Page 43 of Love Me Knot, Part One (Knotty Omegas #1)

DAPHNE

Connor comes the next evening, leaning against my side of the front porch as I walk out for a sunset stroll. I’m almost disappointed. I’ve been looking forward to seeing what sketches Dez has slipped under my welcome mat all day. Instead, I’m dealing with this.

“Hey, Daph.” Hair a mess, shoulders stooped, dark circles under his eyes. He looks terrible, yet he says my name with such softness. It pisses me off. He doesn’t get to speak to me like I’m something to cherish when he treated me like a fucking criminal.

My walls go up, a near audible click protecting me from whatever he’s going to say. “What do you want?”

“To talk.” Connor’s arms go out to his sides like he’s trying to convince me he means no harm. I was never worried about his fists, only his words. He’s already proven how sharp they can be.

The door opens and Nate pokes his head out, rubbing his chest. “Are you okay? I felt…oh.”

“Nate.” There is so much pain in Connor when he looks at his best friend. His brother. Pain I know Nate shares.

Guilt snakes under my defenses. I’m destroying this pack and we’re not even courting. I sidestep the alphas. “You two should talk.”

Nate reaches for me, growling when I nearly slip away. Those big fingers wrap around mine and the connection settles me again. “This is your home. He should go.”

“Actually, I was hoping we could take a walk. Or a drive. I just want to apologize,” Connor pleads.

His text is sitting unanswered on my phone, along with two more I haven’t opened. Despite my conversation with my friends, knowing what I need to do and getting up the courage to do it are two different things.

Connor hurt me. With things being so new, it feels like a bad omen to have issues so early on.

But you want to court the others, so stop running from the sad alpha and hear him out.

Fuuuuuck. If I could stomp my foot right now, I would.

“Say the word and we’ll make it a party of three” Nate offers, shooting a hard glare at his pack lead.

Connor doesn’t flinch. “If that’s what Daphne wants.”

I almost refuse, too scared of what he might say.

He stripped me to the bone once and I’m not interested in round two.

But I can feel Nate’s anger. His grief. An emotion I think he’s spent too much time with already.

He’s been such a light for me since we met, such a pillar of strength and comfort.

I want to give Connor a chance for him, and for Dez.

It doesn’t have to mean forever.

“You get five minutes.”

Connor’s face lights up with hope and trepidation. “I’ll take it.”

“You don’t have to go, Daph.” Nate winds his arms around me until there’s nothing in the world but him. His lips dance over my forehead, my cheeks. Scent marking me in front of his pack lead. In spite of him.

My fingers trace his jaw gently, something I’ve taken to doing as we lay in bed talking. There’s been no sex, no touching beyond the cuddles we both need, but I’ve never felt closer to another person than I do right now. “I want to try. For all of us.”

His arms tighten around me, head dropping to my shoulder and shuddering when my scent hits. When he finally pulls away, Nate’s face hardens toward his brother. “If you hurt her again...”

“I won’t,” Connor promises.

Squeezing one more time, I step out of the safety of Nate’s arms, motioning down the street. “After you.”

Connor takes the steps first, reaching up to ensure I have a hand if I need and completely unfazed when I don’t take it. When we hit the sidewalk, he gently herds me aside, taking the edge closest to the street without pause.

A glance back shows a frowning Nate watching us walk away and I wonder if he’ll be standing there when we return. Probably. He’s a little bit of a clinger, this alpha. I think I like it.

We’re silent for two blocks before I finally break. “Your time is running out.”

“I’m scared.”

My head whips around so fast, I stumble over a crack in the sidewalk. Connor reaches out to stabilize me but pulls away the second I’m upright. “That’s not what I expected you to say.”

He laughs mirthlessly, so fucking handsome it’s hard to breathe. “We’ll get to the rest of it, but I’d like to start here if that’s okay.”

I shrug, shoving my hood up against the fall drizzle. “It’s your time.”

“I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before, but I was married before. Shelby. We were scent-sympathetic, both presenting early in high school and we just fit . I fell in love instantly. Hard not to when she seemed like the perfect omega.”

There’s long-faded pain in his voice, the sign of an old scar that’s healed but will never fully disappear. But the jealous bitch in me latches onto the name.

Shelby.

I hate her. Don’t feel bad about it, either.

“We got married right out of high school, but she never quite warmed up to the others. Nate hadn’t presented so it wasn’t an issue, but Dez was right there with us.

