Page 59 of Knot Your Karma
Karma’s scent spikes with panic as reality crashes back—her shop door is unlocked, she’s naked except for my shirt draped over her, and someone just walked into What Goes Around.
“Oh shit,” she whispers, scrambling to pull the quilt higher. “Oh shit, oh shit, we forgot to lock the door.”
Heavy footsteps move through the front of the shop with the deliberate pace of someone who’s either very confident or very concerned. Given that Karma’s pre-heat scent is probably detectable from the harbor, I’m guessing it’s both.
“Karma? You back there?” Declan’s voice carries thatprotective edge that means he’s already picked up her distress through the air. “Reed?”
My phone buzzes with a text.
Adrian: “Found Reed’s car at Karma’s shop. Going in.”
“Well,” I murmur against Karma’s hair as she buries her face in my chest, “I guess the conversation that changes everything is starting right now.”
Karma
Oh God,there are footsteps outside my door.
My hands shake as I pull the fabric tighter. “They’re right outside and I’m practically naked and probably smell like... like satisfied omega and bad decisions, and they caught us and what are they going to think? That I’m some kind of omega who just throws herself at the first beta who shows up with decent organizational skills and a rescue complex? Reed, I can’t even look at them, this is so embarrassing, like seventeen different levels of mortifying?—”
“Hey.” Reed’s voice cuts through my spiral, steady and anchoring, his hand stroking through my hair. “Deep breaths. There’s nothing wrong with what we did, and there’s definitely nothing to be ashamed of. Though I have to say, decent organizational skills might be the most unique compliment I’ve ever received.”
“Can we come in?” Declan’s voice is careful, controlled, but I can hear the edge underneath—protective concern mixed with something that makes my pulse skip. “Or should we stand out here making awkward small talk about the weather while you two figure out how clothes work?”
I tug Reed’s shirt more securely around myself, fabricbunching in my fists as I try to achieve some semblance of dignity.
“Yes,” I manage, voice barely above a whisper. “But if anyone makes fun of my nest-building skills, I’m going to die of embarrassment, and you’ll have to explain to the authorities why there’s a mortified omega in your general vicinity.”
The door opens slowly, and Adrian steps in first, those storm-gray eyes immediately cataloguing everything—the rearranged office, my hastily constructed nest, the way I’m curled against Reed among rumpled fabric and scattered clothes. His expression doesn’t change, but his posture settles into an alertness that makes my ribs loosen despite the mortification.
“Pre-heat,” he says simply, and it’s not a question. “Good instincts. Solid structural integrity on the nest.”
Then Declan steps through the door, and his scent hits me like someone just opened a window during a thunderstorm—all that rain-soaked wood making my mouth water in ways that would be embarrassing to explain to a medical professional.
My breath hitches like someone yanked a rope tight around my ribs. The shop napkin I’ve been unconsciously shredding falls from suddenly numb fingers. When I try to focus on Declan’s face, the edges blur like I’m looking through water.
The satisfied contentment Reed created transforms into hunger—my body recognizing what it needs and demanding closer, now,more.
“Jesus Christ,” Declan breathes, his boot stopping mid-step on the threshold. His hand grips the doorframe hard enough that his knuckles go white. “Karma, your scent just—fuck, that’s intense.”
He moves closer, and my breath catches as his fingers brush my jaw, tilting my face up to meet his eyes. The simpletouch sends electricity down my spine, and suddenly I can’t remember why I was nervous.
“Something’s happening.” Reed’s hand finds mine, thumb brushing across my knuckles as my pulse jumps beneath his touch. “It’s different now, more intense—” I can’t finish because he’s moved closer, close enough that I have to tilt my head back to meet his eyes.
“You just shifted into the next phase,” Reed explains, though his voice sounds distant through the haze building behind my eyes. “Think of it as your body’s very enthusiastic way of saying mission accomplished, now let’s get to the good part.”
That restless energy is back, except now it’s laser-focused on getting closer to these alphas, and rational thought is apparently the first casualty because I’m pretty sure I just mentally catalogued three different ways to climb Declan like a tree. Every instinct I have screams to get closer to Declan, to that rain-and-wood scent that’s making my thighs clench and liquid heat gather low in my belly despite my embarrassment.
“This is moving fast,” Adrian observes, settling carefully on the edge of my nest space like he’s approaching a spooked animal. “Your body doesn’t wait for convenient timing.”
“Too fast,” I whisper, but even as I say it, I’m shifting restlessly against Reed, betraying the words as heat builds under my skin. Sweat beads along my hairline despite the October chill. “We should—there are things we need to talk about first—important things that are really, really important and probably life-altering?—”
“What things?” Declan asks, finally stepping fully into the office. “Because if there’s something we need to discuss, now’s the time. Before your body makes talking impossible and we’re all just operating on instinct and pheromones.”
“Before I can’t think straight anymore,” I finish, because the haze is getting stronger with each breath of theircombined scents. “Before pre-heat becomes full heat and I turn into one of those omegas who can only communicate in desperate whimpering and really embarrassing requests for more alpha attention?—”
“Then talk to us,” Adrian says quietly, his presence grounding even as it adds to the scent cocktail making my heartbeat stutter and my breathing go shallow. “What’s weighing on you?”
My chest constricts like someone’s sitting on it as the confession builds behind my lips. This is it. The moment that will either destroy everything or finally set me free.
