Page 25 of Knot For Keeps

“She’s that way at the Haven as well—she socialises but nowhere near as much as the other omegas. Several times we had video calls during social events she opted to skip. Fawn, her roommate, was a social butterfly.” Archer smiled when talking about their old video chats.

An uneasy feeling in my stomach bloomed at his wistful smile, and it took a moment for it to click. I was jealous. Archer had that connection, a friendly banter, with a woman. We had never had that. Maybe at one time we could have explored it, but our criminal records made that harder now.

“Well if we all keep our distance we can get through this with little suffering,” I said. “Return her home and move on with our lives.”

“It feels right in a way, doesn’t it, having an omega in our home? The whole place smells heavenly, and horny alpha instincts aside, it’s so calming,” Theo spoke. “If only there was a way for her to stay, I wouldn’t mind that.” Theo shrugged.

“You already have an omega,” Kane snarled. I gave him a firm look.

“. I think Theo’s just enjoying the pheromones, and who can blame him?”

The truth was wedidn’thave an omega, not in name or with us. Juniper would have likelybecomeour omega, but she went missing before we had even considered starting the courting process and developed feelings for her. I had only ever seen her as a sister.

Kane glared at me. It was understandable that he had such strong feelings regarding this, she was his little sister, but he needed to make sure he didn’t upset the omega living under our roof too much.

“She’s been handling herself pretty well,” Theo commented.

I nodded absentmindedly.

Kane growled, “Remember who this is for. Lavender has a home to go to after this, others don’t. I don’t like her being here, she’s throwing you all off your game.”

“We can still be nice to her,” Archer implored. “The growly, barking act you’ve been using can’t help anymore now she’s in our home. Kind and keep our distance. The last thing I want is the scent of her fear wafting through the house. We’ll never be able to sleep.”

I had nearly choked on the sour, burnt smell when we had grabbed Lavender—she had only a brief second of fear before she was out cold, but that had been enough to make my eyes water and my instincts hum in pain.

“All her favourite candy is here, I ordered it in bulk a while ago,” Archer admitted. “I liked sending her stuff she couldn’t find.”

Theo snorted. “I bet you did, the dopamine hit of caring for an omega is addictive, or so I’ve heard. I’m sure it also has nothing to do with how you smell very similar to said candy?”

“Well, she doesn’t want it anymore. She gave the bag a death glare and told me to remove it,” Kane said, grabbing a bowl and fork, digging in while leaning over the counter, his hulking frame taking up so much space.

Archer looked crestfallen, dejectedly staring at his rice bowl.

“I want to talk to her, but she’s so mad at me.”

“Be nice, but from a distance,” I reminded him.

ChapterFifteen

Lavender

The room wasn't terrible. They had provided just enough bedding to create a suitable level of squishy comfort, and the TV had plenty of entertainment. There was a twelve part series on a falsely convicted murderer I had been wanting to watch, so I threw myself into viewing it. The familiar content of gore and murder was comforting.

When I was alone in the room, I was almost at peace. It wasn’t exactly luxury or the way I liked things done, but when I didn’t have any alphas breathing down my neck, I could almost enjoy my time laying in bed, just lazing about and resting.

I hadn’t been brave enough to try the door yet, I knew it was unlocked, and that I could explore, buttheywere out there. The solitude of my room just felt like the safer option.

Someone had left a whole pallet of water bottles in the corner of my room, and Kane brought me food pretty regularly, so I wasn’t starving.

* * *

Three days passed with surprising ease. Occasionally a small cramp fluttered in my stomach, a nasty reminder that my heat was due soon, but I did my best to ignore it for now.

A knock on my door woke me from my nap, I had been doing that a lot lately, taking naps. There wasn’t that much to do, so naps and TV shows it was.

“Come in,” I called out, sitting up and running my hand over my hair, neatening it, even though there was no need to give a damn about my appearance here.

Archer looked in nervously. I sighed. He was the last person I wanted to see. I would rather haveanyof the others.

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