Page 49 of Knot Baked Out For This
The words hang between us, heavy with meaning I don't want to examine. What should've been done already. Fixed. Noticed. Cared for.
Stop. Stop reading into it. He fixed a door, not your entire life.
But my traitorous brain is already comparing—Korrin who'd watch me struggle with groceries while he sat on the couch, his pack brothers who'd laugh when I'd mention needing help, the way they'd turned my requests into jokes about "omega independence" and how I wanted it both ways.
And here's Luca Maddox, fixing my door in the dark without being asked, without expecting payment, without making me feel small for needing it.
"Thank you," I say, the words scraped raw from somewhere deep.
He nods once, economical even in acknowledgment. Starts to walk away, then pauses.
"You're not what I expected," he says to the darkness more than me.
"What did you expect?"
"Someone broken." He turns back slightly, profile carved sharp against the dying light. "You're not broken. You're just... careful. There's a difference."
How does he?—
But he's already walking away, disappearing into the October twilight like he was never here at all. Just the fixed door and lingering scent of dark coffee and gingerbread to prove I didn't imagine it.
I stand there, hand pressed to my throat where my pulse hammers against my palm, trying to make sense of what just happened.
Three of them now. Three Alphas circling like I'm something worth protecting. Or hunting. With Alphas, sometimes there's no difference.
Inside, Muffin meows, probably wondering why I'm standing in the doorway like an idiot instead of providing her dinner. The normal world calls—evening routines, safe patterns, the life I've built carefully from the ashes of my marriage.
But something's shifting. I can feel it like weather changing, pressure dropping before a storm.
Rowan with his guilty eyes and gentle oven repair.
Levi with his sunshine smiles and remembered wildflowers.
Luca with his quiet competence and fixed doors.
They're not a pack,I remind myself.Just three Alphas who happen to be friends. Who happen to be interested? Who happen to make me feel?—
No. I don't get to feel.
Feeling is what got me into trouble last time.
Feeling is what made me ignore the red flags with Korrin, the way his charm could turn to cruelty in a heartbeat, the way his pack enabled and encouraged his worst impulses.
But.
But…
These three move differently. They don't travel as a unit, don't operate with the pack mentality that made Korrin's group so dangerous. They help without coordinating, each in their own way, like they're not trying to trap me but just... be near me.
Even more dangerous, then.
I test the door. It swings smooth and silent, no catch, no stick, no threat of dumping me on my ass. Such a small thing. Such a huge thing.
My phone buzzes:
Reverie.
REVERIE:Heard Luca Maddox was spotted at your back door. Need bail money or condoms?
