Page 73 of Knot That Delicate

“Why are you guys here?” I asked again.

“One year,” Asher said. “We promised we would be here a year to the day.”

I shook my head. “A year ago was yesterday. If you're here for me, you're a bit late,” I said, crossing my arms, and behind me, Lavender let out a squeak.

“Are these your pack? Are these the guys that made you cry yesterday because they didn't turn up?” she asked angrily, standing up. “If that's the case, I'm going to have one of the keepers shoot them.”

The guys looked at her with genuine fear in their expression. Lavender was angry. I would not put it past her.

“No. Well, yes, that is us. But something happened, and we couldn’t make it and then we begged the Haven to let us in to talk to you because we wanted to explain what happened, and we didn't want to think that we abandoned you. Dr. Sarah agreed to let us in. We left a voicemail with the Haven, but it must have gotten lost in the shuffle.”

I cocked my head to the side. “Why would Dr. Sarah let you in?”

“Because she knows that you wanted to see us, and we explained to her that we fucked up and got waylaid,” Asher said bashfully.

“Will someone please explain before I call the keeper?“ Lavender said.

Dylan nodded. “So, we've recently bought an apartment in the city in a building that is safe for omegas, you know, for when this happened.” He gestured to the area around him before swallowing.Is Dylan nervous?It was kind of refreshing to see. “We made friends with the pack that lives on our floor. There are two packs per floor in this building, and the omega of the pack next door is a sweet girl called Emma, and she…” He broke off as I growled.

“Are you really coming here and talking about another omega?” I asked as Lavender made a sound of shock behind me.

Dylan's eyes widened. “No, no, no, no, I'm not doing that. It's all part of the story, I promise.”

“It's true,” Asher said. “Emma is a happily bonded omega with a pack of guys, and she wouldn’t look twice at us, and we didn't want to look twice at her, 'cause we love you, but we should probably explain why we're late,” he rambled.

Carter nodded. “Eeerrrr, that's mostly due to me. I was the idiot. Essentially, our neighbors knew that Asher is a formerarmy medic. One of the alphas fell and hit their head. So, we went to go help them, and this was right as we were about to get out the door to come see you because we all dressed nicely and we were excited. And then I may have slipped on a puddle of grease in their apartment. So, while Asher was bandaging up one of her alpha’s heads, I went flying across the kitchen and broke my arm.” He held up his bright-red-casted arm with a smile.

Dylan pinched his nose. “He didn't just break it, he pretty much shattered the bone. He's potentially going to need surgery on it later because the idiot didn't look where he was running and made us late.”

I glanced between all the guys. They all looked so disheveled, and I couldn't help but giggle.

“Wait, so you guys didn't mean to not turn up? You guys planned to be here yesterday?”

They all nodded.

“Fucking hell, of course we did. We wouldn't miss it for the world. We just ended up missing it because of a fractured, shattered bone,” Dylan said with a grimace.

“But are you still interested?” Asher asked, his face worried. “I know we fucked up, but we're going to fuck up again. This is us. We’re a bunch of idiots, but we want to be your bunch of idiots. We don't want to mess up, and we will do whatever it takes to make it up for you.”

As they spoke, my smile had slowly gotten bigger and bigger. They still wanted me. They still cared about me. And by fuck, I was ready to give this a shot.

“I mean, if you’re willing to get me a pony. I have become accustomed to a life of luxury, after all.” I smirked.

Their faces went through a few emotions, confusion and shock to laughter.

Behind me, Lavender cackled. “Oh, the groveling is going to be so beautiful,” she declared.

“Can you just put that in the bedroom?” I asked Kane as he wandered through the apartment, carrying the large chest of drawers that I had brought with me from the Haven.

“When did you become a tiny dictator?” he muttered as he wandered through the apartment. He was closely followed by Carter, who had an armful of nesting supplies. “I learned from the best,” I called after my brother, “your omega.”

I heard a grunt of agreement as he disappeared into the bedroom. Moving into the pack apartment was a mission, and I had convinced my brother to help us. Lavender had also come along, but she was sitting in the kitchen, making snacks.

“Come here, Juniper. I've got the good gummy bears,” she called out, brandishing a bag in the air with a grin. “Archer ordered the good ones for me.”

I grinned and wandered over to the kitchen. “That man gets you so many sweets.” I laughed.

Lavender nodded as she tore open the bag and roughly grabbed a handful of the sweets, shoving them into her mouth. “I've got good alphas, what can I say?” She smirked, turning to look at Asher, who was currently rummaging through one of the kitchen cupboards, working on organizing the crockery. “Did you hear that? If you feed your omega sweets, they love you?” she asked pointedly.

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