Page 31 of Knot Enough (Fruity Omegas #1)

G raham

Where was she? She needs to get back in the nest. A nest is an omega's safe place.

It's the one place they can feel safe, comfortable, cherished, and relaxed.

What made her so fearful of us, of the place, to make her run away like this?

I prayed she wasn't so out of it that she had left the house.

I didn't like to think about the possibility of someone, especially another alpha, finding her when she was only wearing her underwear. Luckily, my body got the hint, and my knot went down quickly. I had Sorren switch out with me to stay with Gabriel since he had a calming presence. We didn’t need two omegas out of their minds.

I motioned at Finn to start looking in each of our rooms while I tried the kitchen and my office.

Her scent filled the house and every room.

It would be impossible to find her that way.

The kitchen had several cabinets on the bottom where we didn’t have a lot of things inside.

She could have easily moved some things around to fit her tiny body in one of them to hide away.

I was relieved to find that she hadn't done so. The wood wasn’t smoothed down correctly, so she could have easily gotten hurt.

I was confident she wasn’t in the living room, but I checked anyway.

The last place I needed to search was my office.

As I opened the door, I prayed to every god I knew that she was in here.

I cracked the door open as softly as I could.

If she was in this room, I didn’t want to spook her.

My instincts to chase, to catch, to claim were on the edge, lapping at the cage of my control.

If this was any other time and we were playing I wouldn’t have minded relenting some of my control, but this was not the occasion for it.

Inside the room, I didn’t immediately see any body parts that could belong to Lydia.

What I did hear, however, was a light whimper coming from my desk.

I stepped lightly across the floor to cover the distance.

She could get a whiff of my scent becoming stronger if she had any sense of awareness.

I didn’t want to spook her either by calling out to her and causing her to run again.

As I approached the desk, I noticed the throw blanket I had lying against the chair was gone.

I had gotten around to the side of the desk when I saw the dark blue coloring of the throw coming out from underneath the desk.

The whimpering got louder the closer I got .

Crouching behind the desk, I finally caught a full glimpse of Lydia. She was huddled on the floor under the desk and wrapped in my blanket. Tears littered her face, and her eyes looked devastated.

“Baby girl, what’s wrong?” I asked. I kept my voice soft and even so as to not scare her.

We would discuss running away later, but for the moment, I needed to take care of the problem she was having right now.

Her body froze, and her eyes moved toward mine.

The smell of fear increased, filling the room with a sour scent of rotten strawberries.

Having had enough of that smell and the feeling that came with it, I gently reached out my hands to guide her onto my lap.

With my legs sprawled out, I moved us to where we were both positioned under the desk.

I trailed my fingers up and down her back, trying to get her to relax.

“What’s going on in that mind of yours?” I asked again. My purr started in my chest. I hoped the vibrations would help ease her fears. From behind me, the quiet squeaking of the door sounded. A whiff of Finn’s worried scent entered my nose, letting me know it was him entering the room.

Underneath me, I could feel Lydia slowly relax. Finn appeared behind the desk, but sat a little way from us. He most likely didn’t want to crowd her. Lydia sniffled and rubbed her along my shoulder. I could feel the coldness of her tears as they stained me.

“I’m horrible.” She said, “I ruined Gabriel’s moment. I ruined everything. He’s definitely mad at me.” She muttered. I held her closer to me when I noticed her scent souring more.

“That’s not true. That was a big moment for all of us.

None of us had talked about what would happen when one of us made a claim mark or when it would happen.

We can talk about what comes next, but I want to know why it triggered you.

” I replied. This was a delicate moment for her.

I’m sure there was some trauma and distrust relating to her scent match.

I needed to clear it up and get Lydia back to her happy self.

She grew silent for a moment. I wasn’t going to push her.

I waited till she was ready to speak again.

“I was worried you wouldn’t want to mark me.

” She said hesitantly. Her admission had sent her emotions into a nosedive.

Her scent started to smell like rotten fruit and dead flowers as she continued speaking.

“I mean. Why would any alpha or pack want to mark me anyway? I’m not that outgoing or flirty like Gabriel or Sorren.

I’m awkward and shy and don’t have a lot of friends.

I mean, my parents don’t even talk to me anymore after what happened with my scent matches.

” She breathed. Bite marks among members of a pack who weren’t scent matches weren’t uncommon.

It was a way for the other members to feel closer to each other, but it was usually reserved for close or romantic relationships .

“Baby girl, do you want one of us to mark you?” I asked, needing to be sure before I followed through with my plan. She looked into my eyes and nodded softly.

In one fluid and completely clear headed decision, I moved Lydia’s hair out of the way and pressed my mouth against her left shoulder where her collar bone was.

Before she had time to ask me what I was doing, my teeth pressed down against her skin.

I could feel my canines sink into her flesh, allowing me a taste of her blood.

Lydia had gone still as we both felt the bond snap into place.

Her emotions spread into my body, and I could feel the depth of her worry and fear.

“There. Now you can stop worrying.” I said as I wiped some blood that dripped from her shoulder where my mark was.

“Honestly, we’re obviously not trying hard enough if you're still doubting our feelings.” I mused.

I nibbled her earlobe as she processed what I did.

Her hand came to touch her collarbone. I could see that she had stopped spiraling, but I was worried about her reaction to me claiming her without her consent.

“You bit me?” She said, though it sounded more like a question than a statement.

