Page 85 of Knot Going Down

“More,” I beg, writhing beneath her.

“You need a knot,” she whispers.

“Yes,” I moan, the delicious oblivion beckoning me closer. “Knot me.”

“I can’t, sweetheart.” She kisses me, soft and fragile. “But the guys are here. Do you want them?”

And that’s when itclicks.

The scent.Theirscent. I knew it on some instinctual level, but now Iknow.

It hits me like a storm. Forest after rain. Worn leather and skin warmed by the sun. A golden haze of peach bellini wrapping around it all like a bow. It floods the room, burrows under my skin, settles deep in my bones.

I freeze.

A snarl rips from my throat, low and warning, even as I curl around Emily. The alphas are here. In my space. Inourspace.

“Mine,” I growl, baring my teeth.

One of them, the one who smells like a forest in autumn, steps forward slowly, holding my gaze. He puts both hands on the bed, leaning toward me. “We know she’s yours, omega. We’re yours, too.”

Something deep inside meknowsthat. Knows it like breath, like blood.

Lucidity unravels.

I lurch forward, crawling to the edge of the bed. My hands fly without aim—grabbing shirts, skin, wrists, anything solid and warm andtheirs. Don’t know who I want first. I want all of them. Ineedall of them. Every scent. Every hand. Every mouth.

“Mine.”

Mine. Mine. Mine.

Only when Emily is flush against my back and the others close in around me do I start to feel okay again. The ache stops clawing at me. The fear loosens its grip. Desperation eases. And in the stillness that follows, I find something I didn’t expect.

Peace.

“Yes,” I sigh. “Yes.” I surrender.

From the center of it all, surrounded by them, I whisper the words that feel more vital than breath itself. “I trust you.”

And I let the wave take me under.

42

DECLAN

Inever expected to be here again.

The room is thick with it. Heat, sex, the kind of scent that rewires your brain. My mind is chaos, a snarl of memory and emotion I can’t quite untangle. But my body?

My body’sready.

Every cell is vibrating, coiled tight, desperate to move, to claim, tofucking go.

Lucas presses against my side, an arm looped around my waist. A steady weight. Emily presses our omega closer until Ava’s flushed, naked body is fully against mine. Breath fast and uneven against my chest, her thighs are sticky with need.

Over Ava’s shoulder, I pull my sweet amaretto in for a reassuring kiss. I can sense her anxiety as clearly as I can sense Ava’s need. She’s worried about our omega. Maybe about more than that, too.

I can also smell exactly what they were doing up here. The air is thick with it. Blackberries and almond, graham cracker and boozy cream. Sweet and heady and unmistakable. The scene of Ava in full heat, tangled with Emily.