Page 40 of Knot Just for Show

The kind of success that would let me send my moms big enough checks so that they wouldn’t have to worry about losing the studio or the dojo… or their home. If I really did good, I might even be able to afford to get them into a real house. Some nice ranch—all one level so that Ma doesn’t have to keep doing a two story walkup to get to her bedroom when her knees have been shot since I hit puberty.

“How’s that forreal talk?”I crumple my wax paper sandwich wrapper and shoot it into the wastebasket on the far side of the room.

Nothing but bin.

“Teddy…I gotta admit. You are just chock-full-o-surprises,” Ursula laughs.

I still got it. Thank fuckin’ god, dude.

“Can I tell you a secret Teddy?” she begins again, her voice ever so slightly unsure.

“Of course you can, Princess.” I give a smug smirk, doing my best to tear open my packet of barbeque chips as silently as possible.

“I didn’t really think that I was going to end up having to havethe talkwith you about the whole scent card thing,” she confesses.

“Because you thought I was shallow?” I float the question, pinning her to her previous accusation.

“Yes,” she sighs.

I have to respect that she doesn’t try to slither out of her earlier indictment of my character now that I’ve been given a chance to show a bit more beneath the surface.

“And what do you mean ‘the talk’?” I circle back, unrelenting.

“Well, for starters—we haven’t talked about interpack dynamics or sexuality, like at all,” she ventures cautiously.

This is a surprise. I haven’t really talked with anyone else in the ‘bubbles’ about it—besides Roxy’s casual mentions of having sex with other women.

“Oh I mean, I’m straight so like…unless you were thinking about other chicks…” I trail off, immediately regretting using the term ‘chicks’ out loud. It’s like I canhearmy Ma yelling at me.

“That’s fine—I’m not looking for you to be one way or another. Just like—I guess how would you feel ifothermembers of the pack are going to be…umintimatewith one another in addition to being intimate with me?” She clears her throat before and after the doozy of a question.

For whatever reason, I haven’t ever really even thought about the possibility until now. Between all the pornography I have consumed, all of the rom-coms my moms have made me watch, and all my ownfantasiesshall we say; my brain has never bothered to explore this avenue. Despite the fact that I have noidea what Ursula, or my fellow packmates might look like; my mind’s eye readily supplies silhouetted bodies—an erotic tangle of limbs and mouths in a darkened room.

I’m surprised by the searing heat that tears through me, starting deep in my gut. I have to clear my throat to keep my voice from cracking as I hurry to answer.

“Yeah, nah—sure I’m cool with whatever you’re cool with, I’ve been through a heat with multiple alphas to one omega before; they can get pretty wild—but like…yeah I’m straight—” I cut myself off, doing my best to streamline my response.

“Cool, so actually great segue…” Ursula laughs nervously. “Whileyoumay have gone through a heat before…not like I can tell you super specifics before we exchange scent cards and talk designation…but…I haven’t gone through one myself.”

I’m sorry. What the actual fuck? How is that even possible? I know that I can’t ask about her designation since it’s technically against the rules—but I had been under the impression that omegas and sigmashadto go into heat. You could technically suppress the heat indefinitely with the help of meds, but since both omegas and sigmas were literally developed as super-breeders; bolsters to our failing population numbers—they would suffer severely for that kind of continued denial.

My silence continues out of my pure shock rather than my worry that I might bungle my response. Thankfully, Ursula seems to assume that I’m otherwise speechless and quickly steps in to salvage the conversation she seems to think is spiraling.

“I mean, I’m not avirgin-virgin, if that’s what you’re worried about,” she explains hurriedly. “I’ve never taken aknotthough,” she discloses reluctantly—and I’m a little embarrassed by how my body instantly reacts to the idea of knotting this smartass omega for her first time.

Fuck. I’m gonna get hard just thinking about it.

I should probably say something supportive, or at bare minimum something that doesn’t come off as stupid horny as I am right this second.

“Uh,” Is all I manage though, my brain struggling to get my mouth to catch up.

I’m floundering—mouth clamped shut so another idiotic ‘um’ or ‘ah,’ doesn’t escape me as I struggle to get my brain to focus on anything other than the fact I’m already at half mast.

“Teddy? You still over there?” she ventures with an exasperated sigh, the confirmation that I’ve been too quiet for too long after her disclosure.

“Yeah! Yeah, I’m here—I just was a little surprised and didn’t want to say the wrong thing just because I’m not exactly good at improvising the ‘right’ things to say.” I’m being earnest, even if I am omitting a few details .

“That’s fair. I don’t know if there even is a ‘right’ thing to say here.” Ursula’s laugh is thin, too breathy. I know that she’s trying to comfort me, but there absolutely arewrongthings to say here—and I’m going to have to tread carefully, lest my perfectly toned ass end up stepping on a landmine while navigating this tricky topic.

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