Page 173 of Knot What I Expected

Affection.

Because the truth is, I care for this woman. I have feelings for her. And her son.

I want to fit in their world.

Gabriella is wrapped around places inside me I thought would always belong to Monster and me alone. And for the first time, letting someone that far inside doesn’t make me want to fucking run.

I don't know what the fuck I'm going to do when Monster realizes accepting me tonight doesn't mean Gabriella has agreed to every damn thing he already has planned for our future.

But I know this.

She knows what the knot means now. She knows what Omega means to me.

And when I gave her the chance to walk away from all of it, she looked straight at the monster I've spent my whole life running from and chose the male carrying him anyway.

Rowan.

Me.

And that might be the first time in my entire fucking life I've understood what it feels like to belong somewhere.

This is definitely something beyond lust.

Beyond Monster. Beyond whatever Alpha-and-Omega bullshit Fate might be working behind our backs.

Gabriella let me have her. And somehow, without realizing when the fuck it happened, I've let her have me too.

Maybe that's why I can't get close enough.

Because for the first time in my life, being wanted physically isn't enough. I want this woman to know me. And I want her to stay anyway.

I lie there with Gabriella tucked against me, her head over my heart, while my fingers move slowly through her dark hair.

Monster is silent.

Not gone. Content. For once in my entire fucking life, the bastard isn't clawing at me.

Gabby traces an absent pattern against my chest.

“Havoc?”

“Yeah, Honey Girl?”

She hesitates. I feel it immediately.

“What if you're wrong?”

My hand stills.

“About what?”

“Me being your Omega.”

I look down at her.

Vulnerability fills those amber eyes. And suddenly I understand the question beneath the question.

What if this isn't real?