Page 71 of Knot Your Average Beta

Maddox gives him a look like he doesn’t believe that either and then says, “It was no secret that I was going to take over eventually, and Swift showed signs of being particularly… talented. Vicious, even though he was two years younger than me.”

Swift beams at him. “Thank you, Maddoximus prime. That means a lot coming from you.”

Dox keeps talking like he didn’t interrupt. “So my father urged us to spend time together, to bond. He essentially made Swift my secondary bodyguard. So when Logan came to visit, the three of us were practically inseparable. It made sense that we’d become a pack.”

Sadie nods, then flicks her gaze to me and Luca. I shift uncomfortably under her curious gaze. I’m not particularly proud of what I’ve done in the past, but I don’t want to lie to her. So I admit, “I was a runner.”

Sadie frowns, trying to figure out what I mean, then her brows jump in surprise. “Like a drug runner?” I nod. “Ethan!”

Fuck. I can’t look at her. Not when she sounds so disappointed in me. “My family needed the money, and it was easy enough. All I had to do was deliver packages to different houses around the city and I could feed my little sisters, buy them shoes and coats.”

I really don’t like remembering those days, before the pack found me, before Luca stepped in and saved my ass.

Sadie shifts, coming over to me to sit on my lap, straddling my hips and nestling into my chest like she was born to be there. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t judging. It was just a surprise.”

I drop a kiss to her cherry scented hair and squeeze her tighter against me. “That’s okay. I’m not particularly proud of it. But I was the man of the house and I needed to do something.”

“How old were you?”

“Nine when I started.”

Sadie whines and squeezes me tighter, before a soft purr moves through her body. I freeze in surprise. Sadie’s purring for me. Me. The beta of the pack.

I clear my suddenly tight throat and smooth a hand down her vibrating back. A glance up shows all four alphas with their eyes latched onto our omega, gazes soft and tender and full of awe. We’ve never had an omega purr for us before.

Eventually, Sadie lifts her head, runs her fingers over the stubble on my cheek. “How did you meet the rest of them?”

I grinned. “They beat the crap out of me.”

“They did what?” She rockets straight up, spine twisting to glare at the alphas. I shrug, laughing at the adorable growl that replaces the purr. “It’s not a big deal, heartbreaker. I was a cocky shit at twelve. Thought I was untouchable. I’d been given more and more control over the runners of the organization, and I made a mistake.”

“He was working for the Dumonts,” Maddox adds. “A small fry gang. Normally, the Falcones left them alone, but Ethan here decided to move into our area of the city, trying to grow the Dumont business without them knowing.”

“So you beat him up? A twelve-year-old kid?”

Maddox shrugs. “I was fourteen. Logan a year younger. Swift was also twelve. It’s not like we were grown adults terrorizing a child, Sadie.”

Another little growl rumbles out of her, and I grin. So. Fucking. Cute.

“So what happened? You beat him up and then realized you were pack?”

“Nah,” Luca says, leaning forward. “I stepped in and saved the day.”

He really did. Sixteen and newly revealed his designation, Luca had taken one look at the fight taking place of three on one, and hopped out of his fancy ass sports car and put an end to the fight right quick by barking at us.

“I was bleeding and bruised, but so were they.”

“He was fucking scrappy. Survived taking on the three of us, including Swift, for as long as he could,” Maddox says, sounding proud. “And as soon as Luca stepped in to bark at us to fucking stop, the pack bond just… clicked.”

My hand brushes over my chest. “I’d never felt anything like it. An immediate kinship, friendship.” It was like the universe was waiting for all five of us to be together for the first time, and then fate took over.

Sadie looks us over. “And you’ve been a pack ever since.”

Luca grimaces. “Well, we had some bumps in the road. My dads were less than pleased with me declaring I was joining the pack of a known criminal organization, but it’s not like they could really stand up to them, not when they’d used the Falcone’s services before and were in their pocket.”

Sadie tilts her head, eyes narrowed on his face. “Would I recognize your old pack?”

“The Cormack pack.”

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