Page 17 of A Very Knotty Halloween (Knotty Holiday #1)

Jack’s cock is still nestled in me when Cas finally comes in my mouth. Now that I know what to expect when it comes to that sort of thing, I like to think I was much better at it this time than my first, and the alpha’s cum is just as sweet as I remember it being.

Cas is slow in pulling out of my mouth, while Jack slips out from my core.

I’m tired, exhausted from being used by three alphas over and over—not to mention the orgasms—so I collapse on top of Jack’s chest, and the alpha responds by encircling his arms around me and holding me like he was always meant to.

My ears hear water running, but I don’t pay too much attention to it. I can’t. I’m simply existing, and it’s actually kind of nice. Nobody here is judging me for losing all sense of self in these three alphas, and their scents combined make me feel so… so…

So at home. So at peace. Not a sensation I thought I’d feel tonight.

I nuzzle against Jack’s chest, and the alpha beneath me begins to purr. Yes, he actually starts to purr, a low, shallow humming in his chest that reverberates straight into me, sending me into a peaceful reverie I don’t know I’ll ever escape from. And you know what? Maybe I don’t care to.

Footsteps pad toward the bed, and Damien’s voice sounds shocked as he asks, “Are you purring, Jack?”

Cas scooted to the edge of the bed, but he must look over at us, because I can suddenly feel the weight of his stare. “I’d say so.”

“Shit,” the other alpha remarks. “I’ve never heard you purr before.”

“None of us have purred before,” Cas tells him.

“We haven’t had an omega before tonight, as much as you and Jack like to roleplay.

” He gets off the bed, and I turn my head to watch him meander toward the large tub on the other side of the room.

With Jack purring beneath me, I don’t want to move.

“Uh, Damien, how much of that stuff did you add?” Around him, I can see a mound of bubbles forming in the tub.

Damien rubs the back of his neck, and he chuckles shortly, though that chuckle is one of unease. “The… normal amount?” It comes out sounding like a question, so he quickly says it again, with more conviction: “Yeah, the normal amount.”

Cas walks around the tub and finds the container. He picks it up with such ease, and from where I am, I can see there’s no lid on it, which means… “You used the whole damn thing,” his voice comes out flatly, unimpressed, and also slightly annoyed.

As the seconds tick by, the bubbles start to overflow the tub, bit by bit until there are bubbles inching out from all directions. Cas is quick to move the towels and chocolate onto the corner of the bed.

“I may not have read the instructions, no,” Damien admits with a noncommittal shrug. “But how bad can it be? It has to be almost full by now—”

“You better hope we don’t have to pay for any damages to this room,” Cas hisses out before he throws the empty bottle at Damien, who deftly catches it. “Because this? Is your fault.”

“Well, you’re our pack leader, so any mistakes of mine are mistakes of yours.” The way the other alpha says it, like he’s proud to have thought of that particular loophole, actually makes me laugh.

I laugh at them like they’re trying to be funny, which causes both standing alphas to look at me.

Maybe it’s the crazy sex we just had, or maybe it’s the fact that their gazes feel like they’re seeing right through me, peering into my deepest, darkest depths, but I feel myself blush.

“Sorry. You guys are just funny, that’s all. ”

Jack’s arms tighten around me. The purring emanating from him lessens, but doesn’t go away entirely when he says, “Don’t apologize. Never apologize to us, Marnie.” A second passes before he agrees with me, “Besides, they are funny.”

“I think you should go in there and try to pop some of those bubbles,” Cas says, clearly talking to Damien, whose fault it is for the bubbles currently creeping out of the tub. “And see how much longer until the tub’s full.”

Damien rolls his eyes in a ridiculously dramatic gesture, and then, without a word more, he goes to the tub and steps inside.

It’s like watching a real-life cartoon: his body falls and he completely disappears in the bubbly mess.

Two seconds later, he pops up and acts like he’s drowning, bubbles coating his hair and his face—pretty much every part of him.

The look he gives says it all, but just in case we aren’t aware, he guiltily states, “It’s less than half full.”

“Shit.” Cas rubs his hand on his face and shakes his head. “What the fuck, man?”

Damien doesn’t respond to that; instead he walks around the huge tub and tries to pop some of the bubbles with his hands. It’s a wasted effort, because at this rate, the running water just keeps making more and more.

