Page 53 of Knot Their Reality

My breath hitches at the thought. I don't want to rely on him—on any of them—but somehow I still trust Chase enough to watch out for me. How fucked up is that?

"Maybe you should start with what made you leave in such a rush?" Chase makes it sound like a question, but it really isn't. They want answers just as much as I do.

"I woke up in the nest alone—which was fine. It didn't bother me in the slightest. I took a quick shower before heading downstairs. I'm not sure why I hesitated when I heard your voices, but I'm glad I did. I was able to hear exactly what the four of you thought of me."

Chase frowns. "What are you talking about? What did we say about you?"

I shake my head. I can't believe I thought they'd fess up to what they'd said. Or did they already forget? Was I so unimportant to them? Did what we share really mean nothing? If so, then why the hell were they even here?

"It started with what Carson said... and then just spiraled from there." Even as I repeat their words back to them, I'm pulled back into the memory.

Two years ago

I stand at the base of the stairs, startled by the anger I hear radiating from their voices. What happened? How much later had I slept than them? What could have possibly made them so angry in that amount of time?

“I won’t let her tear us apart,” Chase's voice is venomous. It's so unlike the man I've come to know over the last few days. It stills my heart, even as I remind myself not to jump to conclusions.

Asher's voice comes next, slightly muffled. "We won't allow her to come between us."

It's like another shot to my heart. It has to be me they're talking about. Who else could it be? I'm the only female here. What had I said or done that made them think that I wanted to tear them apart?

"She'll never be a part of this pack." Liam's words are the last arrow to hit my heart before it shatters. I fight back my tears as I backtrack to the stairs, their words still ringing in my head.

"That's why you ran out and left us?" Tears fill Chase's eyes as he shakes his head. "You thought we were talking about you, didn't you?"

"Who the hell else would you have been talking about? It was only the five of us there."

Asher sighs. "We most certainly were not speaking about you, Sophia."

"If you'd only shown yourself—confronted us—this all could have been avoided." Liam's voice is laced with disbelief, and when I chance a glance in his direction, I see that his face no longer looks as if it were made from stone. Pain, hurt, disbelief, and anger all slide across his face as if he can't decide what he's feeling.

"What do you mean you weren't talking about me? Who the hell else could you be talking about?" My voice rises with each word, and I know I'm close to losing my shit. They need to tell me what the hell they're talking about.

Meanwhile, Carson's voice is emotionless as he speaks, "We dated a beta named Tania. It started roughly about two years before we met you. Chase and Liam were head over heels in love with her, but I could barely stand to be in the same room as her. There was just something off about her and the way she treated us. Asher didn't seem to mind bedding her, but by six months into the relationship, I wasn't sleeping with her anymore.

"She was tearing apart our pack, and I knew it. So I sat down with the three of them and told them what I was feeling and what I saw happening. The compromise we came up with was we'd continue to see her but that they'd make more of an effort to make me feel included—whether she was there or not. And I agreed to give her another chance. It was a few months later that she told us she was pregnant.

"It was unexpected. I still didn't feel a connection with her. Hell, even Liam and Asher weren't overly excited about the baby—which should have told us something right then. But Chase?" A half smile pulls at his lips as he lifts his head to look at their omega. "I've never seen him so excited in his life. He wanted nothing more than to have a baby to care for—to do what he thought he had to do as the omega."

Tears are streaming down Chase's cheeks as he takes over the story. "When we found out she was faking, I took it the hardest. Obviously, we ended things. How could we not? But I lost myself to depression. It was really bad. Bad enough that I had to be hospitalized for a time. If it wasn't for my pack, I wouldn't have made it through it."

I want nothing more than to reach out and comfort him. Everything within me is begging me to do just that, but I know this isn't the end of the story. Hell, it's barely the beginning of the story, and until I hear everything they have to say I can't reach for him—for any of them.

Because I don't know how I'm going to feel when they finish telling this story—when they finish explaining everything they want me to hear. Nor do I know if I'm going to be able to sit here and listen to them.

With a heavy sigh, Liam takes over for Chase, who is now wrapped up in Asher's arms as he cries. My own eyes fill with tears that I fight to keep from spilling.

"The morning after yours and Chase's heat broke, I had a text message waiting for me. It was from Tania, and she said she missed me, that she knew she'd messed up, but that she wanted the pack back. She loved us. It was such bullshit. She was who we were talking about. We didn't have any idea why you just up and left us. We were devastated."

Asher clears his throat. "We actually cut our vacation short, determined to find out what happened and why you left the way you did. We tracked you down to your building, but your doorman wouldn't let us in. We didn't give up, though. We found out where you worked, and we showed up there only to be informed you weren't in the office. We didn't let that deter us, realizing you must still be on vacation.

"We went home and packed up our house while I called a buddy of mine who is in real estate. I told him to sell our house and find us a new one. Money wasn't an issue, and it needed to be done as soon as possible. Within two weeks, we'd moved into a new home in Brentwood. A week later, we were settled enough to venture back to your law office. The security guard was the same one as before, and he was none too happy to see us again.

"We tried to pretend that we wanted to hire you for legal counsel, but he didn't believe us. He told us to leave and never come back. We didn't listen, and he called the cops. We were arrested. No charges were pressed, but we were no longer allowed in the building. We were at a loss for what to do next. We didn't have your number so we resorted to sending letters to your home. They were all sent back as return to sender.

"At that point, we had to accept that you didn't want anything to do with us. We didn't know what had caused you to run, but we had to accept your decision. If we weren't what you wanted, then we needed to move on with our lives. Which, it turns out, was a lot harder than we expected."

I shake my head. "I never got any letters from you, and the doorman most certainly didn't call to say I had unexpected visitors." I don't understand how this could have happened, but then something dawns on me.

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