Page 7 of Knot Their Starlet

“Beckham! What are you doing with her?”

“Have you two been a thing before tonight?”

“Mr. Knight, do you know what happened to the omega?!”

Their questions become indistinguishable from each other, rising in a wave that crashes over my entire body.

“Enough questions!” Eli—the alpha—snarls, getting between the two of us and the crowd of paparazzi, urging us backward.

“I’m sorry,” I whimper, hiding my face from all the flashes by burying it in Beckham’s t-shirt.

I take a deep breath of him and suddenly, my head doesn’t hurt anymore.

“Sorry? Don’t be fucking sorry,” he murmurs. “Let’s just worry about getting out of here. You’ve gotta stay with me, okay?”

“Mhmmm,” I hum, my eyes fluttering shut.

And then… the world goes dark.

CHAPTER 2

Beck

The roar of the crowd is deafening, or at least it feels that way. The cacophony of sound bounces around my skull, growing higher and higher in pitch until all I can hear is a piercing ringing noise.

I turn wide eyes to my left, sinking into familiar dark pools. Eli’s dark hair is slicked away from his face, drawing my eyes along the sharp cut of his jaw, covered in the perfect amount of stubble. It casts a dark shadow across his tan skin.

His face is split into a rare grin, transforming his normally dour expression into one of unbridled, almost childish joy and pride.

The look sparks through me, jolting me back into my body.

Eli seems to notice something in my expression, because he instantly averts his gaze.

Good. There are cameras on us.

Now I just need to figure out a way of twisting my face into something appealing. The version of my face plastered onto the screen right now doesn’t feel like me.

My movements are stiff and robotic as I push myself up from my chair. Eli’s blood orange scent wraps itself around me. There’s a part of my brain that always seems to be aware of him.

I blame it on my stupid omega hormones.

I turn to my right, towards my other best friend, Leo. Technically, he’s my publicist. The shield that keeps the vultures at bay, as Eli likes to put it.

“You won a Grammy, Beck!” Leo says, squeezing my shoulder before wrapping me in a tight hug. His warm paper scent is milder than Eli’s. I’m grateful. Leo’s beta scent is exactly what I need right now.

I think the stress of this situation is making my nose extra sensitive. Despite the high ceilings here, the mix of all these scents is giving me a headache.

His normally sharp eyes are twinkling crescents as he flashes a bright grin at me.

“So proud of you, man,” he says, running a hand through his dark hair, parted down the middle.

“Thank you,” I sigh, my face relaxing into a genuine smile.

I’ve known Leo and Eli since we were in kindergarten together. They’ve been my rocks throughout the chaos of everything. There’s no one else I’d rather celebrate this milestone with.

I turn to Eli, swallowing hard. I can still feel the cameras on me. My lizard brain can’t seem to tell the difference between the barrel of a gun and the lens of a camera right now. I feel far too vulnerable.

My hug with Eli is far more chaste than the one I shared with Leo. But I still soak in the comforting scent.