Page 79 of Knot Going Down

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 couldend 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’smyscent 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.”