Page 16 of Knot So Fast
My whole body jolts as the simulator responds to the crash, the haptic feedback making it feel disturbingly real. The guys in the lobby are laughing like maniacs, celebrating the dirty move like it's some kind of victory.
"Foul play!" Wolf's voice cuts through the chaos, his tone absolutely furious. "That was obvious cheating! You were about to lose, so you decided to crash her instead!"
But I'm not listening to the argument anymore.
I'm staring at the flames on my screen, watching the virtual fire consume the wreckage of my car, and suddenly I'm not in my apartment anymore.
I'm back there.
Back in that moment when everything went wrong.
The tremors.
The way the car started to shake as I lost control.
The dizziness that came with the realization that I was going too fast, that the barriers were coming up too quickly, that there was no way to stop what was about to happen.
The panic that sent me flying through the air, the sick sensation of weightlessness before the impact.
The explosion that followed, the smell of burning flesh—my own flesh—before consciousness slipped away like water through my fingers.
"Sugar? Sugar, are you there?" Wolf's voice sounds distant, like he's calling to me from across a vast canyon.
My hands are trembling as I pull off the VR headset, the virtual world disappearing to reveal my dimly lit apartment.
I fumble for the power button, turning off the simulator with shaking fingers as I fight to remember how to breathe.
In and out. In and out. It's not real. You're safe. You're alive. It was just a game.
But my lungs don't seem to be getting the message.
Each breath feels shallow and insufficient, like I'm trying to breathe through a straw. I try to stand, desperate to get away from the simulator that suddenly feels like a prison, but my legs give out completely.
I hit the floor hard, my knees cracking against the hardwood as panic claws its way up my throat.
I clutch at my chest, fighting for air that won't come, feeling like I'm drowning in my own living room.
That's when I see him.
Hands reach for me, and I look up frantically to see a face that stops my heart entirely. For a moment—just a few seconds—I see Lucius. Same dirty blonde hair, same impossibly blue-green eyes, same everything. Like he's materialized out of my memories to save me from this breakdown.
But there's something different.
The scent that hits my enhanced Omega senses isn't quite right.
It's similar to Lucius's pine and motor oil combination, but there are subtle differences.Cleaner somehow.More controlled. Like the difference between a wildfire and a carefully tended flame.
The world tilts sideways, and everything goes black.
When I blink back to consciousness, it's not Lucius hovering over me.
It's Luke, my Beta roommate, his kind brown eyes filled with concern as he instructs me to breathe.
"That's it, Auren," he says softly, his voice the anchor I need to pull myself back to reality. "Just breathe. You're safe. You're here with me."
I realize I've been holding my breath for far too long, my body rebelling against the lack of oxygen.
I take a gasping gulp of air, then another, feeling the panic slowly recede like a tide going out.
