Page 22 of Their Knotty Pack (Starbrook City Omegaverse #3)

Bethany

T hirty minutes and a quick rinse-off shower later, I exit the bathroom hand-in-hand with Miles, both of us dressed in the clothes he had packed for us.

My leggings are soft and cozy, my oversized shirt falls comfortably over one shoulder.

Miles is wearing the anime t-shirt I had stolen in my panic and sweatpants.

I guess we really didn't count on meeting our true scent matches at the clinic.

"We owe you two an apology," Brody says as soon as we step into the room. The three of them are also freshly showered—they must have gone to the communal volunteer showers.

My brows immediately shoot up. Huh. He beat us to the punch. We were supposed to apologize to them .

"What for?" Miles asks incredulously, hiking the overnight bag further on his shoulder.

All three men eye the bag like they want to take it from him, and they better not even try.

Just because Miles is an omega, it doesn't mean he can't carry his own damn bag.

He works out a ridiculous number of hours just so doesn't look like someone who needs help carrying things.

"Well," Brody's eyes leave the bag and settle on us again, "we need to apologize to Bethany for not giving her a second to breathe before revealing the whole being-bitten-and-bonded thing.

And to you, Miles, for not deferring to you on how to handle things.

It should have been obvious that just because Bethany's omega felt compelled to claim Kieran, it didn't mean she was on the same page, or even knew what was going on. "

Shit, he's diplomatic.

"We…we were actually going to apologize to all of you," Miles admits. "Even though we weren't planning on finding a pack…maybe ever…well, we talked in the bathroom and agreed that we at least need to let the bond settle between Bethany and Kieran, and see where to go from there."

"So…you'll give us a chance?" Brody's face lights up in this way that makes my heart clench.

Then Kieran smirks at me and I want to punch his stupid hot face.

"We'll be the best pack you've ever seen," Damien purrs, stepping up to us.

Before I can react, he has my hand in his and is pressing a kiss to the back of it.

The brush of his lips on my skin short-circuits my brain.

Has anyone ever kissed the back of my hand before?

"You may have bonded the abominable snowman first, bright eyes, but I'm a patient man. I can wait however long you need."

I don't have a chance to react to his presumption before Kieran is grumbling. "Stop calling me that. It doesn't even make any sense."

The snort that leaves me is undignified and not eloquent in the slightest. Damien grins knowingly at me, while Kieran glares.

"Something funny, chompy?"

I…what?…Chompy? Realization hits me and indignation fills my chest. "Fuck off, abominable snowman."

"This is going to be fun," Damien smiles, "I quite like how feisty you are, bright eyes. But you should know, it was Miles who called you that first."

My jaw drops as I turn to my omega, who is looking at me sheepishly .

"Sorry, nymph. I had to keep you from biting Brody, and it just kind of slipped out."

Fuck. I almost bit another of the alphas? What the hell is wrong with me?

We're finally exiting the building of Sweet Heat, after they made all of us sign non-disclosure agreements. Cam assured me they would be implementing a new requirement to have a meeting with any alphas before a heat hits, so this doesn't happen to anyone else.

Lucky them.

Miles sighs as we hit the sidewalk, "Well, should we—"

"Would it have killed one of you to answer your damn phone?" A voice calls out from across the parking lot, and I see a hulking alpha stomping towards us, fire in his eyes. He looks to be of Asian descent, his dark brown eyes searching Brody, Kieran, and Damien as if assessing their well-being.

"Shit," Brody hisses as Miles stiffens next to me, his steps faltering, "we forgot to call Hunter. This isn't going to—"

Hunter? Who the hell is Hunter? He can't be a packmate. If he was, he would have been in that heat clinic with us, right?

My eyes train on the huge man approaching us, his ink-black hair ruffled like he's been running his hands through it. Everything about him screams "head alpha". I can feel Miles' attraction through the bond, and I realize he can feel everything I'm thinking about this mysterious alpha.

