Page 55 of Knotted their Beauty

I love how quickly Arlo is able to accept his new reality, but I understand why.

He isn’t wrong in saying he had nothing before now. No family, friends, no home, and he barely had a job. Now, he has a permanent roof over his head, steady income. He doesn’t have to worry about where his next meal is coming from, or if he’s going to get booted from a shelter for staying too long. Arlo never has to worry about his safety again.

He has the three of us and no one is going to be able to fuck with him anymore. Our omega has the world at his fingertips, and he is either so relieved he’s not about to question it and look a gift horse in the mouth, or he’s going to choose blissful ignorance until the bottom drops out on him again.

Either way, his acceptance has made it easier for Ves to roll with what he knows to be true, and I’ll take it.

“There’s an empty room across from Cali’s,” Ves grunts as we start hauling Lennox’s dead weight toward the back of the hotel. “You and the viking can take that tonight.”

“Then we’ll figure out the rest tomorrow,” Arlo chimes in as he closes up my van then joins us. “The primary should be big enough, the bed is huge and…” He blushes again as Ves and I look at him.

“We’ll figure it out tomorrow.”

For the first time in years, tomorrow is actually something I’m looking forward to, and it’s all thanks to the asshole drooling on my shoulder and mumbling about circus clowns in my ear.

Without Lennox, I wouldn’t be in this situation, and when he wakes up and starts acting more like himself, I might just thank him for it.

Chapter

Eighteen

LENNOX

My eyes crack open minimally to find that I’m on a hotel couch and Rufus is buried in my arm pit. It’s a position he enjoys being in, and it’s nothing new.

No, the problem I’m currently facing is that I was forced out of bed to piss and brush my teeth before being dragged out to the couch this morning by Ves and Baron with barely a word. I fell asleep again, despite the foot traffic coming in and out of the living room. I don’t know if they thought I’d get up and figure shit out, but my sleep has been off lately.

I usually pass out and I’m good for a few solid hours of sleep before my morning run. Recently, I started thinking about shit I shouldn’t, which is how I ended up at a hotel in Malibu alone with my dog. I’m in a different suite now, but the smells are all so much better.

It smells like pack, and I’m going to indulge in the fantasy for a little while longer before it implodes on me.

“Are you alive?”

“Mmhmm. I am.”

Forcing my eyes open more, I see that Calista is sitting cross legged coloring. While she’s not looking at me, I know for a fact she’s speaking to me. What other half dead alpha is around?

“You kept mumbling about Bluey and I think you said my name? Were you dreaming about me?”

“Bluey was used as a torture tactic. I actually like you,” I grumble.

My throat feels and sounds like it went through a cheese grater, and my eyes are really fucking dry. I think I’ll take a normal hangover over a chloroform one.

Why is this my fucking life?

“Arlo?”

Breathing in slowly and deeply, I can track my omega as he walks behind the couch. Calista waits patiently for him to respond to her, and I just want to hear his voice.

I’m pathetic.

“Yes, honey.”

“Lennox sounds sick. What’s wrong with him?”

“I just have a frog in my throat. It’ll go away,” I mumble, closing my eyes again.

“No!” My body jerks so hard and I gasp in a breath as my eyelids are pushed up by little fingers.