Page 44 of Knot Excused
“Piper please,” I begged. “Don’t do this. I am your mate. I am your Alpha.”
I was down on my knees now, crawling toward her on the floor as everyone’s eyes widened.
“Oh,nowyou’re my mate?” she asked scornfully. “Actually I think I’ll choose one of these other Alphas. Test out their knots and see if I like them.”
It was like my knees gave way and I fell to my belly on the ground.
“Please, Piper, please. I made a mistake.”
I dug in my elbows and began to crawl toward her.
“You revolting cheater,” she retorted. “You said my scent would stink. Hot Cheetos and Marlboro Lights, I believe you said. And what the fuck is wrong with Cheetos?”
“I was an idiot!” I begged. “A complete asshole!”
“Well, here’s your chance,” she snapped. “No need to worry about me. Go have dinner with the woman you chose over me. Let’s just admit weallmade a mistake and go our own ways.”
She waved her arm over to the other women sitting expectantly beside her.
Cressida looked hopefully over at me. “If they made a mistake at the ceremony, we could be together again,” she said sweetly.
Delicate and tiny, she certainly made a contrast to Piper who was leaning back against the table, her long legs stretched out in sweatpants, eyes bold and blue.
But there was only one woman I felt pulled toward. And it was my bold, unafraid, unashamed Omega.
“Go with her, Erain,” Piper purred.
“C’mon,” Cressida coaxed, her angelic little face smiling at me. “It’s what you always wanted, to be free from her. She’s not our kind.”
I felt a surge of anger.
“Ourkind? She’smyOmega. I don’t want to be withyouanymore. She’s my scent match. There was no mistake. Except the one I made in fucking you.”
“Look at her!” Cressida cried. “How could you be on your knees for this woman? She’s wearing sweatpants in the palace!”
Piper was looking at me, with a little smile on her face, and suddenly I felt suffused with shame. Everything I had done for years had primed me for failing my Omega.
Rook and Teddy had gotten me away from the worst excesses of my aristocratic family and the friends I had grown up with. But dating Cressida I had allowed myself to fall back into the old ways.
Rook and Teddy had been good influences on me, but I had let myself fall into bad habits.
Raw, stabbing pain filled my gut as Benjamin put his hand on Piper’s shoulder. She was wearing a loose top, and the tips of his fingers curled into her skin as I writhed with jealousy.
“Get your hands off her!” I choked out to him.
Even in my agony, my cock was hard as a rock and digging into the ground.
“Cressida, it’s over,” I growled.
She was for the man I used to be. Not the man I want to be. Not the man I am. I am a better man than Cressida thought I was.
I crawled inch by inch toward Piper, despite the agony.
“No,” I cried, my eyes glued on her as she leaned back and tipped her head up for a kiss.
I felt that kiss all through my body, and I had to close my eyes to stop the room from spinning. But even still, a low pained groan burst from my body.
It was an agony on every inch of my body, hot burning shame at my failure stabbing through me.
