Page 5 of Knot Forever

When I peek through my fingers, she looks uncomfortable. “My mom. She saw the announcement. In the, er, paper?”

Ofcoursethere’s an announcement. Of course my parents want to humiliate me as much as possible. Although I’m surprised my mother went to the trouble, seeing as she’s set on Adam and his fucking pack.

Melia leans over and prods me again, and I wave her off. “I have to. My mom signed me up.”

Melia grimaces. Her parents didn’t care whether she was mated before she reached her majority. They just let her crack on until she ran into her pack in a bar downtown just after she turned twenty-five, and bam. Happy ever after.

“Nova,” she says softly. “Maybe this isn’t the worst thing.”

My head shoots up. “Well, thank you so much for the support!”

She shakes her head. “Will you stop being so dramatic? I only meant…after the Williams pack, maybe this is an opportunity for you to find something better.”

Melia doesn’t get it. But then, she doesn’t know the whole story.

Nobody does. And the thick, cloying feel of shame crawls over me again, coating me almost like oil as I swallow back the words.

“I think the Williams pack will bid,” I croak. “I don’t want them to, Mel. I don’t want to go back there.”

Her hand wraps around mine as she tries to offer comfort. “That’s shit, No. Can’t you… I don’t know… not do it?”

I shrug. “My mother will kill me. And she’s stopped my suppressants.”

Meaning that a pack is no longer a luxury. It’s a necessity. I’ll need a pack to get me through my heat.

I don’t mind that. I always wanted a pack. I just can’t cope with it beingtheirs.

Mel shrugs. “So? Doesn’t mean you have to do the auction. Just get out there and find yourself another pack.”

I frown. The auction is tomorrow night. My mother will lose her shit if I refuse to go up in front of everyone.

But… what could she really do, if I say no? She won’t force me up there. Far too much of a scene.

For the first time, a little nugget of hope grows inside me as I stare at Mel, and she laughs, picking up her coffee.

“There it is. You need to find your spark again, Nova. You lost it after you stayed with them.”

After another hour catching up and moaning about our respective parents, I hug Melia goodbye and wander out of the coffee shop. I can’t face going home. My mother will whisk me into one of the many appointments she has planned. Primping, shaping, waxing. I grimace. Nobody should bethatclose to my vajayjay with hot wax.

Instead I wander down the street aimlessly. I’m tempted to cross over and sneak into the little bookstore that sits on the corner of third, but as I pause to peer across the street, a hand wraps around my upper arm.

“Sorry—,” my assumed apology chokes off as I get a lungful of oily, cloying scent.

The flinch is instinctive, the whine curling at the back of my throat pure fear as I stare up into Adam’s deceptively mild gaze. His smile is smooth, his face unworried as he maneuvers us against the flow of people, his huge hand gripping my arm hard enough to leave a bruise. I drag my feet but he easily drags me towards the small alley hidden between two clothing stores.

His scent fights with the fetid stink of trash bags as he shoves me against the wall, leaning in to take a deep sniff of my neck.

“Missed you, Nova girl.”

“Don’t call me that,” I rasp through the terror keeping my throat in a chokehold. “I need to go, Adam. My mother is waiting—,”

He snorts, his hand reaching up and curling leisurely around my throat. It’s a warning. “I don’t like liars, Nova. And your mother would wait as long as she needed to if she knew I was here.”

My head bangs back against the wall as I try to move away from him. “What do you want?”

His fingers move my neck to the side, his thumb rubbing over the fluttering, panicked pulse. “You know what I want.”

The deceptive casualness in his voice drops away, and I can hear the fury underneath. “Making us jump through fucking hoops to get you back where you belong. My pack isn't pleased with you, Nova. Not at all.”

---