Page 1 of Knot The Only Onee

CHAPTER1

Bridget

Simon had rescued me. Again.

All I did was cause him trouble.

From the day we met, he’d tried to take care of me, but I kept needing him to swoop in and save me.

My parents wanted nothing to do with me because they saw me as broken. I couldn’t even bring in a match that would keep me.

While Simon rejected me when we were teens, he did so not because he thought I was broken, but because he wouldn’t conform to Society’s standards for Alpha and Omega marriages.

For my parents, it was more than that. I had always been…unusual in their eyes. The way I spoke and processed information was a bit too different for them.

So, I learned how to fake emotions. I learned how to process overwhelming stimuli using music or calming techniques from the internet.

How far I had come in the years since I’d last seen the bitter people who raised me.

I rubbed my face, banishing the thoughts from my mind. I had to focus on the here and now. Which was in the middle of the butt-crack of fucking Nowhere, Montana. As a cleaning lady.

Jokes on all of us, though. I don’t know how to clean. I mean, I could pick up after myself, but that was the extent of my skills. My abilities were more geared toward numbers or words. Not cleaning.

But for the sake of Simon, and myself, so that I could be free of the Society, I’d learn. Anything was better than being back with my parents. That thought made a shudder run down my spine.

I hadn’t met my new employers yet. We’d arrived in the middle of the night, and Simon had ushered me into a cabin the second we arrived.

“You’ll be alright alone tonight?” He’d asked in his crisp British accent that always reminded me of the good parts of the country I grew up in. His lyrical lilt always made me feel safe, like a warm blanket wrapped around my shoulders.

I hadn’t returned to England since he whisked me away on the night of my rescue. The only taste I got of my home country was through the BBC and the small packages I ordered when I couldn’t resist being away from my authentic Cadbury chocolates any longer.

“Go be with your pack, Simon. I’ll be fine. I’m just tired.” I held my meager backpack to my chest as I looked around the cabin. I wasn’t just tired, I was having sensory overload. Being around too many people and too much change tended to do that to me, despite the years I’d spent to combat it.

I needed a moment to breathe. To decompress and process everything that was going on around me. And I needed my damn headphones to charge.

I had to leave the little apartment I had perfected, along with my routine, in a whirlwind of flights in the middle of the night.

The Society had found me. It was vital to pick up and leave. Run away to Montana.

Montana of all places. Somewhere I’d only ever seen pictures of. Or read about. There was this fantastic series about a family of ranchers that I just loved. Now, if my new bosses turned out to be like the Ryker boys…

Maybe I wouldn’t panic so much.

A well timed Darlin’ was worth the risk of a panic attack.

Simon hadn’t wanted to cause one by introducing me to my new bosses on top of meeting his pack the same day.

I liked Alena, their omega. She’s been kind to me. Kinder than many females would be toward her mate’s former betrothed.

I’d thanked Simon numerous times already for that move. She was a calming presence that helped to ground me. Having been the victim of Society’s omega rules, she knew exactly what I’d been subjected to before Simon got me away from them.

They knew I was here. My new bosses. The owners of Second Chance Ranch.

Come on, be like the Rykers.

Damn it. I was going to have to break out my kindle and fire up my Kim Loraine collection again.

Reading and music had been my only solaces, helping quiet the overwhelming voices of anxiety and doubts in my head.