Page 53 of Her Knotty Alphas

We finish eating in heavy silence, and I don't know how I feel about hearing the details of Enzo's ex. Part of me wants to rip her fucking eyes out for daring to get near my alpha. Another part of me just feels sad for the heartbreak Enzo had to endure, even though I'm glad that he's not bonded to her.

We stand to clear the table, and Enzo catches my arm. "Reinita, I hope hearing about her didn't upset you. I just thought you deserved the whole truth."

"Not at all," I shake my head, giving him a small smile. "Thank you for telling me. Speaking of news and updates, I met with a lawyer on Sunday about Nana's will. He says he thinks once theysee the voicemails and texts I've saved, it'll be obvious that Nana really did leave me everything."

"I'm glad to hear it." Enzo gives me a dazzling smile, just as Noah clears his throat.

"Charlie's game is about to start soon…" Noah says cautiously, looking at all of us. "Princess, it's okay if you don't want to watch, but I feel like—"

"We can watch," I tell him. To be honest, I've kind of missed basketball. Before he died, my dad and I used to watch all the Meteors' games on TV, and later, I went to all of Charlie's games. It might be nice to be able to observe him without him seeing me.

Austin brings out some cookies he made earlier, and we all settle in front of the TV to watch the Starbrook City Meteors face off against the Playa Hills Mustangs.

It becomes clear rather quickly that my other alphas are notthatinto basketball.

As hard as I try to keep myself reigned in, I feel like I'm losing my mind at the end of the fourth quarter. The two teams are tied, and it feels like the referees have never watched a game of basketball in their lives.

"Come on! That guy is halfway to Canada with how far he just travelled!" I stand, shouting at the TV. Austin gives me an amused look over Noah's head. "Don't tell me you didn't see that."

He raises his hands defensively, "I don't know what I saw, darlin'."

Fuming, I turn back to the TV and sit down. "Fucking blind-ass refs." I mutter, leaning forward to grab a cookie.

"Yes, bad,badrefs," Noah soothes, running a hand down my arm.

"Fuck off," I grumble, and Enzo chokes on a cookie.

"Godsdamn. Princess is serious about basketball." Noah smirks.

"It's not that hard to see when someone runs without dribbling—that wasnota foul!" My voice echoes off the walls as the referee calls a defensive foul on number forty-nine—Charlie. "He was not reaching! His arm has a natural slight bend to it!"

"He might have been reaching,preciosa,"Enzo says gently, rubbing my back.

"Shit, sorry," I shake my head. "I haven't watched basketball in so long, it's like—"

Charlie taking possession of the ball rushing down the court snatches my attention again and I shoot to my feet, watching with bated breath. My skin is alight with the buzz of excitement that only comes when watching basketball.

There's four seconds left on the clock, and the two teams are currently tied.

The other team tries to go after him, but he's too fast. My heart pounds wildly in my chest as he launches himself forward into the air, swinging his hand with the ball back and up in a perfect arc—

And slam dunks, right as the buzzer sounds.

He wins the game, ninety-three to ninety one.

"Oh my gods!" I scream, jumping up and down and pointing to the screen "Did you see that???" My mind is blown. Back when we were together, Charlie had always tried to do a slam dunk, but he never quite got it. But he did it.

Hedidit.

It hits me then, that it's been twelveyears. He's had that long to figure it out. Of course he knows how. But when I look back at my other alphas, they're looking at me with varying degrees of adoration and…hope.

Noah stands and wraps an arm around my shoulder. "I like it when you get all fired up, princess."

I shake my head. "My brother threatened to stop bringing me to games if I didn't learn how to reign it in."

"It's endearing how you defend your alphas." Enzo smiles, dropping a kiss on my head. "I need to head to bed, I teach a seven am class tomorrow."

"Gross." Noah wrinkles his nose.

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