Page 94 of Knot Only For One Night

“The other one is DJ. I’m sure you’ve seen him.”

I have, one time I think. He’s of Mexican descent. I think Native. He’s got longer hair too, but not as long as One Eye’s, or even Reed’s. Though it looks very thick and curls slightly at the ends. He has dark tan skin and a wonderful smile. The way he’s looking at the other two in the photo makes me smile.

“You have a beautiful Pack.”

“Thank you!” She takes her phone back and slides it into her pocket. “So do you, though I don’t know how you deal with all of them. That's so many...”

“I manage,” I say and we both giggle. Kicking rocks along as we near the small neighborhood.

“Hey! I haven’t had a chance to meet the new girl!” a voice calls as we turn around to head back towards the bar. I turn to see who it is and spot a Black woman with a gorgeous afro and wide brown eyes. She’s just a little bit taller than me, and she approaches with a friendly smile. “I’m Lacy, and so damned glad we got another younger woman here now.”

“Well, she’s not bonded in yet, so don't jump the gun too fast,” Jewels says, but Lacy waves her off.

“Only a matter of time.” She pulls me into a hug, and—fresh from my heat as I am—I have to resist the urge to nuzzle against her soft pink sweater set that is honestly cute as heck.

Wow.

“Where did you get this? I love it,” I say as she pulls away and she nods.

“I know, right? I got it from the mall! We’ll all have to go together sometime.”

“I would love that!” A smile graces my face as that feeling of finally making friends settles under my skin. We get to talking about clothes, then movies and TVshows.

I don’t have to think about what I say next or be careful of my words. I don’t have to worry about upsetting them or hiding my omega nature. I can just be. I also don't have to carry the conversation. It just goes, and I…

I wish I could have this with Penny too.

A pang of longing shoots through me. I pull my phone out, realizing I hadn’t even checked it since before my heat.

Five days I’ve been gone from the dorm, and not a single notification from Penny. Sour acid coats my stomach, but I shake it off, focusing on the messages that did come in.

I have two from my mom, four from my dads, all in the group chat. Gosh, I need to call them. (Well, mainly my mom. I'll let her share the news how she sees fit.)

The guys need to meet my parents! They’ll love them, I’m sure. My dads are cool, Mom will adore them. Especially Soren with all the jewelry he wears.

Harley, my little sister, may try to steal them from me. I laugh a bit at my phone.

“That post-heat has your phone blowing up, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah, I didn't have time to tell anybody.”

“Normally how it goes with this one,” Lacy says jokingly, punching a blushing Jewels in the arm. “She just disappears for a few days and I go, oh, her body needed some good dicking.” That has us all laughing like we’d been joking and teasing for years together.

“Do you have a mate, Lacy?” I ask and she beams.

“I do. We don’t do heats of course. We don’t have an omega, but my mate’s an alpha so we occasionally have ruts to deal with. My mate is Cobra, Asher’s boss. He’s the South Asian hottie you see around here sometimes. He’s pretty shy so he normally sticks to me.”

“That's so cute,” I say as Jewels opens the door to the Bar.

“Ahh, there are the omegas… and the extra.”

The voice makes my skin crawl, in a way I unfortunately recognize. The prospect from before. The one who has a thing against betas and thinks boundaries are suggestions.

“Kiss my ass, Cyclops.” Lacy is quick with her reply. We walk into the air-conditioned Bar. Folks start bringing chairs down and grabbing the wet floor signs. The LED lights are turned on and the shades around the windows are closed.

It’s definitely getting ready for something.

“No, thank you,” Cyclops spits, his eyes like venom on Lacy. I wonder what he's still doing here if he looks at women like this. I’ve yet to meet the Prez, AKA Reed’s dad, but I thought this MC would be different from that.