Page 91 of Knot Gonna Lie
“Again.” I offered him my hand, challenging. “Faster.”
His grin turned predatory as he rose. The clan leaned in, ready to correct, to teach, to witness. Hours blurred into sweat, bruises, laughter. Stella’s commands, Xavier’s cool suggestions, Maia’s demonstrations—gravity itself became part of my training.
By the time Stella called halt, every muscle ached, body humming with new knowledge that might save my life. Or theirs.
“Shower. Food. Rest.” Her tone softened, pride under steel. “Tomorrow brings enough challenges without facing them exhausted.”
The clan dispersed slowly, the afternoon’s unity lingering. Xavier returned to his bridge, maintaining the distance we’d negotiated. The mated pairs drifted toward their quarters, Tobias’s hand finding Maia’s waist while Sylas pulled Stella close.
“You did well,” Seth murmured, fingers ghosting over a developing bruise on my forearm. “Though I should examine—”
“Shower first.” Luca’s command rumbled with promise. “All of us.”
“Lead the way, alpha.” The title tasted like power on my tongue, watching his eyes darken in response. “Show me our nest.”
We moved through the ship together, my pack, my chosen, the ones who’d bleed for me and who I’d kill to protect. The combat lessons had taught me more than defense—they’d shown me I was capable of protecting what mattered.
Tomorrow could bring its challenges.
Tonight, I had everything I needed.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
SETH
The mess hall carried a weight that had nothing to do with recycled air. Tomorrow we’d touch down on Planet Tera, trading the familiar confines of Paradise for an unknown world. Tonight felt suspended—between what was and what would be.
I arranged the serving dishes with unnecessary precision, each placement deliberate. Pasta supreme steamed in its vessel, salad gleamed emerald beside golden bread, dessert waited beneath a dome. Simple fare, elevated by circumstance—our last meal together in the space that had become home.
Elara entered between Luca and Jaxom, and my hands stilled.
Her scent hit first. Vanilla-lavender, darker now, richer—like sugar caramelizing under flame. My mark throbbed in answer. Three days since she’d claimed me, and already my body registered every shift in hers as data points: temperature elevated point-seven degrees, pupils dilated, pheromone production up thirty percent.
Clinical notes. Unmistakable signs. Her heat approached like a storm on the horizon—inevitable, transformative.
“Smells incredible.” Her voice carried a new warmth since the claiming, softer around the edges yet somehow sharper, more present. She moved toward the table, Luca and Jaxom adjusting with her, orbital bodies unable to resist her gravitational pull.
She was their sun as she was mine.
I forced myself to portion servings, hands steady while my mind catalogued everything—the flush at her throat, the way she leaned subtly into Luca when she thought no one saw. The medic in me logged symptoms. The man in me wanted to pull her against my chest and breathe her in until her scent lived in my lungs.
“Even got Xavier to join us,” Stella said as our captain entered. He lingered in the doorway, storm-gray presence diminished since that night he’d walked away from us.
“Tomorrow’s approach vectors won’t calculate themselves,” he muttered, though he took the seat farthest from our cluster.
The seating formed itself without words: Elara in the center, Luca on her right, me on her left, Jaxom beside me. Our scents mingled—citrus, pine, cedar, all threaded through her vanilla-lavender until it became something new. Pack-scent, my training supplied. Olfactory marker of bonded units.
Tobias and Maia sat across, her copper hair catching the lights as she leaned into him. Stella and Sylas mirrored them with practiced ease, synchronized even in reaching for their drinks.
“Last supper,” Tobias joked, then faltered. “I mean—”
“We know,” Xavier said, voice surprisingly warm. “Everything changes tomorrow.”
The truth of it settled over us like benediction and warning both. Tomorrow meant Planet Tera, Eli’s reaction to our omega,a thousand unknowns. But it also meant her heat, the final step that would bind us beyond breaking.
I served the pasta, careful to give Elara a larger portion. Her caloric needs had increased steadily over the past day—another marker of approaching heat. She needed the energy reserves for what her body prepared to endure.
“Seth’s outdone himself,” Maia said, raising her fork. “Actual vegetables.”
