Page 15 of Big Knot Energy (Shadowverse)

Full coverage concealer for the win.

After an hour, my hair was waved around my shoulders, my makeup was dark, smokey, and evening ready, my lips were plumped with gloss, and the dress Ax had chosen hugged my curves. It literally felt as though a sneeze would flash my butt at anyone within twenty feet.

Slipping my feet into a pair of heels, I huffed a sigh when Ax yelled, “Hurry up, beta!” through the house.

A tube of gloss, my ID, phone, and some Valium were tucked into a clutch, and I was ready to go.

A long whistle cut through the air as I carefully descended the stairs, my hands clutching the railing tightly to avoid rolling down the last few steps. It had been months since I’d crammed my feet into anything more than a pair of sneakers or house slippers.

“Damn, girl. Where has this hottie been hiding?” Enzo said, moving toward the stairs and taking my hand, holding it up andurging me to spin. “Why the hell would you hide a body like that from the world?”

“You look beautiful, Issa,” Cyrus said. “There will be plenty of our people there tonight, so if you get overwhelmed and want to leave early, just let one of us know. We’ll get you a safe ride home.”

“Oh, hell no. We’re partying tonight. I want to see this girl drunk,” Ax teased.

“You’re meeting your omega–”

“Anomega. Notours,” Cyrus said, cutting me off.

“The last thing you need is to babysit your drunk roommate.”

Cyrus’s brows creased as he shook his head.

“I told her she’s pack but she doesn’t believe me,” Ax said, escorting me through the house and toward the garage.

Instead of the three climbing on their Harleys like they often did on warmer days, we climbed into the Land Rover parked beside my little Miata. That vehicle had been Enzo’s idea. I would have been perfectly content with a used sedan since I didn’t often go anywhere alone except to my sister’s.

Enzo turned in the driver’s seat as I pulled my safety belt on. “You think you’re just a roommate?”

I shrugged up my shoulders and tried to keep my face neutral.

“Do you not want to be pack?” Cyrus asked.

Well, shit. This was supposed to be a fun night out and now I was feeling a little emotional and extremely on edge. Honestly? I wasn’t sure what I wanted. It had been a long damn time – as in the entirety of the years I’d been alive – since I’d been asked whatIwanted.

“You know what? We don’t have to talk about this now. That was shitty of us to start a big ol’ heart to heart conversation when we won’t be able to talk after we get to the club,” Cyrus said, reaching over to pat my leg from where he sat beside me.

I opened my mouth to thank him but couldn’t form the words. Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to say. Yeah, I wanted to be a member of the pack. But what I didn’t want was to be owned. And I really didn’t want to be just a background member. I wanted…

Well, hell. I wanted them to look at me the way Ax did when wewere in my closet, the way Enzo had looked at me as I’d walked down the stairs to find them waiting in their button up black shirts, worn jeans, t-shirts…yeah, they looked good in anything they wore.

But they looked best when they wandered the house in nothing but their boxers.

When Cyrus pulled his hand away from my leg, tingles were left in its wake, and I instantly missed the warmth of his touch.

An omega. An omega would arrive at the club to meet these alphas. An omega they might very well be interested in courting and adding to the pack. What would she look like? Would she be dark-haired and curvy like my sister? Or was she a stunning blonde with big boobs, wide hips, and a round butt?

I swore every omega I’d ever met was the epitome of a Barbie doll, only petite. I wasn’t exactly tall at my whopping five feet and five inches, but Cora barely stood at five feet two inches. Even the rare male omega I’d met in my life had been small.

That was what alphas wanted, the soft, curvy type, the omega who would submit and serve.

Nah. Even as I thought it, I could taste the lie. These alphas didn’t want someone to submit to them. I couldn’t picture them with a woman who wouldn’t sass them, challenge them, force them to put in the work to earn her as their omega.

Because strong alphas, strongmendidn’t require their partner to be a doormat. And they sure as hell didn’t drug them to keep them quiet, compliant, and docile.

Nope. Not tonight. I refused to allow all the bad memories to ruin a night out with this pack.

Mypack?

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