Page 19 of Knot My Type

"She's been afraid of me."

It's not a question, and I don't insult him by denying it. The truth sits between us like a stone.

"Yeah, she has been."

I can see him swallow hard, his Adam's apple bobbing. There's pain in his dark eyes now, real hurt that he's not bothering to hide. "I would never hurt her. Any of you. You know that, right?"

"I know that. But Kael, your alpha presence is intense even for me, and I'm used to it. I've been dealing with your overbearing ass since we were kids." I try to inject somelightness into my voice, but it falls flat. "For an omega who's already anxious, you need to…”

There’s a time and place for everything and the last thing I should be doing is blaming Kael, especially when I’m an alpha too and she didn’t bond with me.

I let the sentence hang, watching him process the implications. His jaw clenches, the muscle jumping beneath his skin. I can smell his scent shifting, becoming sharper, more distressed. It's like standing next to a storm cloud.

He nods slowly, understanding dawning in his dark eyes. "And Fen doesn't have that problem. He's safe."

"The safest person in this house, probably." I glance back at the door, catching another wave of that intoxicating bonded scent. "Which makes this make a lot more sense, actually."

Fen's never been threatening to anyone. Even other alphas barely register him as competition, which has always frustrated me because they're missing so much. They see his compact frame and quiet demeanor and assume he's weak, forgettable. They don't see the steel in his spine or the fierce loyalty that runs through him like bedrock.

But Eliana saw it. Of course she did.

We stand in the hallway of the cabin, still as the storm outside, neither of us speaking. The air between us is thick—too quiet, too charged. Something’s settled over everything, something permanent, like the whole space is holding its breath. The kind of quiet that only follows a shift too big to take back.

Outside, snow lashes against the windows, driven sideways by wind that screams through the trees. The storm’s only getting worse. We’re locked in now, buried under feet of snow in the middle of nowhere, and she’s in the other room—Eliana. Sleeping off shock, a crash, and a bond that none of us saw coming.

The cabin feels different. Smaller somehow. Like the walls have moved closer, like they’re listening. Bonds do that. Especially the real ones. They don’t just link you—theyclaimyou. Change everything. And judging by the scent still hanging in the air, curling into the beams, thick in my lungs, this one isn’t just real. It’s strong. Too strong. That scent is soaked into the cabin like smoke, a mix of omega heat and something deeper, something primal. It shouldn’t hit this hard, not this fast. But it does. And I can’t ignore it, even if I want to.

The morning light doesn’t reach far through the thick snow, just a pale, tired glow filtering through the frost-lined windows. It catches on the dust floating in the air, glinting off the edge of the kitchen table, the rough-hewn floorboards. The fire in the stone hearth pops and crackles, its warmth just enough to chase the chill off our skin but not the tension from the room. We’ve lived through worse than blizzards. But this? This is different.

Kael finally breaks the silence, his voice low, calm—too calm. That alpha control he leans on like armor. “We need to talk to them. When they wake up. Because this doesn’t feel right.”

I don’t look at him. Not yet. “What part?”

He lets out a quiet breath through his nose. “All of it. We were supposed to meet an omega in Millbrook. Instead, one crashes her car half a mile from our land—during the biggest storm of the season. She gets brought toourdoor, and now Fen’s bonded to her before we even get the chance to ask a single question.”

His words echo in the cabin, and I finally meet his eyes. I know that look. That edge behind the control. He’s already walking the perimeter of the situation, testing for weak spots. He’s not angry. He’scalculating.

“She’s hurt. Alone. She didn’t plan this,” I say, though there’s a thread of uncertainty in my voice I can’t hide.

Kael doesn’t blink. “Maybe. Or maybe she’s exactly where she wanted to be.”

I hate how much that hits. Because Fen believes her. Hefeelsthe bond—raw, fresh, blinding. But Kael’s not worried about Fen’s honesty. He’s worried about his judgment. And I get it. A bond that strong can cloud instincts. Can override good sense. And if she’s not who she says she is, if she was sent here for a reason...

Then we’re already vulnerable.

“She could’ve been followed,” he adds, voice harder now. “Or worse, sent ahead. To get close before the real danger shows up. She bonds with Fen, gets inside our defenses, and we don’t even question it.”

I run a hand through my hair, pacing a step, then stopping. My pulse is heavy in my chest. The scent still hangs in the air like a memory, and it messes with me. It stirs that instinct to protect. To claim. Even though everything else in me is screamingwait.Watch.Be sure.

I glance toward the small guest room at the end of the hall. The door’s cracked just enough to see the edge of the blanket hanging off the bed. She looked so fragile curled up there last night—bruised, shaking, wrecked. But underneath all that softness, there’s something else. I saw it in her eyes. She’s not helpless. And she’s not innocent. She’s surviving. Maybe manipulating. Maybe both.

“If she’s a threat,” I say quietly, “we’ll know soon enough.”

Kael’s jaw tightens, but he nods. “And if she is, I don’t give a damn about Fen’s bond. We handle it.”

The storm rattles the cabin walls, wind shrieking past the chimney. Snow has half-buried the windows. We’re alone out here. No roads open, no backup coming. Just the three of us—and her.

This is what makes it dangerous.

---