Page 126 of Knot What She Seems
“Because my brother is being honored, you overbearing brute,” Brylee barks, her patience fraying. “It’s a…twin thing.”
One of Ridge’s eyebrows touches his hairline. “A twin thing for you two to change in front of each other?”
“Dude,” I gripe, wrinkling my nose at the bastard. Could he be any more tactless?
Even Luka looks a little annoyed, the furrow between his eyebrows deepening.
“We don’t change in front of each other!” Brylee seethes. “What’s wrong with you?”
Luka steps forward to take control of the situation before Ridge can make it worse. A feat I’m not sure is even possible, given how far his foot is in his mouth. I’m surprised he’s not choking on it.
“Ridge didn’t mean it like that,” Luka tells her gently, a soft smile on his face. “He’s just…being a little overprotective.”
“And possessive,” I pipe up.
“And idiotic,” Luka adds with a grim nod. “It’s an alpha thing. You’re our unmated scent match, and, well…it’s hard for us to think clearly. Why don’t we walk you to Eros and help you find Ted?—”
“No thanks,” Brylee blurts out, and I can see a flush of red creeping up her neck.
“It’s not safe,” Ridge manages to bark out through gritted teeth.
Brylee shuffles from one foot to the other, her hands once again flexing around the straps of her pack. She doesn’t want to tell us something—I can see that clear as day in her tense posture. But what could she want to keep a secret?—?
A horrible thought occurs to me, and it suddenly feels like I’ve been physically kicked in the nuts.
Is she being weird about all of this because she’s meeting up with Brock and his pack? Is that why she doesn’t want us to walk her?
Does my little obsession have a date?
With a different pack?
A strange roaring sound echoes between my ears, and the ground seems to shift beneath me. The need to maim, tear, rip, shred, and kill reverberates through me.
Maybe her parents organized for her to attend the ball with Brock and the others. That would explain everything—her strange behavior, her evasive answers, and the nervous fluttering of her pulse.
“Let her go.” I don’t recognize my own voice. It’s not a growl—not really—but it certainly sounds like one. I never felt jealousy before I met Brylee, but now, I’m experiencing it in spades. Just the thought of some other alpha pawing at her, commenting on her beauty, spinning her on the dance floor… It has me seeing red.
“Excuse me?” Ridge gives me a look that dares me to repeat myself, violence simmering in his blue eyes.
I simply meet his gaze with an unreadable one of my own.
“I said, let her go. We should head inside.” I pivot on my heel and make a beeline toward the entrance. All of the other alphas are heading through the front door—they have to sign in with the staff—but since we’re professors, we have clearance to go wherever the fuck we want, whenever.
Except for the omega dorms, of course, but what they don’t know won’t hurt them.
“Wait…what?” Ridge throws his hands in the air. “What the fuck is happening?”
Luka gives me an odd look.
“We’re heading inside. Brylee is going to Eros Academy.” I don’t spare her a glance, keeping my attention instead on my brothers. “Come on.”
Brylee lowers her hands from her straps. “I’ll…um…be seeing you. Later. At the dance. It just depends on how long it takes me to help Teddie get ready, you know? And my stomach has been hurting all day. I thought about skipping, but we’ll have to see,” Brylee rambles, already backing away. Then, as if she’s afraid we’ll change our minds, she turns on her heel and races into the forest, that damn pack bouncing against the back of her thighs with every step she takes.
I watch the darkness engulf her completely before turning toward my packmates. Ridge appears incredulous, that damn vein on his temple damn near close to bursting, but Luka is contemplative.
“We’re following her, aren’t we?” He tilts his head to the side.
“Hell yeah, we are.” I rub my hands together with an evil smirk. There’s no way in hell I would allow my omega to traverse the forest on her own at night. Especially not after the Noth attack.
