Page 11 of Knot Broken

When we’d found out what Good Vibes actually did, we’d all had a little chuckle. Away from the client, of course, because Brendan talked about his job very seriously. I’d nodded along, taken his advice on what were calming, centering colours and had a palette for him to approve before close of business that day.

But it wasn’t paint colours I was focussed on right now.

“There’s no freaking way a hot little omega like that would be paying someone to have sex with her,” Tex rumbled.

“But it makes sense.” Grey nodded as I started to put two and two together. “She walked into the office, took one look at you, and was down to fuck…”

“Shit,” Tex said.

Shit, indeed.

“What’s his bloody number?” He had his phone in his hand and was scrolling through the contacts. “Brandon? Bronson?”

“Brendan,” Grey and I said at the same time.

We all stared at the screen, no doubt thinking about what we were about to do. This was unprofessional at best and kinda stalkery at worst, so why did Tex punch the green call button? Because whatever the fuck just happened in that office space, I knew we wanted, no, needed more of it. The wolf surprised me, because I felt it pace back and forth inside me as the phone buzzed.

“Good Vibes Sexual Health Services,” a male voice said smoothly when the call went through. “Brendan speaking.”

“Brendan, mate, it’s Tex.” A silence followed that. “I’m one of the blokes working on your new office space?”

“Oh, right, sorry, Tex. I thought you were a client and wasn’t putting a face to a name. What can I do for you?”

“Ahh, this is probably a bit of a dodgy thing to ask…” Tex shot me a sidelong look and I nodded in encouragement. “But we had a girl, sorry, woman, come into the office today.”

“Was it one of our clients?” he asked. “Shit. That’s happened a few times. Our receptionist changed our email signatures to reflect the new address a little too quickly, and it’s causing some issues.”

“She might’ve been.” Tex’s voice grew deeper and as I stared, I saw the wolf push forward. “Little thing. Brown hair, brown eyes, and about 5’9.”

“Right.”

Brendan’s tone changed abruptly.

“Look, you knew that me and my crew were alphas when you hired us, right?”

“I did.”

“Well, I’ve got reason to believe she’s someone important to me.” His throat bobbed and while he reached for his beer with his free hand, he didn’t take it. “Real important. She left before I could get her contact details and⁠—”

“I can’t give them to you. Not only would it be completely inappropriate, it’s against the law for health care professionals to share details without patient authorisation.”

“She’s my fated mate,” Tex growled.

“Then you have to trust that fate will bring you back together. Goodbye.”

We all just sat there, staring at the screen. The silence stretched on and on, because there were no shitty jokes to fill it this time.

“He’s right.” Grey always had weirdly pale eyes, but they fairly glowed because all colour had left his face. “If we… you’re fated to be together, then you have to wait for her to walk back into your life.”

Turns out we didn’t have to wait all that long.

The next few weeks sucked. Every single time someone walked into the office, I watched Tex’s face light up, thinking it was the omega returning. It wasn’t. The bloke was a chaotic presence on a work site, always cracking jokes and leaving a mess, but each time it turned out to just be some delivery guy or a hardware supplier, it was like a flame spluttered inside him.

I met him and Grey in this very building years ago, when the three of us were still kids. While all the other boys eyed me suspiciously, Tex walked over with a big grin. Challenging me to a PvP session on one of the game consoles, he’d set me at ease instantly. He was the one who got Grey out of his bad moods, even if half the time Tex was the reason he was mad in the first place. There was no sign of that man now. The work site had never been so orderly, and for some reason that just felt wrong.

Which meant something needed to be done.

“Bloody toast.” On the final day at Good Vibes, I walked into a haze of smoke that was pouring out of the toaster. Tex stomped around our kitchen, switching the appliance off at the wall, then opening the windows and putting the fan on to blow the smoke outside. “Stupid damn thing.”