Page 42 of Knot a Chance in Hell

I hushed her with a kiss. I would not have her worrying. “No, it’s good. Ezekiel and Kodiak are at the clinic. Kodiak has tostay a few days, but Ezekiel can leave in the morning. I figured we could go pick them up and—”

“Yes, of course!” She reached over to where her cell was docked on the bedside table. “I’m going to message them now and ask them what they want for breakfast. How did they get hurt?”

Shit. I didn’t want to say it was my fault. She’d hate me for it. But we were bonded now. She said no secrets between us. I scrubbed a hand over my face. A lie sat on the end of my tongue, but a bitterness rose in my throat.

I swallowed the bile down and bit the bullet as she texted. “Ezekiel was up in the tree cutting down a log. Kodiak and I were…” Fuck, this was harder to get out than I’d thought. I kept my arm around her, not wanting her to pull away and run off.Please don’t hate me. “We were arguing, and he was distracted. The log almost fell on him. We managed to keep it from killing him, but he’s got some broken ribs. Ezekiel sprained his ankle jumping down from the tree to help. It was my fault. I started the fight. I shouldn’t have brought up that shit at the worksite.”

Her hand fluttered up to cover her mouth, and a small whimper squeaked out from between her fingers. A ding echoed from her phone, and she glanced down at the text. She closed her eyes and blinked at her fresh tears.

I hated myself. I couldn’t stand to make her cry. Why did I claim her? I wasn’t worthy of this beautiful Omega.

Twisting on the bed, I hung my legs over the edge and looked for my boxers. No, fuck my clothes. I got up. I’d just let her be.

Nicolette suddenly wrapped her arms around my torso and clung tightly. “Where are you going? I don’t want you to leave.”

I swallowed thickly. “I’m the shithead who nearly got my best friends killed. You deserve better.”

“Shut up.” Nicolette huffed and tugged me back onto the bed. She moved closer and locked me more securely in her arms with her cheek pressed to the back of my shoulder. “You would never purposely let your friends get hurt. I don’t for one second believe that and neither should you. Maybe you were being a bit of a jerk by fighting with Kodiak, but I bet he was giving as good as he got. It’s no one’s fault. It’s just something that happened, and thankfully you’re all going to be okay.” She feathered a kiss over my bare skin. “Besides, I get to choose what I deserve, and I want you here in my bed with me right now.”

The pull to her was intense. I knew the whole attraction between Omega and Alpha came down to pheromones, but this felt like our very souls were linked. Her stern gentleness melted my stubborn ass, and I cradled her in my arms as I laid back down with her.

I didn’t say anything, not trusting my tongue to say something ridiculously emotional. What I’d felt for Sarah was nothing. It was a shadow of everything Nicolette evoked in me. I held her as she texted back and forth with Ezekiel.

“Reindeer sausage?” She blinked at her screen. “Do you really eat Santa’s reindeer for breakfast?”

I chuckled and rubbed her arm. “Yeah, we eat reindeer as much as moose. It’s best as a sausage. We’ve got some in the freezer. I can fry it up for breakfast. Kodiak usually picks the smoky sausage, but I like it spicy.”

“I like spice.” She grinned at me. “And if it’s half as good as the moose, I’m going to love it.”

Finally someone else in the house who liked spice as much as I did.

I silently chewed on that thought. Sure, I’d claimed her, but now it seemed I was happy to have her here. I’d still keep the liveaboard and fix it up. We could go on short trips with it. I’dtake Nicolette out to sea and we could lie out under the stars as the water rocked us to sleep.

Nicolette shut off her phone and set it back on the dock. She then rolled to straddle me, rolling her shoulders so that her tits shook close to my face. “I told Ezekiel to get some sleep. We need some sleep too, but I seem to have some energy I need to let loose first.”

Taking a deep breath, I could smell her everywhere in here. I couldn’t tell if she was starting to have another bout, but all my instincts went into hyper mode. “Is your heat…?”

Her arms slithered around my neck as she smirked and leaned in. “Nope. You soothed that earlier. Right now, I just want to have my way with you and then fall asleep with you inside of me.”

I grinned and kissed her hungrily. Yup, she was way too good for me.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO - Nicolette

My long scarf streamed out behind me as I hurried down the clinic corridor. It was the main health facility which serviced the town and had only two doctors. It was a modern building, and as it was constructed to handle most medical needs, there were several small rooms. The four overnight rooms they had were tucked in the back.

I was intensely aware of the heat of Silas’ body behind me. Even if I couldn’t physically feel him there, I would feel our bond. It still blew my mind that he claimed me, that the Alpha I’d thought hated me didn’t. Now he was mine and I was his, and I didn’t know how to tell Ezekiel and Kodiak. In my heart, I wanted all of them. It didn’t seem likely they would share though.

That anxiety had me gripping the bag with the breakfast food hard enough my hands were hurting. I swallowed hard as we rounded the corner to the last room on the left. The quiet murmur of the television seeped out into the hall.

I glanced back at Silas and he gave me a nod. The tightness of his handsome face said he was every bit as stressed as I was.

Taking a deep breath, I put on a smile and knocked on the partially open door before peeking my head in. It was a small room painted with what I would call hospital blue. It had a single bed which was just a little too small for Kodiak, but he was propped up in it anyway.

Ezekiel rose from where he was sitting and hopped over to me to wrap me in a big hug. “Good morning, beautiful. I missed you last night. How are you doing?”

I leaned into the hug, drawing in his soothing scent. Everything would be okay. It had to be okay.

“I’m fine, but you, mister, you need to sit back down and put that foot up.” I helped him back to his chair and handed him the breakfast bag. Without missing a beat, I turned to Kodiak and gently hugged him. “I was so worried. How are you?”

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