minutes to collect my thoughts as we drive, trying to pace myself because if I tell her I know everything too early, the timing won’t work out. “There’s a text chain in my phone. Mind texting back that I’m on my way? Wanted to introduce you to some old friends.”

“You don’t have friends. Not outside the pack, anyway,” she scoffs. Again, she’s not even funny.

I take a deep breath and swallow the need to return her energy, becauseI promised not to be a dick.“Can you please just send the message?”

She huffs out a breath and takes my phone from themiddle console, easily navigating to my texting app. For someone who’s never had access to technology until recently, she’s sure picked it up quick. Probably because she’s a fucking liar.

“Done. They said….oh. They’re there already? Who are these guys? And if you fucking lied to me about cookies, I will make myself completely unhinged in front of your friends.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll get everything you’ve been promised.”

“That’s not fucking ominous at all.” She turns on the radio and crosses her arms, staring out the window like a petulant child.

Fine, she doesn’t want to talk anymore? Works for me.

The drive goes a little bit too quickly, making me nervous as we get closer to our destination. I almost stop her when we park in front of the actual bakery, because a tiny, miniscule voice in my head is whispering, ‘what if you’re wrong?’ But then I pat my pocket with all the paperwork in it and I forge ahead, joining her inside the shop. She’s already ordered a triple chocolate cookie while I deliberated, so I pay and wait for her to collect her obscene sugar hit and then open the door for her. I gesture to the park, aiming to take the long way around so I can brief her.

Now that she has something to focus her senses on, she’ll probably be a bit more docile. Not too docile, because I’m pretty sure she’s completely fucking feral, but a bit.

“So. I came across something…mighty interesting the other day.”

She licks a giant blob of melted chocolate from the sideof her hand, and I fucking hate that my biology likes it. “Which means you were sticking your nose in someone else’s business, probably. Proceed.”

“You see, it’s been bugging me for a while that something about this whole situation with you seemed a bit…off.”

She laughs. “I’ll say. You guys used to fuck my sister, who was abusing me and pretending to be me. If we all had a normally functioning relationship, I’d say multiple psychologists needed to get involved.”

“Do you always need to be so crass?”

Another bite of cookie. Another lick up the side of her hand so she’s not sticky later. “Hate to break it to you, but I’m pretty sure my sister permanently damaged my brain with her behaviors. If you guys wanted a refined omega, you never should have taken me out of my hole in the wall. Would have solved all your problems before they even started.”

“Docile omegas are boring.”

She chokes, spinning to me wide-eyed. “Did we just…agree on something? Holy fuck!”