Page 41 of Knot Going Down (OlympicVerse #3)

EMILY

T he second the suite door shuts behind us, Ava moves like she’s storming a battlefield, all tight lines and hard purpose. Like a general about to announce a war plan with Lucas and me right on her heels.

No snapping at the alphas for their attention. No dramatic sigh. No lead-in. “I’ll accept your help.”

Declan is standing near the balcony like he’s waiting to be interrogated by Homeland Security.

Knox is slouched on the edge of the couch, flipping a bottle of water between his hands like he’s seconds from launching it into orbit.

Lucas is beside me, weirdly still, which is how I know he’s trying very hard not to say the wrong thing.

And me?

I’m pretending not to be the overly-innocent beta in a room full of high-octane alpha energy, and my complicated history, and my precarious future. Thank God for Lucas. My beta buddy. I’d say the air is thick, but let’s be real, this is pre-heat tension. It’s practically viscous .

Gunner sits up with zero concern for the mood shift, tail wagging like he just came back from the world's most exciting walk. He trots over to the couch and plops himself down at Knox’s feet.

Declan doesn’t even look surprise, giving a resigned roll of his eyes before his focus shifts back to our trio by the doorway.

Declan straightens. “Ava?—”

She raises one hand, sharp as a butcher’s knife. “I’m not doing this twice, so everyone shut up and listen.”

Lucas winces like he’s turned on and terrified. Honestly, relatable.

“ If it happens,” Ava says calmly, her chin held high, “and I go into heat on this ship, and you want to be involved, I’ll accept help. Yours,” she nods at Declan, “and yours,” at Knox, who looks so relieved he drops the water bottle with a soft plunk on the floor. “Lucas and Emily, too.”

Me? The way everyone turns to look at me makes me feel like I’ve been cast as the surprise understudy in a very sexy, very high-stakes drama.

“Me?” I blink. “What’s my job in the heat-apocalypse plan?”

“I think Declan used the term sex-pocalypse,” Knox corrects, then shuts his mouth as if realizing he might have poked the blonde bear at my side.

“You’re my girl,” Ava says, as if my girl is clear enough, which it totally isn’t. My thoughts spiral like a spinning top. As if she knows, Ava’s posture softens a little. Her gaze meets mine. “You’re the one I trust to tell them when to back the hell off.”

Lucas looks proud. Declan looks mildly offended, even though he was the one pushing for the boundary conversation to begin with. Knox grins like the cat that got the mouse.

Ava crosses her arms. “This is not an invitation for anyone to alpha at me. You are there to help me through this, if it happens. You’ll do nothing unless I ask. No hormone-wrangling, no unwanted bonding energy, and for the love of God, no sweet nothings and pillow talk.”

Declan opens his mouth.

“ Especially you. ”

He shuts it.

“You’re only the prime alpha of this pack when we’re playing pretend,” she snaps.

Declan is absolutely pack alpha, but no one dares correct her.

“And what if we don’t want to participate?” Declan asks.

Ava’s mouth drops open. Knox shoots him an outraged look, and Lucas looks as stunned as I feel.

Ava recovers first. “I’d never force you to do something you aren’t comfortable with. All being in one room will make it difficult, though.”

“It’ll make it impossible,” Declan corrects.

“Well, we can…” Ava looks around like she’s searching for help. “I’ll call the staff and see if there’s an empty room somewhere. If not, maybe there’s a staff room you can bunk in, I’m sure they’ll understand. Or I could go?—”

“You’re not going anywhere, Ava.” Knox rises to his feet, shoulders back, voice low and fierce. He squares off with Declan. “You’d really force her out of her room and leave her in pain when you have what could help?”

Ava and I both move at once, stepping between them before things can escalate. She presses a steady hand to Knox’s chest. I do the same to Declan.

He exhales sharply the moment I touch him, some of the tension bleeding out of his frame.

“It’s not that I don’t want to help,” he mutters, scrubbing a hand over the stubble that’s grown in since last night.

“I just don’t want an omega.” He wraps an arm around me, pulling me gently to his chest. “No bites. And…” He tips my chin up, eyes searching mine before flicking back to Ava.

“Will it bother you if I’m with Emily, too? Some omegas get territorial.”

“Not if it won’t bother you,” Ava says, calm but clear.

I twist in Declan’s arms to look at her. Her cheeks are flushed, her teeth worrying her bottom lip like she’s already second-guessing herself.

Carefully, I ease out of Declan’s embrace and take a step toward her. She doesn’t back away.

