Page 38 of Knot That Delicate

Juniper nodded. “Okay, so, drying my hair in front of a campfire is not going to be a good idea, is it?”

I nodded. “Agreed, I don’t like that idea at all, but I don’t know what else we can do. Even if we towel-dry it well, that’s asking for a cold.”

“Well, I’m not too keen on my hair, honestly,” she said, glancing at herself in the mirror. “I kind of want to cut a lot of it off.” She said those words in a rush.

“What do you mean you want to cut ‘a lot’ of it off?” I asked.

“Well, you see, I didn’t want it this long,” she said, wandering into the bathroom and looking in the mirror.

I followed her, propelled by sheer curiosity at this point. “What do you mean?”

“Before, my hair was always about this long,” she said, gesturing to a spot a little below her shoulders. “I never liked my ultra-long hair.”

Her hair currently fell past her waist; it was massive and tangled easily. “So, I was thinking, as the power is out and there is no easy way to dry my hair, I could give it a trim to maybe here,” she said, pointing to just above her shoulder. “I’d love a bob. But if I start cutting my hair off, I need someone to make sure it doesn’t look completely butchered in the back.”

“Are you sure?” I asked. “Most omegas love their hair…”

“Most omegas do, but I amnotmost omegas.” She huffed. “I was forced to have hair like this. And do you know what ? Ilovethe idea of cutting it off. I’d planned to do it when I got back home—with a professional, who actually knew what they were doing. But it serves a purpose to cut my hair off now, it makes sense, and I don't know, it's kind of exciting.” She smirked. “It’s also a bigfuck youto Alec and everything he turned me into. You know I had to have my hair perfectly curled or braided. I had to make it look all pretty for him. He loved my hair and I hated that. I want a bob, a cute bob. I think that would be adorable and it’s what I want.”

I watched her looking in the mirror, pointing to different sections of her hair, trying to ascertain how long she wanted. "This ismychoice," she said, cocking her head to the side, her voice quieting somewhat. “I haven’t made a choice for myself in a while, and I definitely want to do this.” She glanced at me hopefully. “Will you help?”

If she’d asked either of my pack mates, they probably would’ve said no and tried to encourage her to keep her hair long. But I understood the idea that sometimes hair held memories. I had shaved my head the minute I had gotten back from the war. While most of it had grown back, there had been something oddly cleansing about having my hair shaved off for awhile. I could understand why the omega would want a haircut that was her choice, and if anything, a rush of feeling entered my chest that I could only describe as pride. Proud that she was choosing something for herself. She didn’t give a toss what anyone else thought; she was doing it just because it was what she wanted.

“Of course, I’ll help,” I said, moving to stand behind her, looking in the mirror. “Do you want to make the first front cuts? I’ll even it out after.”

Juniper nodded excitedly, her face lighting up. “Okay! I need to decide where.” She raised the scissors to just above her shoulder. “That would be cute, won’t it?”

I nodded. “I think it’ll look lovely. But it’s not up to me, what do you want?”

She considered it for a moment. “I’d probably like to go shorter, but I feel like I want to wait until I can get a professional to cut it shorter.”

“Okay, make the first cut, daring girl,” I said with a smile.

She grabbed the scissors and, without hesitation, cut several inches off her, easily over a foot of hair falling to the ground. Pure joy lit up her face.

“Oh my god, I can’t believe I did that!” she exclaimed, the entire time her face full of a grin. Without any other prompt, she started cutting at the rest of her hair, leaving a section at the back for me. Once she was happy with it, she turned to me with a grin, handing me the scissors.

I quickly got to work evening it up. It only took us a few minutes, and in no time at all, Juniper was sporting a cute little wavy bob, and I cocked my head, admiring the look.

“It’s messy, but it really suits you,” I said.

Juniper nodded. “I know, Iloveit.” Jumping up and down, she turned and hugged me, wrapping her arms around mymidsection and squeezing tightly. “Thank you so much for helping. I don’t think Carter would have.”

I chuckled. “He probably wouldn’t have. He’s soft like that.”

“But, you’re more understanding,” she said.

“I don’t know I would go that far, but I understand why you would want to do it. Now, it’s freezing in here, so why don’t we get outside and show the guys your fancy new hairdo?”

She looked up at me, pure adoration in her eyes. The look she gave me stunned me. It hit my chest so strong that I almost teared up. What would it be like to have someone look at me for the rest of my life like that, with nothing but pure care and appreciation? It felt like I was the tallest man on the planet for a few minutes. It was potent.

And I didn’t want to admit it, but right then…I could’ve very easily fallen in love with Juniper.

Once I had triple-checked the generators and was confident our frozen food stash was safe, I headed outside and started building up the fire with the wood Dylan had gathered. We had used the firepit so many times over the years that it was starting to disintegrate. I made a mental note to maybe add some stonework to it at a later date. For now, that wasn't the issue. The issue was figuring out how to set up the fire when half our firewood was damp.

It took a good twenty minutes of rooting through the logs, but I managed to find several dry ones. Once that was done, it was easy enough to set up a fire, and in no time, there was a roaring bonfire in the back of the cabin gardens.

"Where's Juniper and Dylan?" I asked, glancing around the garden. I'd been searching for them for ages. Why weren't they here yet?