Page 113 of Ruin Me Knot
My eyes snap open. I rise on my elbow and peer over Jax’s massive shoulder to find her, tucked up so sweet and sleepy between Ronan and Jax, cheeks flushed, and hair tangled. The bond thrums as happiness blooms from her to all of us, spinning a knot of vibrant color in my chest. I didn’t know the bond could do this. I pluck a pink thread from the knot.
Leah moans, the flush in her cheeks rising in tone.Hmmm.Interesting.
"What’s ‘Taffy’?" I tease.
She blinks, gaze falling straight to me. "The name of the puppy you promised. When can we get him?"
I grin and tug the thread a little harder, sensing the jolt ripple through her, then through Ronan and Jax. Both groan, the sound deep and drawn out, thick with sudden, sharp arousal. The bond swells, pleasure surging back inside me in a rush, heat pooling in the pit of my stomach. Her fresh rose blooms around us, filling all of the spaces in the room.
Well. This isveryinteresting.
I send her the grin I know she likes and delight in her quick little inhale. "Sweetheart, you’ll get your puppy, faster than you think."
Chapter Fifty-Three
Leah
The room beyond the door buzzes with controlled energy. Every seat is filled, journalists packed shoulder to shoulder, yet order holds. Security stand at the walls, not threatening, but unmistakably present. The low hum of whispered questions and the click of camera shutters meld into a steady background noise, all eyes fixed forward on Pack Blackwood.
I lean back on Ronan as he winds his arms around my waist, using his body to steady me. His presence is the rock I need, thrumming through our bond. He senses my nerves through the bond, but he gives me space to be myself, because today ismonumental.
Jax crosses his arms, eyes shining with pride and thinly veiled protectiveness. He sends a pulse of reassurance through our bond. "Anytime you want out, just say the word. And if you don’t, we’re behind you every step of the way."
The bond is stunning in its clarity, raw in its honesty. I never expected this. I thought bonding meant being controlled, shackled, reduced to being someone’s possession, but it’s the opposite. Our bond is liberating. Glorious. My soul is threaded light, sensation and love, every strand humming with the beat of my Alphas’ hearts and the depth of their care. A whole world has opened under my skin. A richer awareness than words could ever hope to touch.
My Alphas fill me with a sense of belonging that sinks into my bones.
This understanding, this deep knowing of them, is everything. There’s no distance, no loneliness, not even in the shadowed corners where old suffering lurks. It’s intimacy on a level I never thought possible. I am more myself with them than I had ever been alone. I never thought I’d taste this kind of fulfillment. This is what it means to belong completely and be wholly seen.
Then bitterness stings my tongue, a hard-edged reminder of all that was nearly lost. This fierce, beautiful, impossible connection is exactly what Hardwick tried to destroy. If she’d succeeded in exterminating Omegas, there would be no more bonds, no more packs. She would have severed everything that makes life worth living.
But her legacy is ashes, and we are still here.
Mira, Emma and I are ready to drag every one of Haven’s secrets into the open. Not only what Mercer, Turns and Hardwick did, but what they meant to erase from existence.
I offer Jax a shaky smile. "I know. But I need to do this." I want more than survival. I want to stand in the bright lights and tell the world about what happened to us. So that we’ll never let it happen again. I take his large hand in mine and thread our fingers. "I want to."
Mira glances at me from where she stands with her Alphas behind the podium, dressed in a designer navy suit, looking every part the billionaires’ Omega. Emma peers at the media, before her gaze finds me and she quirks a brow. We both knowMira was wearing pink flamingo pajamas and thick, wooly slippers an hour ago, her hair a mess from our slumber party.
We all were.
I smooth down my beige designer suit, trying to ignore my imposter syndrome. Emma is wearing a deep maroon. All of us were dressed by the Omega stylist Adrian hired. If I looked in the mirror, I wouldn’t recognize myself.
"You’re beautiful, Leah. They won’t know what hit them." Gabriel drops a quick kiss to my mouth, but the jolt of heat that rolls through the bond is anything but casual. He grins, wicked and bright, catching the way I stare up at him, caught between nerves and that electric promise. "Keep your focus, Sweetheart," he murmurs, voice low and only for me. "Don’t let your nerves steal this moment from you."
A hush passes over the crowd as Adrian steps to the microphone. "After the death and disgrace of Senator Hardwick, and exposure of corruption of Dr. Sylvia Mercer and Police Commissioner Axel Turns, their involvement in the trafficking of innocent Omegas has shattered any illusion of safety or justice in our society. Today, Pinnacle Therapeutics has been granted full legal authority to not only manufacture new generations of suppressants and birth control for Omegas, but to develop and distribute a nationwide vaccine for the Mortalis Strain. We’re partnering with states across the country to build labs and support networks, to ensure that every Omega has a say in their own lives."
Mira stands proud and unbroken, flanked by Zane and Cole. She scans the crowd, her chin lifting a fraction as murmurs spread through the audience and cameras flash. She’s ready for this. Emma is ready. I’m ready.
Monumental changes have carved through all of us these past months. Adrian’s speech is history in progress, but there’s a whole chapter he’ll leave unspoken. That my blood through years of torment at Hardwick’s own hand, created the code for the vaccine that will finally drive the Mortalis Strain to extinction. That ugly thing, once a death sentence, is about to be nothing more than a line in a medical textbook.
Pinnacle won’t profit from this miracle. Mira and her pack have poured billions into making every medication available at cost. No more price tags on freedom, no profits carved from desperation, no more back alleys and black-market medications. They’ve braided partnerships with governments, businesses, medical centers and built the kind of scaffolding for survival and safety that Omegas like us were told was impossible.
The greatest changes are the quietest. Rebuilding a life I never thought I’d have. Reconnecting with Mira and Emma, the three of us learning to be sisters again, not by blood but by survival and trust.
There’ve been girls’ weekends at Emma’s sun-splashed beach house, drifting afternoons stretched out on salt-worn decks, laughter whipped away by wind, the old ache between us replaced by something easier and lighter. Emma glows in a place that lets her breathe and soften. Mira hosts us in her sky-high rooftop garden, that lush sprawl of green overlooking the city. Our laughter over shared wine tumbling with basil and sunlight, dinner spinning hours past dark as we remember who we were…and who we’ve become.
My Alphas have been unstoppable, too. Our home, for now, is still the Omega Center. We’ve made our nest in the suite they set aside for us. It’s plain but comfortable, and I see no reason to leave when the space is saturated with our scents that bring me so much comfort. My Omega agrees too.
