Page 6 of Knotty New Year

I had a sudden, terrible vision of the baby choking and me in handcuffs, explaining to the police that I wasn’t really a betasitter. I was an omega who’d entered the house under false pretenses. I stuck my finger back into Benjamin’s mouth, who bit down.

“Ow! Son of a butterscotch biscuit, kid!”

“What did you just say, omega?”

The abrupt question startled me so much that I almost dropped the baby. The alpha was there before my first high-heeled wobble had even begun, grabbing Benjamin and glaring at me. His expression as he quickly settled the baby—who was now babbling happily—in some sort of bouncing swing, said he knew I was hiding something. I dropped my gaze, tears pricking the corners of my eyes, and… saw his trousers.

Tented out, his dick straining against the fabric.

My eyes shot back up to his face, which had gone slightly ruddy as he scowled down at me. “Did you just yell… snickerdoodles?” he demanded. I sucked in a breath to answer, and my lungs filled with pine and thunderstorms again.

And my underwear filled with slick.

Goddamnit.My panties were not up to this sort of onslaught. I was going to leak down my damned legs if I didn’t stop breathing in his potent man musk.

His eyebrows met in the center and dipped low. “Potent man musk?”

I’d said that out loud? “Absolutely not, sir. I would never comment on the scent of my employer, sir.” I slapped a hand over my own mouth to stop the words from flowing out.

But he’d shuddered when I said sir.

Wait.Had he really? I clenched my thighs as his nostrils flared wide. “About what you’re probably smelling now, sir…” He flinched at the word this time, and I could see his cock jump, even through his trousers. “Sir,” I repeated breathily, as a sort of experiment. I reached for the broken stuffie. “I am so sorry. I gave the baby this toy and he—”

His scowl went hard, and suddenly, the game was over. “You don’t give a baby this age a toy not rated for under three years old,” he muttered. “You’reobviouslynot a beta, or a sitter at all, are you?” He sneered, his dark eyes cold as the snowstorm outside. “You’re still a child yourself.”

I didn’t say anything. I had a terrible habit of bursting into tears when people were upset with me, and he wasn’t just upset. He was enraged.

“Well,answerme. Are you a sitter? Or an imposter?”

I jutted my chin out slightly to keep the tears from falling, a trick Soleil had taught me at an abysmal Alpha-Omega Meet-and-Greet two years before. Back then, I’d been crying because aggressive alphas were surrounding me and wouldn’t let me leave. Now, an alpha couldn’t get rid of me fast enough.

After a few seconds, I managed to say, “I’ll just… go.”

Benjamin started fussing, and Mr. Paxson made a sound of disgust as he turned away from me and went to take care of his nephew. I fished my car keys out of my purse and fled, trying not to trip as I descended the stairs. The front door was heavy, but when I opened it, I could hardly see the pavement that led to the bollards where I’d parked. Snow was swirling into the house, and I threw myself through the door and closed it behind me, my eyelashes practically caked with snow in an instant.

I couldn’t drive in this. But I wasn’t welcome to stay.

I struggled toward the car, making a plan. I’d turn the heater on, and I had energy bars and a bottle of water in my purse, as well as some mints and half a croissant from breakfast. If the snow stopped, I could drive to Soleil’s… No, her entire family was away for the holidays. Rain lived much farther, in a sketchy neighborhood, but I was always welcome there. I tried to remember how much gas I had… and then I blinked, rubbing my eyes to even find my car. The snow was blinding me. I stumbled on my stupid shoes and fell onto a patch of crinkly, frozen grass.

When I rose, I was even more turned around. I wandered in the white-out until my toes and fingers started to lose sensation. My hair whipped around my face along with the snow, making it impossible to get my bearings.

Oh, god.This was how I died. Alone, in a freak snowstorm.

I screamed at the sky, shaking my numb fist. “It’s not fair!” The wind slapped my face, and I fell back… into warmth.

“Life isn’t, princess. You’ll learn that when you’re older,” a very comfy, muscular pine tree growled into my ear as he lifted me off the ground. I burrowed my face into his warm, hard chest as he carried me back inside, my legs over one arm, my back supported by the other.

He stopped just inside the door, but didn’t set me down. He was shaking. Shivering?

“If I hadn’t heard the door slam,” he snapped. “If I’d gone to the back of the fucking house, to the kitchen. If I hadn’tbeenthere.” He pulled his face back, and I realized he was trembling with rage. “You. Could. Have. Died!” He started shaking me on each word, but he didn’t set me down. He held me even closer, his face buried in my damp hair.

“I’m… I’m sorry,” I said, reaching out with a wind-reddened hand to cup his cheek. His beard was short, and the snowflakes that had been caught in it were already melting. “I thought you wanted me to leave.”

He let out a breath. “I did. I do. I don’t want you here. But I’m not going to let you die out there.” My heart felt like a crumpled tin can, getting squashed a little more with each word.

“Where’s the baby?” I asked.

“Safer than you were. He’s buckled in his play chair.”

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