Page 12 of A Very Knotty Halloween (Knotty Holiday #1)

They get lost. And by they, I mean Cas gets lost, since he’s the one leading the way. No one says anything though; I think we’re all too lost in our thoughts, too rife with anticipation over what’s to come the moment we reach the compound.

I sure as heck am too frazzled to say a word. As much as I’d like to make fun of Cas for choosing the wrong way half a dozen times and landing us in dead-end alleyways in the maze, I can’t. I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to speak, anyway.

I can’t believe this is happening. I can’t believe they caught me so fast—and I can’t believe Cas just went for it, and how much I liked it.

How much I loved hearing him call me his.

I mean, something has to be wrong with me, right?

You don’t just wake up one day and decide you have a thing for your estranged stepbrother who you haven’t seen in years. Stuff like that doesn’t just happen.

But apparently it does, because it happened to me.

And, can I just say, he’s damn good with his mouth.

Same with Damien, honestly, and Jack. The three of them are very good with their mouths and their tongues, and maybe it’s because my mind is in the gutter right now, but I can’t help but wonder if they’ll be just as good with the cocks between their legs.

Probably. I was too lost to really pay attention, but I’m pretty sure their bulges are huge. From what I understand, alphas are built differently all around. As in, every part of them.

My stomach churns, but not in a bad way.

I’d be a liar if I claim I’m not nervous, but at the same time, I’m also strangely excited for what is about to happen.

These three, something about them makes me feel so…

at home, like I don’t need to go looking for anything ever again. Like I found where I was meant to be.

That’s insane, isn’t it? That’s just crazy talk. I shouldn’t feel so at home with my stepbrother and his pack, and I definitely shouldn’t feel as if they’re mine. My alphas.

My freaking alphas. God, even thinking it, it sounds right. Somebody needs to lock me up. I’ve clearly lost my mind, and at the rate I’m going, I might never find it.

Frankly, I can’t make fun of Cas for getting lost a few times, because I certainly would have gotten lost myself.

Heck, I probably would have gotten lost a lot more.

I don’t know how long it takes us to reach the compound, for us to see a side door, but it’s a while, and the four of us are itching to get inside and commence with the night.

I don’t think it’s the same door I left out of; maybe it’s the door the alphas were released from.

Or, I guess, maybe it’s a completely different door.

Maybe Cas got lost so much because, somehow, the maze changed or something.

Maybe this is a completely different door no one else has seen yet.

We already know the person who runs this whole thing loves being over-the-top, so changing the maze once we’re all out and in the thick of it wouldn’t surprise me one bit.

Damien goes for the door first, yanking it open and holding it ajar for us. Cas and I are the first to step over the threshold, with Jack and Damien right behind us. “Huh,” he says. “This is… weird.”

I take it that means this is a different room indeed, that the alphas have never seen it before, like me.

The room is relatively small, and there are a dozen or so small podiums arranged ten feet inside the room.

On top each of those podiums is an etched metal sign with pack names on them, along with a key that’s colored the same hue as the scarves the omegas wore.

Ours is pink, and the plaque is labeled Pack Felton.

Based on the fact that the other keys are still here, it looks like we are the first to return.

Just beyond the podiums is a giant archway and a long hall.

Damien snags our key, a mischievous smirk tugging at his handsome face when he glances at me, still snug in Cas’s arms. Now that he and Jack aren’t wearing masks, I’m able to get a nice, good view of their faces.

Omegas are drawn to alphas naturally, but I swear, these three are like gods. They’re gorgeous specimens of alphas, that’s for sure. They give a new definition to the word sexy. Sculpted cheekbones, square jaws, and grins that make the butterflies in my stomach go nuts.

“Finally,” Damien muses, tossing the pink key and catching it before he takes the lead.

We head through the arch, to the hall. It looks like our rooms are scattered in the hall, a good amount of distance between them. Hopefully this means the walls won’t be paper thin and nobody will hear us.

Yeah. Apparently I’m loud. Who knew? It’s definitely not something I was aware of before this group of alphas caught me.

Our room is a good ways down the hall, and there is an obvious pep in Damien’s step as he brings us to the door that must lead to our room for the night.

