Page 102 of Knot Their Girl
As Gideon shakes his hand, Pax mutters, “Careful, brother. Remember who’s oldest here.”
Darius smirks, a very Pax-like expression. “I believe that honor goes to Gideon, not you.” To me, he says, “Mercedes will be relieved to know you’re safe, as am I.” He then turns hisattention to Colter, offering his hand. “I don’t believe we’ve met yet. I’m Gideon Alabaster, Pax’s younger brother.”
Colter takes his hand, albeit cautiously, and he only relaxes somewhat when I step closer to him and lend him my support. Can’t forget this is the first time he’s been out of the house in years. Got kidnapped and now we’re here. It’d be a lot to take in for anybody, but especially so for someone who’s refused to leave the comfort of his home.
I watch as the beta opens his mouth, like he’s going to try to say his name, to introduce himself. Gideon is seconds from saying his name for him when the word slips past his lips and stuns both Pax and Gideon: “C-Colter.” He stutters a bit, not as confident as he was when he said my name, but his voice is there all the same.
Both Pax and Gideon are flabbergasted, while Darius has no idea the weight of what just happened. The other alpha shakes the beta’s hand and says, “Good to meet you, Colter. Now, Pax, if you want to debrief, I’m sure your beta and omega would like to get home.”
Pax nods, but I can tell he doesn’t want to part with us. He pulls me in for a quick kiss before he wanders off with his brother, leaving me with Gideon and Colter—the former who still stares at his nephew as if he cannot believe what he just heard.
“You…” He trails off. “You spoke.”
“The third time today,” I say, hooking my arm through Colter’s. “He said my name twice.”
The expressions exchanged between the two nearly break my heart. Years and years of progress, regression, and nearly dying, have all led to this. Gideon engulfs his nephew in another hug, this one more lasting.
“Well,” Gideon whispers, doing something he doesn’t normally do as he pulls himself away from his nephew: smiling. “Shall we go home, then?”
“Yeah,” I say. “Let’s go home.”
Home. It might be a little weird to see the areas where Bradford’s men came for us, but I can’t imagine moving. That house is ours, and like hell am I going to let some asshole alpha’s attempt at bullying Gideon into selling Chase Jewels force us to give it up. No, we’re going to fill that house with more memories, better ones, ones that will overpower all the bad.
During the drive home, I sit in the backseat with Colter, holding his hand all the while. He gets a little nervous anytime there’s a bump in the road; his hand squeezes mine to tell me, and I respond by comforting him as much as I can. Maybe one day he’ll get used to leaving the house, but today is not that day.
And that’s okay.
We can work on it slowly. We have forever.
It’s funny. All it took to really hammer it home, that these guys are mine, that I’m theirs, that I don’t want a life without them in it, was a kidnapping. Well, technicallytwokidnappings in one, but who’s counting?
Gideon drives us home, and he parks us in the garage so we don’t have to walk through the front door… the front door that currently needs to be fixed thanks to the events of today. We end up in my bedroom, the three of us cuddling on my bed, as we wait for Pax to come home. With Gideon to my left and Colter to my right, I’m perfectly at home in this sandwich of men.
We don’t talk. The three of us just lay there in silence, taking a quiet comfort in each other’s presence. The old me would’ve hated having the extra time to think. She would’ve used that extra time to overthink absolutely everything, but the new me has officially told the old me to shut the hell up.
I’m going to do it. When Pax gets home, I’m telling them how I feel.
After a long while, the sound of heavy footsteps down the hall alerts us to someone else’s presence, and we all sit up as Pax enters the room. He kicks off his shoes before joining us on my bed. He scoots and sits near our feet, never taking his eyes off me.
“With the excitement of today,” I start, breaking the silence of the room. All eyes are on me. “I realized something. Well, to be honest, I think I’ve been wrestling with it for a while, but now I… there’s no doubt in me anymore.”
My chest feels heavy, like even though I know what I’m about to tell them is true, it’s still scary as hell. For a girl who never saw herself having a pack, for an omega who, not too long ago, claimed she never wanted to fall for an alpha, saying these next few words out loud is the most petrifying thing.
But it’s time.
“I love you.” My gaze moves between all three of the guys on my bed. “I love all of you. Each of you. In different ways. In the same way. You three proved me wrong, and you can believe me when I say I’ve never been happier to have been proved wrong—seriously, you can ask my mom about that. If there’s one thing I really, really hate, it’s being wrong.”
An uncharacteristically gentle smile graces Pax’s lips as he whispers, “I think you’re getting off-track, mate.” It’s the first time he’s ever called me that, and it sends a shiver down my spine.
A good shiver.
“Right,” I say. “Back to the point: I love you, and I want this pack. This is where I want to be, and…” I bite my bottom lip. “And I want you three to bite me.” Flashes of hunger rise in each of their gazes, and I’m liable to start leaking slick at any given moment, so I quickly add, “Not tonight, not after everythingthat happened today, but soon. I want to be bonded to you.” It’s not typical for a beta to bite an omega, so I look at Colter and whisper, “All of you.”
Gideon reaches for my hand. “Are you sure? We don’t have to—that can wait.”
It’s true. We could wait. We could wait and wait until I fall into a heat again, but no—I don’t want this to be fueled by out-of-our-minds sex. I want to be fully in control when they bite me, and I don’t want to wait that long.
“No. I’m sure. I want this. I want us… maybe once we clean the house and get the stench of those asshole alphas out of here?”
