Page 10 of Knot For Keeps

Lavender

Groaning, I rubbed at my sore eyes.Why am I so tired? Did I stay up too late? Why did my head feel like lead? Was I coming down with something?With a huff I cracked my eyes open and took in the unfamiliar surroundings. This bedroom wasn’t my nest, far from it. Instead of my bright colourful walls I was faced with pale cream ones with floor-length slate grey curtains and matching bedding. Bedding I didn’t recognise, but was snuggled up in. Sitting, I ignored the spinning room and looked around, taking a deep breath. There were no particular scents I could detect in the room, so this likely wasn’t someone's bedroom. There was the faint chemical smell that felt oddly familiar. The room was so barren, it didn’t look like any room I had ever seen in the Haven. No omega liked to keep a possible nesting area so barren.

The smell was also on my clothes. Grabbing the hem of my oversized T-shirt and bringing it to my nose I noted the very leathery smell.

I filtered through my memories, trying to figure out where I was when the events outside the mailroom came back to me, the poor guard crumpled on the floor and the pain in my neck. Reaching up tentatively I felt my neck, a spot on the side felt sore and bruised.Was I drugged?

My mind went into overdrive thinking through all the possibilities. Why was I kidnapped?Whokidnapped me? The sickening feeling in my stomach only got worse when I recalled what had happened to Sage, an omega who had been kidnapped a few months back. She had been drugged and locked in a cell, and worse was going to happen to her until her pack saved her.

I didn’t have a pack to save me.

My thoughts raced knowing of outcomes I had read regarding kidnap victims. I knew my true crime obsession would come back to bite me in the ass one day. I thought it would simply be because a pack found it weird, not because it made me freak out over possibilities in an actual kidnapping situation!

Clearly I wasn’t in the Haven anymore, but where could I be? There was no way I could have been taken from the Haven without a million alarms going off as cameras watched my every move. The guards must know I was gone, and would be coming for me, surely?

I wasn’t in a basement or a cellar, and while the room didn’t scream serial killer, I had listened to enough podcasts to know they could be unpredictable fuckers.

Pushing the comforter off my legs I stood up, swaying as I did. The carpet was lush under my bare feet.Where the heck are my shoes? I’m going to want them.I needed to figure out where I was first, then get back home somehow. I took a step towards the door and my stomach rolled painfully.

Okay, maybe vomit first, then escape. I shot through the open door to the ensuite bathroom, falling to my knees with a thud that I would certainly feel the next day. Swiftly emptying my stomach into the toilet, retching as my eyes watered. The sound of me being sick was so loud I hadn’t heard, or smelt, anyone coming up behind me.

“Shit, she’s sick.” A voice called out, and I felt someone kneeling beside me, gently pulling hair away from my face and rubbing my back. The hand felt large, but I couldn’t find the will to care, my body was burning up and my head throbbed violently. “Shh love, you’re okay.” A deep voice soothed in a low, purring tone I felt in my core. A sweet smell assaulted my senses, like candy, and while it wasn’t the most comforting thing in the moment, it was a lot better than the aroma of my own vomit.

Instead of answering the unknown man I kept vomiting, my stomach cramping painfully with the effort. The man’s voice cursed softly. “Gage gave her a half dose, she should be fine within a few hours.” Another unknown, deeper voice spoke behind me.

“Does she fucking look fine? A full dose is meant to take down big ass alphas.” The man rubbing my back growled. He growled like a freaking alpha, not that I was particularly familiar with alpha characteristics, but there was something about him that couldn’t be beta, I just knew it. Part of my brain was stuck on that voice, it was kind of familiar, but that was likely the drugs talking. Lifting my head up with a moan I took in the man next to me, familiar floppy dark hair and blue eyes stared back at me, forehead creased in worry. My stomach sank as he looked intently at me.

“Archer?” I spluttered, head swimming with shock. Archer,myArcher, the sweet man I had been video chatting with for months was right next to me. He wasn’t wearing his glasses and I could see the concern marring his features. The face I had obsessed over for weeks was right there, and the sweetness assaulting my senses was him,hisscent. Alpha.

“Hey Lavvy girl.” He smiled ruefully, looking over my pale face with concern.

“You fucking smell like gummy bears?” I snarled, my vision blurring. The universe was playing a fucking joke on me, it had to be. It was faint, but even in my state I was intensely drawn to it.

Unable to keep my thoughts straight I tried to pull away, I needed to be away from Archer. Moving to slide back from the toilet, my vision clouded with dark patches and I slipped back into an unconscious slumber.

ChapterSix

Archer

Lavender was right in front of me, looking me dead in the eye with a hazy expression. She was pissed, but I guess that was to be expected. She opened her mouth to say something but she swayed, slumping forward.

I cursed, grabbing Lavender so she didn’t face plant into the toilet. Her face was pale and sickly, her usually bouncy waves were tangled and sticking to her head from sweat. As bad as the situation was, I couldn’t help my excitement that Lavender was in the same room as me, the sweet little omega I had been talking to for months was here.

She hadn’t been joking when she told me she smelled like lavender. The soothing scent was like a balm for my soul, sweet and with a hint of vanilla, calming me to my core and pacifying my raging emotions. Gage hadn’t allowed me to go to the Haven with them, he had been worried that my emotions would cloud the situation and I might have acted irrationally if I smelled her distress. He was right of course, the sound of an omega in distress was difficult for any alpha to ignore, and when stressed their scent often took on an acidic or burnt tinge: yet if it was an omega they knew and cared for, like I was starting to care for Lavender, then their sounds of distress could be downright painful.

I had been waiting in the hallway when they had arrived home, I couldn’t just sit around. Kane had been carrying her, a tight look on his face. The sight of the familiar face I had looked at so many times in our video calls, unconscious and thrown over Kane’s shoulder stung in a way I didn’t expect. My rolling gut made it clear that I wasn’t okay with this situation in the slightest. Kane had deep, angry scratches along his arms. They were clearly from Lavender and I couldn’t help the feeling of pride swelling in my chest

***.

Lavender didn’t look good at all, she was shivering and her face was tinged green. “Gage, should we call the Doc? This doesn’t seem right.” We knew a doctor that could keep his mouth shut for the right price, and if she needed it we would pay.

“Give her a few hours, make sure she drinks and rests. If she’s not better tomorrow we’ll call the doc and make sure she’s okay. Just give it time for the drugs to leave her system first.”

“That shit is meant to take down alphas, what are you doing giving it to an omega?” I asked with a growl, Lavender was still slumped across my lap as I knelt on the bathroom floor.

“What would you have had me do, Archer? I couldn’t exactly use the stuff we recovered last month. Fenton was using that to drug the omegas he sold and they all had serious complications like organ failure! At least with this stuff we know what it is and we know it’s not been mixed with rat poison or something.” Gage’s eyes didn’t leave Lavender’s prone form. “I wanted to hurt her as little as possible. If I had time I would have found something better.”

That I believed. Gage was a good man, it’s why we all followed him. He had a hardass attitude but I firmly believed that for the right omega he would be a softie.

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