Page 11 of Knot Made to Break: Part One

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GIOVANNI

I roundedthe car and stole Kitania from Dimitri the moment Marco parked in our usual spot. Cradling her petite frame against my chest, I carried her into the elevator, letting D scan his fingerprint and hit the button for the penthouse. My brothers piled in around me, refusing to be more than a foot from our Omega.

Between her exhaustion, the stress of the evening, and her clear lack of nutrition, Kitania had passed out about ten minutes ago. The only thing keeping my Alpha from raging was the steady rise and fall of her chest. Proof that she was breathing. Alive, if not well.

“We need to call Doc,” I rumbled, unable to tear my gaze from the woman in my arms.

“Agreed,” Dimitri said, nodding to Tommas, delegating the task. “I want him here in the next ten fucking minutes.”

My younger brother was already digging into his pockets, ripping his phone out and dialing as the elevator slowed anddinged open on our private floors. “On it,” he murmured, peeling off from the pack to deal with the call while the rest of us got Kitania inside.

I glanced down at her still form. My heart thundered in my chest. Not even a cage fight could rev me up this hard. Every instinct I had shouted at me that this Omega was mine.

Ours.

I set Kitania gently on the leather sofa, sliding a throw pillow beneath her head. She looked so damn fragile, her dark hair fanned out like a halo against the cream fabric. I tucked a soft cashmere blanket around her, my fingers lingering on its hem as I drank in the sight of her delicate features—the gentle slope of her button nose, the long lashes resting against her pale cheeks, the naturally rosy color of her lips. Every part of me screamed to gather her back into my arms, to shield her from any further cruelty, to give her a better life.

Only an hour ago, Kitania had been a stranger, another faceless Omega lost in a fucked up system. But now... now she was everything. The axis my world spun on. The very air in my lungs. In an instant, my reality had shifted and reformed itself around her, every instinct roaring to life with a single purpose—to protect and cherish my mate.

I’d heard the stories of what it was like to meet your scent match, but I hadn’t understood until now.

Fuck, it was intense.

I dragged a hand down my face, trying to comprehend the magnitude of it all. Questions raced through my mind even as I watched the gentle rise and fall of her chest.

Who was she? Where had she come from? Did she have a family or a pack who had been searching for her? Or was she alone in the world?

Heavy footsteps sounded behind me, pulling me from my daze. I turned to see my brothers filing into the room, identicalmasks of shock and awe on their faces as their attention fell to our girl’s unconscious form.

“Doc’s on his way,” Tommas promised, pocketing his cell. “But holy shit,” he breathed, shaking his head. “I can’t believe this is real. Thatshe’sreal.”

Dimitri crossed to Kitania and perched on the coffee table that sat in front of the couch. Reaching for her, he gently brushed a lock of hair off her forehead. “There’s no mistaking it. I felt the initial bond snap into place the second I caught her scent.”

“It’s fucking addicting.” I dragged in another lungful, noting the earthy tones of dark moss and moon flowers. As Alphas, we were attuned to pick up on the intricacies of scents, always searching for the one that drew us in, that captured us heart, body, and soul.

I never thought we’d find it. Findher.

“What the hell do we do now?” Marco asked, his tone uncharacteristically uncertain. Needing to move, as he often did, he paced behind the couch. “We can’t just let her go back to the Omega Matching Agency. Those fuckers didn’t keep her safe the first time.”

To be fair, it hadn’t been completely their fault.

The Omega Matching Agency, otherwise known as the OMA, was a program set in place by the government, a proactive effort to keep Omegas safe from Alphas. Their scents were too potent, and our urges too strong. The number of sexual assaults and forced matings had dropped significantly since the program started, but over the years, the OMA had taken on a life of its own.

When an Omega designated at the age of eighteen, they were supposed to report immediately to the OMA where they’d be put on the Omega Registry and placed into a special curriculum that would prepare them for life as an Omega. It had always seemedlike college, except instead of classes like Psychology or English Lit, they had to take classes on homemaking and child-rearing.

I’d never given it much thought, to be honest, until my little sister had designated and we’d been forced to turn her over to the OMA.

Julia hated the hypocrisy of the system, and she’d open her mouth to anyone who would listen about the complete bullshit it was that she had to take classes on ‘How to Please Your Alphas’ and ‘Making The Most of Your Heat Cycle’ rather than getting to choose a major and plan the course of her own future like Betas and Alphas could.

While the original intent of the OMA had been noble, it definitely had its flaws. Many packs waited for years to be matched with an Omega, which led to the most recent scandal where a prominent politician had bribed low-level workers at the OMA to scrub Omegas’ names off the registry. They targeted Omegas with no known family ties, then kidnapped them and placed them into underground auctions.

Julia had used our mother’s maiden name to distance herself from our infamous reputation. Unfortunately, that move had made her vulnerable, placing her directly in the crosshairs.

I didn’t know Kitania’s backstory, but my gut told me something similar must’ve happened to her. Only low risk Omegas were taken, which usually meant they didn’t have anyone in their corner looking out for them. No one but the OMA to make waves when they simply vanished.

Thankfully, we’d already taken out the assholes who’d run the sex trafficking ring. Things were safer again, not that it mattered in this situation. I knew I’d never bring myself to turn Kitania back over to the OMA when she’d been stolen right out from under them. My Alpha would never allow it.

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