Page 98 of Knot So Fast
"Probably," Dex agrees, his commentator's voice carrying a note of self-recrimination.
Caspian is already moving toward the door. "Fine. We'll be outside."
Lachlan hasn't moved, staring at Luke with barely controlled outrage.
"You're kicking me out of my own suite?"
Luke gives him a look that clearly says 'yes, and what are you going to do about it?' which makes my brother huff in frustration. But he starts moving toward the door anyway, because as much as he wants to argue, Auren's wellbeing comes first.
But that shouldn’t include me.
He doesn't wait for me to say anything.
His hand wraps around my arm in a grip that's just shy of painful, and he starts tugging me along toward the door. I want to protest, to point out that I haven't even given her the flowers, that I need to see for myself that she's okay, that?—
But Auren makes another soft sound of distress, and any argument dies in my throat.
Fuck…we're overwhelming her.
Our combined scents, our barely controlled emotions, our competing desires—it's all too much for someone whose system is already struggling with suppressants and their aftermath.
As Lachlan pulls me toward the door, I catch one last glimpse of her in Luke's arms. She looks small and vulnerable in a way that makes my chest ache. This isn't the fierce woman who took second place just hours ago.
This is Auren stripped of all defenses, overwhelmed and hurting, and we're the cause.
I don’t like the vulnerability it forces me to feel.
This is a reminder of why I can’t fucking commit because I hate this feeling.
Hurting her.
Being the cause of her sorrow.
If I’m not only hers, I don’t need to feel these stupid feelings.
The flowers slip from my grip as Lachlan yanks me through the doorway, landing on the floor with a soft thud that feels like punctuation to this disaster of a reunion. White roses and purple blooms scatter across the threshold, a romantic gesture turned into collateral damage.
Just like everything else I touch when it comes to her.
The door closes with a decisive click, leaving us in the hallway—five Alphas exiled from the one person we all desperately want to be near. And as we stand there in awkward silence, I can't help but wonder if this is what it's always going to be like now.
All of us wanting her, none of us quite sure how to share, and Auren caught in the middle of a war between brothers who should have figured this shit out long before dragging her into our chaos.
But it's too late for should-haves.
She's here, we're here, and somehow we're going to have to find a way to make this work.
Though…I’m coming to realize, that may not have me in that sweet equation…
PACK DYNAMICS
~LACHLAN~
"You're being an overprotective jerk," Lucius spits the words at me like they're poison, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. The flowers he dropped are still scattered across the threshold, some of the white petals having filtered out and already beginning to wilt under the harsh fluorescent hallway lights.
I force myself to maintain eye contact with my twin, even though looking at him is like staring into a funhouse mirror—familiar features twisted by different choices, different paths, different failures.
"I'm making sure our Omega isn't getting overwhelmed by our existence," I say, keeping my voice level despite the rage simmering just beneath the surface. "And it doesn't make things better if we're all crowding in there like desperate Alphas who can't control themselves. So you need to calm the fuck down."
