Page 44 of Knot Gonna Lie
Identity thief. Fraud. Liar.
The words struck like physical blows, each one designed to poison my freedom—my future. My freedom. But beneath my initial shock, something darker stirred. Something that had been sleeping since my heat, waiting for the right provocation to wake.
“We’re trying to enjoy a meal,” Luca said, voice deceptively calm. His fist was clenched, knuckles white—but through ourfragile bond, I felt the quake beneath his control, alpha instincts coiled tight, screaming to protect what was his.
“Enjoy?” Keanu’s laugh scraped like metal on stone. “While real alphas starve for want of an omega? You should be in chains, identity thief.”
Their cousin stepped closer, his scent hitting me like a physical assault—rotted wood and stagnant water, the smell of things left to decay in darkness. “Pretty omega. Shame she wasted herself onhim. How can you tell what’s true when your bond is built on lies?”
Seth and Jaxom moved as one, their bodies forming a shield between me and the threat. The restaurant’s other patrons melted away like shadows, recognizing the violence brewing in the air.
No one wanted to get between a group of angry alphas fighting over an omega…
Only I didn’t want protection. I wanted tofight.
I was sick and tired of others trying to control me.
For most of my life, I’d been sheltered, protected, kept safe behind walls and rules and careful supervision. Even choosing Luca had been presented as the safest option—an alpha-approved selection in a gamma-controlled environment.
No more.
“I chose this,” I said, rising even as my clan closed in protectively around me. My voice didn’t waver as I leaned forward, hands on the table. “And I’d choose him again.”
“Because he bought you,” Keanu spat, his deep-space stare locked on me like a targeting system. “Jewelry and lies. You think that makes him worthy? It makes you nothing but a cheap whore.”
Heat flared in my chest—not the biological heat of my cycle, but something far more dangerous. Something sharper. Deadlier. The righteous fury of an omega whose voice was beingtrampled by these arrogant alpha males who thought they knew better— who believed they got to define me.
“A cheap whore?” My laugh cut the air, cold and incredulous. “That necklace is worth more than half your crew’s cargo bay—and I didn’t ask for it. He gave it freely. Like everything else.
“He protected me,” I spat, slamming my hands onto the table. “When your brother was pawing at me like I was property, Luca stepped between us. Not because he wanted something from me, but because it wasright.”
I stared Owen down, unflinching. “So don’t come at me with accusations and spit. You want to talk about value? I’m an omega. I choose. I claim. And I don’t belong to anyone but the alpha—the clan—Ichose. That’s the law—and it’s my right.”
Owen’s face twisted with ugly rage. “You think you’re special? You’re just another omega who—”
“Who what?” I stepped forward, my own anger finally finding its voice. “Who dared to choose for herself? Who refused to settle for desperate, pathetic alphas who think intimidation equals worthiness?”
Marcus’s hand moved toward me—too fast, too presumptuous, reaching for what he had no right to touch.Me.
My clan moved instantly. Luca’s snarl shook the air. Jaxom blocked the reaching hand with predatory speed, and Seth stepped in front of me, solid and silent, a living shield between me and the threat.
But it was too late—he had made his choice.
His fist connected with Luca’s jaw with a sound like breaking bone, and the world exploded into violence.
Through our bond, I felt Luca’s pain like an echo of my own, followed immediately by a rage so pure it stole my breath. But it wasn’t just his fury crashing through the connection.
Seth and Jaxom snarled in unison, instincts turning feral, their loyalty flaring hot and immediate. Defending their alpha. Defendingme—because I wastheirsto protect.
Such an act demandedblood.
Jaxom struck fast. His seafoam scent sharpening with predatory focus as his elbow found Marcus’s solar plexus with brutal precision. The larger male doubled over, gasping, but recovered faster than expected. His backhand caught Jaxom across the temple, sending him staggering into a nearby table.
“Jaxom!” The cry tore from my throat as I watched him struggle to regain his footing, blood streaming from a cut above his eye where Marcus’s ring had torn skin.
Seth took Owen down before he could jump in, sweeping his legs and knocking him into an empty chair. But Keanu was fast—cold and precise—driving a fist into Seth’s ribs hard enough to make me flinch.
Luca recovered with alpha speed, catching Keanu’s next punch and twisting until something cracked loud and sharp.
