Page 102 of Knotted By my Pack

We slump against each other, panting and grinning like idiots. Her forehead drops to my shoulder as she laughs, light and breathless.

I can’t stop smiling either, brushing her hair from her face before kissing the tip of her nose.

“This is probably not what I meant when I said we’d go hiking,” I mutter, and she snorts, swatting my chest.

“We haven’t even made it past the foyer,” she says, still giggling.

I kiss her again, softly this time, full of everything I’m too stupid to say. Her hand finds mine, and we just sit there, sweaty and sated, her bare thigh warm against my hip.

“We need to get off the floor,” I tell her eventually, though I make no move to do so. “Eat something. Then, maybe, if we still have energy, we can hit the trail.”

She stretches lazily. “Okay,” she says, eyes gleaming.

I stand, then reach for her. “You get off the floor, I’ll get you magic.”

More kissing. Slow now, less frantic. Her lips taste so fucking good.

I lift her in my arms and carry her straight to the kitchen, ready to keep spoiling her before the woods steal her attention.

The trail issoft beneath our boots, pine needles and old leaves cushioning every step. Sunlight filters through the trees above, dappling the path in gold and green.

Rusty runs ahead, his tail a happy flag as he darts between trees and splashes through shallow puddles. Cora walks beside me, her hands tucked into the pockets of her jeans, cap pulled low over her face.

She’s been quiet since we started, her breath even but her silence weighted.

“I just needed this,” she says eventually. “Some space. Just to clear my mind with everything going on.”

I nod, watching her from the corner of my eye. Her legs are dusted with trail grit, her skin sun-kissed and still glowing from earlier. “This about Julian?” I ask, keeping it casual, though I know the answer.

She stops. Turns toward me. “You know?”

I meet her gaze. “I’m an Alpha. I could smell it the second you kissed me.”

There’s no accusation in my voice. I mean it. It’s information. She studies my face like she’s waiting for judgment, for some crack in the foundation we’re building.

Then she shakes her head. “That’s not it,” she says softly. “It’s just… with all of us together, it feels different. Like something I never expected but somehow… right. That scares me more than I thought it would.”

I don’t push. I let her talk, her hands still tucked tight in her pockets. The trail winds deeper into the woods, quiet except for the rustle of trees and Rusty crashing through underbrush.

“And I’m starting to wonder,” she continues, “if maybe that’s why my store got trashed. Because of the harem thing. Because I’m…” she trails off, eyes on the ground, “yours.”

I step closer, brushing my knuckles against hers. “I don’t think that’s it at all. Someone did that to hurt you, yeah. But Idon’t think it was about us. We wait for the cops before jumping to conclusions, okay?”

She looks at me, searching, then nods. “Okay.”

There’s a pause. The kind that crackles with something else beneath it. Something unspoken and alive. I grin, letting the tension dissolve.

“So... your harem, huh?” I tease. “We doing auditions? Or is the roster locked?”

She laughs, that real belly-deep one that always hits me in the ribs. “Please,” she says, swatting my chest. “Tell me about the trees, smart guy. Distract me with something you know.”

“What do you want to know?” I ask, watching the way her eyes crinkle when she smiles.

“Something interesting,” she says, walking again, brushing against me.

I scan the forest. My fingers itch to touch her again, but I channel it elsewhere.

“Okay. So, see those sugar maples?” I point. “They’re part of what’s called a climax community. It means the forest has reached its most mature stage, a kind of balance between all the organisms living here. These trees—maples, beech, hemlock—outcompete the others and dominate. It takes centuries to get here, and once it does, everything—fungi, moss, animals—all settle into this stable ecosystem. It’s like nature’s version of long-term love. Chaos at first, but over time, everything learns to live together.”