Page 25 of A Very Knotty Halloween
“I may not have read the instructions, no,” Damien admits with a noncommittal shrug. “But how bad can it be? It has to be almost full by now—”
“You better hope we don’t have to pay for any damages to this room,” Cas hisses out before he throws the empty bottle at Damien, who deftly catches it. “Because this? Is your fault.”
“Well, you’re our pack leader, so any mistakes of mine are mistakes of yours.” The way the other alpha says it, like he’s proud to have thought of that particular loophole, actually makes me laugh.
I laugh at them like they’re trying to be funny, which causes both standing alphas to look at me. Maybe it’s the crazy sex we just had, or maybe it’s the fact that their gazes feel like they’re seeing right through me, peering into my deepest, darkestdepths, but I feel myself blush. “Sorry. You guys are just funny, that’s all.”
Jack’s arms tighten around me. The purring emanating from him lessens, but doesn’t go away entirely when he says, “Don’t apologize. Never apologize to us, Marnie.” A second passes before he agrees with me, “Besides, they are funny.”
“I think you should go in there and try to pop some of those bubbles,” Cas says, clearly talking to Damien, whose fault it is for the bubbles currently creeping out of the tub. “And see how much longer until the tub’s full.”
Damien rolls his eyes in a ridiculously dramatic gesture, and then, without a word more, he goes to the tub and steps inside. It’s like watching a real-life cartoon: his body falls and he completely disappears in the bubbly mess. Two seconds later, he pops up and acts like he’s drowning, bubbles coating his hair and his face—pretty much every part of him.
The look he gives says it all, but just in case we aren’t aware, he guiltily states, “It’s less than half full.”
“Shit.” Cas rubs his hand on his face and shakes his head. “What the fuck, man?”
Damien doesn’t respond to that; instead he walks around the huge tub and tries to pop some of the bubbles with his hands. It’s a wasted effort, because at this rate, the running water just keeps making more and more.
I giggle. The whole thing is just silly.
As Cas tries to scoop the wandering bubbles and deposit them back onto the mound over the tub, as Damien continues to make more of a mess, Jack and I watch. The alpha holding me traces shapes on my back, and I practically sink into him as a result.
Who knew I could be so relaxed? Who knew I could feel this good after hooking up with three alphas? Two of which I just met tonight and one of which is my estranged stepbrother?
“I imagine your daily lives are interesting,” I whisper to Jack, angling my head so I can look up at him. It’s not the best angle, but I’ll make do.
He grins at me. “You have no idea. What’s your life like? You said you were going to school online, but what else do you do?”
Hmm. What else is there? I hang out with Sabrina any chance I get, lament our omega designation on most of those occasions. When it comes to hobbies, I’ve tried to dabble in everything—art, videogames, even knitting and gardening—but none have really stuck. None stayed with me. Sometimes it’s hard to keep my focus on one thing when I try doing it and I’m not immediately great at whatever it is.
Being bad at things is not fun to me. I don’t know why.
“I meant it when I said I’m pretty boring,” I finally say, and his response comes swiftly.
“I don’t believe that. I know we just met, but I don’t think you’re boring at all, Marnie.” The way he says it, I can tell he’s not only trying to make me feel better, but also that he means it. I don’t think Jack is the type of person who ever says something he doesn’t mean. “It’s okay. I know it’s hard to talk about yourself. You don’t have to. We’ll get to know you little by little, day by day.”
That makes me sit up. Well, scoot off him, sit up, and stare at him, to which he mimics me by sitting up with me. We stare at each other for a few moments as what he just said sinks into my head.
Even though I have the feeling I know exactly what he meant by that, I still have to ask, “What do you mean?” My throat is suddenly dry. “Tonight is just… one night. This is just—” God, I don’t think a single word has been more difficult for me to say, well, ever. “—fun, isn’t it?”
The look Jack gives me makes my stomach do weird things, and I glance over my shoulder at Damien and Cas, that knowingfeeling becoming concrete in my gut. Still, for some reason, I refuse to face it just yet.
Jack scoots closer to me, his hands finding me and pulling me onto his lap, between his legs, where I fit perfectly. “I think,” he whispers, his lips in my hair, “we all know this isn’t just a hookup. There’s no way a hookup would feel this right. Cas… he brought us here for you. Damien and I thought it was just to stop you from making a mistake with other alphas, but…” When he trails off that time, I know what he’s going to say, to the point where he doesn’t need to continue.
But he saw me, smelled me—just like I saw and smelled him behind that mask—and everything changed. His plan got shot to hell, and so did mine. Our fates were written in stone at that exact moment in time, and no amount of wishing or resisting would change it.
“Jack,” I whisper his name softly, so softly the others can’t possibly hear what I’m about to say, “I didn’t even want to come tonight. I only came because my best friend dragged me here. I… I don’t know that I—” I swallow hard. “—I’m ready for that, for more. I’m scared.” I want to throw up when I say it aloud; it’s something I never even told Sabrina.
I’m scared to move onto the next phase of my life. Scared to find a pack. Scared to find a place I could possibly belong. How on earth could I not be scared? I look around at other omegas and see their excitement, their smiles, hear their giggles and their wish lists for their forever pack, but… that’s not me. It’s never been me. Maybe I’m scared because I know that, sometimes, things don’t work out.
Look at my parents. My mom died and my dad pretty much raised me on his own for years. Look at Cas’s parents. His dad thought he had an omega mate, but then she stumbled upon her scent match and he refused to invite him into the pack, so they had to go their separate ways because suddenly his momcouldn’t stand to be in the same room as his dad once she got a whiff of mine.
Things can change. How can you give your all to something when it might end up being nothing more than a failure? How can anyonenotbe scared?
Jack hugs me close. “It is scary,” he admits, “but that doesn’t mean it’s not right. Sometimes the scariest things in this world are inevitable. All these years, Cas was biding his time until he could get you, so I’d say this whole night was inevitable, one way or another. It’s scary, it’s terrifying, but that’s what life is about, I think: overcoming those fears. If you let them control you your whole life, then did you ever really live?”
He talks like he’s a master at the subject, and I hate how much sense he makes. He doesn’t mock me for my fears. The opposite: he’s so damn understanding he makes my heart do something funny in my chest.
