Page 5 of Knot Your Basic B*tch

Shit… Was it the only thing I was going to learn here?

“I’m fine. I grew up with loads of brothers, and they all seem to be growing up into alphas. I’m good.” Okay that came out a little more incest-y than I meant it. But I could literally ask any one of my brothers or dads anything, and they’d help me… or beat up any of my problems if I ever needed it.

“For some weird reason, I don’t believe you.” He had that stupid smile on his face again.

What?

Did he think that I was lying… about having brothers? Why the hell would someone lie about that? I didn’t dignify his statement with a response. Instead I stared at him blankly, hoping that he would take the hint and just go away.

He did not go.

“Tell me your name, darling.”

“Why should I tell you my name? I don’t know you.”

The alpha frowned. Like my words suddenly pierced through the fog of his delusion enough for him to realize that I actually wasn’t interested in him. A thought that didn’t quite register with him, as he smiled again, as if he took my reluctance as some kind of challenge. Like I was playing hard to get.

I was not playing hard to get. I did not want to get gotten. Why did no one seem to understand that?

He leaned in closer and lowered his voice as if he was telling me a secret. “I for one, am the top pick for the new Stryker pack. So you should stick with me. Can you picture being the omega for the Stryker pack? Who wouldn’t want that?”

Eww.

The Stryker pack? As in Titus Stryker’s new pack?

Who wouldn’t want to be the omega for Titus’s pack?

Well his sister for starters.

Hints were not working for this guy. It was time to get more direct.

“No, I’m not interested.”

The guy gave me a look like I was crazy.

“Look, you must not know who the Styker pack is. Their parents were absolute legends. The dads in that pack took down four terrorist plots that would have de-stabilized the government and caused massive civilian casualties.”

“Five. But who’s counting,” I muttered. Not that the guy noticed. He kept going like I hadn’t said a word.

“Their moms were absolute beauty queens. They were Valedictorian omegas at the Institute, and made the top of the lists in all of the omega magazines. Either one of them could have been celebrities if they’d wanted to.”

I shifted in my seat a little. It was kinda weird to know that a guy had a hard-on for your moms. I was so used to thinking of them as the givers of band-aids and the kissers of boo-boos. The readers of bedtime stories. Not the stuff of this stranger’s wet dreams.

“Now their kids are growing into alphas and a bunch of their daughters became omegas. Word on the street is that every single kid in that family is drop dead gorgeous.” He had a smirk on his mouth, as if this guy was giving me privileged insider information, instead of just telling me awkward stuff I didn’t need to know about my own family. “I was too young to make the cut for Ember Styker’s pack. That was formed a few years before my time.”

I vaguely remember Ember complaining at the dinner table about some kid-alpha who’d kept nagging him for a chance to join his pack. Could this be the same guy? What would be the best way to ask?

“But now Titus Styker is looking to make a pack of his own, and I had a highly promising interview with him last Tuesday.”

“Uh huh,” I said because he was looking at me expectantly, waiting for me to say something.

“So what do you say? A gorgeous thing like you should be with the best. Stick with me, and I’ll make sure that you become the omega of an elite pack.”

Behind my unwanted admirer, Titus was walking up to our table with an overloaded lunch tray, hesitating as if he was worried that he was interrupting something. I waved him over.

Saved by the brother.

As soon as he saw my brother, the guy’s entire voice and posture changed. When the dude looked into my brother’s eyes, I swear to all the gods that he blushed all the way to his ears. Not in a—oh, you caught me being disrespectful to your sister—way. More like a DAMN you’re fine, kind of way.