Page 98 of Ruin Me Knot
Ronan and Jax are still searching for Hardwick. I don’t know if I’ll open my eyes to the world with them at my side or drift off into nothing and lose myself to the dark. Dr. Maverick told me there’s a risk that the tracker is too tangled in my nerves and he won’t be able to get it out. But I read between the lines. One wrong move, and I could be paralyzed. Yet another thing Hardwick has forced upon me.
My Alphas are the only beings to crumble my walls to dust, and the world might rip them from me.
A male Beta nurse hovers at my side. There’s something about him that sets my nerves on edge. He pats the back of my hand. "We’ll look after you."
My skin crawls. I shrink from his touch, fighting the urge to wipe my hand on my paper gown and thread my fingers through Gabriel’s. He hasn’t left my side. I’m being overly sensitive, perhaps, but Gabe’s low growl sends the Beta scuttling away.
His hazel eyes fall to me once the Beta is a satisfactory distance away. "He doesn’t touch you without permission."
Dr Maverick’s face swims into view, kind eyes peering above his mask. "We’re going to take good care of you, Leah. Breathe for me. Just slow, easy breaths. You’ve got your mate with you, and I’m with you the rest of the way."
"A little pinch, then you’ll feel sleepy.” The anesthetist’s eyes crinkle when he smiles at me before bending to give me the medication that will send me to sleep.
I squeeze Gabriel’s hand, fighting panic as coolness floods my vein. "Don’t leave me."
He bends, lips brushing my hair. "You couldn’t get rid of me if you tried, Sweetheart. I’m staying right here. You come back to me, okay? Ronan and Jax will be here when you open your eyes. I swear."
The world starts to fuzz at the edges, the weight in my limbs morphing into syrupy heaviness. My thoughts slur, memory and longing bleeding together. His palm flattens against my cheek. "I’ll be right here when you wake up."
I try to nod but the world tilts and vanishes, Gabriel’s words echo in the soft, endless dark.
Light seeps in, slow and honey-thick, warming the backs of my eyelids. At first, there’s only the steady hum of machines, the prickle of tape at the crook of my arm, a faint antiseptic chill in the air. For a second I hover in that soft nowhere until I catch the scents that thread through every dream and every waking. Ronan’s cool evergreen, Jax’s campfire vanilla and fresh green, Gabriel’s sweet-citrus warmth.
My pack.
My Alphas.
My mates.
I blink awake, disoriented for a moment until I see my Alphas crowded around my bed. Ronan slouches in a chair, jaw bruised with exhaustion, but eyes so gentle when they land on me the sweet ache sinks all the way to my bones. Jax holds my hand, thumb tracing circles on my skin. He’s folded toward me, keeping me grounded with his closeness. Gabriel perches on the edge of the mattress. When he sees me awake, his grin turns into an all-out smile. "Hey, Sweetheart. You’re awake."
The joy that fills me is sudden. Huge. So bright and colorful that I can’t breathe for a second. It floods my chest and spills out as tears. They’re here. Really here. I’m not alone. Not anymore, and I never will be now we have each other. The relief undoes me, and my laugh sounds like a sob as I take them in, alive and here andmine.
"None of that. This is a time for celebration. Not tears. Doctor Maverick says the operation was a success. He removed the tracker with no damage to your spinal nerves," Gabriel rasps. He wipes away my tears with his thumb.
Jax kisses my knuckles. "You scared a decade off my life, Sunshine."
Ronan adjusts the blanket up over my chest and rests his heavy, callused palm on my shoulder like he can anchor me to the world by touch alone. His smile lights his face despite lines of exhaustion around his eyes. "You did well. You’re so brave, Omega."
Their scents saturate the stale hospital air until all I can breathe is them. Ronan’s pine, sharp and resinous, underlaid with the leather-earth of rain and sweat. Jax’s smoked vanilla, that warmth curling out in gentle spirals, soft as dusk, safe as home. Gabriel’s citrus-brightness, a glimmer of honeyed zest and the beating heart of laughing summer. Each note threads inside me, carving new space until I am full of them. There’s no room left for fear, no room for the past, only belonging in the here and now.
Every inhale draws their truths deeper. I taste Ronan’s steadiness, his unwavering support, and the gravity of his devotion. Each note separates in my senses. Anxiety pulses beneath the surface, and the pine is rich, clear, and so honest it aches. He’s holding everything together for me. Nothing matters more to him than my comfort and my peace.
Jax radiates sweetness and warmth, his presence humming with gentle loyalty and molten tenderness. There’s patience there too. An unyielding, unhurried care. The kind that has created this safe place he’s spent weeks building with every word and every touch.
Gabriel’s brightness is pure devotion. Nothing is hidden. Nothing is held back. He is joy and hunger and reckless hope, the promise that laughter and longing can live side by side, and there is no shame in need.
My head has fought so hard with my instincts. I was too scared to believe. Too raw to trust, but they never let up. Their essences weave through flesh and spirit. Iunderstand. My Omega was right all along, humming yes in every bone andmuscle, begging me to listen. Their notes are honest. They never lied. They only waited for me to trust them.
I breathe in their scents, knowing the certainty of their love for me. Their devotion is written in every molecule.
They are mine and I am theirs.
The knowledge sits as firmly as I know night and day, and both my Omega and I agree with absolute certainty there is no future without them.
They love me.
The knowledge infuses every inch of my battered soul.