A shining badge flashes on his hip and my brows raise. Is this guy a cop? Are the men who tended me through my heat actually wanted criminals or something? Or did the heat clinic call the cops on me?

Despite him possibly being here to arrest us for forcibly bonding someone, my omega purrs in the back of my mind at the sight of his white button up pulling tight over his muscles, his brown leather shoulder holster making him look even more imposing.

His red tie is loosened somewhat—maybe he's off duty.

Though my omega wouldn't mind this alpha patting her down or even strip searching—Miles hand tightens in mine as the alpha comes to a stop five feet away.

"Is that a bite mark?" His sharp words jolt me out of my unwelcome train of thought, his eyes fixated on the reddish mark on Kieran's shoulder. Why the hell did he have to wear a tank top?

"Yeah," he grunts, before jerking his head at me. "Chompy over here got a little bite-happy."

Hunter's eyes darken as they settle on me, and he takes another step forward. His gaze finds the fresh bite mark on my shoulder, thanks to my off-the-shoulder top. "You bonded—" his nostrils flare as his steps come to a halt, his pupils dilating.

That's the moment that ginger and lemon hits me, and suddenly, I realize that was the scent I was missing before. Both the scent card and the heat suite had felt somehow incomplete, but now? Being surrounded by all these scents…shit. I can't be going straight into another heat, can I?

"True scent match?" He asks in disbelief, his pupils still blown. "Both of you?"

"Surprise!" Damien yelps, throwing his hands up. "A scent-matched omega pair is our scent match. Who knew?"

"Two omegas?" Hunter shakes his head, looking between the two of us. "I've never heard of that before—"

Kieran rolls his eyes. "Archie De Lucca's parents are a scent-matched omega pair—" My blood freezes in my veins. How did they…

"How do you know my brother?" I snap, whirling on him. They all look at me like I've grown a second head. Well, besides Miles, who is looking at them like they're the crazy ones .

"Your brother ?" Damien asks in disbelief, his eyes searching my face for a split second before his expression relaxes and he nods once. "Actually, that checks out. I'm surprised I didn't notice it before. The resemblance is uncanny ."

"Don't talk about me like I'm not here." My voice is harsh, and Damien's brows shoot up, obviously unused to my ire being pointed towards him. "And nobody is answering my question."

"If you're Archie's sister, then you know his omega, Cady." Kieran's voice is calm, but my eyes narrow. Of course I know Cady. Even if I wasn't Archie's sister, everyone knows Cady De Lucca. She's the damn Knotty Omega. "Well, her best friend is Hannah Beckham, and I'm…Kieran Beckham. Her brother."

Well, fuck.

I bit my sister-in-law's best friend's brother.

I feel like I've heard that country song somewhere.

"You're Hannah's brother?" I have no idea what's wrong with me, but I can't stop the next words that come out of my mouth, "But she's so sweet, and you're, well…" I wave my hand in his general direction, and Brody snorts.

Hunter looks at me like he's never seen a woman before, while Damien's expression makes it seem like he's one second away from kissing me.

My words snap Miles out of his daze where he was just eye-fucking the cop in the middle of the parking lot. He runs a hand over his face. "Little nymph…"

"It's fine," Kieran smirks, "I was just thinking the same thing about you and your brother."

My mouth drops open, and Hunter seems to shake his mind free of whatever had been previously holding him captive. "What the hell happened in there?"

What does he mean what happened? We just told him, I bit and bonded my brother's omega's best friend's brother.

There's that country song again .

"You're not going to even introduce yourself to your scent-matched omegas?" Damien asks, walking to Hunter and shoving an elbow in his side. "Eomma would be appalled. Omegas," he grins at us, waving a hand in front of Hunter, "This is Detective Hunter Song, our head alpha."

Head alpha? And he didn't come to the heat clinic with them?

