Page 110 of Knot Unwanted: Part One

He cuts himself off with a sharp intake of breath, but I feel the word hanging between us. Made forme.

“Finn,” I breathe, and his control fractures.

This kiss is deeper, even hungrier. His tongue slides against mine as his hand slips under the hem of the shirt, fingers skimming bare skin but never going farther. My back arches, pressing closer, seeking more of that delicious friction.

He groans into my mouth, his grip tightening. “You smell so sweet, Hailey,” he murmurs between kisses. “And yes, we’ve only just met. It might just be visceral attraction…maybe none of this is real and I’m only imagining it, but?—”

A sharp knock at the door makes us both freeze.

“Finn?” The alpha, Ren’s, voice. “There’s dinner downstairs.”

Finn’s body goes rigid above me. For a moment, he doesn’t move, just breathes against my lips. Then slowly, so slowly, he pulls back.

The loss of his warmth is physical pain.

Horror fills me.

What have I just done? “Oh, no.” I gulp, breaths coming heavy from my chest. “Oh no. I did it again.”

Finn helps me to my feet, his fingers gentle as they rub across my knuckles. “There’s nothing to apologize for,” he says softly. “Nothing wrong happened here.”

“But I?—”

A small smile tugs at his mouth, though it doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “What can I say? I’m irresistible.”

My breaths are still heavy as I try to calm myself and even though Finn’s still smiling, I can still see shadows lurking behind his gaze.

“Can you walk okay?” he asks, letting our joined hands drop slowly.

I test my bandaged feet against the floor. They’re tender, but the herbs and his careful wrapping have helped. “I think so.”

I push out another breath. We kissed. Again. Right after I apologized to his alpha for doing the same thing before. And now, now I have to go down and face them all, all while knowing I did the same thing yet again.

I must have been trembling, because when Finn’s hand rests on my shoulder, I jerk.

“You won’t get in trouble for what we just did.” His tone is gentle even as he searches my gaze. “Alright?”

I try to nod. Try to put my trust in him, but I don’t know how what he says can be true. My presence here is bringing discord.

His hand stays gentle on my shoulder as we head downstairs, but each step feels heavier than the last. The scents hit me first—a dizzying array of different foods that makes my stomach clench with both hunger and anxiety. Then voices, low murmurs that cut off as we approach.

We round the corner into the dining room, and I go still. Finn’s three alphas stand at the table. Stone looks like he’d been pacing.The moment we enter he stops, gaze flicking to us, those amber eyes intense. Jax stands with his hands braced on the back of a chair, shoulders tense. The third, Ren, turns toward us as we enter, and the full force of their combined presence hits me like a wave.

My body reacts before my mind can catch up. My knees start to bend, an automatic response drilled into me through years of training.Remain silent. Head down. Kneel when alphas are present. Wait to be acknowledged.

But something causes me to pause. Maybe it’s the weight of Finn’s hand still resting on my shoulder. A tiny spark inside remembers how Finn looked at me when I reemerged from the forest, and how these alphas haven’t hurt me yet. My legs tremble with the effort, but I force myself to remain standing. My gaze stays fixed on the floor, my breaths suddenly staggered and hard, but I’m standing.

I’m standing.

Pride flickers in my chest, so foreign it almost hurts. I did it. I stayed on my feet.

“Hailey.” The one bracing on the chair—Jax—speaks in a quiet, careful voice. “It’s okay to look at us, if you want. We’d actually prefer it.”

The gentle encouragement in his tone makes my throat tight. Is he not angry at me? Even after what he saw me and Finn do? I kissed his omega. I might not know much, but I’m pretty sure the wetness that had developed between my thighs means I wanted to…do things with him.

There’s silence and I swallow hard. They’re waiting for me to do something. Or say something. There was no direct command. But that’s just it. They won’t give me commands like that…because they’re not like the alphas that came to the Academy. That’s clear in the fact I’m not on my knees right now, humbled and bleeding.

Slowly, so slowly, I lift my gaze. Not to his eyes—I’m notready for that yet—but I manage to focus somewhere around his throat. It’s more than I’ve managed with any alpha since…since before.

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