Page 7 of Big Knot Energy (Shadowverse)

Doing my best to remain quiet when her eyes left my face to stare off into space, I clenched my hands together so hard my knuckles were white from the lack of blood flow.

“Okay,” she said quietly.

“Yeah? You’ll give us a shot?”

Her smile was bigger, brighter this time, and I noticed her eyes grew a little greener as she nodded. “Yeah. I’ll give you guys a shot.”

CHAPTER 3

Issa

Three months ago

Cyrus hadn’t been kidding when he’d said they would order anything I needed. My closet and dresser drawers were nearly bursting at the seams and my bathroom held several scents of bodywash and bubble bath, along with any and every type of makeup and hair product I could ever want or need.

The pack was…the alphas were crazy. In a good way.

No. That wasn’t true. Of course, everything was good, and the alphas were as sweet as they’d been when they’d checked on me over and over after the day I’d rushed to Cora’s to warn her.

Ax…he was the crazy one.

And Cyrus hadn’t been bullshitting me when he’d said they weren’t expecting me to lay on my back so they couldrut me when they felt like it. In fact, the only time anyone touched me was when I would wake up screaming from a nightmare and one of them would be wrapped around me, holding me and talking in low, comforting tones.

Then there was Ax. He teased me relentlessly, flirted in the cutest way, even ruffled my hair like I was his little sister rather than a single, unclaimed beta sleeping in a room right by his.

They had made me sit on the bed while they’d fussed about where all my new belongings should go and argued over who bought the best stuff. It was all beautiful, but there was no way I would or could ever wear that much.

Especially since I was still nervous about actually going into public.

Since Antonio had vanished after my sister’s pack had executed my fathers and mother, it felt as though there was a threat around every corner, like every shadow in the yard was a hiding place for my former alpha to lie in wait so he could drag me back to the hell I’d been living through since I’d graduated high school.

At the moment, I was wandering my bedroom in the dark, stopping near the window to look down onto the moonlit yard. For three bachelors, they’d kept their yard tidy and well-manicured. Their house was pretty, too, but definitely decorated for a pack of men with the darker colors and leather couches.

This wasn’t the first night since I’d officially moved in here that I either couldn’t fall asleep or woke up in the middle of the night and was too scared to sleep.

I knew it was stupid. Antonio wasn’t here. My fathers were dead. No one could get through any of the windows or doors without setting off the alarm and there were cameras everywhere. I’d even noted the red blinking light of one in my room, though I tried to ignore it. I hated to think one of the alphas might watch it when I slept and would hear me snore or mumble something embarrassing.

With a frustrated sigh, I pushed from the windowsill and made my way from my room. A snack sounded tempting, even something as simple as a glass of wine or maybe some hot chocolate. Anything thatwould give me that warm, fuzzy feeling enough to make me drowsy again.

The moment I stepped into the hallway, soft, masculine moans met my ears.

Turning my head, I stared down the darkened row of doors. Two of them were open and the sounds weren’t coming from that direction. They were coming from downstairs.

Had Ax or one of the other two brought someone home? And being as I’d been upfront and blunt about not wanting any of them to expect me to hop into their bed on demand, I was shocked by the level of jealousy coursing through my system at the prospect of one of them having sex with another beta. Or even an omega.

Especiallyan omega.

My siblings and I had been raised to believe we were nothing special because of our designations. Alphas were the rulers and leaders while omegas were fucking royalty. The only reason my fathers had deemed me and my brothers worthy of an arranged bonding was because they’d chosen packs that would further their criminal empire and agenda.

Keeping my steps and breathing as quiet as possible, I padded down the hall and toward the stairwell, peering over the railing and into the living room.

Cyrus was on his back, Ax between his knees. The muscles in Ax’s back and ass bunched and rolled beneath his skin as he rolled his hips forward, making love to his alpha packmate while kissing him deeply.

I’d assumed the three of them had been or were currently romantically involved, but this was the first time I’d had a front row seat to it. And everything south of my belly button was warm, my core throbbing, and my panties growing damp with arousal.

This was…they weren’t fucking. Ax wasn’t rutting into Cyrus the way Antonio used to with me. He was making love to someone he cared about, someone he loved.

My chest rose and fell with deep breaths as I stood there like a voyeur. I kept in the shadows so as not to be detected, but it still felt wrong to encroach on this special moment between them.

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