Page 200 of Knot What I Expected

My breath catches.

One tiny kiss.

That's all it is. And somehow it feels more intimate than half the things we did last night.

His eyes meet mine briefly.

“Whatever it was,” he murmurs, “I like that it made you smile.”

I am so fucked.

I look out the window because suddenly my eyes sting.

The mountains rise around us, enormous and beautiful, autumn touching the trees while sunlight slips between the branches in warm golden streaks.

And somewhere ahead is Rowan's cabin.

His world.

His Crew.

A weekend I never expected to want this badly.

My fingers remain tangled with his.

Soon I’m going to tell him everything. No more half-truths. No more hiding. And maybe Rowan will decide my past is too dangerous.

Maybe he'll realize having an Omega isn't the same thing as wanting Gabriella Santos with all her secrets and scars and baggage.

But when his thumb strokes over my hand again, the matebond answers with that warm, firelight glow.

And for the first time, another possibility takes root beside the fear.

Maybe he won't care what I am.

Maybe he'll care about who I am.

Maybe the Fates only brought us to the same place. And everything that comes next?

Maybe that's ours to choose.

Chapter 22

Havoc

I don’t do birthday parties.

I definitely don’t do fucking themed birthday parties.

And yet somehow, by the time I pull into the clearing between our cabins, there are strings of little white lights hanging from the trees, music playing from somewhere, enough food to feed a small army, and a banner stretched across the front of Wreck’s cabin that says: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GIA!

There are even fucking balloons.

I stare at them through the windshield.

“What the fuck?”

Beside me, Gabby laughs. The sound slides right through me.