Page 30 of Knot All is Forgiven

"Yeah. This is incredibly thoughtful. Thank you for sharing your passion with me." The splotches of color fade from his neck as his body relaxes, and he leans forward and places a gentle, sweet kiss on my lips.

It's over way sooner than I want, leaving me craving more. But I don't push for it, and neither does he.

We have the rest of our lives. What rush is there right now?

Chapter twelve

I slam my headdown on my desk, groaning into the wood.

"Mr. Stargazer," my Beta assistant says. She's cute, with waist-length braids and a slim figure, but since seeing Jordan a month ago, she may as well just be a voice in the wind. I don't notice anyone anymore now that I know what is out there for me.

If I could just fucking find her.

"Mr. Stargazer!" she says more impatiently. Right, I didn't answer her.

"Yes, Glinda?" I pull my face up to look her in the eye when I talk to her. Unlike some of my colleagues, I want to treat my admin like a person. She raises a pierced brow at me and crossesher arms over her chest, a folder dangling in her hand. With a heavy sigh, I heave myself off the desk and sit back in my chair.

"Cyrus is here to see you. Said he won't take no for an answer this time."

"I don't want to talk to him," I grumble, scrubbing my hand on my face. "Tell him I have a meeting."

"Nope, not doing your dirty work, bossman. Whatever you two are going through, you gotta fix it. I feel like I'm babysitting my divorced parents." She tosses the folder on the desk. "Here are the reports for the meeting you have in an hour."

Glinda may have an attitude problem but is seriously excellent at her job.

Almost as soon as she's gone, Cyrus comes barreling through the door, full of piss and vinegar. "Where are we at in finding her?"

"Same place we were at yesterday. There is no record of Jordan Cross living anywhere in Lunarcrest City." I've scoured all the public records I could find and even tried to find a library card in her name. It's been nothing but goose eggs.

My packmate throws himself into the chair across from my desk, his massive figure barely fitting in the chair. Ever since his injury a few years ago, he's been unable to get on the ice. It's made him more of an asshole than he ever was. Not finding Jordan has ramped it up to eleven.

"How is it we can't find our Omega?" he grumbles.

I rub my hands down my face with a sigh. "I think it may be time for us to admit that she doesn't want to be found."

Saying the words suck all of the oxygen out of the room, but I don't take them back. It's been swimming in my head for two weeks now. If she wanted to be found, I have to believe we would be with her by now.

"She doesn't have a choice," he growls. "She's ours. She can run all she wants, but we'll find her eventually."

"Fuck, dude, do you not hear how insane you sound?Werejectedher.You can't go into this all Alphahole with theyou're minebullshit, or we will for real lose her." This is a fight Slime and Cyrus have had often since we all moved in together, but it's the first time I've called him out directly. "Look, I get it. Knowing our match is out there drives me crazy, too, but we can't charge in guns blazing, dude. We're going to have to earn her trust again."

"She'll scent us and immediately be in our arms and on our knots, dude."

"Oh, what the actual fuck?" I slam my chair back and jump to my feet. "You for real didn't just say that, did you? Like you actually said that shit out loud?"

He sneers at me. "What? It's what all Omegas do."

"Fuck you, dude. Get out." I point at the door and snarl my words at him. "I'm not going to even entertain finding her until you fix the fucked up way you're looking at this situation. This is a chance for us to right our wrongs, not make it worse." Scrubbing my hands on my face, I groan. "We broke her heart. There's no way we didn't destroy her. We don't know what kind of life she's built for herself. This situation is precarious, and you need to recognize that we've got serious groveling to do."

He digs his heels in, arrogantly rolling his eyes. "Why do we have to grovel? She's going to be thrilled. She's getting what she always wanted."

"Did you ever care about her?" I whisper.

He rears back as if I slapped him. "Of course, I cared! What kind of question is that?"

"You seem content to believe her to be some vapid stereotype of an Omega, forgetting that she was one the whole time we knew her, even if she hadn't presented. If all you care about is getting your knot squeezed, then I can't let you be around her."I walk around my desk, putting my hand between his broad shoulder blades and pushing him out the door.

"Jordan is supposed to be the rest of our lives, C. Continue to view her as something to be owned, and you won't get the chance to find out who she became after we tore her to pieces."

---