Page 34 of Their Knotty Pack (Starbrook City Omegaverse #3)

Brody

I t's finally the end of the week.

Friday. Which means, tomorrow is Saturday and the whole pack will be home all day. For the first time.

It's five-fifteen when I open the door to the farmhouse Miles' great-uncle left him. I've been taking my promise to be home at a reasonable hour very seriously. Though, I'm a bit miffed when the first thing I hear is Kieran and Bethany bickering with each other.

I thought we had gotten past this?

"Come on, sunshine," Kieran scoffs, his hands on his hips as he faces off with our omega in the front room, "you can't be serious."

"Oh, I'm dead serious, Kieran." Bethany's voice is even as she stares him down. "Tell me how I'm wrong?"

"Well first of all," he rolls his eyes, "the mediums are different—"

"Okay, then comic Superman vs. manga Sailor Moon. Sailor Moon wins every time. It doesn't matter if you compare anime Sailor Moon to movie Superman or vice versa, Sailor Moon is arguably more powerful."

What the fuck did I just walk into ?

"Superman can fly!" Kieran's hands go up in the air as he waves a comic book about. "X-ray vision! Laser eyes! How could your magical girl beat any of that?"

"She can time travel," Bethany jabs a finger at the cover of her book, "warp reality. She has literal magic! Her speed is 'faster than light' in her Eternal form! Superman is faster than a speeding bullet! Pretty sure light is faster than a bullet."

"The question isn't who's faster it's—" Kieran cuts off when he sees me slowly enter the room. "Oh, hey man."

Bethany's scowl turns into a blinding smile, "Brody! You're home."

"I am," I return her smile as I kick my shoes off by the front door. Why does her referring to this house as "home" for me make me feel all giddy inside? "You guys okay?"

Her smile turns into a confused frown. "Yeah? Why wouldn't we—oh! No we aren't fighting. Right?" She arches a brow at Kieran.

"Right," he grins, "our relationship just requires us to have a good…debate once in a while. Apparently."

I chuckle, shaking my head. "If it keeps you two from going at it like mortal enemies, then have at it.

" I go to Bethany to give her a kiss on the cheek, since we haven't shared an actual kiss since that evening in the kitchen.

She surprises the hell out of me by grabbing the lapels of my suit jacket, and pulling my chest flush with hers.

It's like a damn choir of angels starts singing when she gets on her tiptoes and kisses me, her tongue deftly sliding into my mouth.

Raspberry and hibiscus.

My briefcase drops to the carpet as my hands come up to cup her face. She lets out a little breathy moan that has my cock hardening instantly.

All too soon, she pulls back, her hands still gripping the lapels of my jacket, her cheeks flushed as she stares up at me. "Will you…will you hang out with me tonight? We can watch a movie or something?"

My heart skips a beat, my chest warming at the hope in her eyes. "Of course, beautiful. I would love that. Just let me go grab a shower and get changed, okay?"

"She could join you in the shower," Kieran smirks, answering me before Bethany can.

"She's really good at reaching right between—hey!

" A pillow hits him square in the face, but Bethany is still in my arms. Our heads whip around to the direction of where the pillow came from, and Bethany and I laugh when I see Miles popping up from behind the couch, another throw pillow in his hand.

He lets out an uncharacteristic squeak when Kieran spots him, letting out a playful growl. "Oh, you're gonna pay for that."

"Only if you catch me, abominable snowman!" He shoots Bethany and I wink before turning in the other direction, running up the stairs. "And in case you didn't know, Superman is vulnerable to magic!" He calls over his shoulder, and Kieran takes off after him, grinning like a maniac.

I have to admit, Miles knows how to get his omega one-on-one time with their pack members. He's such a wonderful mate to her—I'm not sure I would have been so open to sharing if I had her to myself for a month before meeting the rest of the pack—scent match or not.

"Have they…?" I trail off, cheeks heating when I realize I probably have no right to ask that question.

"Oh, um…" Bethany's cheeks are almost as red as mine. "No. Just a lot of kissing and heavy petting at this point. It's all still pretty new to everyone."

I don't know if that makes me relieved or not. Shaking my head, I force a grin and take a step back towards the stairs.

"I'll be fast. Ten minutes," I tell her, just in case she thinks I took Kieran seriously and now expect her to join me .

