Page 1 of Knot that Simple

CHAPTER 1

GABRIELA

Nothing was ever this good.

That particular lesson, I learned early enough, probably before I knew how to saymomanddad. They were the ones who taught me through constant disappointment, after all.

Now, at twenty six, I was a careful woman and a fearful mother, the one carrying the incredible weight of breaking generational trauma.

Ugh, no. That was too much.

I spent my days serving lunch at a truck stop on the highway for minimum wage untiltheyrescued me. And by rescued, I meant taken from my sad, one-bedroom apartment and led to their village. And bythem, I meant Teresa and herhusbands.

She tracked me down, and once I agreed to hear her out, Teresa sat me down and told me the most absurd story I'd ever heard.

Omegas, alphas, and knots.

Born of a deadbeat dad and a drugged-out-of-her-mind mother, I started to work at fourteen because I knew from an early age the only person I could count on was myself.

It wasn't crazy to think my mother bailed on her village just like she neglected me many times over, but it was hard to believethere was a place somewhere near the Bolivian border where people were waiting for me with open arms.

In the end, it didn’t matter how crazy Teresa sounded. She offered me something I couldn’t refuse, something I was never offered before: help.

Maybe I would have said no to the aid of a stranger with a fantastical story if my bank account wasn’t in the red, if my rent wasn’t late and the possibility of living in my car with my six year old daughter, Alice, wasn't quickly becoming the only alternative.

I had nothing to my name, nothing to leave behind but pain. She offered to bring me to the village and find me a home.

“I can’t afford much rent,” I warned her.

She laughed because she planned on charging nothing. I couldn’t believe it. The only person who was ever kind to me was my grandmother, my father’s mother. She felt guilty for his disappearing act and made sure to always look after me. She didn’t have much to offer, being just as poor as we were, but it was because of her I knew how to love.

It was because of that love I was a better mother to Alice than I've ever had.

In the six months I was living with Teresa’s people, I waited in fear for the day everything would fall apart.

Nothing was ever that good. Nothing ever stayed the same.

I watched as Alice thrived at school, as we made a home in that small Bolivian village. I tried my best with Spanish and everyone tried to accommodate my Portuguese.

Good food, warm home, nothing to worry about.

So, of course, I was worried.

It was a dream I never dared dreaming. I had a roof over my head, no more bills. The only hiccup was Teresa’s promise to find me a pack.

A pack of three or four men.

I didn’t even want one. Men were trouble.

Liars, impossible to rely on.

Alice and I were better off alone.

I never thought Teresa would find me a pack. What man would want a woman who came with a six year old?

I was so sure none would ever want me, I ignored Teresa’s search. I thought she’d kick me out once she realized, omega or not, I was born to be alone. But then, one day, Teresa knocked at my door with the biggest smile I’d ever seen.

It took me a moment to really understand her devastating words.

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