Page 55 of Knot the One They Want

I exhale heavily, dragging a hand through my sweat-damp hair. "But we both know what will happen if we try to claim her. Damien..."

"At this point, I doubt she would accept us anyway," Lake cuts in, his tone laced with bitter resignation. "We already left her humiliated and rejected on our mating night."

The memory of that night sears through me, the image of Evie spread out in her nest, open and wanting, only for us to turn our backs on her. The pain in her eyes, the shattered hope, it haunts me still.

"You're right," I admit, the words like ashes on my tongue. "We fucked up. Badly."

Lake sighs, his shoulders slumping. "So what do we do? Ignore her heat? Let Damien continue his twisted game of cat and mouse?"

I turn back to the target, my muscles coiled with frustration. "What choice do we have? Our loyalty is to the pack, to Damien. We can't betray that, no matter how much our instincts scream at us to claim her."

Even as I say the words, they feel hollow, a flimsy excuse for the cowardice that keeps me chained. I'm torn between duty and desire, logic and instinct. The rational part of me knows that pursuing Evie will only lead to ruin.

It's not that any of us areafraidof Damien. But he'd see it as a betrayal and it would be the undoing of our pack. The bond we swore an oath to keep.

But the alpha in me, the part that recognizes Evie as my mate, my scent match, rails against the very idea of denying her. Of letting her suffer through her heat alone, aching for a knot that will never come.

It's a special kind of torture, knowing she's so close, just a few rooms away, and yet completely out of reach. A forbidden fruit, dangled tauntingly before me only to be snatched away at the last moment.

And it's not just the physical need, the primal urge to bury myself inside her and never let go. No, it's the emotional connection, the soul-deep recognition that she is mine, and I am hers. The way she sees through my masks, the walls I've erected to keep the world at bay. The way she challenges me with a single look, pushes me, makes me want to be a better alpha. A better man.

But I can't be that for her. Not now, maybe not ever. Not when Damien's obsession with Daria still casts a shadow over us all, a specter of the past that refuses to let go.

I think back to the night of the mating ceremony, the way Damien's eyes glittered with malice as he sank his teeth into Evie's neck. The way she cried out, pain and betrayal mingling in her voice. It was a claiming, but not a complete one. A half-measure, designed to bind her to us without truly making her ours.

And now, with her heat approaching, the consequences of that cruel act will come to bear. She'll be lost in a haze of need, her body crying out for the alphas who marked her, only to be met with cold indifference.

The thought makes me sick, my stomach churning with a potent mix of guilt and rage. This isn't right. None of it is. But I'm powerless to stop it, trapped by my own loyalty and the twisted machinations of a broken alpha.

So I do the only thing I can. I turn back to the target and let my fists fly, pouring all my frustration, all my impotent anger into each bone-rattling impact. The display lights up, numbers climbing higher and higher, but it's a hollow victory.

Because no matter how hard I hit, no matter how much force I unleash, it won't change the fact that Evie is suffering.

And it's all our fault.

CHAPTER 27

EVIE

Istare at my reflection in the bathroom mirror, the harsh fluorescent light casting a sickly pallor over my skin. With trembling fingers, I peel off the bandages covering the four incomplete mating marks on my neck. The sight that greets me is enough to turn my stomach.

Angry red lines radiate from each mark, the skin around them puffy and inflamed. Damien's bite is the worst, and it hurts just to touch the area around it. Lake's is a close second, which shatters my theory that Damien's mark is the most severe because he bit me harder. Lake was gentle, apologetic even, and yet his mark is nearly as infected.

It's clear my body is rejecting these half-formed bonds, just as my mates rejected me, staging a full-scale revolt against the unfinished claiming. Slathering on antibiotic cream and keeping the wounds clean hasn't made a damn bit of difference. The infection is spreading. And I'm starting to feel the effects.

A wave of dizziness washes over me and I grip the edge of the vanity, waiting for the room to stop spinning. I suddenly feel feverish, my skin clammy and my head pounding.

But I know it's not just the infection causing these symptoms.

My heat is coming.

The familiar ache is settling deep in my bones, that notorious restless energy thrumming through my veins. It's been years since I've had to endure a heat without suppressants. The thought of going through it alone, locked away in my room like a dirty secret, is enough to make me want to scream.

But what choice do I have?

It's not like I can go to my alphas for help. They've made it abundantly clear that they want nothing to do with me. Over a month has passed since the mating ceremony, and while Damien has gone from outright hostility to treating me like I'm invisible, nothing else has really changed.

The others are civil but distant, keeping our interactions to a minimum. No matter how hard I try to make this house a home, to show them I can be the perfect omega for them, it's never enough.

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