Where there would be a number etched onto the door, like in a hotel room or a dormitory or something, there is only a color, and a bright pink block tells us we’re in the right place.

Damien inserts the key into the lock, and soon we are stepping through the doorway and walking into a dark room.

“Where’s the goddamn light switch?” Damien hisses out. I can hear his hand roaming the walls. Cas heads deeper into the room, making it maybe five or so steps before Damien succeeds in finding a switch and flicks the light on, illuminating the room that is ours for the next few hours.

You know, it’s kind of funny. It’s already past my normal bedtime, and I am not tired at all. I’m wide awake, totally wired, like I injected caffeine straight into my bloodstream. An effect of these alphas on me, surely.

The room is large, split up into multiple areas, so we can pick our poison, so to speak. A large bed fit for half a dozen people sits smack-dab in the center of the room, velvet drapes hanging from the ceiling and surrounding most of it. Pillows and blankets galore.

On the left side of the room, beyond the bed, is an area that I don’t think we’ll be using. I’ve never seen one before, but I’m pretty sure I can recognize a sex swing when I see one. The wall of whips, feathers, handcuffs, and other BDSM items helps, too.

To the right of the bed sits a huge tub built into the floor, the expensive kind with jets.

There’s even a tray of what looks like chocolate nearby, along with a few stacks of towels, neatly folded.

Beyond the area with the tub is a bathroom, stocked with soap, wipes, and whatever else we might need.

Wow. This room really does have a bit of everything, huh? No wonder the rooms were spaced so far apart.

Jack mimics my thoughts by muttering, “Wow. What are we doing first?”

“Marnie,” Cas’s blunt answer makes me blush, and he heads straight to the bed, slipping past the velvet curtains and depositing me at the foot of the bed. I have to lift my wrists over his head and he finally unties me, freeing my hands.

Jack must have gone to examine everything we were given—namely the chocolate near the tub and the items in the bathroom.

He comes back with a tube of lube and a small box.

He says, “Take a look at this.” He hands that box to Cas, who holds it between us.

The box being so near, I can see what it says, what it is.

It’s a pill. A pill designed to make sure a night of fun doesn’t end in unwanted pregnancy.

An omega isn’t supposed to get pregnant until her first heat, but there have been reports of crazy things happening, of omegas getting knocked up before a heat.

We were made to be baby machines, so nature sometimes tries to slip in an accident here and there.

Technically, the moment we present when we’re young teenagers is the moment accidental pregnancies could happen.

It’s why, once we show as omegas, we’re taken out of school and placed in omega-only schools.

I hear there are schools out there where alphas, betas, and omegas all mingle well into their late teenage years, but there are none around here. I can’t imagine the things that happen in a school like that.

Cas’s blue eyes fall upon me as he hands the pill box back to Jack, and he goes to return the box to the bathroom counter. “You’re not on anything?”

“No,” I say. Never had to worry about any form of birth control because… well, it’s just not something I had to think about. Not until now. Now, I’m grateful that this Mr. Holiday has seemingly thought of everything.

A pill to stop any possible pregnancies. Collars and safe words. Freaking chocolate and lube. Seriously, this mysterious person running the Halloween Hunt has thought of everything.

“Well, guess you’ll need that, then. No pups for us yet.” His reply comes easily, like we’re a thing. Like I’m a part of their pack and it’s no big deal that he added that last word, yet. No pups for us yet.

He might not have realized what he said, but I did, and it’s that final word that makes me stare up at him in confusion while he starts to take off his clothes. Jack sets the lube down on the bed and sheds his clothes, too. Damien, I notice, is already shirtless, way ahead of both of them.

Should I take off my clothes, too? It’s funny—I was so against this night, everything this night entails, and yet here I am, forgetting everything I stood for in the face of my estranged stepbrother and his pack.

I… I want them. I want them more than I have ever wanted anything in my life. I want to see them without their clothes on, to get to know every muscle on their body, especially those impressive things between their legs. I want them to lay me bare and do whatever they want to me.

I want them. It’s simple. It’s confusing. It might not make sense come morning, but I don’t care. I want them so badly right now it hurts.