Page 21 of Knot That Delicate

“Oh, I know!” Asher said, holding out his hand for the remote. “I’ll put it on.”

With a few clicks of the remote, the screen lit up, and the movie started. I settled in to watch, continuing to eat the chicken and noodles, feeling warmer and more comfortable than I had in years.

I should have been tense, on edge, but as the time passed, my body practically melted into the couch. Part of me was worried that I wasn’t more stressed, but I quickly squashed that voice and focused on enjoying this rare moment of comfort.

I’d known she was beautiful. I’d recognised that the moment Carter brought her into the cabin for the first time. But seeing her now, freshly cleaned, her hair no longer tangled, and a smile on her face as she sat next to me wearing baggy clothes, she lookedstunning.Like, painfully so. Her dark hair had small ribbons of brunette throughout it, with tiny streaks of red, even though, in most lights, it probably looked black. Even this close, I could see the flecks of gold in the irises of her eyes as she curled up in the corner of the couch, as far away from me as possible. She ate her meal, making little humming noises as she did so, and my entire body hummed with happiness that the omega was enjoying the food I had made for her. It pleased the alpha in me greatly.

Obviously, she wasn’t completely comfortable with us yet. Her eyes kept drifting between all of us, like she was trying to ascertain where the potential danger was. But after a few minutes of the TV being on, she started to get absorbed in the movie, and by the halfway mark, she seemed to forget anyone else was in the room.

Several times, I had to physically stop myself from reaching out to her, pulling her into me. The urge to touch her was riding me hard.

I’d already seen the movie many times before, so I took the now-empty bowl of noodles from her hands, collected the dishes from my pack mates, and headed to the kitchen, grabbing a quick packet of popcorn to make for her. I didn’t know what kind she liked, so I hesitated for a moment before deciding to make a salty and sweet bowl. My pack mates would eat both, so I assumed it would be a safe bet, since we would eat whatever she didn’t.

It wasn’t a short movie, by any means—it was three hours long—but she was so absorbed, time seemed meaningless. I waited for a lull in the action scenes before reentering the living room with two large bowls of popcorn in hand. Dylan wasn’t even watching the movie; he was watching the omega. I couldn’t blame him. None of us had said it, but we all knew, deep down, that Juniper was just our type. She had many features similar to the omegas we had tried to court back in the city—before we gave up on that. Most city omegas, and even Haven omegas, weren’t really interested in us.

The Havens were cautious about letting our pack near any omega, considering our past. Dylan had been diagnosed with PTSD a long time ago, and that alone ruled him out. We understood why the Havens did it—the safety of the omegas was paramount—but it still stung. Just because someone had PTSD didn’t mean they were dangerous, but the Havens always erredon the side of caution.We lived in a society with so many alphas and so few omegas, they could afford to be picky about who they chose to court, which often left us at the bottom of the barrel. We had come to terms with that, and we knew that we didn’t want to date a beta. Not that we had anything against them, but our instincts cried out for an omega, and if we did start to date a beta, we worried, as a group, that we would be treating them as an inferior stand-in for what we really wanted.

I had no idea what exactly Juniper had been through, but I knew that once the weather improved and the snow stopped, come early spring, she’d go to a Haven. There, she would be protected, and she would have all manner of wealthy, respectable alphas vying for her attention. Judging by her condition when we found her, she desperately needed that.

“Do you want sweet or salty?” I asked, holding up the two bowls of popcorn.

She looked at me, her eyes flickering between the two bowls, biting that plump bottom lip and giving me thoughts that I should not have been having. She was so beautiful, and if she’d asked for both, I would’ve handed them over without hesitation. Hell, we didn’t need popcorn. We would’ve survived without it. She deserved to have everything. I almost offered both before she answered.

“Can I have the sweet?” she asked.

I practically thrust the bowl into her hands. “Here you go,” I said, beaming.

I turned back and handed the salty bowl to Carter, who took it with a grateful smile. I slumped back into my seat next to Juniper and continued watching the movie. She started munching on the popcorn, and I resisted the urge to grin at the little chomping noises she made. Even the sound of her eating was cute. Normally, I found people eating annoying.

After a few minutes of quietly munching the popcorn, she reached out, gently nudging me, and that simple touch ignited a fire under my skin. I had to swallow and restrain myself from acting on it. I turned to look at her, and she was holding the bowl out to me with a small grin.

“Do you want any?”

I smiled and took a large handful. Of course, I was going to accept if she was offering, even though I would much rather have salty popcorn. But I wasn’t about to tell her that, because there was no way I would reject anything she offered me. As I ate the sickeningly sweet popcorn, I realized I was going to be in for a very interesting few months. She had been here all of two days, and I was already losing my mind over the sight of her. How were my pack mates reacting?

Dylan couldn’t keep his eyes off her, but I didn’t know if it was because he thought she was a threat or because he was enamored with her. It was quite possibly both. Carter was fond of her, I could already tell, but I didn’t know whether that was because she was a lost puppy that needed attention or because of how she looked and acted—or even thatgoddamn delicious scent of hers. Now that she was fully clean, her scent was so potent that the entire cabin smelled like strawberries, and it made my cock stand to attention. I had to cross my legs to avoid it being obvious. The poor woman had clearly been through hell over the last few years. The last thing she needed was some random alpha she just met popping a boner because she smelled pretty.

When the movie finally came to an end, I reached for the controller, intending to load up the next one, so we could continue watching, but Carter stopped me by turning to Juniper.

“I think it’s time you talk to us about what’s happened,” he said, with absolutely no subtlety. She was finally relaxed, and we needed to know, but I despised the idea of stressing her out.

Juniper turned to him, her face pale. “I… I suppose so,” she said quietly. “What do you want to know?”

Carter cocked his head to the side. “You’ve insinuated that you were held captive, but the last time we spoke, you said you were just lost. Maybe we could have the truth this time?”

Juniper took a deep breath. “Look, it’s insane, and I didn’t know if I could trust you, and I was just nervous, okay?” she said, glancing between us all.

Dylan was glowering at her, and I returned the glower. The last thing we needed was for him to distress her further when she was clearly about to talk to us.

“I wasn’t living at a Haven. I was living at home with my family when a neighbor—who is a beta—kidnapped me,” she said simply, shrugging her shoulders. “He wanted to be an alpha more than anything, and he thought having an omega would do that. So, for the last few years, I’ve been stuck in a basement.”

My pack mates and I looked at each other.

“What?” I asked. “Like, foryears, you’ve been underground? When was the last time you were outside?”

She cocked her head to the side, thinking. “Well, before I ran and Carter found me, I hadn’t been outside in years. Lavender and I figured out it had been nearly five years.”

I nodded. That explained why she was deathly pale; she hadn’t seen the sunlight in god knows how long.

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