Page 4 of Knot For A Moment

First day of the new season. Not much dancing today, just a normal class before a company meeting and going over roles. The next couple of weeks would be intense while we brushed up on our repertoire to put up a show fast while we rehearsed the next ones. It wasn’t the way we usually did things, but it was now.

My first day as a principal dancer.

Exciting.

Terrifying.

I needed to not throw up.

And definitely not fall on my face in front of the new bosses and new dancers. There were some, but we didn’t know who they were yet.

I consciously loosened my jaw and tried not to grit my teeth. My meeting with the new creative director hadn’t exactly gone well, which could make things awkward at best, hell at worst. It wasn’t his choice to make me a principal, and it was already clear he resented it. I was the last promotion of the old executive and creative director.

It was my dream come true.

Arching my back until it cracked, I finally got my ass out of bed and into the shower. After last night at Pavilion, I’d barely had enough energy to crawl into bed, let alone clean myself up. But it was good, and exactly what I needed. Both my head and heart felt lighter.

My phone chimed, and I grabbed it off the bed.

A text from Petra, my best friend. The picture was of her smiling in the foreground, and in the background was Stormy, her rescued clouded leopard. The cat was sprawled upside down in the hammock of her gigantic cat tree, and for all the world, it looked like the cat was smiling.

BEE ??

Stormy and I say good luck today!

SLOANE

Thank you! Maybe a late lunch or dinner after? I’m sure I’ll need to bitch about something.

BEE ??

Absolutely. Is it okay if we eat here? I can have Blake send something over.

Petra was still recovering. She’d been kidnapped and nearly murdered thanks to her wicked witch of a stepmother, who was now in jail, and a billionaire media mogul whohadbeen in jail.

I liked to think of myself as a good person, but I didn’t think I was the only one who breathed a sigh of relief when the news broke that he’d died in prison. It meant Petra was safer, and that was all that mattered to me.

But the attempt on her life still haunted her, and she was still working on being comfortable away from home.

SLOANE

Absolutely. I need to cuddle with Stormy anyway.

BEE ??

Want some Saffron Market?

One of Petra’s bonded Alphas happened to own our favorite restaurant, and my stomach growled even though it was barely eight in the morning and nothing on their menu was good for breakfast.

SLOANE

YES. Please. You’re a goddess.

I flipped back to my other texts, my anxiety spiking when I saw all the ones from Craig.

CRAIG

Sloane? Where did you go?

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