Page 27 of Knot the Alphas' Feral Omega

The house was silent—almost painfully so.

I kept whistling, kicking my shoes off near the front door, and hanging my jacket on one of the hooks. “I’m home!” I called out, my boisterous voice bouncing from wall to wall.

Still, silence. There were no sounds of footsteps echoing from upstairs, and the nest was oddly quiet. Maybe Lilah had finished working on it and was taking a nap? The space probably needed her scent to soak into the fabrics and whatever else before she would feel comfortable welcoming us in.

Yeah, that was it.

I smiled and hummed softly to myself as I made my way to the kitchen. I got a glass and filled it with water from the pitcher inside the fridge. I lifted the glass to my lips, prepared to take a sip, but a soft, wounded sound came from the den before I could.

My hand paused, and my stomach twisted, instincts purring to life.

“Hello?” I set the glass down as quietly as I could and slowly made my way over to the den.

The moment I walked through the doorway, the scents of frustration, anger, and grief filled the air, and I stumbled back, my nostrils flaring and my wolf whining inside me.

Emmett and Oliver were sitting on the couch in the den, shoulder to shoulder, silent. Emmett’s expression was as stoic as ever, but there was pain glimmering in his eyes that I hadn’t seen in years.

Oliver was staring at his hands. A piece of paper was crumpled between his fingers, and his knuckles were white as he clutched it.

Lilah was nowhere to be seen, and the longer I stood there, staring at my pack, the more the silence of the house started to feel sinister.

“Where is Lilah?” I asked, my voice uncharacteristically subdued.

Something had happened while I was at work—something bad. Oliver and Emmett were acting like someone had died.

And Lilah wasn’t there.

“Where is Lilah?” I asked again, louder this time. My voice trembled a little, and my hands curled into fists at my side as I looked from Emmett to Oliver and then back again.

Neither of them would look at me. Why weren’t either of them looking at me?

“She’s gone.” Oliver’s voice was agonized but strong as he finally looked up at me. He blinked slowly, his blue eyes subdued, and I reeled back, the shock of his words hitting me like a train.

“She’s...gone?” I tried to make sense of the words, the meaning foreign on my tongue. I shook my head, my brain refusing to acknowledge what my body already understood. I tensed, my wolf agitated, and my claws pricked out, digging painfully into my palms as I curled my hands into fists. “That’s...no. She’s upstairs, getting the nest ready. If she didn’t answer you, it’s because she fell asleep or something, I’m sure of it...”

“I rejected her.”

Oliver’s words were clear, but my brain didn’t compute the meaning.

“What...” I spluttered. “No...”

“Yes.” Emmett’s voice was quiet and resigned, and that, more than anything, made my power flare, and every single part of meachedwith holding back the shift.

“What thefuck!” I barked, my wolf making my voice guttural and raw. “What...you...Oliver, youknowwhat she means to me, what sheisto us—”

“She’s Hunter Randall’s daughter!” Oliver suddenly snapped, standing tall and flashing his gold eyes at me.

No other words could have kept me from my rampage, could have sent a pool of nauseated terror through my stomach...but those ones did.

“What?” I whispered, all bravado gone. My wolf cowered inside of me, and if I’d been in animal form, I would have been curled up in a ball, hiding my nose with my tail so I didn’t have to hear what Oliver was saying.

He swallowed, his eyes pained, and brandished the piece of paper that was crumpled in his hand. “This came to the house today.”

I looked at it, suddenly painfully sure that I didn’t want to read a single word that was written on that letter.

I reached out and took it, and a long moment passed before I got the courage to spread the paper flat and read the terrifyingly familiar handwriting.

I’d looked at the note that the Slicer had left next to Jack’s body until the words had burned into my retinas.

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