Page 81 of Knot Broken

“You were allowed to bail when things got too much for you.” Her words were like a punch to the gut and I leaned into the blows, craving the pain. “Well, I’m doing the same.”

Follow her! the wolf snapped. Beg for forgiveness. Tell her how unworthy you are and hope she deigns to keep you around.

But I couldn’t.

Nadia was right. We took space because we needed it and she was doing the same, so the wolf was forced to concede ground.

“That went about as well as I thought it would.” Ethan shook his head. “Are we going to talk about this, come up with a battle plan, or just muddle through, fucking things up even worse than we have already?”

“What. Plan?” I growled.

My heart didn’t want this. Plans were things my wolf laughed in the face of, right as he did exactly as he pleased.

“The plan where the three of us pull together and help Nadia through an agonisingly painful process,” Ethan stated bluntly. “Where you get it together enough to stay in the room and use all of that strength of yours to help her, not leave her to suffer. Where Tex stops thinking he can kumbaya his way through every damn thing.”

“What did you do?” I snapped at Tex.

“Pretty much what Ethan said.” Seeing the man’s eyes drop to the floor was a novel sight. “I didn’t think it would be that bad. Nadia’s an omega. She was born to shift, so I don’t get why its so hard.”

“I do.” Ethan’s smile was utterly mirthless. “Unfortunately educating the two of you is going to be my role in all of this. I confessed to Nadia what she is to me.”

“During her attempted shift or afterwards?” I asked.

“After. Still shitty bloody timing and honestly, I’m expecting her to reject the bond.” Ethan’s back straightened as he looked at us. “But no matter what, I’ll be right there by her side, helping her in any way I can, until she tells me to piss off. So, are you lot in?”

The note of challenge in his voice was what had my back stiffening, but then his words sank in. Forced to pause, I considered the idea.

“I never wanted to walk out,” I said. “It took everything I had. While Nadia fought her wolf, I did the same with mine, because he was utterly determined to mark our mate there and then.”

“Shit…” Ethan hissed.

“If you can think of some way for me to keep my fangs to myself while supporting our mate through this, then…” I considered each man. “I’m in. Of course, I’m in.”

“You’re the only one who’s got some kind of understanding of what’s going on,” Tex said with a nod, “so yeah, Golden Boy, hit us with whatever you’ve got. Can’t be any worse than what’s already happened.”

“You’d think that.” Ethan scrubbed at his face. “Well, imagine the worst pain you’ve ever been in and then times that by a thousand…”

Everything he said confirmed what I suspected. Each word was like a slap to the face, but I bore it. If that’s what it took to help Nadia, I’d submit to it, over and over again. She might not choose me, might not be able to forgive me walking out, but that didn’t change what was required of me. When she finally took fur, when her wolf had me in her sights, she’d either trot over and shove her nose in my hand, or she’d turn tail and run, out of my life forever.

I just had to wait and see what she would choose.

Chapter 38

Nadia

“Those dickheads,” Helena sighed. “On the one hand, its kinda depressing that even fated mates would be this dumb. On the other hand, my FOMO has evaporated completely.”

“Glad I could be of assistance,” I said wryly.

“OK, girl, so do you need me to listen to you rant more or are we in fixing shit mode? Because I’ve got some ideas.”

I found myself smiling, my eyes squinting against the afternoon sun.

“I’m slightly terrified to ask this, because how do you propose we fix this shit?”

“Firstly, do you still want to stay in that suite? If you need me to break you out of Crowe Corp, I can hijack a laundry truck, smuggle you out in a bag of dirty sheets.”

“You watch too many movies,” I said. “Also, ew.” My shoulders sagged, then I looked down at the ticking pump attached to my belt. “No rescue missions needed. I can leave whenever I want, start taking suppressants, and go back to my old life.”