Page 17 of Knot Their Girl
“Yep. You heard me right. I might be what some of those packs want… but I’m not what they need, and they sure as fuck aren’t what I need or want.” She stopped herself from going on, “Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. If you don’t mind me asking, what is it you want, then? What do you need, Raeka Whittenhall?”
She blinked up at me, as if my questions caught her off-guard. “All I want, all I need… is to be me. To make my own choices. That’s it. Being tied down to the stereotypical pack life isn’t for me—but I try telling anyone that and they think I’m insane.”
“You’re not.” I wanted to make her feel better, to give her something none of the other alphas out there did tonight. “Well, for what it’s worth, I hope someday you find whatever it is you want.”
“Thank you,” she said, and then she turned to leave.
I watched her go, and then I replayed our interaction a few times. Eventually, I returned to the ballroom—but I didn’t stay. Long enough to peek my head in and find Raeka at her table. A tall, muscled, intimidating alpha stood near her, watching everybody. Unless I was mistaken, that bodyguard was an Alabaster.He looks like his father, who I’ve had some dealings with years ago.
If I was a different alpha, I would’ve gone to her table and met with her.
She didn’t want an offer tonight. She may get a few from other alphas, but she would not get one from me. Knowing what she wanted, how could I go against her wishes, regardless of how curious I was about her?
Raeka Whittenhall.
So I went home after that. My home was outside the city. I didn’t live in a development; my neighbors were far away. I made sure to buy enough land to give myself privacy all around.
It was late by the time I pulled into the garage, and when I went into the house, I heard not a single sound. The silence used to get me, but it doesn’t anymore. It was what I was used to.
I set my keys down and worked to loosen my tie as I headed to check on Colter. Colter was not in his bed; I found him in his studio, sitting on a wooden stool in front of an empty canvas. He was in the process of sketching out a design on that canvas, but he abruptly stopped and shook his head, then buried his face in his pencil-free hand.
“It’s late,” I said, causing Colter to set his pencil down and spin around on the stool to face me.
And that face… every time, it was like getting hit in the stomach. He looked so much like my sister, especially when he was trying to focus on any sort of creative endeavor. He was only twenty-one, but he was already gaining that wrinkle in between his eyebrows because he furrowed them together so often.
My nephew wore a baggy hoodie and sweatpants, clothes I’d seen him in practically every day, the sleeves tugged down past his wrists. His amber eyes, the very same hue as my sister’s, stared at me.
“You should try to get some sleep,” I said.
I’m not tired, he signed.
“It doesn’t matter. Your body needs sleep.”
Colter rolled his eyes, then ran a hand through his brown hair, a few shades lighter than mine. He was smaller than meall around; only five-foot-eight-inches tall, with less muscle on his frame—though I wasn’t too stereotypical when it came to musculature, either. I ran thinner than most alphas. It’s just my line of work.
But Colter was a beta, so he was built differently all around.
He did not get up off his stool. Instead, he signed,How was the Omega Garden?
All I did was shrug, the most noncommittal gesture I could make.
You didn’t put in any offers, did you?The look Colter gave me after that told me he already knew. I’d been on him to take more of an active role in life in general, and he’d get on my case right back and tell me I needed to find myself an omega and have a family of my own. He was twenty-one, and as a beta, he could technically live on his own. Take care of himself. He didn’t need me to raise him anymore.
That was something he just wouldn’t understand. No matter how old he got, I’d always be there to take care of him. He was family. That’s what family did.
I shook my head once. “No. It wasn’t my kind of environment. Looks like it’s still just you and me, kid.”
I’m not a kid anymore, he signed with a slight frown on his face.
Didn’t I know it.
Eleven years. I’d spent the last eleven years taking care of him, watching him grow up, watching him struggle. I did everything I could for him, and sometimes it still felt like it wasn’t enough.
He wasn’t a kid. He was right.
“Just don’t stay up too late, okay? Promise me you’ll go to bed before the sun comes up.”
