Page 2 of Knotting else Matters

Her smile dimmed a little, her fingers tightening around the steering wheel. “Olivia, please. Alpha George was a great leader.”

“A great leader who never looked at me without sighing. But sure, let’s mourn the guy.” I shot her a grin, desperate to lighten the mood. “Anyway, tell me everything. I didn’t stand in the world’s worst rain shower for nothing.”

Her eyes sparkled, the tension melting away, and just like that, Sophie launched into a breathless, excited rant about the ceremony, the flowers, the seating arrangements—everything I hadn’t asked for but secretly needed to hear. Because as annoying as it was to be back in Blue Springs, as much as I hated the pack’s narrow-minded hierarchy… seeing Sophie this happy almost made it worth it. Almost.

Her disapproval melted, and she leaned toward me, eyes bright and voice bubbling with excitement. “Okay, so it’s been crazy! The ceremony is next week, but we have so much to do. Karl’s family has been amazing. His brother is the new pack leader—oh, and they want you to come to the dinner tomorrow night!”

“Of course they do.” I snorted. “I’m the family embarrassment. Why wouldn’t they want a front-row seat to that?”

Sophie’s laughter filled the car, sweet and sincere. And for a moment, I almost forgot the rain, the regrets, the thousand bad decisions trailing behind me.

Almost.

Sophie was practically glowing, her joy so bright it filled the car like warm sunlight. I watched her, a perfect picture of happiness, and then I turned to the window, letting the world blur past. Blue Springs looked different. New shops, repainted signs, a few buildings that hadn’t even been there when I left. Change had swept through the town, even if the rain hadn’t.

But beneath the fresh paint and new storefronts, the bones of the place were still the same. This was a town built on rules. Pack rules. The ones I’d spent my entire life trying to forget.

Respect the Alpha.

Follow the hierarchy.

Know your place.

It didn’t matter that I didn’t fit into their neat little categories—Alpha, Beta, Omega. They gave me a label anyway.Zeta. A polite way of saying“something else.”Something they didn’t understand and didn’t want to.

And they didn’t just tolerate the rules—they worshiped them. Alpha George had ruled this town for over six decades, a living legend who made the law with a smile that never reached his eyes. Eighty-two years old when he died, and no one had ever dared challenge him. Not once. His strength was a story they whispered to their children, his wisdom a legend they believed without question.

I didn’t like him. He didn’t like me. He didn’t even bother to hide it. But the town? They revered him. I might have been born in modern times, but I knew enough to realize that in the past, someone like me wouldn’t have even been allowed to grow up. Rejected by the pack, maybe even killed at birth. Because wolves fear what they can’t understand. What they can’t smell.

“Liv?” Sophie’s voice pulled me out of the spiral. “How are you?”

“Tired,” I muttered, still staring at the rain-blurred world. “Long flight, two-hour train ride. Just wanna get to my hotel.”

“Oh, come on! You know you could’ve stayed with me. We have plenty of room!”

“I know, Soph. I just… I really need to sleep. We can do this in the morning, okay?”

She pouted, her perfect smile fading slightly, but it didn’t take long for her glow to return. “Fine. But tomorrow, I’m picking you up for the rehearsal. No excuses!”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

“And honestly, you wouldn’t believe the stress I’ve been under. The dress was supposed to be ready last week, but then they messed up the hem, and the flowers—don’t even get me started. I swear, nothing is going right except you being here.”

She talked, her words spilling out in a warm, bright rush, and I let the sound of her voice wrap around me, a soft hum against the rain. And for a moment, I tried to forget the town outside, the past creeping in through every raindrop.

I sighed, letting Sophie’s voice wash over me like a warm tide. She was still talking—something about flowers, dresses, the catering nightmare of the century. An endless list of tiny disasters that somehow felt like the end of the world in her perfectly polished life. But I’d spent enough time around her to know she needed to vent, so I leaned back, let the leather seats cradle me, and nodded at the right moments.

“...but then they lost the reservation, can you believe that? And I thought I was going to have a meltdown right there. But thank the gods, Adrian stepped in and fixed it.”

I blinked, her words finally breaking through the fog of my thoughts. “Wait. Who’s Adrian again?”

“Seriously, Liv?” She gave me a look that was half exasperation, half fond amusement. “Karl’s brother. The new Alpha.”

“Right. The one who inherited the crown and the fancy SUV collection. Got it.”

Sophie’s smile widened. “His family was already rich before he took leadership of the pack. But, yeah. He’s thirty-nine, but he’s so down to earth. He’s been amazing through all of this. Like, he’s strict— but he doesn’t rule with an iron fist or anything.”

“Iron fist?”I snorted, shaking my head. “Gods, that’s such an archaic saying. Maybe it worked back in medieval times when pack leaders actually had to fight off predators, but what do these Alphas even do these days? Growl a bit? Collect taxes?”

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