Page 34 of Knot Their Valentine

“Fireball…” Cae frowns, but I step into him, now that he’s taken several steps backward. The rage coursing through my body has an angry growl echoing up through my chest.

“No! Don’t use that nickname on me right now!” Angry tears fill my eyes as heat burns my cheeks with embarrassment and pain. Despair and repressed anger char the scent of chocolate coming from me. The moment it hits his nostrils, he staggers back with the weight of my turmoil.

Cae spent years of our lives being an asshole. We weren't exactly close or best friends or anything, despite our moms’ friendship. I considered him to be a rival for most of our childhood. But when he spread those shitty rumors about me, it alienated me from the other students.

“It was so fucking hard for me to make friends!” I snap at him. I'm not even trying to hold back the tears as I poke my finger into his chest. “Everyone I hung out with before your stupid ass rumors ghosted me! And then you had the fucking audacity to keep the lie going for years! You’ve never apologized or even taken responsibility for what you did!”

“I’m sorry, Harlow. I’m so sorry.” Cae shocks the fuck out of me as he drops to his knees in front of me for the second time today. He takes both of my hands in his, looking up at me with so much guilt in his eyes.

His sugary scent is filling the air with so much regret that I can practically taste the burned frustration. But I'm not falling for his tricks anymore. I yank my hands out of his and glare down at him.

“Sorry isn't good enough, Caelum! Sorry doesn't make up for the years that I spent crying alone in the bathroom, or for the fact that your mate was one of the few people that ever even attempted to comfort me.”

“I know, Harlow. This won't make you feel any better, but I did have a reason. I overheard a group of guys on the football team talking about you. You perfumed early, so you were one of the few Omegas in the school. One of them wanted to fuck you…but it was more than that. They were taking bets on who could fuck you first and who could take your virginity. Who could make you take their knot!” Cae explains frantically. My jaw falls open, and I stare at him with wide eyes.

“Are you fucking kidding me? You could have told an adult! Or me!” I throw my hands up, shaking my head. “You found out a group of guys wanted to fuck me, so your response was to ruin my reputation and make me look like a psycho? How the fuck does that make any sense!?”

“I did try to tell an adult! I told the football coach. I told him what all the guys on my team were saying, and that you needed to be protected. His fucking response was that guys will be guys. That they were just hormonal Alphas talking shit in a locker room. That none of them would actually do anything to you.” Cae shakes his head, lifting one of his hands and tugging it through the light brown strands. “And I couldn't say anything to you because you wouldn't have believed me! It's not like we were friends back then. You only spoke to me when you were forced to! I didn't know what else to do, and I was just a stupid kid. I panicked! I wanted to protect you. I wanted to keep you safe. I didn't mean to hurt you. I never wanted to hurt you, Harlow.”

“How am I supposed to believe you? After years…” I step away from him, turning around so I can’t see him anymore. I can’t help but picture the last few years, aching with loneliness, while he had his friends. His pack. “If you were trying to protect me, why keep being such a dick?”

“I’m not perfect, Fireball. The choices I made as a stupid dick of a teenager were more damning than I knew what to do with. I didn’t know how to repair the damage I’d done. Even when youwent away to school… Every time you came back and shut me out, I wasn’t prepared for how that made me feel or ready to own up to my mistakes. To admit what my pack knew all along. Not until your mom said you were back… I thought if I could just get you here, then maybe I could fix everything.” Glancing back, I see that Cae remains on the floor, kneeling. His scent is trying so hard to soothe me.

“That doesn’t make any sense either. You have Quin. He’s your Omega. You could have just sent a fucking card!” I huff, spinning back around to face him. “Why bid on me at the charity? Why convince my mother to trick me into moving in here?” I feel like I'm losing my shit. None of this makes any sense!

“It’s not obvious?” Cae asks, frowning as he reaches out, gripping my hips and pulling me closer. He rests his face against my stomach and breathes my scent in deeply. “Quinton needs you in a way he’s never needed me. Lachlan opens up with you in ways he’s been too scared to do with just Quin and me.”

“And you, Caelum? Or do you only want me around for your pack? Am I just an offering to them?” I sniff, feeling so raw and exposed in this damn hallway.

“You make us feel like home. Like a real pack. Something we have struggled with since the moment we formed a pack. Without you, all of this crumbles. I fucked up, and I should have made things right sooner, but I was scared you’d reject me. Reject us.” Cae shakes his head, forehead still pressed into my stomach. “I knew I only had one chance to make you ours.”

I’m dizzy, swaying on my feet, but Caelum’s hands keep me upright as I bury my fingers in his hair.

“How are you going to make it up to me, Caelum?” My words are barely more than a whisper, but my scent changes, sharpening… Caelum groans, his fingers digging into my hips as he nuzzles my stomach. That thread of hope that’s kept me goingall these years, grows as his scent thickens, and he looks up at me with desire and determination in his amber eyes.

“Every way I can, Fireball.”

“Mini golf?”I ask skeptically, staring at the colorful sign in front of us. The writing looks like something out of a story book with a dragon painted at the top. Over the fence, I can see the top of a fake tree with a mini house structure hidden in the branches. When we step up to the booth where a young teen boy takes Cae’s money, I am already excited by what I see further ahead. Windmills, tall castles, and volcanoes make up the fairytale theme that carries through the small park. Cae smirks, nodding.

“Yep. I’m incredibly terrible at this, so get ready to kick my ass. No one is worse at mini golf than I am.” Cae shakes his head at himself as we grab our clubs. He takes the time to pick pink and light green balls for us, a pencil, and the scorecard before leading me to the first hole. “Omegas first.” Cae nods.

Starting at the princess castle, I step up to the first hole to place my ball on the little pointy ball holder thing, and just before I swing, Cae calls my name.

When I turn to look, he’s snapping a picture of me. He goes on to do this at every hole. And just like he said, he’s epically terrible at this and even loses his ball at one point. On the last hole, after I’ve beaten him, despite not being great at this game myself, Cae makes me pose for a selfie with him.

I’m frowning up at him in the first one. “Why are you taking so many pictures of me?” Despite everything he said before, Ican’t help but feel suspicious of his intentions. Old habits die hard.

“You’ll see,” he says, kissing my cheek. When an elderly couple walks up to the hole to take their turn, Cae asks them to take our picture.

“Oh, of course!” the older woman says sweetly, smiling like we’re the cutest thing she’s ever seen. “How sweet.”

Caelum acts like a complete loon, though, because instead of standing next to me like a normal person would, he drops to his knees before me for the third freaking time today and wraps his arms tightly around my waist.

He quite literally clings to me like he’s a fucking koala.

The old man snaps a few photos, ignoring the horrified look on my face, and hands Cae his phone back once he’s done.

“What has gotten into you?” I hiss as we make our way to the exit, dropping off our balls and clubs.

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