“Knox.”
His voice rips me out of my thoughts. “What?”
“I want to know why you’re deflecting.”
I shift my weight. “It’s not my place to speak on.”
Walker exhales slowly through his nose. “You’re standing in the back hallway of the main house of my vineyard talking aboutpack leaders while my Omega hasn’t stopped working since dawn. I think it’s at least partially your place.”
That gets my attention. “Your Omega?”
His jaw tightens. “Yeah.”
My eyes widen. “So, you know.”
“Know what?”
“That we’re pack.”
His eyes narrow. “She’s my scent match. That’s all I know.”
“She’s your what?”
He claps his hand over my mouth and backs me into the dark corner once more. My back is pinned to the wall as he glares at me, daring me to raise my voice again.
“I scented her at the Blossom Festival,” he rumbles.
“That’s why you were in the alley with her,” I mumble against his palm.
He looks down the hallway toward where the music is coming from before he removes his hand. He shrugs, taking a step back and smoothing his hands down his button-front shirt.
I lower my voice to a hiss. “That’s why you were all over her in that alley. She’s your scent-match.”
He rakes his hand through his hair. “Come on, I’ll get you set up in the restaurant. You’re eating here, yeah?”
“Ohhh, no you don’t,” I say as I reverse the tables, grabbing his arm so that he can’t get away from me. “You don’t get to drop a bomb like that and walk away from it. How the hell can you stand it? Being away from her?”
“I’m not,” he says as he yanks out of my touch. “So long as she’s here, I can smell her. That’s enough for my instincts right now.”
I can’t believe what I’m hearing. “Why don’t you go in there and show her that she’s yours? My God, I just think she smells divine. But a scent match? I’d be all over her?—”
“You know she’s not like that,” he snarls.
There’s that pack leader side again. “She needs us, and you know it.”
“Well, tell that to her,” he says as he starts down the hallway.
I fall in line next to him. “She hasn’t eaten today, you know.”
He grinds to a halt and whips toward me. “What?”
I’m not sure if that’s technically true, but I roll with it. “I was in there with her for a while and she didn’t mention stopping for lunch. At the very least, she’s been in there for hours, taste-testing her creations and not stopping for an actual meal.”
I watch his jaw work. “And why didn’t you tell her to stop and get some food?”
I smirk. “Didn’t you just tell me she’s not like that?”
His head whips between the direction of the kitchen and my direction for a little while. I’m not sure what I’m trying to accomplish here, to be quite honest. But I’m tired of all the dancing around. Did Eli know this? About Walker being Lia’s scent match?
