Page 13 of Knot Sharing the Ice

Adder steps forward, his voice gentle. "Hey," he says softly. He starts to ask if she's okay, but Ember holds up her hand, silencing him.

We all watch, transfixed, as she slowly steps into the room. She stops in front of Carter first, and I can see the usually calm and collected alpha tense up as she leans in close and… smells him. Her straight, perfect, freckled nose twitches slightly as shestands up on the balls of her shoes and sniffs near his neck, and I've never been more envious of anyone in my life than I am of Carter in this moment. She's not touching him, but it's close enough.

"Dark chocolate," she mutters, more to herself than to us.

My heart pounds as she moves on to me next. Her scent floods my senses. Sweet and intoxicating, like cotton candy at a fairground. It takes every ounce of self-control I possess not to reach out and pull her into my arms. She's so close, I can count the freckles across her nose—twenty-seven—and the flecks of gold in her brown eyes.

She steps close to me, so close I can feel the warmth radiating off her, inhales deeply, and I hold my breath, waiting. I also pick up the shift in her scent. It's there, but unmistakable. A bit muskier than it was earlier, a sultry note added to the light and airy sweetness that has my mouth watering, but I have barely any time to process it.

"Woodsmoke," she declares, and I feel a rush of... pride? Relief? I've always wondered what I would smell like to my omega, if we were lucky enough to find one who could put up with all of us. Jury’s still out on that.

Woodsmoke. I like it.

But there's no time to respond before she's moving on to Adder. He stands tall and perfectly still as she approaches, like a buck afraid to spook a fawn in the forest. She leans up, meeting his gaze without hesitation for a few seconds before her eyes flutter shut under dark, heavy lashes and she breathes in audibly.

"Mint," she announces on the exhale, her eyes opening again as she stares up at him, cocking her head slightly. "And snow."

"Huh," Adder says, a slow grin of approval spreading across his face. "Wouldn't have guessed that."

Last, she approaches Jayce. For all his cocky bluster and flirtatiousness, he actually backs up a little, looking utterly flustered by our omega's proximity. Ember grabs his scarf, pulling him closer like he's not easily three times her size, and sniffs.

"Salted caramel," she says, her voice a mix of confusion and something else I can't quite place.

The tension in the room breaks as Carter, Adder, and I burst out laughing. "Salty and sweet," Carter quips. "Sounds about right."

"Shut the fuck up," Jayce grumbles, but there's no real heat behind it.

For a moment, we all just stand there, the air thick with unspoken questions and simmering tension.

I can't take my eyes off Ember. She looks... lost. Overwhelmed. I want to wrap her in my arms, to tell her everything will be okay.

But I know that's not what she needs right now.

And there's a strength behind the hesitation. A hardness in her gaze that has me wanting to tear the world apart until I find the bastard who put it there. Who gave her reason to be as wary of alphas—of her own pack—as much as she clearly is.

"So," Ember says, finally breaking the silence as she folds her arms and stands there in the middle of the room, a wisp of an omega who has all four of us revolving around her like satellites, hanging on her every word and afraid to move a muscle or even blink the wrong way. "What do I smell like to you?"

We all exchange a look as the unspoken answer passes between us. The answer that hit us all at once the moment we walked into the rink.

"Cotton candy," Adder says, speaking for the pack.

A look of confusion crosses her face, quickly replaced by realization as her gaze flicks over to Jayce. "Of course," she mutters. "You knew yesterday."

It's not a question, just a statement of fact.

"We knew from the moment we saw you," Jayce says in a matter-of-fact tone, nodding at me. "Andsomeof us voted for telling you right away. For the record."

Adder gives him a stern look. Carter just rolls his eyes.

What does it matter either way? She clearly doesn't want us. I'm not sure any way we handled it could have changed that.

"Why didn't you?" she asks, an edge of wariness to her voice that makes me wonder if itwasthe wrong move.

"Isn't it obvious?" I ask. "We didn't want to spook you. You're clearly not interested in us."

The others fall silent, but it's nothing more than the truth. I've never seen the point in beating around it, one way or another.

Ember's gaze flicks over to me and her full lips curve into a frown my caveman brain imagines smoothing off that beautiful face with a kiss.

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