Page 36 of Roommate Wanted (Knotty #1)

Lyall

She was gone from my sight. I felt it in the bond, first her raw and splintering sorrow. Then came the rage—a low ember that roared into molten fury. It scorched through our connection, rattling Conall.

I handed Ewan my glass and scanned the room.

Silver. I needed to see silver.

“Son? What is it?”

my Da asked, but I was already moving, shouldering through the crowd.

The moment I pushed into the toilets, Katie gasped. I ignored her.

“Huv yae seen Nia?”

She shook her head, eyes wide. My pulse thundered in my ears as I stalked back toward the hall. And that’s when I saw her.

Storming across the floor like a bomb dressed in silk.

Straight toward the bar.

My heart tripped. “Nia—”

Too late. She didn't hear me.

“You can trash-talk behind my back all you want, Willow,”

she snarled.

“But your Alpha and Conall are mine. This human is the one they love to knot.”

A gasp shot through the pack like a gunshot. I paused, absorbing her words.

Conall surged forward. Ours, he whispered through the bond, drunk on pride.

Willow snapped.

“You filthy human bitch! My Alpha deserves better than scum like you—”

“I’m from the city, sweetheart,”

Nia hissed, stepping close. “Try me.”

Willow lunged, shifting mid-air into her sable wolf—

But she never made contact.

Another wolf was already there.

Teeth sank into Willow’s throat and dragged her, snarling, across the floor in a blur of black fur and fury.

I froze. The scent hit me like a thunderclap. It was Nia.

“Seal the doors!”

Da barked, shielding us from humans outside the hall.

Nia’s wolf continued to drag her. No one moved to intervene. Not a single wolf dared. She held Willow down until the bitch whined and stilled, tail curled in submission.

Our mate, Conall, breathed reverently. Our wolf.

It was unheard of. Humans didn’t shift. Not even with the bite.

Could it be the bond?

“Yae look confused, son. Get yer mate—we need tae huv’ a wee chat,”

my maw said, patting my cheek like I was still a bairn.

Her touch snapped me out of it.

I rushed to Nia’s side just as she leapt up, planting her front paws on my shoulders and dragging her rough tongue over my face. I laughed—genuinely laughed as all the confusion burned away, replaced by raw, unfiltered delight.

I wrapped my arms around her thick-furred body and buried my face into her neck, inhaling her scent, nuzzling like a beast finally reunited with its own.

Ours, Conall growled inside me, smug and elated.

He was already planning our first run together.

**

The pack had left after I called it a night. Nia stayed by my side until I attempted to coax her into shifting back to her human form. It took me chasing her around the hall before I eventually caught up with her. Conall was no help. He loved seeing her race around. We both felt her sense of freedom in her newfound form.

In the end, I had to use my Alpha command to bring her to heel.

“A feisty wee thing,”

Da whispered to me.

“Just like yer maw was.”

“Please, Da. Ah hud enough o’ you two in ma childhood.”

Nia was wrapped in my cloak, and the red, green, blue and white Tartan suited her. I pulled her onto my lap. Part of me was glad her grey silk dress was in tatters. My possessiveness knew no bounds.

“Right,”

my maw said, passing us around some Glenn Lyall whiskey before she sat down.

“How yae feeling, hen?”

she asked Nia.

“Great. Never felt better,”

she said with a grin before it dimmed.

“Is Willow okay?”

“She’ll be fine. We heal quickly,”

I said, handing her some whiskey.

“Ye’ve heard of the Wulver pack legend?”

I nodded while Nia shook her head.

“He was a Viking wolf who came tae our shores. Through him, our pack started. There are various stories of this shifter, but the most important aspect is often forgotten.”

I frowned, looking at my Da, but his eyes were glued to his mate. Nia leaned forward, waiting for my maw to talk again.

“His mate was a Scottish woman. A human.”

“A human? That's not how the legend is telt,”

I said with a frown.

“Aye, because we shifters think we’re superior to humans. It’s telt the way it wuz tae keep the masses happy and a ‘pure’ bloodline,”

Da said in disgust.

“Yer Da’s right. We keep the diary locked away,”

my maw said, taking a long sip of her drink.

“Ah knew when yer mate was human that she wuz summin’ special.”

“Even if she could’nae shift or bond wae me, she is special,”

I said stiffly.

My da chuckled.

“Aye? Ewan and Callum telt us how ‘special’ she wuz tae yae. Yae were bloody feral, son.”

My maw snickered and nudged my da’s shoulder.

“The pictures of her shrine were the best.”

I felt my cheeks heat up as Nia giggled.

“Just get on wae the story,”

I mumbled under my breath while plotting Ewan and Callum’s death.

“The Wulver wasn’t just a brute. He was the first to bond with a human—marked her, mated her, and when her body couldn’t hold his change, the bond remade her,”

she said, glancing at Nia.

“A bond so strong that it altered her. Just like Nia.”

“They say she rose fae the loch, covered in silver light and fur, her scream shaking the earth as the shift took her,”

Da added before shrugging his shoulders.

“That might huv been a wee bit embellished.”

“Aye, Nia switched intae her first shift like a pro,”

Maw grinned proudly.

“I don't know how it happened,”

Nia said, shaking her head as if she couldn't believe it herself.

“All I could think of was Willow trying to push me away from Lyall and Conall—it made me want to rip her throat out,”

“She was the first, and now there is you. It’s said she had eleven healthy pups.”

Nia choked. “Eleven?!”

“Aye, the most fertile. We’re lucky if we can huv’ one pup let alone multiple pups,”

Maw said before she looked at me.

“We tried so hard fur another after yae, but am looking forward tae hawd ma grandweans.”

“Aye, ah cannae wait tae chase ma wee rascals aboot,”

Da said, but there was longing in his voice beneath the humour.

Nia leaned into me, her fingers brushing my neck. The bond hummed between us, gliding and entwining together.

Love, devotion, and a future full of pups.

“I think this is why I'm not allergic to Conall’s fur,”

Nia said, sitting up like she had a revelation.

My parents began to chuckle while I grinned at her, and Conall went in a huff.