Page 56 of Chain Me Knot

The love is already there and growing stronger with each passing moment.

“Look at her. So beautiful,” Soren whispers, his voice filled with awe. I’ve never heard quite this tone from him, and I understand exactly why. “She’s a butterfly. A butterfly discovering she has wings.”

“Ourbutterfly.”

I can’t wait to see her fly.

She draws to a stop from her wild race to the water, pausing at the water's edge, toes curling in anticipation of that first touch.

Soren turns to me, his eyes luminous. “Go get our girl, brother.”

I don’t need to be told twice. I'm running down the dune before I realize I've moved, sand spraying behind me as I race toward our omega.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Emma

I'm at a beach. A real beach! The thought circles in my head, too enormous to fully grasp. This isn't the sanctuary I retreated to when reality became too much, when hope was a distant dream.

This is so much better.

This is real.

This is everything.

My feet sink into sand that's impossibly soft. Each step leaves impressions behind me. Proof that I exist. The water moves with a grace I never could have imagined. Forward and back, forward and back. White foam races up the sand like delicate lace, then retreats with a gentle hiss that sounds likesecrets being whispered. Sunlight catches in the spray, turning ordinary water into diamonds that sparkle and dance before dissolving back into the sea.

The air tastes like salt and freedom. Seabirds wheel overhead, their cries carrying on the breeze like a welcome. Everything is alive, moving, eternal. The vastness of the ocean stretches before me, blue-green waves merging with the horizon until I can't tell where sea meets sky. It makes me feel small, but not in the way the basement made me feel small. This is different. This is being part of something bigger, something that existed long before alphas decided omegas were property.

I wiggle my toes deeper into the sand, marveling at how it shifts and molds around them. Cool and damp where the waves reach, warm and powder-soft just beyond. The water inches closer with each wave and then suddenly it rushes to my toes. My body moves of its own accord, and I step back before it contacts my skin.

A warm presence materializes behind me, and without turning around I know it's Phoenix. It's strange. The wind is blowing fresh sea spray in my face, yet I don’t have to turn to know its him. Like some part of me is attuned to him on a cellular level. What's stranger still is that I don't tense, don't feel the knee-jerk need to create distance between us. His presence is as warm as the sun on my shoulders.

He moves to stand beside me, and I look up into his face. He peers down, patient and seeing everything. Really seeing me. His tousled hair is golden in the sunshine. His eyes hold mine, patient and sure. He’s a true golden boy with those piercing eyes and that gentle smile. He’s…he’s…beautifulin a way that makes warmth unfurl inside of me.

Butterflies take flight in my belly, spreading warmth through my veins. Is this attraction? This strange mixture of nervousness and wanting. This urge to step closer instead of away. This awareness of every place our bodies could touch but aren't.

I've never felt this before. Never been allowed to feel this before. I have wanted alphas in the past because of my heat, but I’m not in heat now. That’s a biologicalresponse to pheromones and designation, but this warmth is different. My body and mind agree. Both sides of me want to bridge the small distance between us.

I don’t know how to name it but it’s pure and simple and easy and Iwantto stand by his side.

Phoenix smiles, his fingers carefully threading through mine. The calluses on his palm speak of strength, but his touch is feather-light. He gives me every opportunity to pull away but I…don’t.

Instead, I curl my fingers around his. His eyes drop to where our fingers are linked, then flick back to my face.

“Is a tough girl like you afraid of a little water?” His tone is light, teasing, but his eyes. Gods, his eyes hold such deep understanding.

He gives me strength.

“I...” My voice catches. How do I explain that part of me remembers seeking oblivion in the water I thought was my sacred beach last night? Now I have the real thing spread before me, it’s totally different. How could I have thought that poor excuse in my imagination to be like something this majestic?

“My parents told me they would take me to a beach when I was with them. When they were”—my voice catches but I force myself to keep going—”alive. We’d planned a beach holiday the summer before my designation hit. Before everything went bad and now…”

Now I’ll never experience that with them. Life took them away from me too soon. I will always remember them in my past. Never my future. I draw a deep breath and steady myself. I don’t want to take away from the beauty of this moment, but I would like him to know some of my truth.

“We’d never been before. I don’t know why, but our family never came to the beach even when I was young. I always imagined what it would be like. I’d build sandcastles. Swim. Find shells. Look in rockpools. And then, when things got bad, that’s the image I used to escape.”

I look out at the glistening water, never still. The way the sunlight temporarily blinds me as the water throws off reflections. The way the wind flicks my hair into my eyes. The cool sand under my feet and the slight sting of sunlight on my face. “But this...” I gesture at the vast expanse before us. “Nothing I imagined comes close to this.”

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