Page 26 of Knot For Keeps

“Lavvy?” He said his nickname for me questioningly when he saw my disgruntled face.

“What do you want, Archer?” I snapped.

He walked into the room, right up the edge of the bed. I had to admit, he looked like crap. His skin was sallow, his eyes bloodshot, his hair was messy, and his scent strong, like he hadn’t been showering all that often. He was a far cry from the clean cut computer guy I had gotten to know several months ago.

In his hand he had a bag of brown sugar gummy bears which he placed gently on my bed just inches away from me.

“We need to talk. I can’t take this silence between us,” he admitted.

“What do you want me to say, Archer?” I glowered at him. “You’re not the person I knew.”

“Iam.”

“No, I met a computer tech analyst who lived with his small town pack. You are a freaking criminal or maybe a stalker, involved in god knows how many depraved and disgusting things, like kidnapping omegas.”

“Lavender, it’s not like that.”

“Were you ever legally part of the Haven? Or was it bullshit all along? Something tells me that there is no way in hell your pack would be approved to court an omega.”

Archer’s face fell and he sighed.

“We needed to look into some Haven records, so one evening I hacked into their servers. What I was looking for wasn’t there, but I could see a lot of the active omegas. You had just been rejected by a pack for offending them, and I was curious, especially when right after they filed paperwork rejecting you they were blacklisted from the Haven.”

Immediately I knew what pack he meant. They were a heavily religious pack, and they had reminded me too much of my family, so I had been rather blunt in my thoughts. They didn't like that and tried to file a complaint against me. It had backfired on them spectacularly. The Haven had actually given them an official warning and told them if they continued to insult their omegas they could take a hike, and they wouldn’t be getting their fees back.

“Okay, but that still doesn’t change the fact that I don’t know you at all, Archer. Any friendship we had was built on a lie.”

“I kept as close to the truth as I could. I’m still the Archer who loves watching murder documentaries with you, and who has an unhealthy obsession with orange soda.” He chuckled at my cringe. “Please, trust me on this,” he implored.

“It doesn’t matter Archer, I won’t be here long. I’ll go back home, and you’ll go back to doing whatever criminal antics you guys do, and we won’t speak again.”

“You wouldn’t want our calls anymore?” he asked, shuffling from foot to foot. “They were the fucking highlight of my week.”

“Our calls got me kidnapped, I think it’s best we stay the hell away from each other. And take those gummy bears back, I don’t want them.” The smell of them only angered me now, reminding me of the betrayal from someone I had thought was my best friend. “Our calls were once the highlight of my week as well, but things have changed, don’t you think? Also would your pack really be okay with you talking to me? Just make this easier on the both of us and leave, Archer,” I ordered.

Archer looked like I had kicked his puppy, but he left, gummy bears in hand. With a groan I dived back into the blankets, my mind swirling. I missed Archer, but I was pissed at him and didn’t want him near me. He was also the most familiar thing here, so part of me wanted to cling to him. Though another part of me wanted to thump him for this whole mess of a situation.

I knew my thought process was far from logical, my feelings on Archer were running hot and cold, and at this point I was giving myself whiplash.

Distance. We just needed distance.

* * *

I felt terrible. For the last four hours I had done my best to focus on the latest documentary I had lined up, but all I could focus on was the horrific pressure headache radiating through my temples.

Something felt off, maybe I was coming down with the flu? It wasn’t heat related, I had been through enough heats to know the difference. Then again, it had only been a little over a week since I was drugged, so this could very likely be a residual effect of that.

As the hours progressed, the feeling only got worse, something just feltwrong.Like a gnawing pain eating me from the inside out.

I was too exposed. This bed wasn’t a nest. That was what I needed, a small, comfortable and secluded nest. Sitting up I looked blearily around the room, my eyes landing on the walk in wardrobe.Perfect.I had noted the wardrobe before, but I couldn’t bring myself to build a nest until it was completely necessary. It wasn’tmynest and my omega was highly aware of that and extremely unhappy.

Stumbling out the bed I grabbed a handful of sheets and pillows, waddling over to the wardrobe, my steps clumsy due to the mountain of bedding in my arms. The wardrobe was sparse, there were just a few items of clothing and that was it, so setting up a small, enclosed nest was easy. It took several trips, I kept having to stop because the world was spinning on its axis and I felt lightheaded, but I got everything in the wardrobe. Then I had to organise it.

The darkness of the wardrobe wrapped around me like a hug. I would have liked some fairy lights, but I was hardly in a position to be picky. As it was, the more confined space coupled with the lack of light and mountain of blankets helped me feel a bit more secure and the pounding in my head eased somewhat.

I wasn’t producing slick, and I wasn’t dreaming about knots, so this clearly wasn’t my heat. In the brief moments of clarity I ran through the potential causes. Flu? This felt like a pretty nasty flu. Food poisoning? None of the guys had mentioned being sick, but I hadn’t seen them in a while and I wasn’t vomiting.

My instincts were screaming for comfort. If something like this had happened back home Fawn probably would have taken it upon herself to crawl into my nest and keep me company. Her rose scent was always comforting, and she always gave the best hugs. Probably because the fancy pyjamas she wore were like some rare, uber thread count beauties that probably cost as much as a car. She always got the best gifts, and often she shared them with us.

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