Page 82 of Knot Their Opening Act

The two mates walk off but Jez throws a backward glance my way with a beaming grin and a thumbs up, then blows us a kiss.

“That went over well I’d say, lads,” Holden says. We fist-bump and then Steve calls our attention to time. Everyone grabs their gear and heads out, and we start our last set before a much-needed week’s break, the sensation of a star warming and shining in the center of my chest carrying me out onto the stage.

* * *

Our encore starts as normal and we quiet the crowd with one of our piano ballads. My fingers dance across the keys as I stare out into the camera facing me on above the keyboard. My back’s to the crowd but they see my face across the screen like I’m singing directly to each of them. I wait for the touch I know is coming, and when it does, my skin jumps with an electric current.

Even still, I scented her approach long before she stepped onto the stage.

Jez is there at my side, mic pack on and harmonizing alongside me for one of Fable’s oldest and most beloved hits. It was never a radio single but the love it received live made it grow beyond what we’d imagined for it.

Just like the love I feel for her now. The crowd’s at a fever pitch, and as I look around at my pack mates doing what they were born to do, I know we’re all aware that we were born to do it with this Omega.

We transition seamlessly into our second encore song, which happens to be the song we wrote together, which Nico and Jez agreed should be calledEnd With the Night.

Ash and Ferny and Caylee and Steve are high-fiving and punching the air in the wings. The crowd is lapping this up and it looks as though every phone is recording us play this song together. When it draws to an end and we stay focused on each other, charging immediately into one of Jez’s songs that she doesn’t play on the tour, the roar and gasp of the audience launches up into the night sky.

This is the song Jez auditioned with forTen to One, her first song played on radio. The moment Holden says he fell in love with her. The song I heard as I faced the fact that this Omega’s scent was the heavenly key to my Alpha, my soul, my chance at surrendering my fears of being pierced through the heart—and this time, I sweep those fears away from me. With every note I play, I feel the freedom of honesty with myself and my loved ones grabbing hold. Like tendrils releasing me from a death-grip and into a safe space I can breathe in.

When her song winds down, she strides to my side and takes my hand, raising it in the air as we look out onto the crowd that we made ours.

* * *

It’s two hours since we left the stage and none of us have been able to come down from this incredible high.

“Playing together felt so fucking right,” Thomas murmurs, closing the door behind Viv and her pack mates. We’re all sitting around our hotel suite, having celebrated for a bit before Viv needed to get rest.

I grab two more beers from the fridge and head back out onto the balcony. The night air is so refreshing, and the view of the city is incomparable. I open then hand one beer to Jez, who’s sitting back on a sun lounger (it’s a moon lounger now,she’d said when she’d dragged a blanket out there and took up residence), and give the other to Nico, who’s scrolling through social media and reading comments to her and Holden.

“You sure that’s for the best?” I ask, grabbing another handful of snacks from the bowl before I sit down.

“Nothing but love,” Holden says. “Check this one out.” He clears his throat and sits up a little. “‘Jez is the blast of fresh air our lads have needed for a while. Don’t get me wrong—love everything they’ve ever given us, but it felt like they were almost fed up with themselves on the last tour. The chemistry was there but it wasn’t as smooth, or as effortless as it looks this time around. I can’t wait to see what comes out of this tour and lands on their next album. And I hope to God Jez is part of it.’”

Jez looks beside herself, but also pale with shock. “I mean, how did this turn around so fast? All I did was admit that’s been holding me back and suddenly your fans are acting like I’ve raised someone from the dead. You guys havealwaysbeen on fire!”

“No,” I say, “that bloke’s absolutely right. We’ve found our measure of success by a definitive change of direction each album, each tour. We needed a new inspiration.”

Nico leans back in his chair with his beer. “An inspiration and a kick up the arse I’d say.”

Holden reads a few more comments out and before long, Jez is shivering. “Hey, all right if I head in? The air’s passed ‘fresh’ and headed into ‘freezing my tits off’ territory.”

“Nah,” says Holden, looking up at her blanket-covered form, “Still there.”

A beautiful blush fills Jez’s cheeks. I open the balcony door as she stands and waddles through it, blanket still wrapped around her.

Wordlessly we all pick up our drinks and snacks and mobile phones and head inside after her.

It seems that whenever Jez is is where we belong, and our bodies are drawn there.

I shut the door and Jez stands in the center of the room, looking around. Her eyes reflect an uncertainty, and she pauses then looks at Nico. “This is a gorgeous hotel room, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not the same as … as the bus.” Her beautiful blush spreads down her neck and the base of her throat, and it hits me.

It’s not a blush at all. I flare my nostrils so slightly but I can still scent it, even if she hadn’t mentioned the bus.

“Well,” I say slowly, cautiously, as though approaching an animal about to bolt. “We want you comfortable. Always.”

She looks around at all of us with a small, shy smirk. Then she pulls a key out of the pocket of her jogging bottoms and waves it around. I stare at it blankly and then realize.

“Got it from Ferny,” she says. “Would you guys?—”

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