Page 99 of Knot my Alphas

“Of course, I don’t mind. Come on, then,” she says, moving toward the counter to grab a grocery bag. “Help me sort out the vegetables and meat.”

“Will you be okay on your own?” Julian whispers.

“Yeah. Go ahead.”

Pecking my cheek, he follows Gerald and his sons out of the kitchen.

I move toward the counter and stand beside Caroline while she empties all the grocery bags. Some of the ingredients are as common as onions and carrots while the others are as exotic as porcini mushrooms and pineapple.

“What’s the pineapple for?” I ask, touching the spiky skin of the fruit.

“An upside-down pineapple cake,” she says with a fond smile. “It’s Julian’s favorite.”

“That explains why he has a pair of PJs with tiny pineapples on them.”

Caroline chuckles. “I gave him those PJs for Christmas two years ago. It’s nice to know he’s still using them.”

She tears into a long, paper-wrapped package and unveils a gigantic fillet of salmon. Putting it into the sink, she starts scrubbing it under the faucet.

“Gerald said you weren’t aware of being an omega until a couple of weeks ago,” she says, starting to pat the salmon’s skin with some kitchen towels. “Is that true?”

“Yeah,” I say.

“Were you a late bloomer?”

“I’m not sure,” I say. “My mom kept me on a steady diet of suppressers, so I never got a chance to...well...bloom. It was only when Damon captured me and brought me here that I started noticing subtle changes happening in my body. These days, I look in the mirror and don’t even recognize my reflection. Omega hormones are crazy as hell.”

Caroline brings out a sheet pan and deftly starts drizzling the salmon fillet with oil, spices, and herbs.

“I’m sorry about the way my sons behaved with you,” she says with a frown, chopping parsley like a pro chef. “They should’ve never gone after you like that.”

“I can’t be too upset about it,” I say with a grin. “If Damon didn’t bring me here, I’d have never met Julian and the others. We’d have never known we belong with each other.”

The sound of rapidly boiling water makes me notice the pot that she has on the stove. Without missing a beat, she tips in a bag of potatoes and puts a lid over them.

Next second, she’s putting the marinated salmon into the oven.

“Wow,” I breathe. “You’re really fast.”

“I had to learn to be fast or I’d never leave the kitchen,” she says, starting to chop up some mushrooms at a speed that would make a pro chef jealous. “My four boys were monsters growing up. We never had clothes big enough to fit them. They were always growing out of them.”

She speaks animatedly but has a fond grin on her face. It’s easy to see how much she loves her sons and Julian.

“I’m glad they have you now, especially Julian,” she says with a quiet sigh as she starts chopping onions. “He’s never been happy about being an omega. He hates cooking but has been forced to look after my boys after they claimed him without even giving him the opportunity to seek out a different pack.”

“It’s not their fault they couldn’t resist him. I’m glad they never let him go.”

Caroline looks up at me with an astonished expression. “You’re as possessive of him as my boys.”

I nod and directly meet her gaze. “He’s mine.”

A heavy sigh escapes her. “I don’t know what I was worried about,” she mutters, putting another pan on the stove. “You’re as jealous and possessive of Julian as the rest of my sons.”

She tips the chopped onions and mushrooms into the heated pan and gives them a vigorous stir.

“There’s pasta over there,” she gestures at a bag on the counter. “Could you put them to boil for me?”

“Sure,” I say but don’t move. “But, wait. Were you worried about me not liking Julian?”

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