Page 103 of Tangled in Knots

Maybe she’ll learn to sit on the outside of the aisle next time. Her view was perfect where she was, though. I hope she’ll simply learn that I’ll always catch her like the little rabbit my brother says she is.

Wrapped around her finger, we are.

“Go away,” Adira grunts as she finds me in her way. “You’ve been hiding in your hole so well. Why are you here?”

“I’m a student,” I drawl, enjoying the way her pupils enlarge. Fuck, why do I so enjoy the way fear fills her eyes?

Be normal, dammit.

“Impossible,” she mutters, putting her hand on my chest and pushing me back.

I’m not going anywhere I don’t want to go, Adira.

Slowly, vindictively, my feet scrape backward until I give her just enough room to squeeze by. I want to feel her body, smell her sweet scent as she walks by.

“Dick,” she sighs, moving to get past me. Inhaling deeply, I groan as the scent of snickerdoodles and frosting hit my senses.

“Call me whatever you want, but I really fucking miss you,” I tell her.

Adira nearly trips, her hands gripping my coat to keep from pitching down the stairs. I keep my hands to myself, not trusting myself not to crush her to my body.

“You can’t say that,” she hisses.

“And yet I did, you can stop icing me out and feel for yourself,” I say. “How are you doing that anyway?”

“Meditation,” Adira says. “I can’t always tell the difference between what you’re feeling and what I am. I needed the distance to be able to distinguish between the two.”

Someone behind her clears their throat because we’re in their way. I gently lift Adira with my hands on her hips to walk down three steps and slip into a now empty row of chairs.

“Thanks, man,” the beta says as he walks by and I shrug. I didn’t completely move for him. I didn’t want him to yell at Adira.

I was doing it for the sake of keeping the peace on my first day of classes.

“So clarity?” I ask. “Look, I know everything is blowing up, and I will never turn my back on the guys. We rise and fall together. However, you and I are forever. Find your space, but it feels like this deep, dark hole is inside of me when you go dark, Adira.”

We’re talking in hushed voices, and she gazes up at me with her big, midnight blue eyes.

“Fuck,” she sighs, making me blink. That sounds like such a dirty word from her sweet mouth. “You’re not playing fair, Damon.”

“I’m not here to play fair,” I growl. “I’m playing for keeps. I want forever, and part of that means giving you a legitimate future. I’m here for more reasons than just to stalk you. It’s a fun perk, though.”

“Pretty words for someone who says he doesn’t like omegas or attachment,” Adira says.

“Oh, baby, I don’t like anyone,” I remind her. “You’re on the very short list of people who have my heart, and the only one who is an omega.”

“Your what?” she asks with wide eyes as I guide her back toward the stairs. I have her schedule memorized, and she has another class soon.

“My heart and my knot are yours,” I murmur. “Romance is a foreign language to me, I don’t do pretty words, and most of my humanity has been trained out of me, Adira. But, I know that it feels as if I’m being ripped in two whenever you’re sad or numb.”

“I feel numb because the alternative makes me want to rock in a corner and scream,” she says as we walk out of the classroom. “I have to be able to function and work.”

“I don’t like that you’re working so late,” I grumble. At her sharp glare, I shrug. “I know Morris is following you home, but I still don’t like it.”

“He told you about his new hobby, hmm?” she asks as we walk.

“Jed caught him sneaking back in,” I admit.

Adira’s snort is adorable, and my lips twitch as I take a mental snapshot of what she looks like right now. The hours between when I’ll get to see her next are long. She sighs, rubbing her side, and I know she can feel what I am.

---