Page 17 of Knot For A Moment

Petra watched me carefully. She always suspected something different from what I told her, which was that Slate City Ballet offered me a spot early and I chose to take it. In a way, it was true, but it wasn’t the reason I left. “You remember Asher?”

“Yeah. Alpha. You and he were good friends. I thought I was going to have to murder him for a little while ‘cause he was stealing my best friend status.”

“Never. Well, I got my first heat. Kind of unexpected. I missed three days of class. At the same time, I’d been helping Asher get together with Vivian, another Alpha dancer from our class. They went out that weekend during my heat.”

“Here.” Petra passed me some chicken. I had no idea what it was called, but it was fucking addicting. “Okay, so they went out. I thought you and Asher were just friends.”

I nodded. “We were. Anyway, my heat finished, and I went back to class. I walked in and saw Asher and Vivian in the studio. They were smiling, looking at each other like there was no one else in the world. I don’t think I’deverseen him that happy. He kissed her, and I remember feeling so happy for them.”

Petra froze with her fork halfway to her lips, like she knew what was coming.

“Then I walked through the door, and his scent hit me.”

“No.”

Pressing my lips together, I closed my eyes. “Yeah. I’d never felt anything like that. It was instantaneous. Like a battering ram.”

“Sounds familiar.” Petra had met her first Alpha at a political fundraiser for her father, and what she’d felt and looked like, I understood immediately. It was nothing, and then it waseverything.

“I… Asher’s been through a lot,” I said. “And we’d already established we didn’t have feelings for each other. He was sohappy, Bee. I couldn’t go in there and rip it away. If he’d looked at me like he was disappointed, I—” Even the thought hurt to admit. “It would have broken me. So I turned around and walked out of the studio and never went back. I came home, and got an audition, nailed it, and was part of SCB before anyone could try to get me back to school.”

My best friend stared at me, mouth hanging open. “Lo.”

“I know.”

“You’ve been scent matched forfive years?”

I could only manage a whisper. “Yeah.”

“Wow. Okay. Not what I thought you were going to tell me, but how does that—” She went entirely still like she’d been turned into stone. “Oh my god.”

“If you’re thinking that Ash is the newest member of the Slate City Ballet Company as of today? You’re thinking right. If you’re thinking he came up, saw me, and got a face full of my scent? You’re also right. Not to mention his packmate is the new executive director, and he smells fucking incredible too.”

Her eyes lit up. “Isn’t this a good thing? He knows. He’s here. You can meet them.” Her smile betrayed how happy she and her Alphas were. “I’m so happy for you, Lo. Really.”

“Thanks.”

“You don’t seem overjoyed by this.”

“I’m scared,” I admitted. “He caught me in the shoe room, said he was so fucking pissed at me he didn’t know whether to fight me or kiss me. You should have seen it, Bee. When he scented me… he was so angry.”

She snorted. “If I knew Cole had scented me five years ago, known he was scent-sympathetic, and decided not to tell me? I’d be pretty pissed too.”

Guilt twisted in my chest. “I was trying to make him happy.”

“For five years?” Petra spoke with her mouth full, which was more comical than anything. “You can’t think he’s still with her.”

A giggle slipped out, some of the weight off my shoulders. “What was that? Wanna try again?”

She tossed a piece of bread at me, and I caught it. “You can’t think he’s still with her.”

“I honestly don’t know. I didn’t let myself keep track of him. If I had, I never would have been able to stay away. Though, I guess if I had checked up on him I would have known he was joining SCB.”

I dug around in the bags and found a bottle of water, setting aside the chicken and rice to stroke my hand down Stormy’s side. It was a good thing she couldn’t really purr, or else she’d kill everyone with her cuteness.

“So, let me get this straight,” Petra clapped her hands together. “You’re scent-sympathetic with a man who used to be one of your best friends.Andwith his packmate, which probably means everyone else too, depending on how many there are. Did it seem like he wasactuallyangry?”

“No,” I admitted. Nothing about Asher holding me—enveloping me and showing me how perfectly we fit—said he was angry. “But it didn’t mean he wasn’t.”

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