Page 24 of Knotted By my Pack (North Coast Omegaverse #3)

NOAH

The second I see Cora sitting there—eyes red, makeup ruined, her shoulders tucked in like she’s trying to disappear—I stop thinking. Just stop.

My chest burns with a slow kind of rage that doesn’t shout. It simmers. Simmering is worse.

I shut the car door harder than necessary, my stride eating up the distance to Julian’s door in seconds. No knock. I twist the handle and push in.

He’s standing there barefoot, shirt off, like he has every right to be comfortable while she’s outside, broken.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I ask, stepping fully inside. The door slams behind me, and the sound echoes.

Julian lifts a brow lazily, like I’m an inconvenience. “Let me guess. She ran to you. How noble.”

I move closer. “She’s outside crying. Again. Because of you.”

“And?” He grabs a glass from the counter and pours whiskey like I haven’t just walked in ready to rip him apart. “You want me to be sorry? You’re not her keeper, Noah.”

“No,” I say, “but someone needs to call you out for being a goddamn coward.”

He chuckles. Low. Mean. “You think this is about courage?”

I step closer, the space between us shrinking. “You fucked her, treated her like she mattered for five minutes, and tossed her the second things got complicated. She came here to apologize. She came here with dinner.”

Julian leans against the counter like this is a casual conversation. “I never asked her to.”

“You didn’t have to,” I say. “You knew exactly what she was doing. And you let her come anyway, just so you could cut her down.”

He sips the whiskey, eyes narrowed. “You think she’s some innocent little flower? That girl’s a mess.”

My fist connects with his jaw before I even register the swing.

He stumbles back, glass crashing to the floor, shattering across tile. He wipes his mouth with the back of his hand and laughs, blood smeared across his lip.

“There it is,” he says, voice sharp. “There’s that fucking Beta rage.”

I don’t move. My hands are clenched. Every muscle in my body is ready to drag him through his own goddamn house.

“You’ve been in love with her for years,” he spits. “But you just sat there. Watching. Waiting. Letting every other Alpha sniff around while you stayed quiet like a good little lapdog.”

“Don’t,” I warn.

He grins. “But now it’s different, isn’t it? Now that someone else touched her. Now you’re angry. Jealous. Thinking maybe if you had the balls back then, it would’ve been you first. Only you.”

I move again, grab him by the collar, and slam him against the wall hard enough for the drywall to groan.

“You don’t get to talk about her like that,” I hiss. “You don’t get to mock her, use her, throw her out, and then make jokes about it.”

“She came to me, Noah,” he says through clenched teeth. “Don’t forget that.”

I release him, shoving him hard. He stumbles but stays upright.

“You think you’re untouchable,” I say. “Like none of this matters. Like hurting her is just another fucking Tuesday for you.”

Julian rolls his jaw, blood still on his lip. “If she’s so fragile, maybe she shouldn’t be playing with Alphas.”

“You’re not an Alpha. You’re a coward who hides behind his title and money and ruins everything decent that gets near him.”

He moves toward me again, but I don’t flinch.

“You think you’re the better man?” he says. “She’ll always pick the ones who ruin her. That’s who she is.”

“No,” I say, voice sharp, cold. “That’s who you made her think she has to be.”

He freezes, something flickering behind his eyes.

“Stay the fuck away from her, Julian,” I say. “This thing with the hotel, whatever game you’re playing, leave her out of it. She doesn’t owe you anything. And you sure as hell don’t deserve another second of her time.”

He doesn’t answer. Doesn’t try to stop me.

I turn, walk back through the mess. Glass crunches under my boots. The air tastes bitter.

Outside, the cold bites again. But she’s still there. We don’t say much on the drive back. The road is quiet, the city blurred out through the windshield.

I keep glancing at her in the passenger seat—legs pulled up, fingers twisting in her lap, eyes blank. She’s somewhere far from here, but I stay close anyway.

My knuckles ache, skin split raw across the ridge of bone. I deserve worse.

When we get to her place, she unlocks the door with slow fingers. The inside is dim, the scent of home clinging to every corner.

She moves ahead, drops her keys in the bowl near the entry, then turns and looks at my hand. Her brow tightens, lips parting like she wants to say something and isn’t sure if I’ll let her.

“I’ll get ice for your hand,” she says softly.

“I’m an Alpha,” I mutter. “I’ll heal.”

“Please.”

It’s that word. Quiet. Small. Like the strength has bled from her. So I nod.

She disappears into the kitchen, the light flicking on behind her, and I watch her shoulders rise and fall with each breath. She comes back with a towel wrapped around a few cubes, holds it out like an offering.

I take it, pressing it to the bruised swell of my knuckles. Her hands stay close, brushing mine as if she wants to say something with touch instead of words.

“I’m sorry,” she says.

“For what?”

“For tonight. For all of it.”

I lower the ice. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I shouldn’t have gone to him. I thought…” She swallows. “I thought maybe if I apologized, he’d just… I don’t know what I was expecting from him in the first place.”

I study her face. There’s no lie in it. No flicker of guilt or hesitation. Just something sad and worn out. “Why’d you even want to apologize to someone like that?”

“Because I left him without saying anything. And I guess… I just wanted to stop carrying that. I wanted to explain what that day actually was. I don’t know Noah. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

I nod slowly, but Julian’s words crawl back into my skull like a rot. I shouldn’t bring it up, not now. But I do anyway.

“Cora,” I murmur again, my thumb brushing her flushed cheek. “You have to understand—this isn’t a game for me. It never was.”

Her body is already trembling against mine, her scent thick and sweet in the air—ripe with Omega heat.

