Page 26 of Knot That Delicate

Asher nodded. "That’s good to know. When you first came here, I was concerned that you were going to be due for a heat soon, and we have no access to heat medication or anything you would need to get through one here. It’s not like we can nip down to a pharmacy, is it?" he said. "But I was far too distracted by the fact that you were injured to ever voice that."

I smiled lightly. His concern was touching. "Well," I said, "you don’t have to worry about that. I’ve never had a heat, and I doubt I’m going to have one anytime soon."Even though I’m pretty sure they do have something I could use to get through my heat. Three somethings, in fact. Three naughty somethings.

I shook my head, like I was trying to shake the very thought out of my brain, before I turned back to the bread. While I had been distracted, Asher had added a bit of water into my bowl, and it was now starting to form into a dough. It was sticking to my fingers, and it was wonderfully messy. I couldn’t help but giggle as I mixed the dough around with my bare hands.

"There’s something satisfying about getting messy, isn’t there?" Asher said with a grin.

"There is," I agreed eagerly. "I haven’t been able to get messy in years. Alec liked me to stay pristine." I shuddered, notwanting to dwell on my past at the moment, so I quickly moved on. "But this is a lot of fun."

Asher reached into the cupboard next to me, grabbing a small bottle of herbs. The simple movement made him loom over me, a gesture that usually would have terrified me, but instead, it just made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. His scent was that much more prominent near me.

"Well," he said without meeting my eye, "if you ever want to get dirty, all you have to do is ask. I’m sure Dylan wouldn’t mind taking you out on the ATVs."

"ATVs?" I questioned, though I now remembered that Carter had likely brought me back to the cabin on one after finding me. I’d been too, well, unconscious to remember it.

He nodded. "Oh yeah, we’ve got several of them for going around the property. We can’t get off the mountain, of course, but they’re a good bit of fun. Albeit very messy," he said. He cocked his head to the side, thinking. "Then again, it’s probably better to ask Carter or me if you want to go out. If you ask Dylan, he’ll give you a lecture on quad bike safety."

I grimaced playfully. "Oh, Idon’twant that," I said with a laugh. "I’ll go with the non-lecturing alphas."

For a few moments, we passed ingredients back and forth to each other, chatting about different things. One loaf was going to be plain; the loaf I was making was going to have rosemary and garlic in it. My mouth was watering as I put in the herbs, just from the smell of the uncooked dough and herbs.

"Okay," Asher said. "Now it’s time to get even messier. What’s your upper-arm strength like?" he asked with a laugh.

"Oh, I am built like a tank," I said, flexing my arms—which looked pitiful and weak, given the current state of my body.

Asher bit his lip to stop from laughing. "Well, youdolook mighty strong, Miss Juniper," he said in an overly obnoxioussouthern accent that made me smile. "Now," he continued, "it’s time for us to knead the bread. You ready?"

I nodded. We poured the loaves out onto the counter, and both of us started working on our various projects.

"How long do I need to knead it for?" I asked.

"Usually ten or so minutes," he said. "There’s a way to test if it’s developed enough properly. You stretch it a little bit, and you can see how stretchy it is. I’ll show you when it’s close, but for now, we just gotta beat the crap out of it." He smiled.

I nodded eagerly and started to knead the dough. I started slowly, taking my time, easing into the movements. Despite the fact that my body was sore and tired, I greatly enjoyed the repetition of the movement, the physical exertion of it. We worked in silence, Asher stepping away for a moment to turn the oven on before returning to his dough. It was a nice, companionable silence. It didn’t feel forced or pressured. It just feltnice, standing next to this alpha, who was over a head taller than me and should have been terrifying, kneading bread.

I didn’t know how much time had passed when Asher grabbed my hand, gently turning me towards the oven. "Can you grab the two trays on top of the oven?" he asked. "I think it’s time to stop kneading."

I pouted. "I was enjoying that."

He nodded. "Unfortunately, if you knead it much more, you’re going to ruin the bread. Don’t worry, if you enjoy kneading the bread that much, I will call you every single time I’m making bread," he promised

"I’m going to take you up on that," I said with a grin as we placed our lumps of dough into their loaf tins and popped them in the oven. “I used to go to this little bagel shop with my family every weekend… the smell was amazing. I miss it,” I sighed.

By the time we’d finished washing our hands, the entire cabin was starting to smell like freshly baked bread. My nose hadbeen in heaven ever since I’d escaped, and this just added a new delicious layer to the mix.Delicious alphas and delicious bread. What more could an omega want?

Iwas wandering aimlessly around the cabin while Asher was out tending to the garden. Calling this place acabinwas somewhat of an understatement. It was more like an estate, or even a compound. There was so much space. Sure, it felt cozy and warm, but there were so many rooms. There was even a workshop out back that was actually connected to the building. They’d mentioned that Carter’s workshop was there, where he tended to work on their vehicles and quad bikes.

I had an itch to get out and about and explore, so I decided to be a little nosy. Padding down the corridor, I peeked through the workshop door, trying to figure out what lay ahead. There was a metallic clinking noise coming from the workshop area. Was Carter working on one of the vehicles? The guys had said Icould go anywhere I wanted, and I knew which rooms were their bedrooms, so it wasn’t like I was going to walk in on one of themnaked.

Without a second thought, I opened the door and wandered in. My steps faltered when I saw what was making the metallic clinking noise—it wasn’t Carter. It was Dylan. And he was lifting weights. Averytopless Dylan, doing weights.

This area was clearly a gym. There were treadmills, weight benches, and other gym equipment I couldn’t even name. And there, in the middle of the room, was a sweaty, shirtless Dylan, lying on a piece of gym equipment, lifting a massive set of weights. Each rep made his chest muscles bulge, the sweat glistening on his skin. My mouth went dry as I stumbled to a stop. He was only wearing a small pair of gym shorts, and every muscle of his body was on display—even the bulky muscles of his thighs, which were bigger than my head.NowI understood why he needed so many protein shakes and was the size of a house.

At the sound of my approach, he stopped and turned to face me, setting the weights down and sitting up, giving me an even better view of his muscular neck with sweat running down it. The entire room was so thick with his scent, it was almost suffocating. But if that was how I died, then so be it—because I didn’t want to leave that room.

My inner omega, who had been quiet for so long, was being very belligerent now, and she didn’t want to movefor anything.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I, um, didn’t mean to disturb you,” I quickly stuttered.

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