Page 62 of Knot the Alphas' Feral Omega

I slowly made my way through the house, listening carefully, not calling out for Lilah in case she was sleeping. I didn’t want to spook her, and if she was sleeping, she needed the rest.

Her scent had already started to permeate everything all over again. She was everywhere, in the fabric, wood, and walls of the house. It amazed me how quickly her scent had started to fade after Oliver had kicked her out, but now that she was back, it was like she had never left.

It made it all too easy for me to breathe her in and follow her scent through the house until I stopped outside Killian’s bedroom. Her heartbeat was thudding steadily beyond the door, and I thought about knocking for a split second before I disregarded the idea and pushed my way in.

“Lilah?” I poked my head through and furrowed my brow when I didn’t see her immediately. I would have expected her to be in bed, curled up under the covers and breathing in Killian’s scent—the doctor had said that would be helpful with her rejection symptoms. But she wasn’t hiding under the crumpled, unmade bed covers, and when I walked over to the bathroom to look inside, she wasn’t there, either.

“Lilah? Sweetheart?” Her heart rate spiked, and I looked around again, even more confused. She was in the room, that much was obvious—not just from her scent and her heartbeat, but my wolf could tell. He wanted to be near and touch her, and he was begging me to set eyes on our omega so that I knew she was safe.

“Lilah?” I called out again. A tiny squeak answered me this time, and my head whipped around, looking this way and that. Then, there was a soft shuffle, and my eyes fell to the narrow space underneath the bed, where I could see a slight shadow moving.

Oh, sweetheart...

I didn’t think. I just dropped to my knees and pressed down until I was lying flat on my front, and slid under the bed until I was right next to Lilah, where she was curled up with her back against the wall and one of the soft blankets from the bed bundled in her arms and wrapped around her head. She was so bundled up that the only things I could see clearly were the shining orbs of her eyes and a soft tuft of her dark hair, which spilled out onto the floor as she looked at me.

“Emmett,” she said softly, her voice slightly muffled by the blanket.

I scooted a little closer and offered her a small smile. The space under the bed was cramped for Lilah’s small frame, which meant I was basically stuck, with my back practically touching the bottom of the mattress even as I lay completely flat against the ground. I wanted to roll on my side so I could look at her properly, but that was simply not going to happen.

So, instead, I pillowed my head on my arm as best I could and turned my head to look at my omega, whose scent was slightly sour with anxiety, making me want to growl andfix it.

“What are you doing down here?” I asked softly.

She blinked at me, her eyes sweeping from side to side as if she hadn’t been quite aware of where she was or what she was doing. “Um.” She licked her lips, and her voice was almost too quiet for me to hear when she answered, “I just...wanted to be comfortable. For a little while.”

The words were on the tip of my tongue to ask her exactlywhatabout this situation was comfortable for her, but I bit them back. It took a second before I realized what she meant, and then sympathy flooded through me, as well as a healthy dose of irritation.

I didn’t understand the science behind it or the instincts, butthiswas why omegas needed their nests. It was a space for them to cultivate and create, somewhere they could go and be surrounded by scents and textures they liked—things that made them feel safe and at home. Being closed off and cozy was the bare minimum of what was required for a nest, and the fact that Lilah didn’t feel comfortable going into the one that she had already built...

Irritation spiked inside me again, and I let out a low growl before sighing. Oliver had his head so far up his ass at times, and it was nice to see that he was trying to make amends now, but seeing Lilah in this moment...

She was obviously still desperately struggling with her instincts—what she wanted and what her body was going to let her have—and it was painful to witness.

And it wasn’t just Oliver’s fault, either.

My stomach twisted, and Lilah looked up at me, her eyes wide. I saw her nostrils flare a little and knew she could scent the change in my emotions. She opened her mouth, looking as though she wanted to ask me what was going on, but then she shut it again and waited.

I appreciated her restraint. Most people thought that, since I wasn’t the most talkative, they had the leeway to speak over me and fill the silence, no matter the topic of conversation. What most people didn’t understand, though, was that most things didn’tneedto be talked about at nauseating length. Most things, if they needed to be spoken about at all, would suffice to be dealt with after a few words, a sentence or two at the most.

Lilah gave me the space to speak or not—to be myself—and I was grateful for that. It made it even more imperative that I clear the air between us...because, as far as the rejection went, I was just as culpable as Oliver.

I might not have told her to get out, but I hadn’t stopped him from making her leave, either.

I reached out with one hand, moving carefully so my shoulder didn’t get stuck against the mattress, and I brushed my fingers over her cheekbone. Her skin was soft under my fingertips, and she closed her eyes, letting out a little sigh as I touched her. Her scent sweetened, and it gave me the courage to say the words that were necessary.

“I...I need to apologize.” The words rasped out of my throat, and the nerves that suddenly filled me were almost too much. Her eyes widened a little as she looked at me, and I pushed forward, knowing that if I didn’t finish now, I wouldn’t finish, ever. “For not standing up to Oliver when he rejected you. I knew that it was wrong. I knew that he was being impulsive and overhasty. I knew...”

I trailed off, and suddenly, no words I might be able to come up with seemed adequate for what I owed her. I closed my eyes, letting out a tiny sound of despair, and when I had my wits about me again, I whispered, “I promise that I’ll be better in the future.”

A gentle touch on my cheek forced me to open my eyes again, and there was a soft smile on Lilah’s face, even as pain reflected in her pretty eyes.

“I understand,” she said softly. “Oliver is hard to stand up to. Especially for someone like you, who doesn’t use your words very often. Who shows how he cares in other ways.”

The feeling of beingseenpunched me in the gut, and I swallowed, nodding.

The smile widened a little on her face, and she scooted a little closer to me, burrowing into my chest as best she could in our cramped quarters and pressing her cheek there. “It’s going to take some time before I’m okay with all of it,” she said softly. “But your apology means more to me than I can say. And I will work just as hard to forgive you as you all are working to earn my forgiveness.”

My heart skipped a beat, and I let out a low purr as I pressed my cheek to the top of her head. My head bumped against the bottom of the mattress as I did so, and I couldn’t stop myself from chuckling before kissing her forehead.

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