Page 65 of Knot Her Beta

My jaw tightens, and I step into the doorframe, one hand on the edge of the door to block him from coming inside.

“Emily,” he murmurs, quiet in a way designed to draw me closer, into the thickest part of his pheromones.

I grip the doorframe tightly as I stay in place. “What do you want, Auren?”

“I didn’t know where else to go.” He sniffles and turns his head down, drawing my attention to the luggage on the porch beside him. “The Omega House asked me to leave.”

He folds inward, one hand rising to rub at his opposite elbow. “One of the residents made a ridiculous accusation against me. It’s not important. I just need somewhere to stay, and I couldn’t reach you by phone. It’s just for a few days, until I can sort things out.”

His eyes dart to mine, then away, so fragile and submissive. A performance I’ve seen a hundred times.

I say nothing.

As the silence stretches, his posture shifts, shoulders squaring a fraction.

“This is my home, too.” The softness hardens by a degree. “I helped build this life. You can’t turn me away from what belongs to me.”

He looks past my shoulder, into the cottage, and takes a step forward, expecting me to move aside as I always do.

I refuse.

When I still don’t speak, annoyance flashes before he buries it.

“You owe it to me.” His spine straightens, and he puts a slight tremble to his bottom lip, the very image of delicate bravery. “After everything I gave up. After the stability I provided when you needed it. I stood by you when no one else would. When you were a lone Alpha no other Omega would even consider going near.”

The familiar jab still cuts deep.

“Auren.” Jared appears at my shoulder, his body filling the space beside me in the doorframe. “What an unpleasant surprise.”

Auren blinks, the confidence slipping from his expression. He hadn’t expected Jared to be here.

Did he think only one car in the driveway meant I’d be alone, the way he left me when he stole Mixie and moved out with his new Alphas?

A moment later, Leif joins us, his arms coming around me from behind, surrounding me in his pheromones to wipe out the intrusion of the other Omega.

Auren’s nose wrinkles as he stares at Leif. “If you were that desperate for an Omega, you should have just brought me home from the hospital, Em. There’s no reason you had to settle for…this oaf.”

Leif stiffens behind me, and I reach down to catch his arms and pull them tighter around myself.

“You’re not coming in, Auren,” I tell the Omega. “When I dropped you off, I told you we were done, and I meant it. There is no version of this conversation that ends any other way. I’m not having it again.”

Auren’s expression doesn’t change. “Just a conversation. Five minutes. That’s all I’m asking.”

“No.”

“Emily—”

I squeeze Leif’s arms before I step out of them, crossing the threshold, and Auren has to choose to hold his ground or retreat.

He steps back, his heel hitting one of his suitcases.

“No,” I say again.

Auren goes still.

For one heartbeat, the motion empties away, and his eyes move from me to Jared and Leif, taking in the shape of my new pack with calculation behind his gaze.

Then he straightens and smooths his coat with both hands. “You’ve been busy, making yourself a new little pack. But you’re forgetting what you still owe me.”