Page 10 of Knot Excused
With a flourish, he pulled it out.
Ah, now this looked like the kind of stuff Omegas usually wore. It was all right, but it just wasn’tme.
Tight and uncomfortable-looking, it had a fitted bodice with a huge mermaid tail fanning out from my calves and huge puffed sleeves. Was that abustle? It was just absolutely the last thing I would pick.
“I really like this one,” I said, pointing down at myself.
Erain’s mouth seemed to tighten, his high aristocratic cheekbones and face got even more austere and disapproving.
“I think,” Erain said stiffly, “this dress wouldhelp.”
Help what?
I felt miserably shamed and furious.
He dragged his eyes away from the distance to look at me. They were cold and blue. Like there was no interest and not the smallest scrap of affection there.
Weren’t your Alphas supposed to havesomeinterest in you? Was all that stuff about scents total bullshit?
After all, he smelled good to me. Wintry and cool, like a sleigh ride through the forest at Christmas. Crisp and exciting, with coiled passion below the surface.
God, I wished again that Omega suppressants weren’t illegal so I wouldn’t have to love the scent of someone I fucking hated.
For a beat I said nothing.
But he was my Alpha. They were all my Alphas, no matter what I had to say about it, and I was going to have to learn to live with them.
There was no way out of a mate bond. On our wedding night, I would go into heat and they would knot and bite me.
Slowly, I reached out my hand for the dress.
It felt wrong in my hands, stiff and uncomfortable.
And that asshole Erain didn’t even look satisfied.
He nodded once, then twice, then turned to leave.
And I’m supposed to be knotted by this man?
We can barely stand to be in the same space.
“I need an invitation for my friends,” I said, “for the wedding.”
Erain’s eyes flicked up and down my body, barely even landing on my face.
“The caterers have already been arranged,” he said. “There’s no room for anyone else.”
Without another word, he turned to go. The doorway wasn’t designed for Alphas, and he had to turn his broad shoulders sideways to get through. I watched him leave with a nauseated feeling in my stomach.
But I put on the damn dress, and it looked and felt just as awful as I thought it was going to.
CHAPTER8
Piper
Iwoke up on the day of my wedding with a tight ball of anxiety in my stomach and the feeling didn’t dissipate.
I got ready alone, I did my makeup alone, I put my wedding gown on alone.
