Page 180 of Knot Playing Fair 2

But Mia had no intention of leaving. She snuggled back, a contented little humming noise vibrating against me where her back pressed to my chest.

All was right with the world.Almostall. There was still one quicksilver presence in the bond who was too far away from me. But the next peak would come... as inevitable as the tide. And when it did, I would bury my teeth in another neck, until every single thing in this room was mine.

Mine to protect.

Mine to cherish.

Mine to worship until my last breath on this earth.

SEVENTY-FOUR

Luca

PAINFUL NEED DRAGGEDme from the warm darkness where I’d been resting, but this time it had been joined by a different kind of desire.

Oh, god. I knew what was coming next, and my body had spent years learning to fear it. I’d barely regained consciousness, and already the garbled words were pressing against the back of my teeth.

Bite me.

Mark me.

Mate me.

For years, every natural heat I’d been forced to endure had ended up with me begging desperately for something I couldn’t have—hating myself even as the pathetic words poured out of me.

I was so tired... my mind too out of it to know up from down. Something niggled at me, trying to convince me that things had changed. That it would be different this time. A feral presence stirred inside me, and with a jolt, I recognized Emiel.

Emiel had mated me. We’d both been too screwed up to mate anyone except each other. I remembered that. But Emiel had worked so hard, and he’d gotten better. He’d mated Mia, too.

In fact, he was balls-deep in her right now, his knot swelling after fucking her. She must’ve woken up before I did. I could kind of feel her, but it was buried beneath Emiel’s sudden worry. My mate jerked his head up to look at me, but he couldn’t reach me. He was knotted to someone else, and he wasunhappy.

He was unhappy because ofme. Because I was freaking out. Just like I always freaked out after a few days in the heat nest.

I was upsetting my alpha. I was a terrible mate, just like I’dknownI would be! And any minute now, I was going to start begging the others to bite me—even though I knew I didn’t deserve a pack. I would only make them miserable with my fucked-up bullshit, just like I was making Emiel miserable right now!

A panicked whimper escaped me. Emiel growled, needing to get to me and unable to do it, because he was tied to Mia. Now Mia was upset, too. I could feel it through the bond.

Suddenly, I was the center of attention, everyone’s eyes on me. Byron and Zalen immediately started toward me. All three alphas had gone into rut over the past couple of days. There weren’t going to be any soothing words from Zalen, trying to sugar-coat the fact that they wouldn’t bite me. They’d just reject me outright, because I wasn’t good enough.

Desperate to keep from begging them for what they wouldn’t give me, I crab-crawled backward until my shoulder hit something hard—my dresser? I yelped at the sharp pain and curled into myself, old fear swirling together with new.

“Hey!” A beta voice cut through the fog in my head. “Luca...Luca! Hey, now—easy, there.”

Someone knelt beside me, and my instincts whispered ‘safe.’ Unable to hold back a keening sob, I let Nat gather me up in his arms and crush me against his chest. He smelled like sweat and sex, not like lime or coconut or aniseed or fennel. But his skinwas warm against mine, and he rocked me gently as I clawed back against the panic.

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