Page 68 of Knot Gonna Lie
I crossed to him, bare feet silent on the metal floor, the faint drag of fabric over my hypersensitive skin a sharp reminder of how close my heat was. His arms opened without hesitation, pulling me into his lap where I belonged. The familiar scent of coconut and sunshine was a warm welcome, soothing something deep within me.
Is it my own? Or his, echoing across our bond?
“You didn’t,” I soothed, gesturing to his displays. “But what worries you?”
“The math doesn’t work,” he muttered, returning his gaze to his work. “We’ve been so focused on omega comfort, on making their sanctuaries more bearable, that we’ve ignored half the equation.”
I moved closer, reading the projections over his shoulder. Graphs showed alpha instability rates climbing, incidents of spiral madness in unmated populations, the slow collapse of a system built on artificial scarcity.
“What if Coco Pharma shifted focus?” His fingers danced across the interface, pulling up their product lines—suppressants, comfort medications, heat regulators. All designed for omegas. “What if instead of just managing the symptoms, we addressed the cause?”
“Calming agents for alphas.” The idea bloomed as I spoke it, pieces clicking together with sudden clarity. “Something to quiet their biological drive, ease the constant search for their missing syzygy piece.”
Luca turned in his chair, ice-blue eyes bright with something I hadn’t seen all morning—hope. “Not suppressants exactly, but stabilizers. Something to prevent the spiral without destroying what makes them alpha.”
I moved between him and his screens, hands finding his tension-filled shoulders. “You could save them. Give them time to find their omegas without madness eating them alive.”
His hands found my waist, pulling me onto his lap with gentle insistence. “Your perspective—Stars, Elara, you see things we never could.” His lips pressed to my forehead, lingering there like a blessing. “Twelve years trapped on that station, watching the system from inside its cage. You understand what we’ve been missing.”
“The view’s different from behind a gilded cage,” I murmured against his throat, feeling his pulse race beneath my lips. “But I’m glad to be finally free.”
“Once we weather your heat, after I finally tell Eli the truth…” His voice caught on his brother’s name, guilt threading through our bond like ice through warm water. “I want to bring this to him, to Seth, to our whole research team. This could change everything.”
I shifted in his lap, straddling him properly, my hands deliberately blocking his view of the screens. “But right now, you need to stop.”
“Elara—”
“No.” My fingers found his face, forcing him to meet my gaze. “I can feeleverything. Every spike of anguish, every wave of stress, every moment of worry—it crashes endlessly through our bond.” My thumb traced the shadow beneath his eye, evidence of sleepless hours spent drowning in guilt. “You’re destroying yourself from the inside out.”
“I’m sorry, Elara.” He leaned back, head tipping against the chair’s cushion as he let out a slow sigh. Eyes closed, his voice came out quieter. “You shouldn’t have to deal with me—or my problems.”
“Tell me,” I commanded softly, fingers finding the tension in his shoulders, working at knots that felt like stones beneath skin. “Let your omega in. Letmein.”
“Eli knows something’s off.” The words came heavy, each one a confession. “He’s too respectable to ask, knowing I’d tell him if I could. But after all my years working with him, I know that look—he can see I’m hiding something.”
“Everyone has secrets,” I pointed out. “Stories they’d rather keep to themselves. Stars, I know being this clan’s omega doesn’t mean I get to know everything about everyone.”
“That may be true, but how can I rest?” The question came raw, stripped of his usual alpha authority. “Eli could discover the truth any moment. Someone will talk. They always do.” His hands tightened on my waist, desperation bleeding through his touch. “And the politics, the imbalance, the power these stations hold over every alpha in the galaxy…”
He pulled me closer, burying his face against my neck where his mark throbbed with shared emotion. “What if I’ve ruined his chance? What if my deception costs him his opportunity to find an omega before this whole system collapses?”
“Quinn fixed the records,” I reminded him, though the words seemed inadequate against his guilt.
“But those alphas at the restaurant—they know. They’re angry, banned, desperate. What if they—”
I silenced him with my fingers against his lips, feeling his breath hot against my skin. “Living in fear and doubt will poison you faster than any truth.” My other hand found his chest, pressing over his heart where it hammered against his ribs. “If this weight is crushing you, then lift it. Now.”
His eyes searched mine, looking for permission to hope.
“Arrange for Eli to meet us at Planet Tera.” The words came out steady, certain. This was the only way my alpha would find peace—especially with my heat so close. “Tell him everything—the truth, the danger, all of it. Warn him to get to a sanctuary station immediately, to find his omega before inevitable war tears everything apart.”
“And if he hates me for it?”
The vulnerability in his voice—this powerful alpha who’d commanded respect across star systems, reduced to a brother’s fear of losing his lifelong friend—made my chest ache with fierce protectiveness.
“Then he’s not the brother you believe him to be.” I cupped his face between my palms, pouring every ounce of certainty through our bond. “But I think he’ll understand. I think he’ll see what you risked and why, and love you for the courage it took.”
“I don’t want to be the spark that sets this off,” he admitted quietly. “With alphas going mad, missing omegas, the system already falling apart—what if my deception becomes the excuse they need for war?”
