Page 23 of Their Knotty Pack (Starbrook City Omegaverse #3)

Hunter

M y fingers tighten on the steering wheel, my grip white-knuckled as I drive home. How the hell did we get into this mess? The guys go to blow off some steam at a heat clinic, and we come away with a bonded omega? How the hell does that even happen?

Four words: true fucking scent match.

Why did we have to meet them at a heat clinic of all places?

Why couldn't we have come across them naturally, like at the supermarket or a book store? Just the memory of their scents—raspberry, blueberry, dark chocolate and something flowery—makes my mouth water.

My cock had actually slightly stiffened.

No arousal—since I don't even know them, but just the fact I got a semi speaks too clearly on what exactly this scent match means.

Biologically speaking. They were both beautiful, of course.

The female, Bethany, looked like she had just rolled out of bed, her cheeks still slightly flushed and her hair thrown into a messy bun.

Miles, the rare male omega, looked at her with such love and devotion in his eyes, it made my chest ache .

Her eyes…though blue, were paler than his hair, immediately making me think of these Spanish Bluebells Eomma used to be obsessed with.

Their beauty is dangerous.

Sooner or later, we're going to be powerless to resist it.

I like things predictable. I need to be in control. This situation rips both those necessities to absolute shreds.

By the time I pull into our driveway, I still don't know what to make of everything.

All I can think about is how we suddenly have two omegas we need to get to know.

The guys have had five days to come to grips with this fact, and they didn't even text me to give me a heads up.

Not a single "Oh something bad happened", or "we accidentally bonded an omega that's already bonded to another omega" to be seen.

Five days. Five days of knowing my pack was locked in a room somewhere, fucking a random omega through their heat, and I was…alone. Luckily I had my work to bury myself in. We're this close to nailing that damn omega trafficking ring.

Then the heat clinic called, informing me on an incident but wouldn't tell me what happened.

So, naturally, I assumed the worst. Five days of stewing my own worry and self-pity.

I know it's my own fault I wasn't there. How could I have seen any of this coming though?

Kieran knocks on my window, giving me a questioning look.

I sigh, getting out of the car, and as he looks me up and down, a smug-ass grin takes over his features.

He likes that I'm feeling out of control.

Well, he's about to find out what happens when an alpha who needs to be holding reigns gets them ripped away.

"What the hell even happened?" I snap, slamming the door shut and rounding on the alpha .

"Hunter…" Brody is suddenly next to us, his own car abandoned on the curb.

"No," my voice is harsh, "somebody owes me a godsdamned explanation. How the fuck did you all go in to tend to an omega in heat, only to come home bonded to one who already has a mate?"

"Like I said earlier," Kieran grits out, all amusement gone from his features, "she bit me first. My alpha went into a rut and bit her back."

He looks at me like I'm the crazy one. An alpha going into rut…it's not something that happens often, and if it does, it's not publicly spoken about. "I really thought you had more self control than that," I say coldly, careful to not let any emotions show through.

"Self control?" He lets out a bitter laugh.

"They gave us all rut blockers and I still went into a rut.

I was fine until she bit me. Have you ever been in an essentially air-tight room with not one, but two of your scent-matched omegas while one of them is in heat?

" Then he smirks. "Of course you haven't.

Because you were too much of a coward to join the rest of us. "

A coward? Me, a coward? "Just because I didn't want to participate in cheap, meaningless sex, it doesn't make me a coward.

" My words trigger something in Kieran, his eyes going dark as he pins me to the car with his arm across my throat.

He's not the only one responding to my thoughtless jab, if the low growl from Brody is anything to go off, and I immediately regret my poor choice of words.

"How dare you speak that way about Bethany and Miles. It was neither cheap nor meaningless." His eyes burn conviction, and if I didn't just realize I had insulted our mates, I would throw him off me.

Gritting my teeth, I pry his arm from across my throat and level him with a glare.

"Okay, fine, that's not what it ended up being, but that's what you went for.

None of you," I look to Damien and Brody as well, "knew you were going to be meeting two scent matches, so don't pretend you had some greater motive here.

If I had known that our true scent matches were going to be there, I probably would have joined you. "

Kieran nods as he steps back, my point made, but I continue, "I"m not going to lie, this is freaking me the hell out. I have no idea what to do here. I've had all of twenty minutes to wrap my head around it."

"We should have texted you right away," Brody grimaces, rubbing the back of his neck, "that's our fuck up, man."

Sighing, I shake my head. "I'm sure things were more than a little messy. I don't blame you for being distracted with all the pheromones running wild. We just need to figure out what's going to happen now. What we want, as a pack."

"Them, obviously," Kieran snaps at me, and I suppress the uncharacteristic urge to roll my eyes.

"Bethany didn't seem too happy that she had bonded you." My words have the guys pausing, all exchanging glances. "What?" I ask, when it becomes obvious they know something I don't.

"Miles wouldn't give us the full details—he said it wasn't his information to give—but mentioned that Bethany had been with a pack until…she wasn't."

Why does the thought of her with another pack make the carefully controlled threads of emotion I keep so close to my chest threaten to unravel? "She…had a pack?" My voice chokes.