It clings to my skin, burrows into my head, makes it hard to think of anything but her. Her pupils are dilated, her chest rising and falling too fast, and I know she’s caught in it, too.

The pull.

The bond we’ve both been fighting.

“I don’t want a nice answer,” I say again, voice rougher now. “I want the truth.”

She looks up at me, bare and vulnerable. “You already know the truth.”

“Say it.”

“I want you,” she whispers. “All of you. I always have.”

The last thread of restraint inside me snaps. My Alpha rips free like a wildfire through my veins, possessive, primal, territorial.

I grip her hips and haul her into me, kissing her so hard she moans.

Her scent spikes, sweet and slick and needy, curling between us like smoke. My tongue claims her mouth, teeth dragging against her bottom lip until she whimpers.

“You’re mine,” I growl, voice like gravel. “Say it, Omega.”

“I’m yours.”

The sound of it—fuck. It sends something hot and uncontrollable surging through me.

I spin her around and press her up against the wall, pinning her wrists above her head with one hand. Her chest heaves. Her eyes are wild.

“You know what I want?” I murmur, teeth brushing her ear. “I want to mark you. Right here.” I kiss the crook of her neck, letting my tongue trace the skin just below her gland. “Right where every Alpha will know who you belong to.”

“Do it,” she breathes, arching into me. “I want your mark.”

God.

I drag my tongue across her throat again, slow, possessive, before I bite down—not enough to break skin, not yet, but enough to make her gasp and twist in my grip.

Her panties are soaked. I can smell her arousal, can feel it through the fabric as I press my thigh between her legs.

She grinds down instinctively, chasing friction. The Omega in her is full of need, desperate and slick and ready to be filled. My cock pulses at the thought.

I pull back just enough to yank her panties down and off. She kicks them away, and I drop to my knees, lifting one of her legs over my shoulder.

Her scent is intoxicating—heady, wild, undeniably hers.

“Look at me,” I order.

She does. Wide, hungry eyes locked on mine as I bury my face between her thighs.

Her moan echoes off the kitchen walls the second my tongue touches her. I lap at her slowly at first, savoring the taste of her—ripe and wet and mine.

Then I suck her clit between my lips, flicking it with the tip of my tongue until she cries out, grinding against my mouth.

Her fingers claw at the wall. Her thighs tremble against my shoulders.

“Please,” she begs. “More.”

I growl low, the sound vibrating against her. I slide two fingers into her, feeling the way her tight little body grips them, so wet and hot.

She clenches around me, hips bucking, and I fuck her with my fingers while I keep my tongue on her clit. Her orgasm hits like a wave crashing, and I don’t stop.

I want her trembling.

I want her limp.

Boneless.

Because of me.

When she finally slumps against the wall, panting and dazed, I rise and press my body into hers. My cock throbs against her belly, thick and ready.

“Still want me to stay?” I ask, lips brushing her ear.

“Yes,” she whispers. “Don’t stop. Not now.”

I lift her again, carrying her into the living room, laying her across the couch like something precious and wild.

Her legs fall open, inviting me in. I strip the rest of my clothes off, my eyes never leaving hers. Her gaze dips to my cock, and her breath hitches.

“Cora,” I say, voice shaking with the effort to hold back. “If I start this, I’m not stopping until I’ve knotted you. Until your body takes every inch of me.”

“Then stop talking,” she says, reaching for me. “And claim me.”

That’s it.

I kneel between her legs and line myself up with her slick heat. I push in, slow and steady, and her eyes roll back as I stretch her open. Inch by inch, her tight little body takes me, gripping me like a fist, like she was made for me.

“Fuck,” I groan. “You’re so tight.”

Her nails dig into my shoulders, dragging red marks down my back. I start to move, thrusting deeper with each roll of my hips.

She wraps her legs around me, taking me harder, deeper. Our bodies slap together with every thrust, wet and hot and perfect.

Her Omega scent is everywhere now. My head is swimming in it.

“You feel this?” I growl. “This is what you were made for.”

She moans, hands clutching my hair. “Harder,” she begs. “Please.”

I lose it.

I grab her thighs and hook them over my shoulders, driving into her with deep, brutal thrusts. Her eyes go glassy with pleasure, mouth falling open in a soundless cry.

Her walls pulse around me, squeezing tight as another orgasm rolls through her.

I fuck her through it, relentless, chasing the peak.

“Where do you want me, Cora?” I pant. “Tell me.”

“Inside,” she gasps. “Mark me. Fill me.”

Her voice is wrecked with need, her scent spiking again. I feel the shift in her body—the way her heat takes over, the instinct kicking in. I know she’s close.

I am too.

My knot starts to swell, thickening at the base of my cock. She feels it. Her eyes fly open.

“Oh god—”

“I told you,” I groan, sweat dripping down my back. “I’m not stopping.”

I thrust one more time, and my knot pushes past her entrance and catches in her.

She screams my name as I lock inside her, her walls clenching hard, milking me as I spill into her.

It’s endless, pulsing heat and pressure as my cock throbs and releases deep inside her.

We’re tied now. Physically. Biologically. Irrevocably.

I press my forehead to hers, both of us trembling, breath mingling in the thick silence.

“I’m not letting you go,” I whisper. “You’re mine now, Omega.”

She smiles weakly, fingers tracing my jaw. “Good. I don’t want to be anyone else’s.”

My heart pounds, not from the orgasm, but from something deeper. Something more permanent than sex. Something real.

I brush her hair back from her face and kiss her softly this time—no heat, no hunger, just us. Tied. Together.

Her scent shifts again—satisfaction, belonging.

“Please stay,” she whispers for the third time, and now I know what she means.

“I will,” I say. Forever.

And I mean it.