Page 71 of Knot Broken

“Not many of my friends would carry me like this,” she said with a shy smile. “Like Helena skull dragged me out of a party because I was messy drunk, but that was just the blind leading the blind.”

“I hate…” Finding the couch, I set Nadia down in the corner seat, then grabbed blankets and started wrapping them around her. “I’m just enough of an alpha to fucking hate seeing you hurt like that.” Crouching down, I finally dared to meet her gaze head on. She looked tired. “And if anyone knows what you’re going through, its me.” Taking her hand and rubbing the knuckles, I gave it a squeeze, right as Tex sat down beside her. “Now, anything you need?”

“No, I’ll be fine.”

It was Tex’s chest she rested her head on, and that made sense. His arm went around her, holding his mate close. When he started mumbling soft words, I pulled back, obviously dismissed, but before I could make for the door, Grey stopped me.

“Thanks for bringing the bills by,” he said, dropping the envelopes onto the counter. “Before you go, we need to talk.”

My eyes followed his as he looked back at Nadia, then he jerked his head towards one of the bedrooms. Following him inside, I saw that everything I’d packed was neatly put away, the suitcase squared with the wall.

“What did you want to talk about?” I asked. “About what happened, because I can talk you through what to expect as Nadia learns how to shift.”

“Don’t need that,” he said with a dismissive shake of his head. “You’ve got insights I don’t, and that’s why…” His arms crossed his chest. “You need to go and pack your own bag. For the foreseeable future, you’re staying here with us. We got Nadia into this shit.” He leaned forward, staring into my eyes. “And now we’re going to work together to get her through this.”

My mouth opened, shut, and then I found myself nodding.

“OK, yeah, I guess I can do that.”

So why did I drive too fast home, then tear around my room, finding a bag and shoving clothes in it? It’s not as if Nadia was going anywhere. Perhaps it was the wolf inside me that started pacing, pacing, the minute I left Crowe Corp. I watched grey fur prickle across my skin as I got caught in traffic on the way back, especially as I thumped the steering wheel. Finally I arrived, tapping my fingers on my thigh, much to the consternation of the people I shared the lift with, but I pushed past them when I reached the right floor, striding down the hall. A quick tap on the suite door and then I was punching the code in to open it, only to find my friends standing there, but no Nadia.

“Where…?”

I didn’t want to end that sentence, because then I’d know. If something happened when I was out. If she’d gotten stuck mid⁠—

“Psych appointment,” Tex said, pulling out a few beers from the fridge, then pushing one my way. The sound of his cracking had my own fingers moving to do the same to my beer. “Something you might want to give a go.”

“What?” I asked, looking at the two of them blankly.

“Or is it a surgeon he needs?” Tex asked Grey. “To pull his head out of his arse.”

“You said I needed to accept the fact Nadia was my mate,” Grey said, then took a sip of his beer. “Well, you might want to follow your own advice.”

“What?”

Tex shook his head with a smile.

“You keep saying that.”

“No, but…” Another sip of beer to try and clear my throat. “I’d know if Nadia was my mate. It’d hit me like a bolt out of the blue like it did you two. I’d…”

They just watched me carefully as I dropped my focus to the kitchen counter.

I’d want to be around her and only her. Nadia’s pain would be like mine. Possessive, people always talked about that.

“She’s my mate,” I said finally, and they both nodded. “So… we’re a pack?”

“Guess so,” Tex said, clapping a hand on my shoulder. “So now you’re part of whatever the hell this is, we need your help.”

“Mine?”

Gods, I sounded like a dickhead.

“You’re the only one who knows what it’s like to be a latent,” Grey said, deathly serious again. “So, what can we expect?”

Sitting down hard on a bar stool, I finished half the beer in one gulp.

“Pain,” I replied. “More fucking pain than you can imagine, so…” There was no way to talk Nadia out of doing this. Her body, her choice, I stood by that. “I went through the process mostly on my own.” I looked up finally. “Let’s do better than that for Nadia.”