Page 73 of Knight Life In Vegas

Charlotte chewed her lip. “I don’t know how to do this.”

“I don’t think any of us do. I’ve thought a lot about what you told me, and not a single one of us wants you or your kids to get hurt. It’s new for everyone, and I know it must be terrifying to think about giving us a chance.”

“Understatement of the century,” she said with a small laugh.

“The only way we’re ever going to be able to prove to you that it can work is to let us try. Obviously we’re happy to respect any boundaries you have, but you’re our scent match. There was no one else for us before you and there won’t beanyoneafter you. You’re it.”

She stared at me with wide eyes, and I could see her process each of my words. “My kids have to come first.”

“Of course they do. Your kids are great. We all understand you’re a mother first, and we don’t want that to change. We’re just asking for a little space at your table.”

“My table doesn’t have that much room.” Charlotte fidgeted with her napkin.

“Then we’ll build a bigger one.” She let me lace my fingers with hers and draw her knuckles to my lips. “We want to make you happy.”

Her lip wobbled, fear bright in her eyes, but she held on tighter. “I want tobehappy. I need patience.”

“And you have it. Whatever you need, we’ll do our best to make it happen.”

We moved on to lighter topics when the food arrived. Getting her to talk about horses was easy and she told me all about the ones she had partnered with through her life. She’d had a gorgeous dappled gray Thoroughbred named Misty Mornings that saw her through years of competition before she finally sold her under pressure from her ex-husband.

Her mood dipped again and she poked at the remnants of her noodles. “You have to know if you’re with me I can’t give any of you biological children.”

“We don’t need them.” Well,Ididn’t need them. I wasn’t entirely certain what Dylan and Eduardo thought about it.

“You can’t justsaythat. You have to be sure. I needed them, and I went through years of interventions to be able to have the ones I do. I didn’t get dealt the cards an omega should have in that regard. Even if I wanted to put myself through that very particular hell again, I’ll be forty-three soon and I haven’t had a heat in three years, so it wouldn’t matter anyway.”

I absorbed each word, turning them over in my head. “I’m sorry you couldn’t have as many children as you wanted. You’reenough for me, though, and if you wanted me to be your alpha, I would do everything for Sammy and Ollie as if they were my own. I know you can’t believe that for me just saying it, but I’m saying it anyway. You love them, and if we’re going to love you, we’re going to love them too.”

Charlotte nodded, taking my hand in hers again as if she needed the anchor of my touch. “I wish I could have more, but I’ve tried to make my peace with it. I love my boys. Ever since I was little, I imagined myself with a half dozen little ones running around. I’m a failed omega. If I could, I?—”

I slid over to her side of the booth and pulled her onto my lap, holding her tightly. “You’re enough. You arenota failed omega. Your purpose in this world isn’t to have children. It’s just to live.”

She sobbed in my arms, breaking my heart all over again. In stuttered words and gasping breaths, she told me bits and pieces of how her ex had taunted her with those words.Failed omega.How often she had faced his derision when year after year passed with no children.

I held her like she was the most precious thing in the world, because she was. “If that man wasn’t already in prison, I would put him in the ground.”

She let out a shaky laugh. “I forget sometimes how much he hurt me. I buried so much of it, but it keeps sneaking up on me.”

Charlotte continued on, picking through a few of the horrors her ex-husband had inflicted upon her: putting her on suppressants so that her heats could neatly align between his business trips even though heat leave was legally mandated, forcing her on blockers, denying her a proper nest. I didn’t make a peep that all those things had probably contributed to her difficulty with conceiving. He had done his best to strip down her omega nature to suit his needs and still expected everything to work out.

My omega deserved so much better from the world.

Maybe Dylan was being hasty in declaring his love for her already, but with her in my arms, with her trusting me to know all these vulnerable bits of herself, I sure as fuck felt those words sitting on my tongue.

“OMG, spill!” Madison bustled out with a tray of drinks after getting me settled poolside in the shade. I’d messaged her that I had news about Night of Knights and she’d immediately insisted I come over. “I need all the gossip before we head out. Also please give me your opinion on this mocktail I’m testing out for a party.”

She passed me a glass with a sugar rim and a sunset gradient to the liquid. An explosion of sparkling fruit bathed my tongue when I took a sip. “That’s delicious.”

Madison beamed. “Okay, yay! I was pretty sure, but it’s always nice to get a second opinion. Now tell me everything. What happened at the show? Did you have a good time?”

“Good would probably be a little generous.”

Her face fell. “Oh no. What happened?”

“It wasn’t bad, exactly,” I said, shifting in my seat. “Just one of the most awkward experiences of my life. Turns out three of the scent matches I bailed on work there.”

Madison collapsed into full belly laughs. “Oh my fucking god! Are you serious? Fate’s really working overtime on you, isn’t she?”

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