Page 74 of Knot Her Beta

“I’ll save the grudge for next time you beat me at Scrabble.”

I laugh, and the sound bounces off the concrete ceiling of the garage. Grady joins in, his shoulders shaking, and just like that, the tension between us cracks and falls away.

We find my car parked three rows over, and I pop the trunk, heaving the suitcase inside while Grady lowers himself into the passenger seat with a grunt that tells me his knee is killing him.

As I slide behind the wheel, he buckles his seatbelt and asks, “Any word on Carson?”

I start the engine. “Last I heard, he moved to Arizona. He took a job in textbook publishing, of all things. He’s banned from teaching.”

“Serves him right.”

“I couldn’t agree more.” I pull out of the parking space. “Now, let’s get going. Emily promised us pizza, and if we’re late, Jared will eat all our toppings.”

Leaving the airport is slow progress, but once we hit the highway, it’s smooth sailing. The road stretches ahead of us, gray and wet from an earlier rain.

I merge into the right lane, set the cruise control, and wait for the silence to settle before I ask, “So. How’d it go? The trip home.”

Grady stares out the passenger window. The glass reflects his pale, tired face in the dimming light. “About as well as expected.”

Which doesn’t sound good.

I keep my attention on the road. “Want to talk about it?”

A long exhale leaves him, and his fingers tap a slow rhythm on his thigh. “There were meetings. A lot of them. Luncheons. Dinner parties. My father introducing me to people whose names I was supposed to remember five minutes after hearing them.”

He rubs his bad knee. “Board members. Investors. The kind of people who own islands and private jets and fly to Italy when they’re craving pasta.”

Surprised, I take my focus off the road for a second. Grady’s profile is sharp against the window, all angles and tension.

“Your family’s...” I search for the right word.

“Wealthy.” He grimaces with distaste. “The old money kind that comes with summer houses and charity galas and expectations.”

His jaw works, and he exhales again, harder this time. “They won’t be calling anymore. My mother goes where my father leads, and he’s made his position clear.”

Everything he’s not saying settles over the car, filling it with his disappointment and sadness. I fight the instinct to release calming pheromones, to flood the space with cedar and linen and comfort. It wouldn’t touch him. Betas don’t respond to scent the way Alphas and Omegas do. All I can offer is silence, and my presence, and the steady hum of the engine beneath us.

After a mile, Grady continues. “There was a woman. Caroline Bennett. Our families have known each other forever. She’s smart and capable. She runs her father’s media company from the shadows while he takes the credit.”

His mouth twists with bitterness. “My parents had it all mapped out. Marriage and a merger, all in one tidy package.”

“An arranged marriage?” The words sound wrong the moment they leave my mouth.

“More like a legal partnership with tax benefits and the expectation of kids in the future.” He turns from the window. “I walked away from it. From the company, the trust, everything. My father’s exact words were that I would be a stranger to them.”

The highway curves, and I adjust the wheel. “So let me get this straight. Your family is loaded. Old money loaded. And you’ve been sleeping on Kyle’s couch for a year because...?”

“Because I didn’t want it.” His tone sharpens. “Not with the strings attached. I took tuition, because education mattered to them, but I worked for everything else. Managing Aurora Storm built me a comfortable nest egg. Not yacht money, but enough.”

He rubs his eyes beneath his glasses. “And now Chloe’s retired the pen name, and I’m... figuring it out. Journalism fulfills me, but the income isn’t steady or guaranteed, and my savings won’t last forever.”

“Could you represent other authors?”

“I could.” He doesn’t sound excited about it. “But it wouldn’t be the same. It wouldn’t be her.”

The pieces click into place. “This trip wasn’t only about obligation, was it? You went back to see if that life could make you happy.”

“I knew about the arrangement before I left Pinecrest.” His admission comes quietly. “I should’ve told Emily. But... I needed to see it for myself. To be sure.”