Page 78 of Knot So Lucky
"I'm tiptoeing around this shit because I don't want to ruin this for you," he admits, eyes squeezed shut like the confession is being pulled from somewhere deep and painful. "You've patiently waited for a pack. For someone who's actually your scent match instead of just... compatible. So I can't interfere with that."
He takes a shuddering breath.
"But fuck, Aurora. I love you far too much to just let go."
The admission hangs in the air between us, heavy with implication.
I love you.
Words we've never said. Never dared to say because saying them makes this real, makes it more than just casual fucking and complicated friendship.
My heart does something complicated in my chest—squeezing and expanding simultaneously.
"Why do you have to let me go?" I murmur, searching his grey eyes for answers.
He pulls back slightly, confusion written across his features.
"What?"
"Why do you have to let me go?" I repeat, voice stronger now. "Who said anything about letting go?"
"Rory—" He starts using my alias, then catches himself. "Aurora. They're your scent match."
"And?"
The single word challenge hangs between us.
"And I'mnot," Cale says, like this should be obvious. "I'm not your scent match. My pheromones don't call to yours on that biological level. I can't give you what he can give you."
"So?" I tighten my grip on his collar, refusing to let him retreat into self-pity. "Just because you're not scent-matched doesn't mean you can't also be an Alpha in my pack."
Cale stares at me like I've grown a second head.
"That's not how it works," he says slowly. "Packs are built around scent matches. The biological compatibility. I'm not in a pack myself, and they're not going to let some random Alpha join theirs just because you ask nicely."
"Why not?"
The simple question clearly catches him off guard.
His mouth opens. Closes. Opens again as he searches for arguments that don't materialize.
I take advantage of his silence to reach up, stroking his cheek with the gentleness he rarely allows himself to receive. My thumb traces the sharp line of his jaw, feeling the tension there.
"If I say we're a two-in-one deal," I whisper, holding his gaze, "what's the worst that can happen?"
"I could—" He swallows hard. "You could lose your pack. They could refuse to accept me, and you'd have to choose."
I smirk, the expression feeling natural despite the heavy conversation.
"If I lose my pack because they won't accept someone I care about, then they weren't meant to be my pack anyway."
Cale processes this, emotions flickering across his face too fast to catalog.
Fear and hope and desperate longing all tangled together.
"Only if it's not problematic," he finally says, but there's less resistance in his voice now. "I'm not going to be the reason you lose something important."
I laugh—quiet and a bit breathless but genuine. "Youloveproblematic shit."