” Water droplets fall as Connor shakes his head.

“Looking back, I’m not sure I could even say they were friends.

Roommates, at best. I thought it would just take time for their bond to grow.

I won’t go into the details because some of it isn’t my story to tell, but eventually we found out Shelby didn’t want Dez as her alpha. Only me.”

Being an omega means an overload of empathy, but I’d have to be dead inside not to feel the regret pouring off Connor. The guilt that his wife hurt his brother so badly. It’s instinct to reach for him, to hold his hand and hope it brings him comfort. I wish Dez was here so I could do the same.

Connor softens, tugging me closer to his body. “I filed for divorce immediately, but it got messy fast. Morgan Restorations had just taken off and…” he swallows.

“She went after the business,” I guess.

“Yeah. Our friend is an absolute shark of a lawyer. He won by proving she defrauded the pack since there were texts from Shelby to her friends, telling them she’d get me to leave my brothers, eventually. That the bond would come, and they would go.”

My own bare neck aches and I reach for the phantom throb on instinct. “You didn’t bite her?”

His eyes catch on my hand and understanding sweeps over them. “At her insistence. She said she wasn’t ready, but I think it’s because she knew I planned to bond the same omega as my brothers.”

The words are pointed, but I refuse to get my hopes up. I step over for more space but let him keep my hand. “As awful as that was, what does it have to do with me?”

“I wanted you to have some context for why I reacted the way I did at dinner. I’m not saying it was right at all,” he rushes before I can get a word out. “I didn’t realize I had issues with omissions.”

“You called me a liar.”

Connor’s face falls, hand spasming. “I did. I’m sorry. There’s no excuse.”

There isn’t, but given what he’s been through, I can understand it. Besides, aren’t I doing the same to him? Lashing out at his rejection because of Pack Parker?

The question is, do I want to give him a chance to work through it? Both of us, together. I’m not convinced the answer’s yes yet.

Mulling it over for a few more steps, I consider how to broach my question before realizing blunt is better. “Do you still want her?”

“Fuck no.” Connor pulls me to a stop right there on the sidewalk beneath the autumn drizzle. “What I said at Revelry is true. I wouldn’t go back even if she promised everything I ever wanted. Shelby nearly broke us. And you—I think you could be the one who connects us the way we’re supposed to be.”

“That’s a lot of pressure for one person.”

“I don’t mean for it to be. I just want you to know where I stand.”

“And where is that, Connor?”

He steps closer; the rain mixing with his scent perfectly. “Right here. Asking you to give me one more chance to prove I’m worth your time.”

I peer up at him, wishing I could look away, but knowing I have to see his reaction. “Are you saying this because you want to be here or because you’re at risk of losing your pack?”

“Nate told you.” He doesn’t seem surprised. In fact, a crooked grin takes over, lighting up Connor’s entire face. “He’s never been this way with anyone else. Never even looked at someone twice. Then you walk in and he’s ready to burn our pack to the ground to keep you.”

“That isn’t an answer.”

“Truthfully, it’s both. I want my pack together, but I also don’t want to lose you. You fit in a way I never expected.”

Connor’s eyes are so light blue they’re almost like crystal. Easy to peer into, but hard to quantify. Yet, I can see everything he’s hiding in there. Worry, fear, and the tiniest bit of hope that looks so promising.

“You hurt me.”

“I know.” That hope dies and I mourn it immediately. “You deserve so much better than how I treated you, and I understand if you want me to walk away.”

There’s no doubt he’d do it, too. Connor Morgan is a little aloof and a lot broken, but he loves his packmates. It’s so obvious he’d do anything for them, even step aside for their happiness.

“ People aren’t perfect ,” I say quietly, tugging him to walk again.

I can’t be still and talk about this. “I used to repeat that when my alphas told me to be their perfect omega. Humans are messy and flawed. Sometimes we lash out and hurt each other. That doesn’t mean I forgive you or that I deserved it.

It just means I understand why it happened. ”

Air whooshes from Connor’s mouth, and his head bows so he can kiss my fingertips. Each press of his lips feels like a balm across the cold skin.

“I can’t promise it won’t happen again because I don’t want to break my word to you.

We’ll fight, we’ll argue, we’ll hurt each other unintentionally, but the one thing I’ve learned from Dez’s family is that relationships are built in the repair.

” Connor’s voice drops, thumb sweeping over my hand.

“I want to learn what it means to fix things with you, Daph. To heal with you and for you.”