Page 3 of Knot My Omega

We all pitched in and, in no time, lunch was served. I missed breakfast foods, so we often had them for dinner as well.

“How are your tomatoes growing, Roan?” Harlan asked. We were all we had and, as a pack should, we wanted the best for each other. Roan’s garden was important to him.

“We will have a harvest this time. I hope. I picked a few cucumbers this morning and put them in the fridge.”

“Progress is progress.”

Harlan teetered on the line between positivity and realism. He was more balanced of the three of us.

I asked Harlan about his projects. He smiled and told us they would all be ready for the farmer’s market.

We fell into a silence as we gobbled up the delicious lunch.

“Nothing from the app?” Roan asked.

I shook my head. “There are tons of matches, but none my wolf calls out to. I’m thinking it was a mistake. Packs like ours can’t find our omega in the usual way.”

Harlan sighed. He pretended to be unbothered by our lack of a mate, but I knew better. He and I were already a pack when we met Roan in his wolf form. He startled us as we were looking at this very piece of land. Then he shifted, and we knew all three of us were a pack. All that was missing was the pivot to glue us together. Our omega.

We already had a room for her.

We’d built it in the early days when we were still excited about finding her, but hadn’t touched it in ages. The door was not only closed but locked, the bed stripped, the windows dirty. Dust coated the furniture.

We parted after lunch. Harlan had more projects to finish and cleared the lunch dishes then planned to take a nap.

Roan, with slumped shoulders, made his way back outside. Said he was researching getting chickens. “Chickens are easy,” he mumbled. While everyone was out of the house, I walked up the stairs and down the hall to the bedroom reserved for our fated mate. It was meant to be her space—her nest. The soft blankets and sweet decorations sat on closet shelves, still in their original packaging. I fumbled above the door for the key and unlocked the room.

It scented like it always had. Of lingering cleaning products and the paint on the walls. We’d put a scent in the paint so as to not offend our future omega, but that floral bouquet had longfaded. This place once filled our heads with promise. Now, it was a reminder of the what-if-never.

Chapter Three

Lily

“I printed a sample label. Check it please, Lily?”

We were in the main house. Rumor’s house. Her kitchen was six times the size of mine, and we had a lot of new things to make for the market tomorrow.

Wilder set the label on the counter. Rumor and I gathered around it and checked everything. I spelled each word out loud. I didn’t want any misspellings on our products if we could help it. Wilder usually didn’t make a mistake but everyone did.

“It’s good,” I said, sliding the label over to him. “Thank you.”

“Should I print them in bulk, or do you want to test this at market first?”

“Can you just print enough for these batches and then we’ll see how they do?” I asked. Every request still felt like begging but, more and more, I was coming into my own voice. It was okay to ask for help.

“Of course. It smells great, by the way.”

“Thanks.” The pair shared a kiss, and I turned away. It was still a bit weird to be in their space when they had been mated less than a year, but they told me I was welcome. They had saved me from the other pack. They didn’t have to. Plenty of people would’ve left me behind.

Peach cobbler baked in the oven, along with honey cinnamon granola. Once they were cooled, we could put them in the jars with the clamp lids. The cherry cheesecake in a jar and peanut butter brownie mixes would go in regular ones. We had everything planned out.

Rumor and I stood shoulder to shoulder and washed dishes while everything cooled, and it was then that I noticed her scent was different. I turned to her and gasped. I knew the womannext to me almost better than I knew myself. “That didn’t take long,” I said, tsking.

She sighed and tossed the sponge into the sink. “Bernadette is eight months old. Besides, wolf shifters heal faster. And my heat was really powerful this time.”

I snorted and bumped her with my shoulder. “You’ve been planning this conversation.”

“Are you disappointed in me?”

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