Page 61 of Knot Your Sugar Rush (Starling Grove #2)

Chapter sixty-one

Cam

T he night is deep and quiet around us, the forest breathing slow.

Crickets chirp somewhere beyond the clearing, and a soft wind stirs the leaves overhead, carrying the faint scent of damp moss and pine.

The air is cool enough that goosebumps prickle along my bare arms, but Theo hasn’t let me go, and his warmth is more than enough to keep the chill at bay.

We’re still joined, the knot a slow, steady pulse deep inside me.

It’s not urgency anymore — it’s comfort.

My body, finally sated, has gone heavy and loose against him.

I’m wrapped in the blanket again, this time tucked tight around both of us.

Theo’s big hands keep it anchored, one pressed against the small of my back, the other resting protectively at my hip.

I tilt my head against his shoulder, breathing in the rich scent of him.

That grounding pine-and-smoke blend wraps around me as securely as his arms, and the faint thread of alpha satisfaction in it sends a strange, quiet pride through me.

I’ve never belonged to anyone. Not really.

I never belonged to Eric, making it easy to let him go.

But here, in this moment, I feel like I could belong to someone. To a pack.

“You warm enough?” he murmurs, his voice low and husky in my ear.

I nod, my cheek brushing the rough knit of his sweater. “More than warm.”

His chest rumbles with a small sound — not quite a laugh, not quite a hum. “Good. Can’t have you catching cold out here.” He tilts his head to look down at me, eyes shadowed but soft in the moonlight. “You need anything? Water? Food?”

I smile faintly. “Just… this.”

He doesn’t answer, only tightens his hold. I can feel his heartbeat against my ribs, steady and sure. The knot shifts gently as he adjusts his stance, reminding me how closely we’re bound right now. I don’t mind. It feels like an anchor.

The heat in my blood has eased, replaced by a deep, spreading calm. My thoughts wander — to Dane’s steady watchfulness, to Jamie’s easy grin despite his limp, to Theo’s quiet, controlled strength.

“You’re thinking too hard,” Theo says quietly, as if he can read my mind.

“Just… realizing I don’t feel scared right now.”

His breath catches slightly. “Good. That’s how it should be.”

I glance up at him. They’d hinted and joked, but now I needed to know. “You really want me in your pack?”

His jaw flexes, and his gaze holds mine with that unshakable intensity. “Cam, you’re already in it. The only choice you’ve got left is how close you want to be.”

Something tightens in my throat, and I rest my forehead against his collarbone. “Closer,” I whisper.

We stand like that, swaying gently in the quiet, until the knot begins to ease. He doesn’t rush, doesn’t pull away until my body relaxes fully. When he finally does, it’s only to settle us down on the porch steps, the blanket still around me, his arm still secure at my back.

Above us, the stars burn sharp and bright, and the moonlight turns the clearing silver. For the first time in longer than I can remember, I’m not counting the minutes until I have to move again. I’m just… here. With him. And I belong.