Page 107 of Knot Their Girl
“Oh, yeah. I’m sure people would come. Heck, I want to get all of these and decorate the shit out of N.O.A.” Mercedes grins. “But for today, this one’ll do.”
My friend lugs that canvas around as I continue the tour. Eventually, she parts with us to take it downstairs, leaving me alone with my sister, in my new bedroom. Nicole meanders to my bed, sitting on its edge and sticking her hands beneath her legs.
“This doesn’t feel real,” she says.
I go to sit with her. “I know what you mean.”
“How did it happen? I mean, you don’t have to tell me all those details, but… you said you hated the idea of pack life. Youdidn’t want to be locked down to alphas, and now you have two—”
“And a beta.”
“Right. Two alphas and a beta. Is that why you didn’t want me visiting before?”
In the beginning, I was sworn to secrecy with that NDA. Now? Now everything is out in the open and we are officially pack Chase. Now there’s no point in lying to my sister about any of it. “It didn’t start out this way,” I tell her. “Don’t tell mom and dad, but when Gideon put in an offer for me, it was really an offer for his nephew.”
She blinks hard, like she doesn’t quite understand what I’m telling her.
“Colter’s parents died eleven years ago. Ever since then, he’s kind of withdrawn into himself. Gideon wanted to push him toward a happy ending without wanting one for himself, and I didn’t want an alpha, so we both thought it was the perfect arrangement.”
The sigh my sister sighs right then is full of swoon. “And then you fell in love.”
I snort. “I definitely never made a sound like that, but yeah, it kind of snuck up on me.”
“What about Pax? How did you meet him?”
“Through Mercedes. I hired him to be my muscle one night at the Omega Garden—” My sister opens her mouth, but I don’t let her speak. I keep going. “—and then Gideon hired him to be a bodyguard for me when I left the house, seeing as how I was supposed to be a beta’s mate.” I don’t tell her about my shots or the fact that I used to smother myself in that anti-scent cream. She doesn’t need to know.
“And Gideon didn’t care?”
“It’s hard to say. I’m not in Gideon’s head, but… I think from the beginning, a pack was already forming. Even when he was supposed to be Gideon’s employee, Pax was pack leader.”
“But I thought Pax said he changed his name from Alabaster to Chase?”
“Out of respect for what Gideon and Colter lost.”
Nicole sighs again. “That’s so sweet.”
I laugh and get up. “Well, any other questions? Or should we head back downstairs? I’m sure the others are waiting for us.” Pax is going to grill; I’ve never seen him cook before, not like that, so it should be interesting.
My sister hops to her feet, and as we head out into the hall, she quips, “I can’t wait to have my own pack.”
My sister, only fourteen years old, still has quite a few years left in her before she settles down. I hope she lives it up while she can. God knows I tried, but honestly? I never felt more alive than I did when I fully embraced my men and this new pack.
When you’re a kid, things are different. You don’t think about the responsibilities or the way the world expects you to act. My sister, the good little omega, will have packs lining up to have a chance with her. I can only hope she doesn’t give into the first pack that puts in a good offer; there’s no harm in shopping around, in waiting until she finds that one pack with those specific guys that make her heart do funny things in her chest.
Nicole and I join the others outside. Pax has already fired up the grill, and both his dad and mine huddle around him, holding onto beers, like it’s some manly thing to do the cooking on the grill.
I smile to myself as I bring my gaze away from Pax’s back and look at Gideon and Colter, the former who is speaking on behalf of the latter after my mom asked him about his hobbies. That’s when Mercedes chimes in about how she wants to take home one of the paintings and hang it up at N.O.A.
It’s all a very normal evening, even if it is something I never expected, something I never wanted. Being surrounded by family and friends, with hardly a care in the world—I mean, what’s better than that? It’s definitely better than self-sabotaging avoidance.
This is my life now, and the strangest part is, I absolutely love it. I love it, and I love them. Pax, Gideon, and Colter. My three men. My mates. My pack. They proved me wrong, and I can honestly say I’ve never been happier to be wrong.
If this is forever, I’m ready for it.
Three Months Later
Chapter Forty-Eight – Pax
