Page 21 of Knot Forgotten

Purposefully, I make a noise as the operator tells me to stay someplace safe and out of sight, but my mom doesn’t have endless oxygen. I have to help her. My dad releases her as he spins on his heel toward the backdoor. She crumples to the floor, gasping for air and massaging her neck. While my dad stomps over to the door and throws it open. The phone in my grip goes loose and clatters to the ground.

“What the fuck are you doing out here? Get in the house, Erin,” he growls. I force myself to move on numb legs as fear courses through my blood and pounds in my ears. He doesn’t give me a chance to enter fully before he is yanking me by my hair, earning a squeak of pain before I cut it off, my hands clutching at his where he still holds me. “Where has my little slut of a daughter been? With those boys?”

He pushes me away, and I hug myself around my middle and shake my head, determined to defend my guys. “They are my friends.” My voice shakes, and tears fall down my face unbidden. They are more than friends, but he won’t like that, so I swallow back that truth.

“They are only hanging around because you are presenting as an omega, and they think your legs will spread real easy for them.” He invades my space, the smell of beer on his breath like a thick, stale cloud that makes my stomach churn.

More tears cling to my lashes, and I blink them away, letting them fall down my cheeks. He sneers at me. Then the sharp bite of his palm across my face has me seeing stars. Tonight is the first time he’s actually hit me. He’s always reserved his abusive words for me instead. My mom takes the physical abuse, wearing black eyes and split lips like they are just a part of life.

While his words can split me in two emotionally, my cheek throbs, and I’m pretty sure my teeth cut the inside of my mouth because all I taste is blood. I hit the table as I stumble away, and he laughs. The chair hits the floor, and I trip over it. Landing on the broken pasta all over the ground.

I can’t say which I prefer. Being shredded to pieces with his mean words or hitting the floor from his slaps.

“Don’t cry for them. You’ll be in a real nice pack soon enough. And if you aren’t, then at least I’ll get the money for it.”

Denial spears me, but I know telling him no right now would only earn me more violence.

Riley scoffs and turns away from me, effectively stopping anything else I may have said or signed. But the past still has a tight grip on me, and all I want to do is curl up in a ball and cry. They thought I left them on purpose. That I went no contact out of my own choice.

After Riley leaves the room, it grows cold and lonely. I climb back on my bed and hug my knees to my chest, attempting to comfort myself even just a little bit. If they all believe the same thing, none of them will welcome me back with open arms. They are going to hate me, and I can't even blame them.

Any hope that sprouted when I realized it was them, and I may have been holding onto, flutters away. It isn’t like I actually thought there was a chance. I’m not the same girl I was then, and they are not the same boys.

CHAPTER 10

Erin

If I thought Riley was bad. Blake is a million times worse. I run into him as he is coming out of the shower. His dark olive skin on full display, a towel slung low around his waist. A sleek dragon tattoo runs up his side, settling just below his right nipple. My eyes catch on the design as I freeze. All of me. The air in my lungs, muscles in my legs—both useless.

“See something you like?”

Yes. No. Crap, neither answer is good.

He purses his lips. “You ready to show me what those plush lips can do, Rinny?”

Rinny. I swallow, my heart galloping like an untamed horse. “Excuse me,” I choke out.

He chuckles, a dark sound that runs down my spine, giving me chills. He steps to the side, like he is going to let me by. As soon as I take the opening, he grabs my throat and has my back against the doorframe as he looms over me. His musk of sunlight and calm washes over me, in complete contrast to the hornet nest he’s woken in my chest with the dangerous press of his hand against my windpipe.

Lowering his head, he whispers against my ear, “I’ve been wondering what that mouth could do since we were teens.”

Goosebumps explode on my exposed flesh. He trails a single finger down my bare arm to the tip of my finger, then over my palm.

“Have you thought about it, Rinny?” His lips brush my neck, and I shiver. “How it would feel to wrap your lips around me? What it would feel like with me deep inside your tight cunt? Taking what was supposed to be mine. Ruining you for anyone that comes after?”

Inhaling a breath full of his musk, my cupcake perfume mixes with it just barely and I want to whimper. I am so screwed.

“After–” he says, drawing my attention to his gray eyes as he leans back to see my face. The corner of his mouth kicks up like this is the best part. “After, Rinny, I’d be done with you. Just like all the other girls that want my dick. That was for someone special. She is gone, and all I see is a fake bitch without integrity or honor in front of me. You should be thanking me for even looking your way. You can ride it, but you can’t have my knot.”

A dry swallow works my throat, and I push hard at his chest, disgusted by who he is now. “Don’t touch me,” I say, my voice trembling. “I can't believe I ever thought I liked you.”

Slipping past him into the bathroom and slamming the door between us, I lean against the cool surface as I breathe shallowly. The combination of him calling me Rinny and saying dirty things has slick gathering between my thighs.

His last words repeat inside of me. You can ride it, but you can’t have my knot. The needy fucking omega inside of me wants whatever he is willing to give, but that bitch needs to get herself under control because no alpha is going to treat us like that.

Twisting the shower knob, I wait for the hot water to run. Thankfully, I have the scent removing shampoo because each lungful of air is full of Blake. I like my showers 'melt-your-skin-off' hot anyway. If my skin isn’t pink from the heat when I’m done, did I even shower?

Taking longer than needed, I stay beneath the spray until the temperature starts to drop. I dry off before lathering on scent-blocking lotion. I need to pick up some pills because if Matt and Cam are going to play the same games as the other two, they can’t know the effect it has on me.

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