Page 88 of Knot Your Average Beta

Of course, this only works if the guy bothers to fucking show up.

We’ve been here for an hour and still no dice.

Ethan shifts next to me, eyes focused on the path, but I can tell he’s getting impatient. “This would be the one fucking day he doesn’t come,” the beta murmurs, swiping a hand over his face. Not the one holding the syringe with the sedative Logan gave us. I have one too, just in case the old guy gives us a fight. But I doubt he will.

I’m opening my mouth to ask if he wants to pack it in for the day when the rhythmic pounding of feet on the dirt path reaches our ears. We both duck behind the trees we’re leaning against, staying out of sight of whoever’s on the path. The idea is he’ll jog past, we’ll come out behind him, jab his neck and drag him into the trees.

But the footsteps slow to a walk, and then stop altogether, someone panting hard from their run.

My beta pauses, tilts his head and drags in a deep breath of air before cursing.

The scent slams into me right after his hissed curse, and immediately I’m on edge. Because Sadie shouldn’t fucking be here. She promised she’d stay at home, safe and sound until we could figure this out. Until we could make sure she’s safe.

“Sadie?” I call out, stepping away from my tree, trying to keep my voice as gentle as it can be when everything in me is demanding that I find my mate, bundle her up and carry her home, back to safety where I can turn her ass pink for following us. “Trouble, where are you?” And where the fuck are Logan and Luca, who are supposed to be keeping her in the penthouse?

There’s a rustle through the trees, a flash of bright pink and blond hair. And then a woman steps through the foliage. A woman who isn’t Sadie, but definitely smells like her. Exactly fucking like cherry pie à la mode.

She blinks at me, her plump pink mouth parted on a gasp. She takes a step forward, her perfectly manicured fingers reaching toward me. “It’s you.”

I tilt my head and glance over at Ethan, lingering behind me, his eyes narrowed in distrust. “I’m sorry,” I say, turning back toward the woman. “Do I know you?”

She laughs, a tinkling giggle that makes goosebumps ripple over my arms, and not necessarily in a bad way. There’s a weird tugging in my chest. The same as I feel when I’m with Sadie, and my alpha is staring out at her with hunger… just like with my fucking mate. I have no clue what the hell that means, beyond that this woman somehow stole Sadie’s scent and is wearing it like a fucking trophy.

A warning growl from my chest has her giggle cutting off, the hand she had reached out to me flying to cover her lips as tears fill her eyes. “Don’t you feel it?” she asks softly. “Can’t you tell?”

“Tell what?” Ethan asks, and the omega in front of us looks at him for only about a half second before she dismisses him and looks back at me.

“You’re my scent match,” she murmurs. “You’re mine. My alpha.”

Somewhere deep in my chest, a battle starts. Half of me agrees with this omega. Agrees that she is mine. She is my scent match. She smells divine. And I’m getting hard just standing here looking at her, all plump curves and softness.

But the other part of me, the part that is already halfway in love with Sadie, is roaring that she’s fucking wrong. A liar and a cheat. Sadie is mine. Sadie is my omega. My future. Sadie is my scent match, the someday mother of my babies. Sadie is the one I’m going to bite and claim.

Ethan moves closer to me until his shoulder brushes mine. “You’re mistaken. We already have a scent match.”

“You’re a beta,” she says somewhat haughtily. “You don’t have a scent match.” My brows lower at her cruel words. Ethan might not be an alpha, but he’s just as much a member of our pack as the rest of us, just as integral. Having this woman dismiss him because of his designation clears some of the fog from my brain.

“He’s right,” I ground out, even though the words are bitter, the half of me that wants this woman making them that way.

Sadie. Sadie. Sadie.

Mine. Mine. Mine.

I remind myself as her face falls further. “That’s… That can’t be true. You’re my scent match. I can tell.”

I run my eyes over her. She’s older than Sadie by a few years, maybe early thirties. Closer to my age than my omega’s. She’s plump and pretty. She looks like a typical omega with wide hips and a full chest. Whereas Sadie is slimmer, less generous in the curve department, but still gorgeous as hell.

Ethan twists to look up at me. “Do you think this has to do with the tests that were done on Sadie? Maybe… Maybe this is the woman whose blood…” He flicks his gaze at the blond omega and trails off, not wanting to talk about what happened to Sadie in front of a stranger. “Maybe Logan can do some tests?”

“Tests?” The omega shrieks. “What kind of tests? I don’t understand what is happening right now.” Her wide blue eyes implore me to be a better alpha to her, and I have to clamp down on the instincts that demand I do the same. Sadie is my omega, and I will not disrespect her by doing something stupid like purring to soothe a stranger. “Why are you acting like this?”

I run a weary hand over my face, scrubbing at my lips before I answer. “Ethan wasn’t lying when he said we already have a scent match. She’s our omega.”

The tears overflow and spill down her cheeks. She swipes at them and then glares at me. “Well, there’s been a mistake. Because I am actually your omega. Take me to this woman who’s fooled you. She’s obviously gotten a hold of my scent somehow.”

She inches closer and I tense as she brushes the tips of her fingers over my forearm, making a shiver skitter over my skin. “I’ll prove to you that I’m your omega.”

I grit my teeth and glance at Ethan, who’s watching the woman with narrowed eyes. “What’s your name?”

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