Page 32 of Knot Mine

“You should be here,” she whines, and I bet if I video called her, she’d be doing her best pout. The one where she sticks out her bottom lip and flutters her long dark lashes. Sometimes, she even releases some of her pheromones, trying to influence me when she thinks she's being discreet.

“Go dance,” I tell her, wanting her to enjoy her birthday celebrations and not spend the night on the phone with me.

Her voice drops, her words sultry but still slurred as she teases, “I’m gonna dance for you at the cabin.”

I laugh awkwardly, not really sure how to respond to her drunken promise, especially given some of the decisions I’d made today. Goddess, I was a dick.

“Here. Tell him he should be here.” I hear her say before there’s rustling, more cheering and the music gets a little louder.

“Yo, you should be here!” Blake's voice comes down the line, sounding more sober than Millie but still tipsy. He gets quieter, “How was the district event?”

The tension in my chest eases. “It was great! Some real talent coming up.”

“Good to know, I’ll have to watch my back,” he jokes, and for a moment everything feels normal again. Blake had already been scouted to play ball after college, and signed with a team out in the Midwest. He knew what he wanted, and nothing was stopping him from chasing after it.

I hear Millie holler something, but I can't make it out over all the other noises. “Keep an eye on Mills, she seems pretty out of it.”

“It’s okay, Sadie, Ivy and Kaia are keeping her entertained.” Blake lowers his voice a little, “Evans is the one I’m worried about.”

“Why?”

There’s a pause, and I’m willing to bet my last dollar that he’s glancing around to see if Sadie is in hearing distance. “He vanished with Hunter about an hour ago, somewhere between the cocktail bar with the rodeo bull and foam party.”

It wasn’t unusual for Evans to go astray on nights like these, but usually Blake or I were there to help keep him in line. Tonight, he was out there somewhere with only Hunter. Hunter who often caused just as much, if not more, trouble.

“He’ll turn up, he always does.” I try to be supportive, but secretly I’m glad I’m not with them. I likely would have spent half my night trying to be the responsible one, and looking all over the city for Evans. “Just make sure he doesn’t marry a stranger!”

“Yeah, I guess. I gotta go, man. Caz has bought a tray of shots.”

Caz was another one of Sadie’s omega friends. I could barely keep track of them all to be honest, but then again, when you were flying people out on a private plane to party in one of the wealthiest cities in the country, all sorts of ‘friends’ were going to crawl out of the woodwork.

“Go. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

After ending the call, I wasn’t ready to call it a night and for a while I wandered around the house, restless. I probably slept too much and now it’s like my brain is wired. There’s a part of me that also hopes Shiloh might come downstairs again.

Dropping off my bag in one of the guest rooms, I grab my new zombie book and head back downstairs into the living room. The house has a huge stone fireplace, the kind you only really see in home magazines. I mean, my parents were rich, but most of the rooms in our home were sleek, modern and minimalist, with the exception of the home library and my bedroom and that wasn’t from lack of trying on papa’s part.

Along the mantle, there are photos of the twins through various stages of their life – the one with them grinning with gappy teeth makes me smile. They looked almost identical, right up until their teens, that’s where the differences become clearer.

Using the firelighters and logs from a nearby basket, I get a small fire going. There’s still no sign of Shiloh, but I know he must be able to hear me moving around down here. There’s only two of us in the entire cabin, was he going to avoid me all weekend?

Settling on the L shaped sofa, with a bag of chips, a fresh bottle of water and my book I get cozy for a few hours. Not many people knew this about me, but reading was one of my hobbies. For a couple of hours it took me out of my own head, I could be someone else, be somewhere else. I didn’t have as much time for it as I would’ve liked between everything else going on but it was my escape.

It was also a hobby that my parents had always supported and nurtured, their house back in Hartshaw was filled with books—it was the only ‘clutter’ they allowed. Throwing my head back, I stare at the ceiling for a few minutes as I think about my papa and my father. They weren’t horrible people, and they wanted the best for me, they just weren’t very good parents. Talking to Millie wasn’t going to be the only uncomfortable conversation in my future.

Eventually, I admit defeat, and as the last embers in the hearth die out, I creep quietly back upstairs to my room.Climbing between my sheets, my thoughts drift to the Vos sibling at the other end of the corridor. Was he already asleep? I resolve to try harder tomorrow not to be a jackass to him.

Tossing and turning, I keep waking occasionally throughout the night, finally falling into a deep sleep around three am. It feels like I've barely slipped into that warm, cozy dream space when something wakes me. Scrubbing my face with a groan, I check my phone and I realize it’s only just past six.

A shaft of light beams into the room between the curtains and that’s when I start registering my body. My skin feels tight and uncomfortable, while everything aches. Was I coming down with something? Was that why I was awake so early? No. My morning wood is hard and throbbing, leaking pre-cum in my boxers. I was horny. Beyond horny. I was on the verge of busting a nut with just the friction of the bedsheets over my underwear.

Fisting the sheets and laying back frustrated, my nostrils flare. There’s a spike of buttery sweetness lingering in the air, it smells like warm, gooey caramel or toffee syrup.

Inhaling, my cock twitches, there’s something sharp there too under the honeyed notes. It reminds me of autumn as it wraps around me, making my cock beg for relief. Was I due to go into Rut?

No, it was too soon.

Why was I acting like this?

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