Page 25 of Knot Mine

So, that’s where she wanted to spend our birthday. Skiing in the cabin. With all her bitchy omega friends. And her alpha boyfriend. Wonderful.

“With you. And your friends. And Zale.” My voice is flat now, and I hear her sigh down the line. She probably thinks I'm being difficult on purpose, but that’s only partly true. I couldn’t be in an enclosed space with Zale, I didn’t trust myself. “You’re not selling this to me, Rom.”

“And Mom and Dad,” she adds pointedly, as if I'll be disappointing them. “It’s your birthday too.”

“Exactly.” How can she not understand that I might just want to spend it at home, with some greasy takeout food while I work my way through a list of anime films? I’ll be home alone, free to eat what I want, do what I want and then fall asleep fucking myself into a coma with my tentacle. How does it get better than that?

“I’ll swap summer plans with you.”

I pause.

We have houses all over the world and each year Rom and I have to work out who’s going where for the summer since we usually try to avoid one another. We don’t explicitly say that, but it’s not a coincidence that we often end up on opposite sides of the globe.

This year, I’d really wanted to head to the Greek Isles with Bell, but Romilly got in there first. She was planning on spending the whole time with her friends, sunning herself, spending the nights jumping from party to party and devaluing our father’s yacht. If they make it back without one of them being arrested, pregnant or injured, I’d be very surprised.

“So…I can have the Crete villa?” I ask, suspiciously. Why would she give that up for one lousy long weekend in a ski cabin with a jock who wouldn’t even skip practice for her? She must be cum drunk. That’s the only explanation for it. He couldn’t taste that good…could he?

“Yes.”

“For the whole summer? Alone?” I have to ask, because I wouldn’t put it past her to say later on that she meant we’d share the villa and I didn’t want to be stuck there with Sadie of all people.

“For fuck sakes, Lo. Yes.”

Magic jizz. Only explanation. I chew my bottom lip for a moment, thinking it over. It all feels too much like a trap. Could I get through the four-hour car ride? Sitting next to him? Breathing in his scent? “No.”

I hear a small noise that makes it sound like she’s slammed something down. Maybe her hand on her dresser? After a few beats of silence, she says, “I’ll tell Mom about the suppressants.”

My whole-body freezes, my mouth dry. “You wouldn’t dare.”

I don’t know why I say it, I’m practically daring her to snitch on me. It would kill my mother, knowing that I was taking suppressants, trying to hide away from my nature. As an alpha more than happy with her lot in life, she would never understand that as a teen, I used to pray every night I would become a beta.

Bell turns slowly, eyes narrowing but I shake my head at them. I don’t need them to fight my battles.

“I would. You know I would. So, just pick Zale up after practice next Friday.” I should have known better. Romilly only played nice if she got her own way. She wouldn’t hesitate to get her hands dirty if she needed to, and beefcake dick clearly called for mud under her nails. “Kay?”

“Fine,” I grumble, ending the call before she can push me into something else I don’t want. It was always the fucking same.

Chapter Ten

Zale

Were uncomfortable dinners my new hobby? I seemed to attend a lot of them for someone who was just trying to make it through the week without adding more stress and pressure to my life. Wednesday night dinners with my parents were standard, but after my experience with the Vos’ family, it feels even more painful than usual.

“You know, Clarice Thayer’s birthing parent said that she is doing additional modules this term.” Papa says, with a gleam in his blue eyes as he runs a delicate hand through his blond hair. There’s a sprinkling of grey at his temples that wasn’t quite as visible a few weeks ago.

“You can just say parent.” Pushing my chicken with my fork, I silently sigh. My papa, the omega who birthed me, knew full well what he was doing. I was what he did every time he disliked or disagreed with something. And he didn’t agree with Charlie Thayer shunning gender specific terms like mother/father. “Or their name. They’re non-binary, it’s not that complicated.”

Biting my lip, I push aside the thoughts of how Shiloh’s friend, Bell, is treated by Sadie and the others. It was hypocritical of me, I knew that, I also didn’t know how to stop– not without upsetting the balance of my already fragile life. Bethe perfect son. The Blackwood heir. The ideal alpha. The best boyfriend. The winning football star. The dedicated student.

Waving me off, he motions for the server to pour us more wine and bring an extra gravy jug. “Anyway, darling.Charliesays that she’s also enrolled in a literacy program and teaches little children how to read. Isn’t that sweet?”

“Very,” I nod, in agreement wishing this conversation would wrap up. I was used to this by now, so I already knew where this was heading. “I’m sure it helps her prepare for when she’s a teacher.”

Clarice was the ultimate poster child for a refined omega match. She’d opted to attend Darronsen University rather than Oakley, another Ivy League college on the other side of the country. We’d grown up with each other back in Hartshaw, living in the same exclusive neighborhood, that’s how I knew her end goal was to work with children before having a brood of her own.

One of the reasons I’d chosen Oakley was to put some space between me and my parents, but they insisted on visiting each week. My father, my alpha parent, had offices in the next city, Gorseton and each week my papa would tag along, spend the day shopping or at the spa before they’d meet me at the bistro.

My papa swirls his wine in the glass, letting it aerate. “Well, don't you think volunteering at the Thayer Trust might also benefit you? It could be a more productive use of your free time than…football perhaps?”

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