Page 89 of Knot Unwanted: Part One

A moment passes.

“Maybe I shouldn’t.” Her voice is so tiny it’s almost inaudible.

“Why not?” Finn sounds like he moves closer to her.

“They said eating too much makes us fat and ugly and no alpha would want a pig for a?—”

The broom clatters against the floor. Even from here, I can smell the spike in Finn’s scent—sharp with anger.

“Whotold you that?” His voice is carefully controlled, but we can all hear the rage underneath. “This Widow? Someone else at the Academy?”

“The…the handlers. The betas who…” She stops, and I can picture her shrinking in on herself. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t talk about it. They said we should never?—”

“Hailey.” Finn’s voice gentles immediately. “You can talk about anything you want here. Anything at all. No one will punish you for it. I promise.”

A shaky breath. “But…but your alphas…”

“Are not like that,” Finn says firmly. “They would never…they’re nothing like what you’ve known.”

Silence follows Finn’s words. In it, I hear all our failures. Because we are nothing like what she’s known, but we still managed to terrify her. Still failed to show her she was safe.

“They…” Her voice is so small. “The handlers at the Academy, Widow made them watch us eat sometimes. Said she needed to monitor our…our food behavior. Make sure we weren’t being gluttons.”

Something metal hits the counter hard—Finn setting down a pan, probably. His scent spikes again with anger.

“And if they thought you were eating too much?” His voice is carefully neutral in a way that makes my skin crawl. I’ve never heard him sound like this before.

A longer pause. “They would make us…there were consequences. Extra training sessions. Or sometimes they’d restrict our food the next day. To teach us control.” Her voice drops even lower. “The handlers said it was for our own good. That no alpha wants an omega who can’t control their base urges.”

Ren moves suddenly, taking two steps toward the kitchenbefore Jax and I can grab him. We pull him back, but not before a low growl escapes him.

In the kitchen, everything goes still.

“It’s okay,” Finn says quickly, and I’m not sure if he’s talking to Hailey or us. “You’re safe here. No one is monitoring you. No one is going to punish you for eating.”

“But I heard…” I can almost hear the tremor in her voice. “Are they angry? Your alphas?”

“Not at you,” Finn says firmly. “Never at you. Here, take another sandwich.”

“But I still have two left.”

“And now you’ll have three. They’re getting cold, and cold grilled cheese is a tragedy I won’t allow in this house.”

A sound that might be a laugh, though it’s shaky. “You’re very…you’re different from the omegas at the Academy.”

“Oh?” Finn’s tone is light, encouraging.

“They were all so…quiet. Careful. The ones who’d been there longer, they never…” She stops, then starts again. “There was a girl who came in last year. She was in the cell across from mine. I heard her laugh at something once, during mealtime. They took her away for reconditioning and when she came back, she didn’t…she never laughed again.”

The wall creaks under my hand where I’m gripping it. Beside me, Jax has gone deadly still, his face a mask of controlled fury. Ren’s breathing has turned ragged.

“Reconditioning,” Finn says the word like it tastes foul. “What exactly did that involve?”

“I…” Her voice cracks. “They would put us in these rooms, with these…these collars that would shock us if—” She cuts herself off with a sharp intake of breath, her scent souring with remembered terror. “I can’t…I shouldn’t…”

“Okay,” Finn soothes immediately. “Okay, you don’t have to talk about that. Just eat your sandwich. Look, the cheese is still melty on this one.”

The scrape of a plate being pushed across the table. Then quiet, broken only by small sounds of eating.

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