Page 65 of Knot So Lucky

CHAPTER 11

Soft Landings

~AURORA~

The sound of consistent beeping pulls at the edges of my consciousness like gentle fingers trying to coax me awake.

But there's something else. Something underneath the mechanical rhythm of medical monitors that doesn't belong in a hospital setting.

Purring.

Soft, rumbling, contentedlypurringthat vibrates through the air with a frequency designed by evolution to soothe mammalian nervous systems.

The combination should be jarring—clinical machinery mixed with the most organic sound imaginable—but instead it creates an odd harmony that invites a level of calm I didn't think I really needed.

My body feels heavy.Weighted.Like someone filled my limbs with concrete while I was unconscious and forgot to mention it. But underneath the exhaustion is something else. Something warm and relaxed that spreads through my chest like honey.

Complete and utter safety.

I drift in and out of consciousness, riding waves that carry me between awareness and darkness. Each time I surface, I catch fragments—sounds, scents, the vague awareness of my own breathing.

The scents are what finally start pulling me toward full wakefulness.

Burnt cedar and dark coffee. Ozone and fresh linen.

Cale and Roran.

My brain recognizes them immediately, cataloging their presence with the certainty of years of familiarity. They're here. In the room with me. Close enough that I can smell them even through whatever drugs are making my thoughts sluggish.

But there's a third scent.

One that hits my Omega instincts like a freight train made of want andneedand emotions I don't have names for.

Gasoline and vanilla. Sandalwood and steel. That impossible combination that called to something primal when I was hanging upside down in a wrecked car, and it's even more overwhelming now.

Rich. Warm. Fundamentallyrightin ways that make my suppressants feel like they're barely functioning.

The scent wraps around me like a blanket, igniting multiple emotions I can't really fathom in my current state. My mind feels sluggish and wired simultaneously—thoughts moving like cold honey while my nervous system sparks with awareness.

I try to remember what happened.

Try to piece together the fragments of memory that led to me being here, wherever here is.

The events play out in my mind like a movie on fast-forward.

The test drive. The diagnostic work. Dante's escalating provocations. That moment when he said something that cut so deep, I saw red.

"Just like your mother was too scared to protect you when it actually mattered."

The memory makes my chest tighten even through the fog of drugs and exhaustion.

I'd surged forward. Pushed the prototype beyond safe limits because I needed to prove something. Needed to shut him up, needed to show that I was more than just shadows and secrets and weakness.

Beat his slow ass in a display that was probably more reckless than smart.

Then the kitten. The Alpha. The impossible choice between hitting them or crashing.

The world spinning. Metal screaming. Everything going dark.