She smiles sweetly at me. "I'll be waiting."

That gives me all the motivation I need to spring upstairs and take the quickest shower of my life.

Bethany had been in little shorts and one of Kieran's shirts when I got home, so I opted to get dressed in basketball shorts and tank top.

I need to get her in one of my shirts.

When I bound down the stairs after my shower, I see that she's set up the coffee table with a bowl of popcorn and some smaller bowls of candy.

Cans of soda—mainly my favorite, orange soda—and water bottles line one side of the coffee table, and she's brought a bunch of extra throw pillows to the couch.

"Where's Cal?" I ask, noting that the temperamental plant that usually lives on the coffee table is nowhere to be seen.

She looks up from where she's standing in the middle of the room, a big blanket in her hands.

She freezes at the sight of me, speaking quickly before cutting herself off.

"I moved him to the kitchen for tonight.

I thought—" Then she frowns and looks around the room.

"Is this too much? I was trying to make it a cute little night, that you could relax after a stressful day at work, but now I'm thinking this was silly—"

"I love it," I tell her before she can spiral.

And I do. It's sweet, thoughtful, and so damn cozy looking I want to wrap her up like a burrito with the blanket she's holding and never let her go.

A mild, simmering rage that's been present since I found out she used to have a pack becomes more prevalent in my mind, her reaction to seeing me making it obvious they would put her down for things like this.

"This is the best, and just what I needed. Thank you for setting this up for me. "

She looks up at me hesitantly as I make my way over to her, and cautiously pull her into my arms, the blanket she's holding acting as a buffer between us.

"I mean it," I press a kiss to her forehead, "I can't believe you knew my favorite soda."

"You always drink it with dinner," she says quietly, then closes her eyes and lets out a sigh. "I'm sorry, I didn't…I'm just used to alphas…thinking my efforts are silly."

Her words stoke that low simmering rage just a bit further. "Miles…he didn't give us details, but he said you used to have a pack? Will you…will you tell me about them?"

So I can feed their information to Noah Beckham and ruin their pitiful lives—

"There's not a whole lot to tell." Her cheeks pinken, but it's not in that shy, adorably embarrassed way.

No, this is…shame. "I stayed with a pack who I now realize were horrible alphas for three years, despite them never trying to bond me or bite me.

It wasn't until I saw them trying to get with another omega that I realized, and… well…I left."

There has to be more to it than that.

Her phone ringing makes us both jump, and Bethany backs away, taking her phone out of her pocket and scowling as her scent tinges with stress. "It's like we summoned them or something," she mutters before angrily pressing the "decline" button.

Forget the simmer. The carefully contained rage threatens to bubble over at the thought of those low-lifes even thinking of my omega. "Have…have they been calling you?"

Huffing, she flops onto the couch and I follow suit. "Just for like…the last week or so. They saw Miles and I leave the heat clinic together when we had our consultation, and they got all pissy, saying that if Miles and I were going to get together anyway, why couldn't they just have both of us."

Assholes .

"Have you told any of the other guys they've been harassing you?" I try so hard to keep the edge out of my voice. Then, her words hit me. "Wait, what do you mean 'anyway'?" I ask, sitting up slightly.

"What?" Her face goes blank, like she gave away too much.

"You just said, 'if Miles and I were going to get together anyway ."

She grimaces. "Miles…he's the other omega they were trying to get with."

"I'm sorry… what ?"

She takes pity on me and my shocked expression, detailing what happened the night she discovered them, and then six months later, how she and Miles figured out it was her scent he was attracted to the entire time.

How he had no idea that they already had an omega, otherwise he never would have met with them.

That they discovered their scent-match status pretty much immediately, and the rest is history.

"I haven't told anyone about the calls, not on purpose…I just want them to go away. Would you mind…if any of the others ask, can you tell them all that for me? I don't know if I can go through telling that story again."

"Of course, beautiful," my hand reaches over to grab her knee, "on one condition."

Her eyes dart to my hand as she bites her lip. "What's that?"

"I need you to give me their names."

"They…they're lawyers, like you. Pack Hansen. Chris, Tucker, Grayson, and Preston."

Well, shit. I know them.

No wonder she clammed up the moment I came downstairs.

"What's that look?" she asks, brows furrowing as she sits up and tilts her body towards me.