Page 35 of My Knotty Mountain Men

“We thought we’d never see you again.” Nolan grins, tears swimming in his eyes.

She tries to pull out of my hold, and I panic, holding her tighter. “I don’t mean to be rude, but I really don’t feel comfortable with you touching me like this.”

“What? Why?” I bark, and Violet flinches. I immediately feel like shit.

She licks her lips, looking between the three of us. “Because of Sylvia. It’s not fair to her.”

That name sends ice through my vines. “Fuck Sylvia,” I snarl.

“What?” her eyes widen.

“She means nothing to us,” I promise.

“But she’s having your baby.” Violet’s eyes furrow. “You're her Alphas.”

“Like fuck we are,” Thomas finally speaks, moving to stand next to us. “Sylvia isn’t anything to us. We are not her pack, and that baby she’s pregnant with isn’t ours. She’s just some crazy chick who wishes it was.”

“What?” Violet whispers, her lower lip trembling. “B-but she said... she...” Her eyes flick between the three of us. “Are you telling me the truth?”

“Yes,” Nolan answers, moving his hand to her back like he can’t resist touching her a second longer. “Sylvia is a Beta who we saw over a year ago. We went on a few dates, spent one night together, and that's it.”

“She’s been harassing us ever since,” Thomas growls. “Calling, showing up at our house, telling the whole damn town we’re together. She’s fucking crazy!”

“Really?” she asks, still not seeming to fully believe us.

“Baby girl.” Thomas places his forehead against Violet’s. “She’s not ours. She never was. You are. You're our Omega. You were always meant to be ours.”

“Oh my god.” Violet starts to cry. “How could I be so stupid? God.” She tries to pull away from me, but I refuse to let her go. Instead, she wraps her arms around me and cries into my chest. “I can’t believe this. She was lying to me. And I just left. I didn’t stay. I didn’t wait to find out the truth from you guys.”

“Shhhh.” I try to soothe her. “It’s okay. Everything is okay.”

“No, it’s not!” she shouts, ripping herself from my hold. She steps back, looking at us with wild eyes. “None of this is okay. I so easily believed what she said because I didn’t know anything about you three. So, to me, it was the truth because I didn’t know what to believe otherwise. We knew each other less than twenty-four hours before I started my heat.” She runs her hands through her hair, stressed.

I hate seeing her upset. All I want to do is go over to her, wrap her back up in my arms, and make everything better. Like she has. Because it’s like I don’t remember the last three months. They don’t matter. Only she does. She’s here. Everything is okay.

That's why I step forward but don’t touch her, not wanting to overwhelm her more.

“It doesn’t matter, Violet. All that matters is that you're here. You’re back.”

“But it does matter.” Tears stream down her cheeks, causing my heart to break. “You must hate me. I just left. You found your scent match, something you’ve been wanting for so long... and I justleft.”

She wraps her arms around herself, looking so small.

“No,” Thomas growls, her eyes snapping over to him. “We don’t hate you, Violet. We could never hate you. What happened was one big, fucked up mess. And yes, it really fucking sucked, and I’m not going to lie, being without you just about fucking killed us.” Thomas rubs at his chest, his green eyes filled with vulnerability. “But what matters now is that you're here. You’re back, and we’re never letting you go. Do you hear that, Baby Girl? You're ours,” he growls, stepping towards her.

Her lips part, breaths coming in quick heavy pants as Thomas gets closer, moving until he’s pulling her into his body and kissing her just like I did.

She whimpers against his lips, and the room fills with the scent of sweet apple pie. “Fuck,” I breathe out, nostrils flaring as I inhale her perfume deeply. My cock thickens for the first time in months.

I blame everything that's happened on Sylvia, not Violet. She had every right to take off without talking to us. No matter how much I hated her being gone, I understood. She didn’t owe us anything, scent match or not. We were strangers thrown together because of something powerful and out of our control.

None of that changed the fact that we just met, that she had a whole other life before meeting us.

The thought has my stomach sinking. She’s not leaving, I’m not letting her. Wherever she came from, she’s not going back. At least not to live.

I’m not sure how, but I’m going to do anything I can to keep her here with us, where she belongs.

When Thomas and Violet pull apart, both of them are breathing heavily. Their gazes locked as they share an intense moment.

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