Page 89 of Trick Knot Treat

“I didn’t learn anything of value except our omegas get turned on watching me eat.”

Fox gives Clint an unamused look. “You can stay and enjoy the party with everyone else or run away. But everyone here would be grateful if you would go away.”

“Oh, we’re running away. I need to study this phenomenon more closely,” Clint purrs and winks.

Clint turns and shrieks. He stumbles backward and falls on his ass in the sand. Sitting right beside him on his easel is Sully. The seagull lets out a honking squawk that sounds like she’s telling off my alpha.

He scrambles backwards. “Do not do that to me, you evil bloody bird. Why are you following me around?”

“What is wrong with you now?” Jace says in amusement.

We all look at Clint, who has just turned a pale shade of milk.

“That bird is stalking me! Make it stop!” He grabs Felix and shoves the omega in front of him, hiding unashamedly.

“Um…okay, I need to hear this story.”

“Yeah, us, too!” Sofia says as she blinks at the angry bird and terrified alpha. “Clint, what did you do to Sully?”

He looks down at the sand. “Well, about two weeks ago, I started a new job…”

Chapter 21

Felix

Every single effort I have made to keep these alphas at a distance is failing miserably. It doesn’t help that she likes them so much either. I have to be nice, and the more I get to know them, the harder it is to remember why they are disposable, but she is not.

Clint’s ridiculous story about accidentally knocking Sully out of the sky with a rogue diaper that his new boss left on site has my stomach itching, twitching. I want to laugh so badly, but I keep it behind my teeth, fighting falling into his charm. He is insidious.

He leans into me from behind, his breath fanning the back of my neck. I want to relax back into him, let them all see how weak I am, how lonely. Instead, I stiffen my spine and step away. Trying to keep my focus on the other matches going through their test. We were going to leave, but Khione was curious about watching the dates, so we’re in the crowd while I wish we were anywhere else.

“Stop that!”

Clint laughs, and the sound, it’s become one of my favourites. I want to hear him laugh as he drives his cock into me. I want to sit on his lap and eat breakfast. I want to hear him chuckle as he makes me crawl to him.

What is wrong with me?

Khione brushes past me, and I find myself forgetting all about my determination to be granite. I soften, as I always do, and when Clint slides an arm around my waist, I have no walls left. The omega in me curls into the alpha that is my forever. If he is surprised, he has the decency not to mention it.

“Is Asher coming home soon?”

My throat tightens at his innocent question. Or, perhaps, not so innocent. “No, Asher has gone back to Angler’s Beach. She’s going to stay there until she figures out what’s going on with her.”

“Is something going on with her? She’s usually so fun and so friendly. What’s with the hostile act?”

I shrug, but I think it’s probably the same restless feeling that’s been eating me. Sunshine Cove gets smaller and smaller with each passing year, and if you can’t find your scent matches, it just tightens like a noose. The same people that you love become daggers that make the yearning and empty streets hurt.

You ache with the need to find them, especially as a heat approaches. There are two choices for a heat. Ride it out with whoever is available or abstain. Asher and I have both ridden it out in the past with alphas we’ve met through the heat exchange. But the last time I tried, after knowing about Khione, Clint, Jace, and Zaire, I’d ended up curled up in a ball, crying and throwing up. I couldn’t force myself to do it anymore. To let anyone but them touch me.

It was the worst day of my life. Those poor alphas sat and tried to soothe me, tried to talk me through it, but I couldn’t. What I’d been able to ignore in the past, I couldn’t any longer.

So, I spent the last of my heat in my nest, where I’d barricaded myself. Asher had locked the door and disappeared for a few days, and I’d gone through hell so that I didn’t have to force them.

Or even tell them.

I was so convinced they would be disgusted by being pack with me. So sure. And here we are, and I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. Maybe they are here for her. Maybe they don’t want me at all. I’m the bonus omega.

“For an omega without a pack, each heat gets harder and more desperate. Asher is living in a small town with few to no options for relief. She is struggling to be here and be who she is.”