Page 3 of Knot That Delicate

"I won't be doing that," he said. "I would rather not have a corpse on my land. That would lead to a lot of questions, and if you don't get out of the cold soon, you're going to get hypothermia."

I tried to push him away, but I had no strength left in my body. It was like he was being pushed by a dandelion instead of a fully grown woman.

"Come on, darling." He picked me up with ease, carrying me bridal-style out of the woodland, despite my protests.

"Put me back," I insisted weakly. I didn't want to be here; I wanted to be at home.

But sitting at the base of a tree in the pouring rain felt safer than being carried off by a strange man. What if I had just sealed my fate for another several years under a house in a dusty basement with no sunlight?

"Please don't lock me away," I whimpered.

I didn't know if Carter had heard me, but he shushed me gently as he carried me. He smelled delicious—like fresh saltyair. The ocean. Beach days. I had grown so used to Alex's acidic, rotten stench that Carter was a welcome surprise. Even though I was scared and didn't know what was going on, his scent was comforting, unwinding that knot of fear that had been bundled deep in my chest for years. As he carried me through the woods, I buried my nose in his neck and inhaled deeply.

"I don't want to be in the dark," I murmured into his neck. "Please don't leave me in the dark."

My body rocked with sobs as he shushed me and cooed. A vibration started to emanate from his chest, and my entire body felt languid. He was purring. I sighed in happiness, and despite all of my pain, everything felt a little bit better.

An alpha's purr was significantly potent, especially to an omega—even more so to a fragile omega. And given everything I had been through, I was extremely fragile.

Even after all the batshit crazy things that had happened to me over the last few years, finding a half-naked, soaking wet, panicked omega in the middle of the woods during possibly the biggest storm we’d seen in years shocked the hell out of me.

At first, I thought she was an intruder or—until she opened that smart-ass mouth—even a child. She was tiny. Then, when I got the light on her, I saw just how bad the situation was, and I swear my stomach fell through my body to the goddamned forest floor. She wasn’t a lost hiker or someone trying to invade my land—no, she was on the run from something. There were bruises down the side of her face and scratches on her arms that were still bleeding and looked pretty deep. When she cried thatshe didn’t want to be in the dark, my heart broke. What the hell had this woman been through?

I took my time carrying her now-unconscious form to the ATV. The ground was muddy and slippery, and the last thing I wanted to do was tumble over while carrying her. Despite wrapping her in a blanket stored in the ATV, we were both completely drenched through by the time I made it to the cabin. Picking her back up, I kicked open the door and went straight in, not bothering to stop when my pack mates exclaimed in surprise.

"Who the hell is that?" Asher asked as I made my way towards my bedroom.

She was cold,toocold. The first thing I needed to do was warm her up. Now that we were out of the rain, her scent hit me in full force. Strawberries. She smelled like the sweetest strawberries, but there was a chemical undertone to her smell. She was definitely an omega, but something wasn’t quite right.Of course, something isn’t quite right, I reminded myself. I’d literally found this omega stranded in the woods in the middle of a storm, looking like death warmed over.

Without bothering to move the blanket, I placed her on my bed. Asher and Dylan were following me, both of them confused, but my focus was on the passed-out omega and not them.

“Where the hell did she come from?” Dylan asked, his pine and oak scent charring slightly with displeasure.

“I don’t know,” I said, reaching down and pulling off one of her shoes. It was a flimsy Mary Jane shoe that was in no way suitable for outside. “I found her in the woods looking like this. I don’t even know how she got there. She’s completely soaked through, though. We need to get her warm.”

Dylan nodded. “I’ll get the fire going in here, then,” he said, moving over to the hearth and grabbing a few logs. The cabin didhave some electric heating, but nothing beat a good old roaring fire.

“Is she an omega?” Asher asked.

I nodded. “I think so.”

“Why the hell is there an omega running around in the middle of nowhere? We’re miles and miles from the nearest town here,” Asher said with a frown. “Her pack has a lot to answer for if they let her go wandering around in the rain.”

He wasn’t wrong—her appearance was bizarre, but that wasn’t what concerned me the most. “I’m not sure she’s out here willingly,” I said. “She said she escaped someone, and look at her face.”

My pack mates turned to look at her, and I could see the moment Asher recognised the bruising on her face. “Who the fuck did that to her?” he asked in a thundering voice, the anger rolling off him in waves.

“I don’t know,” I repeated. “I literally just found her. She was crying and begging not to be put back in the dark.”

“Is there any chance that whoever did that to her is still out there?” Asher asked, looking around the room. I knew him well enough to understand that move. He was checking all the exits, considering our security.

He had a point. What if the person who hurt this omega was prowling around out there? We didn’t know what they were capable of.

“Dylan,” I said, “can you check the perimeter when you get a moment?”

My pack mate nodded. “Of course. I’ll make sure everything’s locked up and all the cameras are on properly. We’re probably going to have some power outages, so I will make sure one of the generators is hooked up to the cameras.”

I had managed to remove both of the omega’s shoes and the flimsy, sad excuse for socks that she was wearing. Now, I had toremove whatever the hell was left of her dress. My hands went to the neckline, intending to rip it off, before hesitating. Should I just strip her naked immediately? She needed to be warm. I didn’t want her to freeze to death, but it also felt wrong stripping her completely naked.

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