Page 37 of Knot the Alphas' Feral Omega

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Oliver

The house was so, so quiet without Killian around, and I was man enough to admit that I had made a fuckingmassivemistake here.

In the days following Lilah’s ejection from the house, I had been so certain I had made the right decision. Her scent had drenched every surface I’d tried to touch, sit on, or eat from, and it felt like I was going insane, trying to do anything that didn’t remind me of the omega I’d singlehandedly rejected.

Emmett was no help, of course. He’d sunk further into his trademark stoicism, though I could feel the accusation in his eyes every time I avoided his gaze when we were in the same room. He thought I had made the wrong call regarding Lilah, the same as Killian did.

For the first few days, I didn’t particularly care about their opinions. I had made a decision as the Prime Alpha of our pack, and I wasn’t going to apologize for doing what I thought was best to protect them.

And if it weren’t for the fact that Killian was nowhere to be seen, I might have continued to think that way. But the days slowly rolled by, and neither I nor Emmer could find Killian, even while we were in our wolf forms. I knew he could keep hiding away from us if he really wanted to, but I couldn’t help feeling that this was excessive.

Then, another day or two passed, and guilt started to trickle down inside of me. I’d known that rejecting Lilah the way I had was harsh, but I sincerely thought everyone would eventually recognize that we were doing what was best for us. She had rolled into our life and thrown everything we all knew over on its head. She may have been our scent-match, but everything was moving soquickly.

Taking more time was the right thing to do before making such a permanent commitment to a relative stranger—especially one whose mother was dying and who wouldn’t have anything going for her after we bonded and her mother passed away. We deserved a pack member who was more than just a scent-match or a breeding partner.

Fuck, I knew my thoughts were awful, but I couldn’t stop myself from having them. What did we reallyknowabout Lilah, anyway?

I pressed my lips together and slammed the front door to the house a little more harshly than necessary as I entered.

I hadn’t been able to focus on work, and eventually, I decided to take an early day. There was no point in me sitting around at the office all day if the only thing I could do was stare at the wall and brood.

As I walked through the house, my nostrils flared, and I perked up a little.

At some point during the morning, Killian had made his way back to the packhouse. I could smell him faintly on the surfaces he had touched before he left again. The scent was old, and I couldn’t tell for certain how long it had been since he had been there, but the fact that he had come back made my heart do a little flip, and a flicker of gratitude flooded through me. I needed to talk to him, if only to understand where his head was at. I couldn’t be a good Prime Alpha if I weren’t aware of where my pack mates were or their mental states.

I tossed my suit jacket over the back of the couch, and I was debating walking into the kitchen and making myself something to eat when the front door of the house slammed open again. When I turned on my heel, Killian stomped through the front door, a determined expression on his face.

Gratitude flooded through me, and I couldn’t have stopped the smile that slowly spread across my face at the sight of my packmate if I’d wanted to. “Killian...”

He made a beeline for me and got up in my face, drawing so close to me that our noses were practically brushing together. His green eyes were bright and slightly manic, and my nostrils flared as I scented Lilah on his clothes and skin.

“Where have you been?” I demanded. Every other question that I’d planned on posing to him—the very serious conversation that the two of us needed to have—faded away. I couldn’t stop myself from dragging in a deep breath, getting a hit of Lilah’s scent for the first time in days, and my cock twitched against my thigh, completely at odds with my thoughts.

He arched an eyebrow at me and rocked back and forth on the tips of his toes. I couldn’t stop myself from grimacing at his nervous energy, taking a step back to give myself some space to breathe.

“Really?” he finally drawled after several tense seconds. “That’s what you want to ask me right now? Not why I smell like Lilah or anything else?” He arched an eyebrow at me, and his voice lowered dangerously as he continued, “Don’t you want to offer me some kind of fucking apology, Oliver?”

His voice was low and harsh, and the anger in it shocked me. Killian usually burned bright and hot with his temper, angry about something one day and finished with his little tantrum the next. I’d assumed that the entire situation with Lilah would be similar.

I took a tiny step back, creating even more space between the two of us as I furrowed my brow. “What do I need to apologize for, Killian?” I asked, speaking slowly and clearly as if I were speaking to a rabid animal.

Not necessarily the worst analogy, either. Killian’s eyes widened further, and he huffed, taking a step closer to me and closing the gap that I had created. “Are you seriously asking me that right now, Oliver?” he challenged. “I know you’re not stupid. Do you want to offer me an apology before I tell you what I learnedtoday, or are you going to wait until I make you feel like shit first?”

My eyebrows arched, feeling like they disappeared into my hairline. “What are you going to make me feel like shit about?” I asked, genuinely confused for the first time in this entire interaction.

Killian glared at me for another long moment, seeming to evaluate me. His eyes flicked over my face, and whatever he saw there seemed to satisfy him because his shoulder slumped slightly, though he continued to glare at me.

“Lilah is at Melvin Rehabilitation,” he said, his voice short and to the point.

My stomach swooped out from underneath me, and I couldn’t stop myself from stumbling back a little bit, my eyes widening even further as my head shook. “What?” I whispered.

Emmett took that exact moment to walk through the front door as well, and his eyes widened when he saw Killian standing in the living room. “Kill,” he said, reaching out for his shoulder.

I shook my head sharply, stopping Emmett’s motion in its tracks, and Killian didn’t take his eyes away from my face as I processed the information he had offered me. Melvin Rehabilitation was one of the worst state-run institutions for shifters—the place where the worst of the worst were sent to. I had heard of people being sent there and coming out broken, even after they had only been there for a few short days. Their methods were allegedly brutal and bordered just shy of illegal on a good day.

If what Killian was telling me was correct, Lilah had been there for almost a week, and despite the fact that I still was mostly certain that I had made the right call when it came to her not being a member of the pack, I couldn’t help but wince at the thought of it.

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