“I did,” I replied. I started to feel a hint of concern that I had done something that would upset her even more. At that moment, marking her was the only thing I could think of to calm her worries and anxiety. I don’t know what would happen if she started hating me for it.

“You bit me.” She repeated. Fresh tears poured out of her eyes.

I would be worried I’d done something irredeemable if it wasn’t for the fact that I could feel a swell of happiness coming from Lydia through the bond.

I pulled her closer to me. There was hardly any space left between us as I rubbed her back.

I let her cry for as long as she needed.

When her tears stopped and she wiped her face, Gabriel and Sorren entered the room.

“Lydia, are you all right?” Gabriel rushed around the desk, barely managing to not trip over Finn. He fell to his knees in front of us and crawled towards us.

“Gabriel, you were supposed to stay in the nest!” Sorren yelled after him.

Gabriel ignored him and continued to focus on Lydia.

Under different circumstances, I would find the sight funny, but with how fragile Lydia was, I needed to focus on her.

One of Gabriel’s hands rose up to wipe the moisture from Lydia’s face.

“You’ve been crying.” He said sadly. “This is all because of me, wasn’t it? I should have talked to you before I let Graham mark me. I’m sorry for being so impatient.” Lydia grabbed the hand Gabriel had used to wipe her tears. She held it in her hands, looked him in the eyes, and shook her head.

“No, please don’t apologize for that. I’m sorry for ruining it.

I don’t know what happened, but memories of when I was rejected just entered my mind, and all I could think about was being rejected again.

I just couldn’t take it, but can we move on from that?

We have happier things to talk about now.

” By the time Lydia finished speaking, Gabriel's tears pooled in his eyes. He wiped his tears with his arm and nodded. His eyes fell lower at that moment, and he saw my mark. Gabriel’s eyes brightened in happiness and excitement at seeing the bite.

“Lydia! You have a mark too!” Gabriel squealed. Lydia’s face reddened at Gabriel's yelling, but she nodded.

“Graham did it. Do you like it?” She asked Gabriel shyly. Gabriel marveled at the sight of my mark.

“Do I like it? Really, Lydia, I love it!” Gabriel affirmed before pulling Lydia from me and into his own lap. I didn’t like the feeling of loss that resulted from her leaving my lap, but the expressions of joy, love, and happiness on Gabriel’s and Lydia’s faces prevented me from saying anything.

“All right, you two troublemakers. Let’s get you both back to the nest.” Sorren stepped closer to us.

He leaned down to grab Lydia from Gabriel.

It took a bit of convincing before Gabriel relented his hold on her.

His displeasure was soon forgotten when Finn kissed him hard on the lips.

His eyes were hazy and dark by the time Finn released him and started guiding him out of the room.

When we got back to the nest, I pushed Gabriel against the wall.

He yelped out in surprise, but it soon turned to moans as I bit and sucked along his neck and shoulder.

Gabriel’s hands moved up my body as he started making small thrusting movements against me.

I pushed my leg in between his thighs, wanting to tease him a bit more before I got him off.

My hands were about to move down when a pulse of anxiety coursed through me.

Gabriel must have felt it too because we both stopped what we were doing to look for the source.

Lydia was in the nest, sitting close to the shelves surrounding it.

Her phone was in her hand, and it looked like she was scrolling through something.

Curious about what could make her check her phone during a heat, I walked to her.

Once I got to the bed, I carefully crawled over the nest, taking my time not to ruin it or move anything.

When I got close enough to Lydia, I pulled her in between my legs and looked over her shoulder.

“You belong to us, Lydia.”

“We made a mistake by rejecting you. Please forgive us.”

“Lydia, stop ignoring us. We understand we made mistakes, but we’re ready to take you back.”

“Lydia, those new alphas won’t keep you safe.”

“As soon as they get what they want, they will discard you like trash.”

“Come back to us. We’ll treat you better, we promise.”

“You have to understand, Lydia, we have needs that need to be met.”

“Do you really think they will want to mark you? ”

“You're not even their scent match.”

“Lydia, you're crazy.”

“How dare you ignore me!”

The messages kept going on and on. I took the phone from her without any resistance.

She burrowed her head into my neck. I scrolled up and noticed they had been texting her throughout the heat, saying similar things.

I could see why Lydia had such a response to Gabriel being marked.

Being told the people courting you weren’t going to mark you and that they would throw you away repeatedly over a period of days or weeks, you would start to believe those claims. I’m sure it was worse since she was going through a stressful period of time at the moment.

Gabriel moved behind and looked down at the phone, as well. I could hear the tiniest growl come from him before he forced it down.

“Why didn’t you tell us they were contacting you again?” Gabriel asked Lydia. Lydia stiffened and looked away. I could feel her guilt through our bond.

“I was going, too, but with our heat starting and everything, I wanted to wait until it was over, " she answered.

Finn took the phone from me and looked at the messages. His eyes narrowed, but he didn’t say anything, beyond a short “I’ll go put this in your office” to Graham before leaving the nest.

Sorren moved to Lydia and held her close to him. “Baby girl, when something like that happens, you gotta tell us as soon as possible. We can’t help you or do anything about it if we don’t know.” He explained to Lydia as he stroked her hair. She nodded at his words. Sorren smiled in satisfaction.

“Good girl.” He purred. Lydia pursed her lips at his words, but couldn't hide her happiness at being praised.

“Now that we have that covered. Graham, I believe we were in the middle of something.” Gabriel pointed out before he pounced on me.