Page 72 of Knot That Delicate

“Who is it?”Lavender groaned next to me as she rolled over. “Tell them to go away. We need sleep.”

“Apparently, I've got a meeting now,” I said, showing her my phone.

Her eyes flicked open and she sat up, taking the phone off me. “That's weird. Did you have anything booked?”

I glared at her. “At five in the morning?” I asked incredulously.

She shook her head. “No, of course, you don't. Usually, the keepers wouldn't even bother us with this at this hour. I'm curious, do you think one of the packs turned up together to see you?”

“When would they ever let in a pack in the middle of the night to see one of us?” I asked.

Lavender cocked her head to the side. “You're right there. Okay, I think I want to explore this. We can go stop by the twenty-four-hour cafeteria, grab some snacks, maybe some breakfast, maybe some late-night boozy snacks, and just poke our head in and see who it is. 'Cause, I don't know about you, but the curiosity is going to kill me if I don't find out who that is.”

I sighed and closed my eyes. “Fine, but I am not getting dressed,” I said, looking down at my body. I was wearing a small pajama set that consisted of a teeny tiny pair of shorts covered in miniature Donuts and a T-shirt that said I wasdo-nought adorable. It was corny and I loved it. And, usually, I would havechanged before meeting anyone, but at five in the morning, I was beyond caring.

“I happen to like what you're wearing,” Lavender said with a smirk. She was wearing an almost identical set of pajamas, except hers had little baby unicorns all over them and the saying on her T-shirt wasI'm Horny.

I sighed, crawling out of my nest. “Come on, then, let's go get some food.”

Lavender had joined me in my room after the debacle of the day. She stayed with me while I cried, held my hand, fed me snacks, and we had eventually fallen asleep together in a little omega cuddle puddle.

Now, we padded down the hallway, waving down one of the keepers who was standing in the hallway. It was one of the night keepers that I didn't know quite as well. I thought his name was Lucas.

“Hi,” I said, showing him my phone. “Apparently, we've got a meeting we need to go to, but we're going to stop by the cafeteria first. Who's running the meeting rooms right now?” I asked. “Are they even open?”

The keeper looked down at my phone. “That is highly unusual. Urm, go to the main desk and find Gregory. He'll tell you if you should even go to that meeting, or if this is just a computer glitch. Honestly, I think it's a computer glitch. There's no way in hell we’d have meetings at this time.”

“That's what I thought, but it woke me up, anyway, so we're gonna get snacks,” I said. “Do you want us to bring anything back for you?”

The keeper smiled. “I won't say no to cookies.”

I nodded with a smile before linking arms with Lavender, and we made our way down the corridor toward the cafeteria and meeting rooms.

Ten minutes later, our arms were full of several bags of snacks as we made our way towards the meeting rooms. They were an offshoot from the main building, linked by the main reception. Keeper Gregory was one of the head keepers, and apparently, he was working, so we made our way to the desk. “Is Keeper Gregory around?” I asked the receptionist who beamed at me.

“He is. I'll go get him right now, miss.” She disappeared behind the desk, and a minute later, Keeper Gregory came striding out.

“Juniper, I'm so sorry if we woke you.” He looked exhausted, like he'd run his hands through his hair several times that morning. The poor man put up with a lot. He had dealt with kidnapped omegas, he had dealt with omegas who’d run away. He dealt with a lot of problems, and I was surprised he wasn't permanently gray at this point.

“Was it just a computer glitch?” I asked, cocking my head to the side. “That doesn't matter, if it was. We managed to stop and get some snacks, so it wasn't a wasted trip.” I grinned.

Keeper Gregory shook his head. “Nope, it's a real meeting. Urm, I don't even know how to explain it, but maybe go to meeting room three, and you’ll see what I mean?”

I stared at him questioningly. “That's not ominous.”

“Trust me, it's nothing bad, but… I don't really know how to explain the chaos that just came upon my Haven at five this morning. I need more coffee,” he said, and next to me, Lavender giggled.

“Go get yourself a coffee. We're gonna go take a look, though if anyone's mean to us, I reserve the right to have a keeper shoot them,” Lavender said pointedly. Gregory merely waved inagreement as he wandered back behind the desk, undoubtedly to go find the coffee machine. Lavender turned to me with a grin. “This is fascinating, let's go.” She dragged me in the direction of meeting room three.

The meeting room was empty. Lavender and I sat in a pair of armchairs, pulling out our snacks. I opened up a chocolate bar and took a big bite. “This is so weird,” I said, and Lavender nodded as she munched on a cookie.

“Yeah, it’s bizarre. I wanna know who thinks it's okay to disturb you this early.”

I nodded and opened my mouth to reply when the door on the other side of the room opened, and from behind the glass, I saw several people tumble into the room. It took a second for their presence to register, but as soon as it did, I was standing up.My guys.They were the exact same, although they were a bit cleaner cut, and they had a bit less hair, but they were my guys. Asher, Dylan, and Carter.What the hell are they doing here? Why weren't they here hours ago? Did they come just to mess with me?

“What are you doing here?” I asked as they all rushed to the glass.

“Holy shit, I am so sorry we are late,” Carter said. I looked him up and down, noticing the cast on his arm.

---