Page 30 of Knot Happening

Belle, stop talking. The library is an open space. Of course they know that they can come in. They've done it before. They don't need an invite from me.

"That's very kind of you," Felix says softly. "We might take you up on that."

"Please do," Adam adds. "Belle's right, the library should be welcoming to everyone who values what it represents."

As we part ways and continue down the street, I find myself thinking about the contrast between the Beast Pack's reputation and the reality of our interaction. They were polite, intelligent, and genuinely kind, and nothing like the dangerous, antisocial alphas that town gossip portrays them as.

An alpha in a business suit passes us on the sidewalk, and I notice immediately that I can't smell him at all. My suppressants are working perfectly again, just like they always have with every other alpha I've ever encountered. It's only around Marcus, Felix, and Theo that they seem to completely fail me. The realization makes my stomach flip with a mixture of confusion and something that feels dangerously close to excitement.

"That was interesting," Adam says once we're out of earshot.

"Yeah, they're totally different than I thought they'd be."

"What did you expect?" Adam asks.

"I don't know, maybe more like... brooding and scary? The way everyone talks about them, I expected them to grunt and glare at us. But they were actually sweet."

"And they didn't get invited to the ball," Adam says. "Which is honestly kind of messed up when you think about who did get invitations."

"Maybe that's something we can ask about at the ball," I suggest. "Discreetly, of course."

"Discreetly investigating social exclusion while fake-dating your best friend," Adam muses. "This evening just keeps getting more complicated."

"Complicated isn't necessarily bad."

"No," Adam agrees, looking at me with an expression I can't quite interpret. "Sometimes complicated is exactly what you need to make things interesting."

As we head home with our formal wear and our growing list of questions about the ball's true nature, I realize that our fake dating has already accomplished something I hadn't expected: it's got us actually paying attention to how weird our town really is, questioning stuff we've always just accepted as normal.

And it's given me a reason to figure out why my suppressants only seem to work sometimes. I need to get this sorted out before the ball. The last thing I want is to have everything fall apart in front of hundreds of strangers at the biggest event of the year.

Maybe pretending to be in love with my best friend will teach me more than just how to act romantic. And maybe that's exactly what I need to figure out what I actually want from life, instead of just hiding from what scares me.

13

THEO

If the guys could see me now, then I can imagine them laughing, especially Marcus, but I'm wondering if the reason we struggle to have an omega, is because we're never in touch with our feminine side. We're three alphas, our idea of having a meal is ordering take out. Our idea of housekeeping is a cleaner and our idea of having a good time is watching boxing matches. There's nothing more exciting than watching two alphas beat the shit out of each other. Or football where they tackle and try to beat each other for a ball. Yeah, we need to lighten up, and there's no better way than to try and maybe read a book. A romantic one, but then I heard the book club talking in the cafe the other day and some of those books, sound far from romantic.

We did have a conversation with Belle and Adam in the city yesterday. They were nice. We tried to be friendly, but Belle was really nervous around us. She was twitching while talking to us and never meeting our eyes. Our presence makes her feel nervous like everyone else in town.

But there was something else. I could smell her scent, even through whatever suppressants she's taking. Warm vanilla and honey with something sweeter underneath, something thatcalled to every instinct I have. Her suppressants might fool other alphas, but they don't work on us. She smelled like home, like everything we've been searching for without even realizing it.

I stand at the entrance, feeling as if I've just entered a maze. And I have no fucking idea where to start.

Protection.

Security, now that's my jam. This, feels like it is on a different planet.

The irony isn't lost on me. Here I am, Theo Blackwood, former Special Forces operative who's spent the better part of a decade protecting high-value targets and neutralizing threats in some of the world's most dangerous places, completely flummoxed by the organizational system of a small-town library. I can infiltrate enemy compounds, defuse improvised explosive devices, and coordinate tactical operations under fire, but ask me to find a romance novel and I'm as lost as a tourist without a map.

The Willbrook Public Library after six is completely different, than during the day. Gone are the chattering families with their energetic children racing between the stacks, the study groups of teenagers sprawled across tables with textbooks and laptops, the constant hum of activity that makes the place feel alive and purposeful. Instead, there's this peaceful quiet that settles over everything like a warm blanket, broken only by the soft tick of the antique clock near the circulation desk and the distant hum of the building's heating system.

The overhead fluorescents have been dimmed to a softer setting, leaving only the warm glow of reading lamps scattered throughout the building. The effect is somehow both cozy and mysterious, transforming the familiar daytime space into something that feels almost sacred.

I've never been here this late before. Hell, I've barely been here during regular hours except for the occasionalresearch project or when Marcus needed some obscure business document that Belle always managed to track down with that sunny smile of hers.

She's... complicated. Always so cheerful and chatty when we interact, bubbling over with enthusiasm about whatever project she's working on or book she's recently discovered. But there's something underneath that brightness, almost guarded. Like she's performing happiness rather than actually feeling it.

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