Page 34 of Knot For Keeps

“Do you have an omega?” I spoke before he even had a chance to open his mouth.

He gaped at me, clearly confused. “W-what?”

“Kane just got really pissy at me and called me a terrible person for letting all you guys touch me when you already have an omega! Oh my word, I know you’re not exactly morally perfect—hellkidnapping—but if you have another poor omega around here and didn’t think to tell me, I will throttle you Archer!”

Archer stood up, his project forgotten as he moved toward where I stood in the middle of the room, hands on my hips. “No, we don’t have an omega. It’s—I don’t know how to explain it, but trust me, we are in no way committed to an omega.”

“Start from the beginning, buddy,” I growled.

“I, uh. Let me call Gage. He’s pack lead, if I’m going to talk about this, I gotta at least do it with his approval.”

Why did he need to call him? Gage would likely get pissed at me. Archer was my best bet to get answers because he was still feeling sad over me being rightfully pissed at him. I just stood there, quietly seething as Archer practically ran back over to his desk, grabbing his phone and shooting off a message. The phone pinged with a response mere moments later. “Gage is on his way… uh, why don’t you sit down?”

There weren't many choices, the best chair or his neatly made bed. I opted to sit on the edge of the bed. It looked fairly comfortable, but I wasn’t about to go and ask for a snuggle session, at least not until I had answers.

Footsteps in the hallway alerted me to someone's presence. Gage strode right in, not bothering to knock. His usual leathery smell was muted by motor oil, which made sense as he was covered in the stuff. Had he been working on a car? His shirt had several dark, greasy stains and even his face and hands had smaller marks on them.

If I wasn’t so pissed, I probably would have swooned at the big dirty man.

“Arch, what on earth is goin—” Gage cut off when he noticed me sitting on the edge of Archer’s bed, arms crossed.

“Kane’s been running his mouth,” Archer said simply, looking between me and Gage.

Gage sighed. “What did he say?” he directed the question at me. He looked…defeated? Like all the wind had been taken out of his sails. The alpha was clearly exhausted.

“He told me that you already have an omega, that I was wrong for letting you near me. Like I wanted to have these stupid omega needs that meant I had to get cuddly with my captors!” I snarled, but there was no heat in it.

“We need to explain, Gage. We can’t just let her be confused over this. It’s not fair, especially if she’s going to be here for a few weeks.”

“Fine.” Gage strode over to the desk, leaning against it with his arms crossed. “What do you want to know?”

“Everything? Do you have another omega stashed around here somewhere, and if not, why does Kane have a stick up his ass?”

“Kane is… it's hard to explain but—”

“He’s living in a lala land of his own creation but we care for him and don’t want to completely destroy what’s left of his fragile emotions?” Archer helpfully finished Gage’s sentence, smirking at his leader.

“I—yeah, that works,” Gage sighed. “Kane lost his sister several years ago to trafficking.”

Omega trafficking was a brutal and nasty industry. I instantly felt sympathy for Kane, but I still considered him a massive butthead.

“Something like what happened to Sage,” Archer commented.

“Sage?” Gage asked, looking between us.

“A friend of mine. She was courting a pack when she was kidnapped by some folks. Kept in a cell and almost hurt pretty badly. She escaped and sought sanctuary at my Haven. I stayed with her and showed her around until her pack came for her.”

“I think I heard about that, it was pretty big news. If memory serves, Lex Bove was responsible for that mess.”

I nodded, that name sounded familiar.

Gage took another deep breath. “But to answer your question, no, we do not have an omega. We aren’t committed to anyone, but Kane imagines that had things not gone wrong, we would have ended up with Juniper.”

“She had a crush on Gage, and Kane knew it,” Archer admitted.

Gage snorted. “I think it was Theo actually, no one could resist someone who nurses sick kittens back to health.”

Therewassomething stupidly hot about a man who cared about animals.

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