Page 56 of Knot Gonna Lie
“I should have known you’d find a way to see me off.” I stepped closer, breathing in her familiar essence one last time. “Even after everything that happened at the restaurant.”
“Did you think I’d let you leave without a proper goodbye?” She managed that crooked smile that always meant she wasproud of me for something I didn’t think I’d done right. “After watching you defend your clan? Stars, Elara, you were magnificent, but you scare me.”
Heat bloomed in my chest—not the biological kind that had been simmering closer to the surface each day, but the warm glow of recognition. Of being truly seen, in ways that only she had.
In ways that I hoped my clan would view me.
“I was terrified.” The admission slipped out before I could stop it. “Not of them, but of…of how much I wanted to hurt them. Protect them. How good it felt to make Owen bleed.”
Quinn sighed and shook her head, some of the tension easing from her face. Her eyes softened, brown gaze steady with something like understanding. “That’s your omega instincts finding their teeth. Protection doesn’t always look pretty—but it is necessary. Just don’t bear it all, not anymore. You have a clan now. Let them in…” She glanced toward the corridor where my clan waited, giving us privacy for this goodbye. “Speaking of protection—we need to discuss what comes next.”
The shift in her tone made my skin prickle with awareness. Not the casual conversation of friends parting, but the careful precision of someone delivering crucial intelligence.
Her tone changed, and the hairs on my neck stood up. “Meaning?”
“Your heat will soon be here before you know it. The stress, the claiming, the violence—can alter your cycle.” Her gaze fixed on mine with laser intensity. “I am guessing two weeks. Maybe more, maybe less. And when it hits, you’ll be making choices. Some that may be permanent…that you may regret once reality settles.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Heat bonding versus pack bonding.” Quinn stepped closer, her scent curling stronger around me. It used to feel steady,familiar. Now it made something in me tense. Off. Not bad—just wrong. Was this what it meant to be claimed? To have my instincts reshaped by an alpha’s mark? “During your cycle, every touch will feel destined, every connection will seem fated. Your body will try to claim anyone who comforts you, who provides what you need in those moments. You mustn’t become clouded by desire…”
I straightened, breath catching. “You’re warning me not to trust what I feel during heat.”
“I’m warning you to remember the difference between biological imperative and genuine connection.” Her hand found my cheek, thumb brushing over skin with familiar tenderness that ran deeper than duty—more than just omega and gamma. Years of friendship lived in her touch.
“Your choice needs to be made with a clear mind and an open heart. Hold ontoyourtruth when the fire comes.”
The fire.
Such a simple way to describe the consuming need that would remake me, temporarily, into something driven purely by instinct and hunger.
“What if I make the wrong choices? What if I claim someone who doesn’t really want—”
“Then you deal with it afterward. Together.”
She reached into her jacket, withdrawing something small and silver that caught the cargo bay’s harsh lighting. A communication device, sleek and unmarked, designed to blend seamlessly among other jewelry.
“This is for emergencies only.” She pressed it into my palm, metal cool against my skin. “If something goes wrong, if you need help that your clan can’t provide, activate it. I’ll come for you, laws be damned.”
The device felt heavier than it should—loaded with implications I wasn’t sure I wanted to understand. “Quinn, what aren’t you telling me?”
“Everything’s changing, Elara. What happened in that restaurant? It’s not isolated.” Her gaze flickered toward the loading ramp, toward the vast station beyond. “There are alphas out there going feral from waiting, from being denied access to omegas. The Matron’s talking about new restrictions, tighter controls. Even going as far as to prevent alphas from doing business on the station. And some of the gammas…” She paused, choosing her words with care. “Some think the system needs to be completely dismantled.”
“Revolution.” The word slipped out soft and low, ushering it into our new reality.
“Evolution, maybe. Or collapse.” Quinn tilted her head, her smile turned sharp, dangerous. “Either way, you got out at exactly the right time. And if things go badly here, you might be one of the few omegas with real freedom to choose what comes next.”
The implications crashed over me like a tidal wave. Not just my personal escape, but the potential destruction of everything that had shaped omega existence for generations. The Den, the careful protections, the gamma oversight—all of it potentially crumbling.
“What about you?” The question scraped my throat raw. “What happens to you if everything falls apart?”
“I adapt. I survive. I protect whoever I can.” Her thumb traced the healing mark on my neck, pride and sorrow warring in her expression. “But you? You get to build something new. Something better. With a clan of your own.”
“I don’t want to lose you.” The words came out small, broken. Twelve years of careful independence cracking under the weight of this final separation.
“You’re not losing me.” Quinn pulled me into her arms, holding tight as her morning dew scent wrapped around me like a benediction. “You’re gaining a galaxy of possibilities. But I’ll always be here—one call away, whenever you need me.”
I buried my face against her shoulder, memorizing the feeling of safety she’d always represented. Soon, that safety would come from my alpha, my pack, my clan. But Quinn had been my first anchor, my introduction to trust and protection and unconditional care.
