Page 26 of Love Me Knot, Part One (Knotty Omegas #1)

Nate shoves Dez out of the way until he’s eradicated every speck of space between him and our omega. Now that he’s beside her again, it’s going to take an act of divinity to separate them. “They’re right. We can’t bite you yet, but I promise to eventually mark you and make you mine, okay?”

Dez strokes her cheek, smiling so softly it makes my throat tight. “We won’t leave you wanting, but can you wait for us, Daphne? Wait until we’re all ready?”

“Yes.”

My head dips and I run my cheek along hers again, pushing the thought of bonding away. I have to take her mind off what she really wants and plant it solely on me. “Good girl. Now, let me take care of you.”

I’m the smallest of us in body and cock, but I sure as fuck know how to use it to my advantage. Adjusting so Daphne’s thighs rest on top of mine, I focus on long, decadent rolls over her g-spot while my brothers lavish their attention on her.

This is my first taste of a true pack heat, and it doesn’t disappoint. It’s not just me that makes Daph come—it’s Nate’s eyes burning along her body. The way Dez bites his lip, palming his dick as he watches her writhe. Our scents soaking the air, the nest and our skin.

She’s still twitching around me when she says, “More.”

There it is. The catchphrase of an omega in heat.

“Do you want all of us?” I ask, hoping I’m not taking this too far.

“Please.”

The way she says it without hesitation, hands already reaching, heals a piece of me that’s festered for too long.

I need my brothers to know what it feels like to be wanted like this.

Desired to the point of distractibility.

Desperate and aching when you’re not around someone.

With my pack at my side, I feel more confident about the heat since I’m not the only one she’ll be begging for through the fog.

Carefully, I flip Daphne so she straddles me. “Show us how well you share, then.”

My hands clasp on her hips and Daph’s motions get wilder. Seeking more, more, more.

She’ll get what she wants soon enough.

Nate plasters himself to her back, watching our bodies meet. “You look so good stretched around our pack lead. Are you ready for me, too?”

“Hell yes,” Daph pants.

Fingers graze my cock as he scoops up slick, and then there’s pressure as Nate slowly works his finger inside her ass.

She jolts, mouth open and glassy eyes wide. “Oh, my god.”

“Like it when you call me that, kitten.”

“Fucks’ sake.” Dez sits close enough to touch our omega, but he holds himself back. Memorizing the moment. I just know he’s going to paint this one day, a collection of heat drawings featuring us…and her .

The first of many.

“Have you ever had two cocks at the same time?” I ask, using a bandana I bought downstairs to pull her curls up while I have the chance. Rut edges close to the surface, ready to swallow me whole the second it can, but not yet.

“No. My old pack…”

I understand her territorial attitude on a visceral level. There should be no discussions about other men while I’m inside her. “They aren’t here. Are they, angel?”

Daph shakes her head, clinging desperately to me as Nate adds another finger. She swallows, eyes locked on the wall. Hiding from me. “Have you done this before?”

Oh, sweet, sad omega. Everything she says breaks me down a little more.

“We haven’t shared a partner or an omega. Haven’t tended a heat together. This is all new to us.” I bring her mouth to mine to steal a kiss, offering a confession in return. “I’m so glad it’s you.”

“You are?”

“Yeah, Daph. I am.” I shouldn’t be, but I can’t stop myself.

We’re caught again, that perfect, comfortable eye contact that feels so strangely necessary.

Nate’s big hands sweep Daphne’s sides, hips and ass as she melts into me. “You ready, kitten?”

“Yes.”

The snick of a lube bottle and the wet sounds of him working it into Daphne’s body fill the nest. When everyone’s ready, Nate and I take her together. The most eager heart and the hardest one, falling apart for the omega we can’t stop touching.

“Fuck, you feel so right,” he groans, teeth gritted in restraint. “We’re going to take such good care of you, Daph.”

“This is just the beginning.” Dez strokes her face, whispering how perfect she looks between us. Swearing when she tilts her head and takes his cock between her lips. Uniting us in a way we’ve never had. One pack, one omega, one heat.

And through it all, Daphne glows. She balances our hard thrusts and Dez’s desperate groans, hands sweeping over our bodies in a way that feels instinctual. Everything.

When she’s come enough that she can barely hold herself up anymore, and Nate and Dez have covered her in cum so their scents sink in, Daphne locks her teeth into my neck at the same time I lock my knot inside her.

It’s Dez’s quick hand and the teeth caps that keep her from going too far. I’m too busy trapping her to me, pulling her closer. Deeper.

It’s the haze , I tell myself, struggling to let her go. To pull her back. In a few hours, this woman has broken open all my defenses with such little effort it’s laughable. Entranced me into her arms and this nest when I swore I’d never do either again.

A miracle, indeed.

One I don’t know how to keep. Or if I even should.

When Dez is sure Daph won’t sink her teeth into me, he pulls away, leaving me to experience the bliss of knotting my omega for the first time. It takes me too long to realize what I’m feeling is wonder.

Awe.

There’s nothing like being this close to Daphne. No partner who compares.

She’s destroyed me and she didn’t even have to try.

“Thank you,” I whisper against her mouth, too needy to let her move away even a bit.

