Page 30 of Knot Your Business

A growl builds in his own throat, nearly as loud as mine. “You got something to prove, asshole?” he snarls, quiet enough now that no one else will hear him.

“Only have something to prove if you’re not going to figure out she’s uninterested,” I say, the same deadly calm as him, letting my accent thicken to add to the effect. Here, in LA, sometimes sounding like an outsider can be helpful.

He takes the bait—hook, line, and sinker. “Like you would fucking know what she wants,” he snarls, closing the distance between us. “You think you can just show up here and decide she’s yours? Did you convince her to fuck you already, too? You so desperate for an Omega that will tolerate you, you have to fish around the local campuses, asshole?”

The growl rips through my chest, louder than it’s ever been.

Another guy comes up next to him, his face pale, and grabs his elbow, trying to pull him away from me. Violet’s hold on my hand is a death grip, and it’s the only thing keeping me from completely losing my shit on the asshole.

“Eric, man, it was match week, remember? Shut up before he lays you into the ground,” the guy whispers, loud enough that I can hear him.

Eric snarls but takes a step away.

“It was announced Thursday. I told you to pay attention to the announcements,” the other guy says. “Let’s get out of here before campus security gets called. You know that won’t look good for you.”

It’s like a switch flips. All at once, the lethal energy emanating from the other Alpha is gone, replaced instead by an easy-going feel I don’t believe for a single fucking second.

“Hey, sorry, man,” he says, raising his hands up in surrender, adopting that overly loud volume again. If I hadn’t seen the feral gaze from before, I’d be half-convinced he was actually apologetic. “Didn’t realize now was a bad time. I’ll just…”

He trails off as the growl gets louder. I take a step toward him, snarling.

Didn’t know it was a bad time? Does he think I’m a goddamn moron? He singled her out in a public place where he assumed she’d have no option but to talk with him. If I can tell that, then those around us can, too.

And then he decided he could take me, too, the fucking dumbass. I’m not Dominic, but I’m not fucking helpless. I’d have him in the ground before he could find anyone to help him out.

“Rylan,” Violet whispers. “Let it go.”

I force my body to relax, though the growl doesn’t stop. A few people closest to us have their phones pulled out and pointed toward us. As I focus on more than the asshole in front of me, the charged silence of the crowd sinks in. There’s a growing sense of anticipation in the group surrounding us.

Hell, the last thing I need is to get into a fucking fist fight when I’m trying to handle a skittish Omega. Switching my hold, I guide Violet around to my other side, keeping me between her and Fuckboy Extraordinaire. He tries to lean around me, and I growl again, curling my lips back. He blanches, his eyes widening to the point I can see white all the way around them, and takes a quick step back.

Everyone else gives us a wide berth, some even skittering out of our way despite not being in our path of travel at all.

“Sorry,” I mutter as we cross the street and head toward the beach.

She shakes her head. “Don’t be. Some of those people need to remember that there’s more than just a label with designations. Especially Eric. He should know better than to try to approach an Omega very clearly with another Alpha.”

She spits his name like it’s bitter on her tongue, and that thing in my chest relaxes at her obvious dislike of him. The need to scent mark her again is strong, though. Breathing deep through my nose and out through my mouth takes the edge of it off as we cross the street.

“He’s bothered you before?”

I switch us so I’m walking on the outside of the sidewalk.

She nods and sighs. “Has been trying for the last year to get on my good side so I’ll put in a good word for him with my father,” she explains after a minute. “Or at least… I assume that’s why he’s been pursuing me.”

I guide her up the street a few blocks before stepping into one of the small local cafés in the area.

“Oh, I love this one,” she whispers. It’s so low, I don’t think she expects me to hear her.

Good. Snooping through her Instagram last night like a fucking creep was useful, then.

“Why does Eric want a good word with your father? And why does he think you’ll give it?”

She blows out a breath and cocks an eyebrow. “Starting out with easy questions, I see. Did the packet give you all the basics, so you figured you’d skip straight to the heavier topics?”

Her voice grows brittle, a thread of anger twisting through it. I frown, stopping her just inside the door, twisting her around so she faces me.

“What?” I ask her. “No. I was just trying to figure out if I need to make sure someone’s around so I don’t smash Fuckboy Extraordinaire’s head into the pavement next time I show up to take you out somewhere.”

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