Page 82 of Knot Gonna Lie
Elara wasn’t choosing between us. She was choosing all of us, weaving us together into something new.
A pack—with her as my omega, and two betas as our support.
Her emotions pulsed again, stronger now. Not just claiming—calling. She wanted us there. Needed us whole.
“She’s calling us.” Wonder threaded through Seth’s voice. He pressed his hand to his chest, over his heart, as if he could hold her closer through will alone. “Do you feel it?”
I did. Like tide drawing back before a wave.
Every alpha instinct screamed to answer, to run to her, to provide whatever our omega needed. But beneath it was something larger… Not just alpha responding to omega—pack responding to pack.
“Medical supplies?” I hefted the emergency kit he’d prepared, slinging it over my shoulder.
“Already packed.” Seth snatched a lighter bag. “Hydration, protein, wound care in case the bite was…” He swallowed. “Intense.”
We moved throughParadise’scorridors in step, shadows with purpose. The ship slept in its night cycle. Only Xavier would be awake—keeping vigil on the bridge, holding himself apart. His words during the game still burned, calling Elara a disruption. But I’d seen his truth: fear. Not of her. Of change.
He’d come around—or he wouldn’t. Right now, my omega called.
Her emotions bled stronger as we neared Jaxom’s living quarters—satisfaction, hunger, completion. Not just physical hunger. Emotional. The need to breathe her pack in, to know we were hers as much as she was ours.
“Luca.” Seth’s voice was hushed, reverent. “Her scent…”
I smelled it too. Lavender and vanilla, richer now, tangled with cedar storm—Jaxom’s scent, newly claimed.
And beneath it, faint but rising: pre-heat. Her body recognizing pack, awakening biology long suppressed.
“We go in calm.” The words were for me as much as Seth, wrestling my alpha nature into submission. “She needs support, not dominance.”
Seth nodded, pupils blown wide, professionalism clinging by threads. “She’s still choosing. We respect that.”
We would. Even if every instinct screamed to claim, to take, to overwhelm her with our presence until she forgot anyone existed beyond her pack. That wasn’t what Elara needed. She needed us to be more than our nature, better than simple biology.
Jaxom’s door slid open, soft light blue spilling into the corridor. Through the doorway, I heard them—Jaxom’s broken whispers, Elara’s soothing responses. The sound of fabric shifting, skin finding skin, hearts beating frantic.
I stepped inside, my scent flaring to announce us. The sight waiting on the other side knocked the breath from my lungs.
They lay tangled in Jaxom’s narrow bunk, sheets pooled low. Elara curved into his chest, her hair spilling across scarred skin like liquid gold. His left hand cradled her face—angry red bite marks circling his palm where she’d claimed him, fresh and deep—impossible to mistake. His right arm locked around her waist like he feared she’d vanish.
But it was her expression that stopped me. Radiant. Complete. Like she’d slotted a missing piece of herself into place. Her eyes lifted to mine over Jaxom’s shoulder, green depths shimmering. Not shame. Not apology. Just need.
Raw, honest need for all of us to be here, to be hers, to be pack.
“Alpha.” The word fell from her lips like prayer.
Jaxom tensed, started to shift away, but Elara gripped his shoulder. “No. Stay.”
“Elara—” His voice cracked.
“Mine.” She said it fierce, protective, omega-strong. Then her gaze found Seth, and her expression softened without losing intensity. “All of you.Mine.”
Her claiming words shot through our bonds like lightning, confirming what we’d felt across the ship. This wasn’t desire or heat-driven choices—or even chance. It was deliberate. Pack-building, the same determination that had carried her out of Syzygy Station.
Seth moved first, instinct and devotion propelling him. “Let me check the bites.” His tone stayed clinical, though his hands trembled as he pulled supplies. “Need to ensure proper clotting.”
Jaxom shifted slightly, exposing his marked hand without releasing her. That vulnerability—naked, claimed, offering himself for care while still holding his omega—hit something deep.
Seth worked with practiced gentleness over her handmark, each touch careful and precise. Elara watched with quiet satisfaction, possessive in the way only an omega could—her first pack member tending to her newest addition.
