Page 2 of Trick Knot Treat

He lifts a hand, pointing at me, but no words come out. I bite my lip to stop the all-out grin from escaping and turn away, breathing deeply to calm my amusement. If there was anyone I would ever want to spend forever and a day with, it’s this alpha.

Zaire Path is one of the grumpiest and most misunderstood alphas in Sunshine Cove. I might be nurturing a tiny crush on him.

Who am I kidding? It’s a bushfire.

“Where is my Spectre?” I murmur, looking at him through my lashes.

“Spartan,” he says in resignation.

“Spectre!” I call out, spotting the white of the Great Pyrenees as he charges into my house, dancing very carefully in front of me. After the first time of knocking me down and getting a tongue lashing from Zaire, Spectre has been so careful of me.

“You beautiful little bunny, did you have a good day? Did you chase any butterflies today?”

Spectre barks, the sound echoing around my house.

“Oh, really?” I kiss his nose. “That sounds amazing. And did you look after my Zaire Bear? Was he naughty?”

I peek up at the big alpha.

Spectre grumbles and returns to his side, throwing his weight onto the alpha’s thighs. To Zaire’s credit, he doesn’t move an inch. Clearly, he took some tending today; the alpha is wired.

“I’m not doing it,” he spits as if he can’t hold it in a moment longer.

It takes me a moment too long to figure out what he’s talking about. “Oh, the Trick Knot Treat?”

“Yes. I’m out. I refuse.”

“Don’t be like that. There’s an omega out there who is dying to meet you, Zaire.” I try to hide the bitterness under a dollop of sunshine optimism.

“I don’t need an omega.”

I turn to him, my eyes wide. “Of course, you do. You are the loneliest alpha I have ever met. Zaire, you have so much to give. You are kind and smart, loyal, and all you want to do is care for someone.”

He gapes at me. “That’s not me at all.”

I chortle and slide the last stone into the velvet-lined box now that it’s dry. I’m sad it’s almost over. My part of the Trick Knot Treat journey is done as soon as I hand these stones to the Pack Makers.

Why haven’t they asked me to join them? Or become a match? Because I don’t exist. Duh.

Stupid clothes. I tug my hat lower on my head and pull on the oversized jacket that swamps me and hides my figure completely onto my small body.

I purse my lips and gather the box up. “Walk me?”

He growls but nods shortly, his politeness unable to lose against his frustration.

“I believe that you are destined for more than this lonely life you have built yourself, Zaire. People just need to see past the surface image you are projecting and understand that it’s all pain.”

“It’s not pain.”

I don’t argue. Of course, it’s pain. I’ve never met a more rejected soul in all my life.

“This time is going to be different. Asher is totally wrong for you, and they will all see it,” I say confidently. “It’s all just perspective, the right person will be right under your nose. Just you wait and see.”

I wince at the memories of the disasters from Smitten Knot Bitten and Light Knot Night. If you include the times Zaire didn’t show because he was saving me from my idiocy when I got lost and the other time I was sick, Asher and Zaire had been explosive, and not in a good way. I had tried to explain, but she’d just breezed past me with her brother, and the moment I opened my mouth, his gaze had unstuck me.

Asher Sol is cold and rude. She is loud and only lets the people into her world that she wants there. Everyone else she simply doesn’t see.

But…Felix Sol is deadly and very dangerous to my entire facade. His cool, calm demeanor is of polished glass, but the heat that stirs in his eyes could light me up and keep me warm for the rest of my life.