My heart’s racing, but my voice is steady. “You want me like that?”

“I thought our kiss last night made that pretty clear,” she snarks, walls still half-up.

“I thought it was just because you were needy, and I was there. I mean, in a heat, with alphas around, wouldn’t you rather have them?”

It feels like the room itself is holding its breath. Will Declan be upset if I want a relationship with Ava? He’s told me again and again he doesn’t want an omega. But was that the truth? Or just something he said to keep me from running?

Ava steps forward, so close we’re breathing the same air.

“They’re here right now, and I want them.

Of course I do. They’re my—but you’re—Em, I’ve always wanted you, but you felt untouchable, so I locked it away.

Buried it down.” She pauses, gaze bouncing around my face.

“Until these past few weeks. I think I’m falling?—”

I don’t let her finish. It’s too much. Too soon. And maybe too dangerous to hear aloud. So I kiss her instead.

A collective groan echoes from the three men in the room, who are very much not minding their own business. It makes the kiss hotter, like we’re doing something sacred and wicked all at once. Last night’s kiss was curious. This one is a promise.

Someone sucks in a sharp breath, and Ava pulls back, looking flushed and a little dewy. “So you’ll help?”

I nod slowly, still a little stunned she wants me.

“Consider me your heat concierge, alpha bouncer, and emotional support beta.” I press a kiss to her nose, and the smile she gives me could end wars.

It hits me like sunlight through stained glass—warm, unexpected, a little holy. “I’m yours, omega. Just say the word.”

“Good.” She gives me one more peck on the lips before she turns her attention to the three men circling us. “That’s it. I’m done talking about it. You’ll all follow my lead, or I’ll jump off the balcony and swim to the nearest chocolate factory.”

Declan is staring at her with a strange look on his face I can’t interpret. Every muscle in his body is tense, his mouth hanging open. He hasn’t moved since I kissed Ava.

“Would chocolate help?” Knox asks with his hand raised like he's a child in primary school.

“Perhaps chocolate syrup? It is very easy to drizzle in… places,” Lucas says suggestively.

Ava rolls her eyes, already toeing off her shoes like she hasn’t just dropped a sexual ticking time bomb in the center of the room.

“Now someone order food. I just emotionally committed to letting two alphas see me at my worst, and now I’m about to tell you all my sexual proclivities.

I deserve a burrito the size of my face. ”

I grab the phone and the room service menu. “Do we need to start carb-loading for heat prep?”

Knox raises an eyebrow. “Is that a thing?”

“I don’t know,” I say, scanning the list of entrees. “But emotionally, it feels right.”

“And for the love of all things holy someone turn the air conditioning down.” Ava glares and points to the thermostat on the wall behind Knox, who jumps up, an alpha finally given permission to take care of an omega. “It’s hot as balls in here.”

I glance back and notice Declan’s still rooted in place, like a statue, staring at Ava like she’s a threat he can’t make sense of, nostrils flaring wide with every breath, completely unengaged in our conversation.

“Are you okay?” I ask, pausing my burrito search.

“Scent match.” His voice is low and flat. Controlled. Dangerous. “She’s my scent match.”

Oh. Shit . I was so preoccupied with kissing Ava and the conversation about her heat that I didn’t even notice the way her sweet scent filled the room, permeating every breath. For an alpha it would be even stronger. For a scent match? Overwhelming.

Nerves skitter along my insides. Ava is Declan’s scent match. What does that mean for us?

Knox bolts upright. “No. She’s my scent match.”

My mouth falls open. Both of them?

“Yeah, get over it.” Ava waves her hand dismissively. “It doesn’t mean anything.”

“It means everything,” Declan snaps, his voice edged in something close to a growl as he turns that glare on Knox.

And just like that, the bottom drops out from under me.

My worst fear suddenly takes shape like a nightmare come to life. My first love and the man I’m falling too quickly for, circling Ava like she’s gravity itself. And me?

Left on the periphery.

Forgotten.

Is this how it ends?

For one brief glistening moment, I thought this could work. Declan saying he wouldn’t do the heat without me. Ava agreeing. And when she kissed me, I saw a vision of a future where we were all together. One happy family. A pack. Whole. Chosen.

But already it’s crashing down around me. Knox and Declan? They’ll never agree to be in a pack together. They’ll make her choose. They’ll make me choose. If they even still want me.

Right as the dread settles heavy in my chest, Ava rolls her eyes like the entire situation bores her. She reaches for me, brushing past all the chest-puffing alpha tension. “Come here, pretty girl.”