Page 24 of Knot Your Business

“I’m having it annulled.” He says it like he’s saying he’s going to get steak for dinner. Emotionless, clinical. My stomach twists, but I bite back the growl wanting to form. I knew he’d fight it. I knew it, and yet there was a heartbeat’s moment of excitement, a hairsbreadth span of space for hope to form in my chest. I force my face to stay impassive even as Jasper freezes.

“Why?” His voice is ragged. He runs a shaking hand through his hair before messing with the chain of his necklace. “She’s…” He swallows and grabs the informational letter from the top of the pile of papers Dominic’s no longer looking through. “She’s already accepted it. There’s no way for you to undo this without her knowing about being reassigned.”

Dominic shakes his head and fills out one of the forms. “That’s not my problem, Tesoro. You are my concern. I won’t allow you to be hurt.”

“You promised me.” Jasper’s whisper hangs in the air. Dominic pauses, halfway through his signature, and narrows his eyes on our lover. “They get one shot at this, Dominic. You promised me you wouldn’t sabotage it.”

“What does it matter what I said then?” Dominic’s voice is low, deadly. “You don’t want her, either. You said you’d rather throw up with the philharmonic than see her again.”

“That doesn’t mean I want her ridiculed,” Jasper says, surprisingly calm. “The match will be made public before any of that paperwork has a hope of being processed. The entire country will know that we rejected her.”

Not really. Only the most drama-obsessed pay attention to the Council’s matching announcements. There will be hundreds listed over the next couple days as the paperwork is finalized with the Omegas that attended the April gala. They’d have to actively hunt for this one, and we simply aren’t famous enough for that.

Dominic’s growl fills the kitchen between one heartbeat and the next. “And she rejected you, Tesoro. Why do you defend her?”

Jasper shakes his head before covering his face, forcing a deep breath.

“Because no matter what happened in Seattle, her mom is a goddamn piece of work. I wouldn’t wish her on my worst fucking enemy, Dom, and God only knows how much worse she’s gotten in four fucking years. She will pay attention to the matches as they’re publicly announced.”

Dread settles like a stone, weighing down my chest until it’s difficult to breathe. Jasper isn’t prone to hyperbole. If he says she’s awful, then she’s awful.

The silence stretches between the three of us, the house quiet and cold despite all the small things Jasper’s been doing the last couple months to make it feel like ours. Dominic picks up the form that’s still halfway filled out, his face eerily blank.

“All right, Tesoro.”

He pushes away from the island and heads deeper into the house, toward the wing with our bedrooms, the paper still held tightly in his grip. Jasper blows out a breath that’s nearly a sob, and I twist back toward him, my friend forgotten for the more important concern of my lover. His head is in his hands, his shoulders hunched and tight as he leans over the counter.

“How do you know her?” Jasper’s voice is hoarse, like he’s been screaming for days. “Where did you run into her?”

The truth sits like ash on my tongue, but I say it anyway. “The Haven.”

Jasper tenses, his fingers digging into his skin. “She lives here?”

“I don’t know,” I admit. I never hunted her down on socials. What was the point? Not to mention it would have been in violation of working at the Haven. Strictly no contact outside of the facility unless the Omega approaches you. “You’re not allowed to attempt contact while working there. And once I stopped…” I shrug.

Jasper nods once, his body still tight.

“Tell me about her,” I whisper. “About what happened.”

He drops his hands, revealing dual tear tracks running down his face. I wipe them away, cupping his cheeks and kissing him. His breath shudders out of him.

“I met her while doing my first couple years of college at the community college. Funds were tight, and my auditions didn’t pull any scholarships. She was there with her friend who was touring the place.” He pulls away from me, and I let my hands fall to my sides. He traces her face and then body on the photograph. “She hadn’t even designated yet.”

Surprise lights through my veins.

“How old were you?”

“Just about to turn 21,” he admits. “She was seventeen, finishing her junior year.”

He swallows, and then the rest of the words come pouring out of him, like a dam breaking on a river.

“She designated that fall, almost exactly a year after we started dating. She was in a panic. Her mom is awful, concerned with social standing and what people think about her. She sees her kids as pawns in her own PR game of sorts. Most of the super rich are like that from what I’ve heard and seen. Her dads are cool though, especially Kurt. He’s her biological father.”

I rest a hand on his. “She grew up in a pack?”

Jasper nods. “She’d hoped she wouldn’t designate. She wanted to be a Beta, wanted to be less under her mother’s thumb. She was heartbroken when she perfumed the first time and the bloodwork confirmed it.”

There’s a level of irony in that that has me forcing down a laugh. Of all of us, I’m the only one that’s ever actually been happy about my designation. It helps that it’s the reason I’m still alive. She’ll probably fit right in. Assuming Dominic can get his head pulled out of his ass. And whatever went wrong between Jasper and her is fixable.

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