Page 66 of Knot the Alphas' Feral Omega

“I get that,” I finally mumbled, peeking up at both of them. “But it still hurts, you know?”

I reached up and rubbed my chest, feeling the pulsing of the stubbornly clinging pseudo-bond. I could faintly feel Oliver’s distress in my subconscious, like an itchy seam irritating my toes. I wanted him to be here to make it better, but at the same time, I appreciated that he respected me enough that he wanted me to welcome him in before he forced himself on my time.

It was the world’s worst catch-22. I wanted him around, but my body rejected him. He wanted to respect my medical problems, but the only way that they were going to get better was if he was around.

Fuck.

“How do we fix this?” I asked, looking at Killian and Emmett in turn.

They exchanged looks with each other, and Killian turned his full attention on me again. “That’s up to you, baby girl,” he said gently. “How are your symptoms? That was something we wanted to talk about tonight, anyway.”

I nodded, picking up my fork again. The mention of Oliver had pretty much eradicated my appetite, but I was still going to eat the fantastic meal my alphas had made for me. “They’re...okay. Like, they’re getting a little better every day, right? I’m not panicking as much, and it seems like my blood pressure is normalizing, even when one of you is around.”

Emmett grimaced a little, and I felt bad about pointing out that it wasn’tjustOliver who triggered my physical responses. But we had agreed to honesty, and I wasn’t going to suffer for his feelings, especially when I knew it would piss them off even more if I lied.

Killian nodded, his expression nothing but supportive. “That’s good,” he said. “Really, Lilah. I’m so glad to hear that you’re doing better. And I know that Oliver would be, too.”

I pressed my lips together and then ventured, “He can be a bit of a stubborn asshole, can’t he?”

After a moment of stunned silence, Emmett let out a bark of laughter. “You could say that,” he said, chuckling.

“He’s Prime for a reason,” Killian added, snickering as well. “He doesn’t mind being an asshole on behalf of the pack.” He sobered. “Even if that means that he makes mistakes sometimes.”

The warm atmosphere from my little joke disappeared, and I nodded, running one hand through my hair. “I’m not planning on punishing him forever, you know,” I finally said, looking first at Killian and then at Emmett. “I need you both to know that. I...I want to make this work, too.”

Killian nodded, and then a small smirk touched his lips. “A little bit of suffering will be good for him, baby girl. Make him crawl.”

I tossed back my head and laughed. “My mom said the same thing!”

Both alphas laughed with me, and then we all dug into dinner, feeling a little lighter than we had before.

35

Lilah

After dinner, the three of us spent the rest of the night watching a movie and cuddling on the couch. I knew that, in part, it was to help my body continue to readjust my hormones to being around the alphas again, but it was also just...nice.

I had never thought about some of the smaller things that would make being in a pack sonice. The constant companionship, sexual and otherwise, was obviously a huge perk, and even though my feelings were still a little hurt that Oliver didn’t appear even once throughout the course of the night, I could understand why he was choosing to keep his distance.

I wasn’t going to let him do that forever, but for now, I could understand why he wanted to play things safe.

I went to bed with Killian and snuggled into his chest before easily falling asleep around ten, despite napping earlier in theafternoon. My entire body felt exhausted and a little achy. Killian and Emmett both had to reassure me that it was a normal part of the readjustment process now that my body was realizing the alphas I was around wouldn’t abandon me.

It was frustrating, but I appreciated that they were so patient with me. I fell asleep with Killian’s arms wrapped around me, my heartbeat relatively steady for the first time in weeks.

I woke up in the middle of the night, though, my heart pounding and my entire body tense and squirming as I tried to get away from the tight grip Killian had around my waist.

For a moment, I didn’t know which way was up. My body was convinced we were in danger and that the arms around my waist were going to hurt me. I felt like I was having a panic attack, my breathing coming fast, my heart beating faster.

It took almost thirty seconds of forcing myself to breathe slowly, in and out, before my body finally got with the program, and Killian’s soothing scent stopped causing the signals to get crossed in my brain.

I let out a shaky sigh and carefully pried Killian’s arms away from my waist. I wiggled away, throwing the blankets off the bed and exposing myself to the slightly cooler air of the room.

This was so stupid. I hated that my body was taking so long to recover from Oliver’s rejection. I’d never studied Bond Rejection Syndrome before presenting as an omega—I’d never had any need to. But after going through all of this, a part of me wanted to create a program that would educateeveryoneabout it—alphas, betas, and omegas alike.

Nobody should have to go through this if it could be avoided.

My bladder took that moment to make its fullness known, and I quickly made my way out of the room, padding to the bathroom halfway down the hallway and running my hand through my hair. The hallway was even cooler than Killian’s bedroom had been, and the air felt nice on my skin. I wondered if he would be offended if I said we needed to get a small fan for the room, just so the air moved...

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