Before I can remind myself that I don't care what this alpha, or any of these other pack members think, Kieran cuts Damien a scathing look. "Head alpha? We never discussed that."

"We didn't have to," Damien shrugs, and I wonder why the hell we just got dropped in the middle of this new-pack drama. "It's just fallen into place naturally—"

Kieran snorts a derisive laugh. "Sure."

I can't deal with this right now. I can't wonder why Hunter wasn't at the heat clinic when I don't even want the damn alphas, and I sure as hell can't deal with this "battle of the alphas" dominance scenario we've found ourselves in.

"Just how newly formed are you guys?" I hear Miles ask as I pull my phone out of my pocket. Pressing the button to power it on, I tune out the noises around me as text after text pings. Cady, Archie, and Lanie have all texted multiple times.

Cady

Hey Beth! Text me after you check out, just want to check in. I remember my first one after coming off suppressants and it was a doozy *silly face emoji*

Me:

We're all good! Well, kind of. But everyone is physically safe and I'll update you later.

I left my plants with Lanie so she could water them, but I doubt she'd text five times about them.

Biting my lip, I check her message first.

Lanie

Happy for you and Miles!

Lanie

Hey, I know you're in the middle of your fuckfest or whatever, but Pack Hansen left a sticky note on my door for you to call them.

Lanie

Again, I know you can't answer, but now they've come to the house.

Lanie

Should I call your brother? He's in a pack with that security guy.

Lanie

I'm calling Archie.

Shit, shit, shit .

Why are they suddenly interested again? Because they saw Miles and I together?

Archie's first message had come in twenty minutes after Lanie's last one.

Archie

We've set Lanie up with some security cameras for her apartment and if she needs it, Titus will send over a guard. They don't know where you're living now, but I'd still keep an eye out.

Archie

Noah is offering to 'ruin their lives'.

Ha. Shaking my head, I send off two separate messages to Arch and Lanie, apologizing to Lanie and assuring Archie that I'm okay. I'll have to fill them in on the whole accidentally-biting-and-bonding-an-alpha-I-can't-stand thing later.

"Everything okay?" Miles asks in my ear, and I look up to see the attention of every male on me.

My mouth goes dry. The way they look at me…it's not like they want to dress me up and display me somewhere for everyone to see, which is what I had been used to from Pack Hansen. At the time, it had made me feel special. Important.

The way these men look at me though, even Kieran, who seems as fond of me as I am of him, and Hunter, who just met me…well, they look at me like they want to wrap me up and keep me all to themselves.

"Yeah, um, Pack Douche Canoe showed up at Lanie's place, but Titus got her set up with security.

" I purposely leave out that they were looking for me, knowing he'll infer it anyway.

Dealing with growly alphas who are only possessive of me because of a scent match is not something I want to deal with right now.

"So, are we going to just stand in the parking lot all day?" Damien asks nonchalantly, "Or are we going to figure out where to go from here?"

"Well…" Miles shoots me a tentative look. "We talked, and since we don't want either Bethany or Kieran to develop any sort of bond sickness, we thought it might be good for us to stay together in the meantime."

"We have a four bedroom house we're renting," Hunter says quickly. "We can double up so the two of you can each have your own room."

Something in me cracks. He just offered to give up his own personal space so both Miles and I can have our own rooms? After this whole bonding thing was just…thrown on him?

"We share a nest," I tell him quickly, "so we only need one room. "

"And," Miles jumps in, "I inherited a farmhouse on the edge of town a few years ago, it's where Bethany and I live now. With plenty of room for everyone. If you guys are interested."

The other guys exchange a look. This is the part that Miles fought me on. I don't see why we need all of the pack members to live with us while the bond settles. Then he helpfully pointed out that if we're really giving them a chance, that would require all of them to be present.

Damn his perfectly acceptable logic.

They agree, and with that, we all head to our respective cars. Kieran, Hunter, Damien, and Brody need to go home first to pack some things, and I need to get home to check on my plants.