Page 60 of Knot Shattered
I pulled away only far enough to look at the jar again. Carefully and reverently, I took it from his hands and shook it like a gruesome magic eight ball.
“I can’t believe I’m the kind of girl who finds this sweet.”
Salem snorted from behind me. “You’ve been hanging out with Fallon and Violet too long.”
“No,” I whispered, still looking at the floating hearts. “I think… I think I was always this girl. I just didn’t know it until they broke me. And you…” I looked up at Haze, then over my shoulder at the others, “…you helped put me back together.”
My throat tightened again, but I didn’t try to stop the words this time.
“I love you, Haze. You’re unhinged, ridiculous, and probably should be on several watch lists, but you make me feel powerful. Like I’m allowed to be just as wild and fucked up as I need to be.”
Haze grinned so wide it crinkled the corners of his eyes.
I turned next to Salem, who had sat up and was watching me like I hung the stars.
“I love you, Salem. You’re my calm, my quiet. You always know what to say when I can’t even figure out what I’m feeling. And that cuff you gave me—” I touched the Valkyrie etched in gold on my bicep, “—you remind me that I’m still a warrior, even when I feel like a ghost.”
Ravik stood, slowly crossing to me, his expression unreadable as always. I reached for his hand.
“I love you, Ravik. You don’t always have the words, but you protect me like I’m something sacred. And when I’m around you, I feel safe enough to breathe. Safe enough to sleep.”
Then, finally, I turned to Micha. His golden eyes met mine, steady and warm, the silent alpha who always saw more than he let on. “I love you, too. You never pushed me. You made space for me to come back to myself. You saw me, even when I couldn’t see anything beyond the pain. You never treated me like I was broken.”
Silence settled over the room for a long, fragile heartbeat.
Then Haze let out a loud sniffle and wiped his face with his sleeve. “Okay, if anyone else cries, I’m gonna lose my shit and probably go kill someone else to cope.”
Ravik rolled his eyes and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like “drama queen,” but his hand tightened around mine.
And for the first time in a long, long time… I felt whole.
“We all love you too,” Micha said softly, and somehow those simple words cracked something wide open in me all over again. There was no grand flourish, no performative declarations, just his voice, calm and sure, a quiet promise I could fold myself into.
Salem’s fingers brushed along my arm, warm and grounding. “With everything we are.”
Ravik nodded once, firm and confident, like he was carving the truth into stone.
And Haze…Haze pressed a dramatic hand to his chest. “Obviously. I murdered people for you. That’s peak romantic commitment.”
The laughter that slipped from my lips felt lighter than anything I’d carried in months.
But I wasn’t done.
“I do have just one more question for you all,” I said, stepping back a little so I could look each of them in the eye, one by one.
Their expressions shifted instantly, alert, serious, bracing for something heavy.
I smiled, just slightly, then asked, “Will you bond with me?”
I barely finished the sentence before the world tilted. Ravik tossed me over his shoulder like I weighed nothing, striding down the hallway with a determined, possessive griparound my thighs. I squeaked,actually squeaked, and smacked his back, but the only response I got was a low rumble of amusement from his chest.
“You said bond, Omega,” he said gruffly, like that explained everything.
Maybe it did.
Behind us, the others followed, too quiet, too focused. There was something in the air now, electric and heavy, like the air before a thunderstorm. My heart pounded, heat blooming low in my belly as the realization hit me.
This was happening.