I giggle. The whole thing is just silly.

As Cas tries to scoop the wandering bubbles and deposit them back onto the mound over the tub, as Damien continues to make more of a mess, Jack and I watch. The alpha holding me traces shapes on my back, and I practically sink into him as a result.

Who knew I could be so relaxed? Who knew I could feel this good after hooking up with three alphas? Two of which I just met tonight and one of which is my estranged stepbrother?

“I imagine your daily lives are interesting,” I whisper to Jack, angling my head so I can look up at him. It’s not the best angle, but I’ll make do.

He grins at me. “You have no idea. What’s your life like? You said you were going to school online, but what else do you do?”

Hmm. What else is there? I hang out with Sabrina any chance I get, lament our omega designation on most of those occasions.

When it comes to hobbies, I’ve tried to dabble in everything—art, videogames, even knitting and gardening—but none have really stuck.

None stayed with me. Sometimes it’s hard to keep my focus on one thing when I try doing it and I’m not immediately great at whatever it is.

Being bad at things is not fun to me. I don’t know why.

“I meant it when I said I’m pretty boring,” I finally say, and his response comes swiftly.

“I don’t believe that. I know we just met, but I don’t think you’re boring at all, Marnie.

” The way he says it, I can tell he’s not only trying to make me feel better, but also that he means it.

I don’t think Jack is the type of person who ever says something he doesn’t mean.

“It’s okay. I know it’s hard to talk about yourself.

You don’t have to. We’ll get to know you little by little, day by day. ”

That makes me sit up. Well, scoot off him, sit up, and stare at him, to which he mimics me by sitting up with me. We stare at each other for a few moments as what he just said sinks into my head.

Even though I have the feeling I know exactly what he meant by that, I still have to ask, “What do you mean?” My throat is suddenly dry. “Tonight is just… one night. This is just—” God, I don’t think a single word has been more difficult for me to say, well, ever. “—fun, isn’t it?”

The look Jack gives me makes my stomach do weird things, and I glance over my shoulder at Damien and Cas, that knowing feeling becoming concrete in my gut. Still, for some reason, I refuse to face it just yet.

Jack scoots closer to me, his hands finding me and pulling me onto his lap, between his legs, where I fit perfectly.

“I think,” he whispers, his lips in my hair, “we all know this isn’t just a hookup.

There’s no way a hookup would feel this right.

Cas… he brought us here for you. Damien and I thought it was just to stop you from making a mistake with other alphas, but…

” When he trails off that time, I know what he’s going to say, to the point where he doesn’t need to continue.

But he saw me, smelled me—just like I saw and smelled him behind that mask—and everything changed. His plan got shot to hell, and so did mine. Our fates were written in stone at that exact moment in time, and no amount of wishing or resisting would change it.

“Jack,” I whisper his name softly, so softly the others can’t possibly hear what I’m about to say, “I didn’t even want to come tonight.

I only came because my best friend dragged me here.

I… I don’t know that I—” I swallow hard.

“—I’m ready for that, for more. I’m scared.

” I want to throw up when I say it aloud; it’s something I never even told Sabrina.

I’m scared to move onto the next phase of my life.

Scared to find a pack. Scared to find a place I could possibly belong.

How on earth could I not be scared? I look around at other omegas and see their excitement, their smiles, hear their giggles and their wish lists for their forever pack, but…

that’s not me. It’s never been me. Maybe I’m scared because I know that, sometimes, things don’t work out.

Look at my parents. My mom died and my dad pretty much raised me on his own for years.

Look at Cas’s parents. His dad thought he had an omega mate, but then she stumbled upon her scent match and he refused to invite him into the pack, so they had to go their separate ways because suddenly his mom couldn’t stand to be in the same room as his dad once she got a whiff of mine.

Things can change. How can you give your all to something when it might end up being nothing more than a failure? How can anyone not be scared?

Jack hugs me close. “It is scary,” he admits, “but that doesn’t mean it’s not right.

Sometimes the scariest things in this world are inevitable.

All these years, Cas was biding his time until he could get you, so I’d say this whole night was inevitable, one way or another.

It’s scary, it’s terrifying, but that’s what life is about, I think: overcoming those fears.

If you let them control you your whole life, then did you ever really live? ”