Page 61 of Knot the Alphas' Feral Omega

“Oh,” she said softly. Guilt colored her voice as surely as it was written across her expression, and she peeked up at me, her scent souring as if she was having a hard time looking me in the eye. “I...I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings, Oliver. But I can’t help the way that I feel.”

Her voice trembled a tiny bit despite the strength of her words, and I couldn’t stop myself from giving her a small smile, impressed by her courage.What a good girl.

“I know you can’t,” I said, something unwinding inside me now that the elephant in the room was out there. “And I’m not asking you to. Your feelings...they’re perfectly valid. And I told you that I would do anything possible to earn your forgiveness.”

My voice broke on the last word, and I cleared my throat, looking down at my hands for a moment before meeting her gaze again. I was no coward, and I was going to look her directly in the eye while I laid out her options.

“I told you last night that I would earn your forgiveness,” I repeated, drawing myself up straight. “But it’s also my job as the Prime Alpha of this pack to make sure that everyone is happy and healthy. And I think...” I swallowed. “I think it’s more than clear that my presence in the house is doing more harm than good—at least right now.”

Emmett shook his head, and I saw him rolling his eyes. Lilah bolted upright, though, her expression suddenly fierce and terrified in a way I hadn’t expected.

“You’re not fuckingleaving, are you?” she demanded.

Killian looked at her with some amusement, and I couldn’t help being shocked at her vehement statement. “Um. Well, I was considering it,” I said. Guilt flooded me even further as I saw the slightly uneven blow of her pupils, and I wished that I could check her blood pressure.

I wished that I could touch her without her recoiling.

God, everything fucked up with five minutes of impulsive behavior.Good job, Oliver.

As soon as I finished speaking, Lilah shook her head fiercely and glared at me. She planted her hands on the table and stood up, leaning over the surface until she was right in my face. Her breath was sweet in my nose as she stared down at me.

“I didn’t take you for a fucking coward, Oliver,” she snapped, narrowing her eyes. “And if you run away from me right now, that’s all you’ll ever be to me—a coward. Someone who can’t stand behind their word and who can’t make amends when they’re asked to step up to the plate.”

I sputtered, her words hitting me directly in the chest, right in my pride. “That’s not what—”

“But it is!” She let out a low, cute little growl, and her hand darted out to poke me directly in the chest. “You fucked up.Youcaused this because of your pigheadedness, stubbornness, and unwillingness to listen to reason. Sonowyou’re going to stay home, right here with us, and you’re going to make it up to me.”

“But you get sick whenever you’re around me,” I said softly, feeling a little dazed and puzzled. This wasn’t how I had thought this conversation was going to go. I was just trying to do the right thing, for once.

“Do you think that’s going to get better if you decide to disappear for a few weeks?” Lilah arched an eyebrow at me, and her scent hit me again, making my wolf growl, low and aggressive. Nobody flinched, though, and she continued to stare me down as I struggled to wrap my mind around what was happening.

“Um. I...”

“You’re not fucking leaving,” Lilah said, leaning close to me. Her eyes burned into mine, and her hands landed on the armrests of the dining chair I was sitting in, squeezing so tightly that the wood creaked. Her eyes flashed omega silver, and she bared her teeth, the tips just the slightest bit sharper, before she growled, “End of fucking story.”

She turned on her heel and marched away, slamming the door to the dining room for good measure. The sound echoed, and I heard her stomping up the stairs before she made her way into one of the bedrooms—probably Killian’s—and slammed that door loud enough for it to echo through the house as well.

I sat there, dazed. I glanced at Emmett, whose expression was impassive, and then at Killian, who had a wide, maniacal grin on his face as he crossed over to me and patted me on the shoulder.

“Omega says no, Alpha,” he said, smirking even wider down at me. “So figure out another way to show her you’re sorry.”

With that declaration, he sat down and dug into the breakfast I had made, and after a moment, Emmett followed suit.

I just sat there, my head still swimming from my aborted plan and Lilah’s scent lingering in my nose, and tried to figure out what my next move was, if Lilah was going to insist on me sticking around.

32

Emmett

I only made it halfway through my work day before the energy buzzing inside me was too much to handle, and I went to my boss to tell him I would be heading out for the day.

Of course, he wasn’t particularly happy, but I worked in finance. There simply wasn’t any emergency that was big enough for him to justify keeping me, especially when I told him that I had to leave to be with my new packmate.

My direct boss, Andrew, was a human, and his eyes had widened significantly when I had dropped that little tidbit. It had been funny, not just because he hadn’t known what was socially appropriate to say to that specific statement but also because he hadn’t known what to say tome. Even at work, I tended to be quiet, and the fact that I had volunteered some deeply personal information had clearly thrown him for a loop.

By the time I got back to the house, though, I was ready to collapse to the ground—to sleep or to shift so that I could run, I wasn’t sure. But the energy that was building inside me needed somewhere to go, and until I knew that Lilah was safe, I wouldn’t be able to decide what to do.

Neither Killian nor Oliver was home when I arrived, and the silence felt almost too heavy as I took off my dress shoes and left them on the rug.

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