Page 18 of In Knots

I cut the engine and they saunter over to the car.

Ryan leans over the door, sliding his hand around the back of my neck, his calloused fingers brushing over my gland, and kisses me. A hard, deep kiss that has my eyes fluttering shut and my body wilting.

Then he pulls away. “Hello, princess.”

The man with the buzz cut peers down at me with a sneer. “Her?” he asks, throwing his friend a disgruntled look. “We’re ditching work for her?”

My gaze flies up to Ryan’s in confusion. I don’t understand why this other alpha is here. Are Ryan’s words and his kisses all some kind of game? Leading me to think he likes me when really, he’s just playing with me. Why else would he bring his friend? Especially when his friend seems to think I am not worth the effort.

I squirm in my seat, wondering if I should just cut my losses and leave now.

“You need your eyes testing?” Ryan says to his friend, stepping away from me and waving his hand in front of the other alphas’s face.

His friend pushes his hand away. “Why are you here, little one? We’re clearly not your type. Hadn’t you better turn around and drive back to Daddy.”

“Buzz,” Ryan says with a hint of warning in his tone.

The other alpha swings his eyes back to Ryan’s as I sit frozen in my seat, feeling like a fraud, an idiot. Because he’s right isn’t he? Who do I think I am? I don’t belong with alphas like these. I could never be what they want or need.

“Seriously, mate? This girl is not for you.”

“Why not?” I hear my voice squeak before I register I’ve said the words.

“Why not?” He rests his hands on the side of my car, leaning over me. His scent is different from Ryan’s, but similar, as if they’re complimentary. All leather and dust and sweat. “I’m looking at you, Omega, and I can see you come from a completely different world from us. I see it clearly from your shiny little sports car right down to your white cotton briefs.”

I don’t know what it is, but his words poke at something brewing inside me. And for once it’s not shame or subservience. No, it’s something that’s been sitting in the pit of my stomach for as long as I can remember. Something I squashed and suppressed and silenced. But now he has brought it to life.

Anger, that’s what it is. Unadulterated, raging, furious anger.

I’m so tired of everyone making assumptions about me. Of telling me what to do. Of telling me who I am.

Don’t I get a say? Don’t I ever get a say?

“Don’t talk to her like that,” Ryan snarls, his hand slamming down hard on the other’s alpha’s shoulder. “This one doesn’t need you fucking with her like that.”

His friend simply snorts.

“You don’t know anything about me,” I say with a hiss, lifting my chin defiantly. “And what is wrong with cotton briefs anyway? Have you ever tried wearing a lace thong? Do you know how uncomfortable those things are?”

The alpha stares at me for a long moment, and then the side of his mouth twitches. “Once. I tried a pair on once.”

I stare at him as Ryan bursts into a reel of laughter. “Alexa, this is Buzz,” he says when he’s regained his breath. “He likes to pretend he’s an arsehole, but he’s alright underneath the bullshit.” I’m not convinced, but I nod. “Ahhh, come on. Buzz, tell her you’re sorry.”

“I’m sorry, your majesty,” Buzz says, taking an exaggerated bow. “I’m looking out for my friend.”

“I thought we could all hang out together,” Ryan says.

The disappointment that spins in my gut must register on my face. So I won’t have Ryan to myself, won’t be doing everything I haven’t been able to stop imagining. Not with his friend is tagging along.

“It’ll be fun,” he says, lifting my hand from the steering wheel and kissing my knuckles. “And it’s sort of how pack life goes. Pretty hard to shake my pack mates off for long.”

My jaw drops open and my gaze swings between the two of them. “Pack mate?”

Ryan cocks his head. “You … you hadn’t figured that out?”

“You didn’t tell me,” I mumble.

His thumb rubs over my knuckles as if trying to soothe me and reassure me this new piece of information is fine. Just dandy.

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