Page 47 of Knot Their Girl
I reach up to my neck, remembering the way Pax licked that cream right off to get to my scent. “Because I… I don’t want to make alphas go crazy. I was told that my scent would be even stronger after my heat since I’m not bonded to a pack.”
“That’s not true.”
“Huh?”
“It’s not. I’m not aware of any medical research that backs up that claim. Your scent might be strong to some alphas, like Pax, but your scent would have been just as strong to him before your heat. It’s not your heat that dictates how strong your scent is. Your scent is simply… you.”
“Well, I don’t know about that. When Pax—” I stop myself from sayingwhen he licked me. “—got through the cream, he just about lost it.”
“You don’t think that, maybe, he would’ve lost it all the same if he would’ve met you before your heat?”
I open my mouth to tell him he’s wrong, but I can’t. I can’t say for certain one way or another… and I never thought about it likethat before. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t want alphas to smell me and lose all control.”
“And why not?”
“Because I don’t like alphas.”
“Do you not like alphas, or are you simply scared of what connecting with one might mean? Maybe you’re the one who’s scared to lose control.”
I want to tell him off, to tell him that he’s wrong—just wrong, in every possible way—but I can’t. He could be right, but even if he is, it’s not a truth I’m willing to face right now. So I turn away from him and try to walk away.
Trythe operative word there.
Gideon’s hand is swift, and his palm curls around my wrist before I can take a single step away from him. “Wait.” Softer, he says again, “Wait.” This time, there isn’t fabric from a hoodie between his skin and mine. This time I can feel his warmth seeping into me, and I suck in a hard breath as I turn back toward him, rooted in place by that hand on my wrist.
“Change can be scary,” he admits. “But it doesn’t have to be. Life is all about it, whether you’re ready for it or not. You—” He swallows hard, his gaze falling to my neck. “—you shouldn’t be alone. You deserve to find happiness in the arms of someone who’ll take care of you, who’ll love you… who’ll do anything for you. Are some people content being alone? Sure, but as a whole, we are not solitary creatures. We seek company, comfort, family.”
“And what about you?”
His grip on my wrist loosens, but doesn’t let go entirely. “What about me?”
“I could say everything you just said right back at you.”
“I was so lost in my work, and then… then I lost my sister and had to learn to take care of someone else, someone who struggled more than me.” His hand falls away from my wrist,and I feel its sudden absence in every pore. “It’s too late for me, but it’s not too late for you.”
“But it’s not. It’s not too late for you—”
“It is, and that’s okay.”
I’ve never disagreed with anything more in my life. “No, it’s not. You’re wrong.” I can sense he’s seconds from either telling me I’m wrong or suggesting I should go to bed, so I lift a hand and bring it to his face. My fingertips lightly run down the side of his cheek, catching the stubble there that had grown throughout the day.
Gideon, the immaculately groomed alpha, is a little disheveled after midnight. I kind of like it.
“You shouldn’t be alone either,” I whisper. “It’s not too late for you.”
He brings a hand to mine, and for a second I assume he’s going to pull my hand off his face, but instead he simply holds his hand outside of mine, turning his nose into my palm and breathing in deeply. “You know, the glands in your neck are where the scent is strongest. You can apply whatever you want over them, but unless you cover every inch of skin, parts of your scent still poke through.” He breathes in again, and this time his chest rumbles a sound my body instantly responds to by moving to stand closer to him.
I stand between his knees, so close I’m damn near on his lap, and he doesn’t seem to mind at all.
I should take my hand away and step back, put more space between us. I should do something other than stand there and watch him breathe me in through my palm, but I can’t. I’m frozen, immobile, completely spellbound, caught in a web I can never hope to free myself from.
And the weirdest part is, I don’t mind one bit.
Chapter Twenty-Three – Gideon
I don’t know exactly how we ended up the way we are, how she came to stand so close to me, with her hand on my face, nor do I know why I didn’t have enough sense to resist cupping the hand against my face with my own and turning into it. Breathing her in is instinctual, and though the majority of her scent is muddled thanks to whatever she applies, I can still detect a hint of raspberries, of sweetness.
Raeka tries to be tough, I don’t doubt she wants her scent to be sour, to put off any and all alphas—and until now, maybe that worked, but I can’t deny the way her true scent tugs at something deep within me, something I thought didn’t exist. This omega calls out to a primal part of me, a part I was content with letting die while I raised Colter.
