Page 44 of Knot Only For One Night

This is my Pack. My scent matches. The missing pieces of my puzzle.

Two alphas, two omegas, and a beta. They are who I’m supposed to be with. My gaze drops to the table while my heart pounds in my chest. My omega is wild inside me. She thrashes as my throat threatens to close with nerves as I think about what this all means.

Reed rubs his chest, and I wonder if they feel it too. They must, right?

Maybe… maybe we can all be together.

Reed starts huffing, taking deeper breaths as he stares out the window. Asher watches him, his gaze intense, and Neven is reaching over to grab my hand. I let him. Accepting the comfort as I work up the nerve to break the silence with my secret.

“With Soren… he’s my…” The words lodge in my throat. I look to Neven, whose eyes are staring at me but also through me.

Is he okay?

I try again. “You all⁠—”

Reed’s growl cuts me off.

My skin flames. Sweat dews on my forehead and I feel it prickling along my neck. I dab at it as I try to finish my sentence, but something is off, something is wrong, and I'm so confused.

“No way.” Reed’s brown eyes shoot to each of us. He snatches his arm away from me, and I dart out of the booth like my ass is on fire. My heart beats frantically even as it drops through my stomach and down to my feet.

He’s so angry.

Did he really not know? Not have an inkling?

He grips the table, silent as whatever thoughts he’s having run through his mind.

“...are my scent matches.” The words scrape against my tongue. They should’ve been beautiful words.

But Reed’s eyes glass over and his scent singes, burned and acrid in my nose. “We’re not. I’m not. You must be confused.” His words spit out like fire, raking across my skin like a hot iron. This omega, this man who threw punches because an alpha dared suggest I cut back on my cookies…

How can he be this angry?

I shake my head. “You don’t feel it?”

Reed can’t even look at me.

My heart shatters.

Neven, from the edge of his side of the booth, slides his hand up my thigh, not too high, but enough to ground me. He doesn't trace mindless patterns like Reed would. He just holds me firm, and I hold myself back from crawling into his lap to soothe my aching heart.

“Man, calm down,” Neven says, but Reed snaps his eyes to him.

“Just because you’re an alpha doesn’t mean you get to tell me what to do.”

“It’s not like that⁠—”

“It’ll always be. It’s how we’re… made. I’ll never be a normal omega. Don't you understand that?” He turns to me and I’m standing at the end of the table. Gripping and twisting my fingers. My nerves are frazzled. “I can’t have a Pack.”

His words sear through my heart.

Our scents mix in the air, four parts creating an almost perfect whole. There is no denying what we are. They are supposed to be mine, as I am supposed to be theirs. This is supposed to be a joyous moment.

And it's not.

The story my parents told me a thousand times never went like this. They were never mad, or upset. My dads immediately loved my mom. They literally whisked her away and…

And of course I don’t get that. I knew I wouldn’t.