Page 13 of Knot Mine

“Hey! That was INCREDIBLE!” Millie throws herself at me as we exit the changing rooms, wrapping her arms tightly around my neck as she peppers my face with kisses. “And hot!”

Her familiar scent wraps around me as I nuzzle her hair with a deep inhale. She’s wearing a team jersey with my number on it, and while it should make me feel possessive. Primal. It didn’t. It was nice, but it didn’t make me feral the way it did with others on the team. They loved seeing people wearing their numbers, it fed into the part of our brains that saiddominate.Mine. It waswritten into the code of our DNA as Alphas, and yet I always wondered if I was a little broken in that way. I wasn’t like Evans or Blake, happy to have Omegas lining up to spend the night in their bed. Didn’t want to spend my rut lost in a mindless haze with just anyone who was willing. It had to mean something. I guess I was just always missing that connection…Millie was the only one who’d come close to making me feel like a normal alpha.

“I’m so proud of you, babe.” She links her arm with mine and begins leading me over to Sadie’s car, where Evans is already in the passenger seat, hanging out the window.

“Hey man, are we grabbing burgers?” Blake calls as he climbs into Hunter’s car with some of our other teammates.

“Of course. It’s tradition at this point.” Evans hollers back, “Meet you at Holy Cow.”

When we enter the bustling diner just off campus, some of the girls, including Millie and Sadie, head straight for the bathroom while we grab some tables. We always ended up here after we won a match, celebrating our wins with carbs and grease. It wasn’t anything fancy, just a burger bar that seemed to have this cottagecore vibe with all the hanging plants, and chilled decor. All the furniture was wooden, but none of it seemed to match and fairy lights were strung up on the beams and down the supporting pillars.

In all honesty, if I hadn't known about this place during freshers’ orientation, I probably never would have ventured in here – but the Resident Assistants in our dorm swore hands down they made the best burgers in town. Turns out, they were right. Holy Cow was in partnership with local farmers and suppliers, so everything they made was top tier, sustainable and delicious. And the decor grew on me, and the others. It was chilled, which after an intense game like today, was much needed. Good food, good vibes and good company.

While the others are shifting the furniture around a little to make space for everyone, Hunter nudges Blake and they both grin at Evans. I know what they’re going to say, they’ve been like dogs with a bone the last couple of days, teasing Evans about his ‘situationship’ with Sadie.

Blake rubs a hand over his jaw, scrubbing at the little bit of scruff he’s been trying to grow. “I see that you and Sadie are still a thing.”

Evans refuses to meet his eyes as he drags a chair over and throws himself down into it like a surly toddler. “Yeah, it just happened that way.”

“You do you, man.” Clapping a hand on his shoulder, I attempt a reassuring smile. It was his life, so who was I to get on his case about it? He was making his bed, and he’d be the one to lay in it. “No judgement here.”

Hunter snorts as he scans the QR code on the table. “Well, lots of judgement here. She’s a harpy.”

Evans just blinks at our housemate as Blake throws his head back and laughs, drawing the attention of people on the next table. “Head game must be strong though…sucked his brain outta his dick, clearly.”

Evans blinks again and it’s like his brain has finally caught up as he narrows his eyes at Hunter. “A harpy? Who the fuck says that?”

“Well, that would be me, obviously.” Unlike us, Hunter wasn’t taking a business class this year, he was on some sort of English and Art course. I’m not really sure how he ended up living in a house with the three of us, but he’d been introduced to us through Blake in the first year and that was the end of the story. He was one of us now. Even if he did leave dirty paint brushes in my mug of coffee occasionally.

Blake sits there flipping through the menu on his phone. “What the fuck are you learning in those literature classes, man.”

“I’m done waiting, I’m ordering!” Evans grumbles. “I feel like I could eat a whole cow.”

A while later, after the food has arrived and the tiredness is creeping up on me, talk turns to our weekend plans.

“Anyone down for a hike this Sunday?” Hunter asks, shoving a handful of fries into his mouth. He looks like some starving hippie as he gulps down his meal, his braids pushed back with a headband, woven and leather bracelets taking up space on both arms, and his green T-shirt looking a little worse for wear. Paint stains his nail beds.

“Hmmm, hiking isn't really my thing.” Sadie runs a hand through Evans’ hair, almost possessively as she glares at any other omega in the diner. Which means she just sits scowling for the whole meal as half the campus is probably packed in here right now.

“You wanna go on a hike, babe?” Millie asks, giving my knee a squeeze beneath the table. I know it’s not really her thing, but if I wanted to go, she’d probably make the effort, even if it was only to take some pictures for PikSnap.

“I’m out–I have a family thing.” It’s a lie, but one I’ve been telling for a while. During my second year, I needed some extra credits and my sports science professor suggested helping out at a community sports center in Riverview. Since then, I’ve been volunteering with a local youth group who work with the community to support various sports teams.

Currently I was assistant coaching a teen football team in my free time – not that I’d told anyone besides Blake, who helped me on occasion. An extra pair of hands when it comes to a group of volatile teenager alphas was always welcome. I don’t know why I haven’t told anyone else—volunteering is nothing to be ashamed of, most of our parents (usually our omega parents) volunteer but for now it’s something just for me. Something that’s all mine.

It’s also what prompted me to sign up for the business management module this term, not only because it applied to the degree my parents wanted me to do, but because it might also help me if I choose to go into something like Sports Management. Not that it was an option. Not really. More like a wishful dream, I guess. Taking a gulp of my soda, I try to ignore the way anxiety starts to creep in every time I think about what happens after university.

Dipping her onion rings into my sauce, Millie half leans into me, smelling like crispy batter and her usual buttery scent, although it’s been spiking with sweetness lately. It must be her encroaching heat. “Oh, that reminds me. My parents are back in town in a few weeks and they’d love for you to come to dinner.”

Clearing my throat, I shift in my seat as her hand tightens again before drifting higher, towards my cock. Millie’s parents, like mine, were always travelling for business.

Evans shoots me a look that seems to say,‘See. Now you know how I feel.’ But this is where we differ, I know what’s expected of me. Millie’s my girlfriend, and she hopes that one day we’ll be more so it only makes sense that I spend time with her family. Well, her parents. Her twin seemed to hate me, and I didn’t really blame him. I’d fucked up at the coffee shop, frustrated that they were being so goddamn snotty with me. But it wasn’t like me to let things like that bother me. It was Shiloh Vos, everything about him just seemed to crawl under my skin and scratch at my brain and not in a good way.

“Sounds good, babe.”

She twirls a finger through my hair. “You know how much they love you.”

“Is your brother going to be there?”

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