“For what?”

Everything.

A lazy sigh and fluttering lashes are all we get as the heat spike bursts and Daphne becomes dead weight on my chest. Cum leaks from where we touch and I purr, happy to see her body preparing for the next round of chaos.

“She’s perfect,” Nate says, nuzzling against my side with his hand planted firmly on her ass. He gives one great yawn and passes the fuck out.

Dez gawks as he slides over, tracing Daphne’s thighs with barely there touches until they quiver. “Is he?—”

“Asleep? Yeah.” Dead to the world and clutching Daphne like she’s his lifeline. The man who barely sleeps is gone because of her.

“I don’t want to let her go.” Dez stares at her like she’s the end and the beginning. The everything.

My stomach twists, uncertainty pulling the last edges of my sanity around my ears. Without Daphne as a distraction, this is a one minute at a time situation. I can’t talk about forevers and futures right now. “Let’s talk later. For now, just enjoy this.”

The heat forces my knot down fast, but I hold Daphne until she wakes, rubbing against my body with a low, plaintive whine. It should scare me. It does a little, I think. I just don’t care.

Shifting my hips so I slide into her again, I submit to this omega and the rut she created.

It takes four days to surface, and I wake to a cool omega wrapped against my side.

Daphne’s a wreck. Covered in love bites, bruises and cum she refused to wash off for long.

Tangled hair spread across my pillow, bandana long lost to the mayhem.

She looks like she got into a fight with a honey badger and won, but there’s looseness in her limbs that wasn’t there before.

A serene smile that peeks out even in her dreams.

Spun sugar sweetens the air but it’s no longer cavity inducing. The heat’s over.

I’m surprisingly sad about that.

Despite instinct making her mindless, she was gentle with us.

Some omegas are fine with one alpha for a heat, especially if they’re older, but a scent-sympathetic omega needs an entire pack devoted to their care.

Their pleasure. One alpha is not enough to sate them without serious consequences.

Shelby didn’t understand that, and her refusal to try nearly killed me, but Daphne’s need for cum, pheromones and pleasure was easy to manage with my pack around.

If we were too tired, she found someone else.

It was almost like there was a subconscious rotation in her mind: Nate, Dez, me.

Sometimes together, sometimes alone. In between, she rested, offering us the chance to recover, too.

The whole heat was more enjoyable than I expected, especially at the end when she wanted less sex and more snuggles.

Intimacy, like telling stories about our childhood or feeding her in my lap.

There was no terror that it would go on indefinitely, no concern I’d be blamed for someone else’s pain. It was just amazing sex with an incredible woman that I can’t stop staring at.

Because Daphne’s spectacular. Beautiful and charming, even in heat. Funny and quirky. She’s also deeply nurturing, instinctively understanding how to handle three alphas equally without pause. Though we spoiled her, she’s done the same right back, and I don’t know what to do.

The idea of going back to a life without Daph hurts worse than I expect, maybe worse than my divorce did. Yet, my ex-wife nearly destroyed my trust in others to the point that I’m not sure I can do this again. So where does that leave us?

Nate shifts on her other side, looking down at her with the dopiest grin I’ve ever seen. The perma-bags under his eyes are gone for the first time in years, like the heat was a vacation for him. “It was real.”

The wonder he says it with cracks my chest wide. “It was.”

“I don’t want to lose her.”

“She may not be ready.” I hate to bring him down, but someone needs to be realistic. Between what little she shared during her lucid moments and the things we picked up on, it’s obvious Daphne’s wounds are deeper than any of us are prepared for.

“Then we wait however long it takes.” Nate shrugs like it’s perfectly reasonable to go all-in on a woman we just met.

“You can’t be serious. You’re going to court a stranger?”

“She’s not a stranger, Connor. I knew the moment I saw her that she was ours.”

“I want to court her, too.” Dez pokes his head up from Daphne’s thigh, which he’s been using as a pillow. “You ask her, Con.”

“No!” It’s too loud and Daphne shifts in her sleep. Lowering my voice, I try to think through the fear, but the walls feel too tight around us. “I can’t.”

Nate’s large hand grasps the back of my neck, hauling me forward until our foreheads touch. “Stop freaking yourself out. She may be an omega, but Daphne’s nothing like Shelby.”

My ex-wife’s name drops like a bomb, making all of us cringe. I look down, expecting a territorial fit, but Daph’s still asleep. The final stages of the heat knocked her out solid.

Dez pats my leg. “Nate’s right. We already know we’re scent-sympathetic and it’s obvious she likes to share.”

Why aren’t they freaking out? We’ve had this before. The dream house, the dream life, the dream omega. It fell into our laps before we had the brains to understand what we were doing and while we tried our best—while I tried my best—I can’t unsee the damage the last attempt caused.

A heat was one thing, but I can’t be part of forever. I promised myself I wouldn’t.

My head’s shaking before I can even come to terms with my answer. “If you’re courting her, you’re doing it alone.”

“Doing what alone?” Daphne asks sleepily, blinking bleary eyes at us.

It takes everything to hold back from kissing that sweet smile, knowing one touch will make it bloom into something bigger. Something real.

Something I can’t have.