Page 99 of Knot for Sale

FORTY-SIX

Emma

I’D UNDERESTIMATED ALPHA senses where omega heat was concerned. I’d barely made it to the landing at the top of the main staircase when Onyx poked their head around from the first floor and called up, “Is it time? You want us to come up now?”

“Yes, he’s ready,” I called back. “Where are the others?”

“We’re here,” came Gabriel’s voice, before Onyx could answer.

“Did you get some electrolytes into him?” Curran asked, as all three came jogging up the stairs.

“Some,” I replied. “I told him to try eating and drinking something while he’s waiting for us to get back to the nest.”

Rich scents filled the air around me as the alphas approached. Onyx smelled pleased and excited. Curran, protective. Gabriel smelled nervous as hell—and perversely, his nerves calmed my own... at least a little bit. I’d felt like the only one in the house who didn’t have their shit together. It was oddly reassuring to know I wasn’t alone.

Curran sniffed, looking between us. “Jesus, you two. I’m going to send you both to sit in the corner until you stop smelling like you expect an ax murderer to leap out of the shadows at any moment.”

Indignation scattered some of my panic, which took flight like a flock of startled birds. “I’m fine!” I protested, aware that the stress pheromones rolling off me would be impossible for an alpha to mistake.

“I believe you,” Onyx said with a grin, rising to my defense in the face of the evidence.

I met the laughing, dark eyes and felt a wave of powerful longing roll through me, tightening in my stomach.Pheromones, I told myself.It’s the pheromones.

“Thank you,” I said, with a sharp nod at the others. “See? At leastOnyxunderstands me.”

“Course I do, Absinthe,” Onyx said, pausing to wrap an arm around me and pressing a brief kiss to my temple. My blood sang, urging me to sway into the solid form and rub against those hard muscles like a cat.

When I pulled back, Curran was eyeing me with a speculative gaze.

“What?” I demanded.

A fond half-smile tugged at his lips. “Probably nothing, sweetheart. Let’s get to the nest before Elijah starts wondering what’s taking us so long.”

Guilt pricked at me.Elijah. He was alone in the nest, waiting for us, and I shouldn’t be slowing the others down like this.

We crossed the short distance to the door of the nest, which stood open after my hasty exit a few moments ago. I’d decided, after much mental hand-wringing, to take a birth control shot at the same time Elijah did, so I could partake in the... er...festivitieswith absolutely no worries.

We’d all been tested for STDs and come back clean, meaning condoms were now a thing of the past. But Curran had warned me that two omegas together in a pack could screw up the hormones and heat cycles until we eventually synced. Since Elijah and I had started out with our cycles only a few weeksapart, it was a good idea for me to take precautions on the off chance my reproductive system went a bit wonky in the heat nest.

Other than that, there were no blockers or suppressors to be found in the house. I’d stopped taking them by necessity when Tommy and Cade had my cabin searched on the yacht and my pills thrown overboard. Somehow, I’d just... never started taking them again.

It seemed like a different lifetime in so many ways. I was no longer a closeted omega. No longer hiding as a beta.

And I was about to have a pack of my own, even though the idea still terrified me in some ways.