Page 44 of Shaken Knot Stirred

I took a shaky breath and smoothed out my dress. Omega auras were a thing. The moment her fingers left me and she stepped out of my energy field, I felt as though I had been doused in an icy river of tiny shards of glass. I swallowed a wisp of fear, thankful that there were probably no other auracles in the room, as mine might be showing signs of touch starvation.

“You okay?” Lana asked as she came up behind me.

“Oh, of course. Fine,” I lied, forcing a smile. We stepped away from the O’Brien pack lounge to rejoin the flow of people circling the convention hall.

“Well, that was a failure. Maybe omegas aren’t the way to a pack’s bank account,” I grumbled.

“I still think it makes sense,” Lana said. “If you get on the omega’s good side, the others will fall in line, right?”

“I don’t know. Does Beg fall in line?” I retorted.

“I wish he would fall. Break his scrawny little neck,” Lana blurted out, then quickly apologized. “I didn’t mean to say that out loud.”

“I’m right there with you,” I replied.

“Maybe we can arrange for Star to take a tumble down a flight of stairs or something. That would solve the problem,” Lana suggested with a newfound lightness in her voice. I couldn’t quite tell if it was fake.

Were we bonding over shared trauma and murder plots? When I was in B.O.W. custody, I fabricated a fantastical relationship between my supposed best friend, Eleanor, and me. My therapist drooled over the implications. She wanted to explore our supposed trauma bond, how we were “broughtcloser together by adverse circumstances.” I said whatever I had to to keep the B.O.W. in the dark.

There was no Eleanor. I wasn’t allowed to have friends. I had only Nico, and I had had to scheme and cheat and lie my way to him. I had figured that if everyone in my life required that much effort, I had only wanted Nico.

I blew out a breath. I still only wanted Nico. And now here I was, bonding with his beta. His beta, who also happened to be my scent match. And I was going to have to leave both of them.

“The Star option still might be the fastest,” Lana said as we made our way around the convention hall, debating options.

While wooing a single alpha was the easiest plan, it carried the most risk. If an alpha was single and seeking an omega, he was probably either hoping for a scent match or looking for a lifelong partner to have omega babies with. Not my scene. He might get overly excited, as alphas did, and pound his chest until he got a bite.

Getting in with an established pack looking to expand might be less straightforward, but they were likely less picky in a way. They might be on the hunt for a business arrangement or acting on affectionate feelings or just bulking up. Packs seeking expansion would be financially stable and looking for entertainment to inject into their group.

“How the hell do you stop someone from forming a pack? What am I going to do? Spread gossip about him all over town about how he has a tiny knot?” I pondered. “It’s not like I’m tied to his hip and can sabotage anybody who approaches him.”

“But it will give Beg what he wants.”

“Why does he hate his brother so much? This seems like something beyond simple sibling rivalry.”

Lana shrugged. “Something happened right around the time Beg formed his pack.”

“You don’t know what?” I asked.

“It’s not like Beg and I engage in pillow talk,” Lana replied.

I chewed on my lip. I had been racking my brain to find a way to broach that topic. Sex between packmates was pretty standard, although not mandatory. It was generally expected if there was an omega in the pack. Well, during heat anyway.

I shivered.

Heat.

Heat with… my pack.

Think other thoughts, Moxie.

“How did you get mixed up in the shady side of the Mired District?” I pressed.

In a flash, Lana’s aura shrank down to just a thin coat. The sudden shift made me miss a step. Lana flawlessly caught me before I could twist an ankle.

“My mother sold me,” she stated flatly.

“What?” I exclaimed with a squeak in my voice.

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