"For three years, I guess." Damien holds up his phone.

"I may have looked her up on Instagram on the way over here.

The posts of her with some douchey alphas had started in August over three years ago, and then this last October, they just…

stopped. There's a vague text post on Christmas Eve about asshole alphas," he shoots Kieran a devious grin, "but then… nothing. She's been a ghost."

Three years ?

"Well, her omega forcing the bond makes sense now," Brody mutters, rubbing at his face, "if she was with the same pack for that long and they never bonded her."

"Let me see that," I hold out my hand to Damien, and Brody and Kieran gather behind me as I scroll through the feed. Selfies with slightly annoyed looking alphas, some with a purple-haired girl. Mostly photos of different plants with names underneath. Did she… name her plants?

Barry, Cal, Penny… A smile tugs at my lips as I keep scrolling, until I reach a photo of her, dressed up for what looks like a black-tie event, four alphas in tuxes surrounding her.

It's the only photo where they don't look annoyed at being photographed, the next one is a picture with the caption "Visiting my parents!

" with her and a couple that are unmistakably her parents.

Then that post on Christmas Eve that Damien mentioned, then… nothing.

"She named her plants," Brody comments, chuckling as he shakes his head. "I think whatever she went through with those alphas, it put her off packs. She and Miles are obviously deeply in love, and whatever we do, we cannot even give the impression that we would favor one over the other."

"Because we wouldn't," Kieran growls, stepping away from me.

"Of course not," Brody says carefully, "I'm just saying we need to be careful to make sure they understand that."

"So…" Damien takes his phone out of my hand and pockets it before we all head inside, tired of having private conversations in our driveway.

As soon as the front door shuts behind us, Damien's asking the question I'm sure has been niggling at him since they discovered the fact we have a male scent-match.

"Are you guys all bi now? Because you're a little late to the party but you're welcome to attend. "

Brody frowns. "I'm not sure that's how I would classify it. I don't think I'd be attracted to just any random guy, but Miles? There's something about him that… "

"Makes me want to wrap him up and keep him safe," Kieran finishes. "For the record, I've always been attracted to both women…and men. I had just never met a guy I wanted to explore that attraction with."

Damien's jaw drops in mock outrage. "Not even me?"

"Especially you, Damien." He smirks, and Damien barks out a laugh.

"Right back at you, which is saying something, because usually I'll fuck anything."

Kieran rolls his eyes and then they give me a look like they're expecting me to also answer Damien's incredibly invasive question.

"Well…" I trail off, clearing my throat.

"Don't act like you didn't want to throw them down on the pavement right then and there," Kieran needles, pushing past me to head upstairs.

I kick my shoes off and take a deep breath, ignoring Damien's muttering of "barbarian alphas". I'm not going to let Kieran goad me. "I didn't, actually."

Sure, my cock got kind of hard, and they were both breathtaking, but the feelings of arousal weren't there yet. I'm not the kind of guy who will stuff his face with delicious looking cake just because it's sitting there.

Kieran turns around to give me an appraising look. "I didn't take you for a liar, detective."

"I'm not lying." Another deep breath. I can feel the vein in my forehead start to throb, but he will not draw a reaction out of me. I won't allow it.

"You're telling me that you're the singular outlier?

That out of all the alphas in the world, you alone are not overcome with lust for your true fucking scent match?

" Kieran takes a step towards me, tilting his head.

"You know what? You didn't want to come with us to the heat clinic, so maybe you just can't get it up.

Did we make an impotent alpha the leader of our pack? "

My fist flies out before I can stop it, landing square on his jaw. His head snaps back, and his hand comes up to cup the red mark left on his skin. In the next instant, both Damien and Brody have hands on me, trying to hold me back like I might try to go after him a second time.

Kieran rubs at his jaw, a gleam of satisfaction in his eyes that he managed to make me lose control. "Hit a nerve, did I?"

Fucking prick.

I just need to tell him and get it over with.

"Not that it's any of your business," I snap, shaking free of Brody and Damien's hold.

"But I can't feel any sort of sexual attraction to someone unless I have an emotional connection first. So, it wouldn't have mattered to me either way if our omega was male or female, that has never played a role for me. "

Kieran only purses his lips, his eyes looking over me questioningly. Damien sounds shocked. "How did I not know that about you?"

I shrug as Brody gives me an affirming pat on the back. Somehow, telling them that, I feel lighter. I suppose I've saved myself the trouble of explaining my reasoning for not taking the omegas to bed at the same pace as the rest of them.

If that even happens.

"Actually, that could work in our favor." Kieran's states looking pensive.

I arch a brow. How the hell could my sexual orientation work in our favor?

"Bethany obviously has some damage when it comes to packs. You, needing that emotional connection…well, it will assure her that we're not just using them for sex. The fact that we're all true scent matches doesn't mean anything to her."

"You need to lay off her," Brody says suddenly, glaring at Kieran. "She's been through enough shit without you being a dick to her all the time. "

"Me?" Kieran's eyes widen, "Dude, she bit me ! Besides, she needs someone who can dish her bullshit right back to her."

Shaking my head, I go to my room and change out of my work clothes. It's time to pack a bag and face the music of what the little omega has done to us.