Page 87 of Knot Their Starlet

Instead of eating the piece of meat himself, he blows on it gently before offering it to me.

I take it, blinking up at him.

“Have you ever thought about having a pack?” His question catches me off guard. That’s the last thing I expected him to ask.

My mind immediately jumps to Nancy’s bond marks. She’s the most mentally stable person I know—probably because it’s her job to appear that way during our sessions—and she has a pack. Does that mean I could have one too?

“This isn’t me saying you need to or anything,” he continues, the first sign of nervousness I’ve seen all night, evident in the tenseness of his shoulders. “I’m just curious.”

I mull the thought over in my mind.

Technically, omegas have been getting rarer. Our numbers are pretty similar to what they were two generations ago, even though the overall population has grown. That’s even taking into account the male omegas that are starting to pop up.

Especially since the development of the unbonding process, society has been a lot more welcoming to alpha packs that all bond the same omega. It used to be a thing limited to small towns, but that’s not the case anymore.

“A little bit,” I say, after swallowing the delicious bite of food.

“Is that something you’d be interested in?”

My mom would freak out. For whatever reason, she has a thing for monogamy. Well, the kind of monogamy where she tends to go after alphas who aren’t exactly single. So maybe that’s not monogamy at all.

My mom aside, Ezra never would’ve let that happen. He was far too insecure.

But that’s what other people would think. Not what I actually think.

“Would you?” I say, turning the question back at him.

He tilts his head and pauses. It leaves me awkwardly wiping my clammy hands on the hem of my sweatshirt.

“You do that often, deflecting when things get personal. I understand why, but I want you to know I’ll never ask you questions I don’t want to know the answer to. But yes, I’d be in a pack.”

His words wash over me, leaving a flush across my cheeks. He keeps on saying these things about how he’s curious about getting to know me. The actual me. The me that stands in my kitchen without any glam or filters.

And I believe him.

“Oh, well, me too,” I whisper.

The moment that admission leaves my lips, I wilt, my shoulders curling in on themselves.

“Would you really wait around while I try to find alphas or something? I don’t have a very good track record picking them.”

His jaw works at my words and my expression crumples.

“Hey,” he hums, tugging me back into his chest. “Let me make something clear, Andi. What happened to you wasn’t your fault. It was his. It’s not reflective of you in any way.”

“You—you really think so?” I whisper, my gaze darting between his eyes.

“I know so.”

The insistence of his words makes tears burn behind my eyes.

“You wanna know something funny?” I rasp. “The first thing my mom asked me when I woke up at the hospital was what the hell I did wrong.”

“Oh, Andi,” he says, his brows drawing down. “I hope you know that’s not okay. No one should question you like that, especially not someone who’s supposed to be there to protect you.”

“Yeah,” I whisper. “I think... I think I’m starting to see that. We talked a lot about it in therapy.” I offer him a tight smile. “So much for not mentioning what I talked about in therapy.”

“Safe space, remember? I’m not judging. I just want to be here for you.”