Page 178 of Knot That Serious

Eli rolled her eyes, a burst of affection filling her, and she leaned out of Raj’s lap to kiss him, too. Jack was still holding the joint by the time she settled back against Raj’s chest.

He lifted it to his lips and inhaled deeply before following her, leaning into her space to press his lips to her. She opened for him, breathing in the smoke as their lips met again.

Something deep in her core clenched.

Raj was at her back, solid and silent and warm, and Jack was at her front, teasing and nipping at her lip, a hand framing her jaw just like she had done to him. His fingers found their bond mark and brushed over it, and she hiccuped a surprised breath into the kiss.

The bite was so sensitive, especially to the alpha who had done the biting. It sent chills across her skin, heat lapping at her.

“Okay, okay,” she mumbled into the kiss, and pushed Jack away slowly. “What did I say earlier?”

Jack slumped back into his seat with a pout. “No arousing you at the family reunion.”

The silence was so loud for a second as the words sank in, and then Eli snickered at the confusion on Beckett and Raj’s faces.

Eli snuggled up to Raj, and she and Jack smoked about half of the joint before she melted into the moment.

“This is amazing,” Eli said softly, watching the lights twinkle. “Thank you again for this.”

Raj pressed a kiss to her head, and her heart was like a hummingbird in her chest.

“Thank you for letting me be part of this,” he said. Beckett and Jack were quiet, their gazes pensive. “It’s really lovely that you and Jack are so close to your families. I don’t have that, because my dad and I don’t talk much. So this has been… refreshing, to say the least.”

Eli grabbed the hand Raj had on her waist and brought it to her lips. “Well, you’re part of it now, so get used to it.”

Even if they weren’t bonded, even if this was still kind of new, it was real. Raj was a part of her pack, of her family.

“Thank you,” he said softly.

She kissed the back of his hand again before placing it back in her lap, threading their fingers together.

Her heart hurt for him. He deserved somewhere to belong, and it was with her. To her.

Raj was Eli’s alpha.

She just needed to make time to show him.

34. Jinx

Raj

Two Weeks Later…

Raj had been thinking about it for a while.

Ever since that night in the treehouse, actually. That had been a turning point in their pack, and in his relationship with Eli.

They were actively still courting, he supposed. Dates and dinners and little gifts, like the string lights he’d helped take off the treehouse and hang in her nest.

He spent most nights at her place, in that very nest.

So he was going to pop the question. About a bond.

Or, at the very least… see if that was something she thought she might be interested in. Eventually.

Raj released a puff of air as the elevator dinged, arriving at the floor of his own apartment. He’d left work early so he could prepare, planning on making dinner and inviting her over. Ever since Beckett finally got out of his lease with that cheat of a landlord, he’d been staying with Jack and Eli, and from what he could tell, she was getting tired of sharing such a small space with two grown men.

Even if Beckett was, in her words, pretty fucking tidy.

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