Knot That Delicate

Chapter 1

M y legs burned and my chest ached. I could have been moving for hours or days, for all I knew. Everything hurt, and there was nothing but forest surrounding me.

I had been running for so long.

The cold was settling in, chilling me to the core. It had been raining heavily for several days now, and I was shivering violently. I had run away from a psychopath, and I was still running, the fear of him finding me pushing me to keep moving forward.

Alec had been a childhood friend, a beta. He had decided I was his soulmate. He thought I was the perfect little omega for him, so he had decided to keep me—for years—in a basement .

I could never go back.

So, I ran.

With the help of a good friend, I managed to escape. I had only met Lavender recently, but she and I quickly became friends. She had been braver than me and had stabbed Alec so we could get away.

That’s how I found myself struggling through the woodland in the pitch black, trying desperately to find help.

Her friendship had been a reprieve from the last five years of nightmares—a connection to my old life because she knew Kane. My big brother had been my rock before I was taken, and I desperately needed to find him again. Only, I had been running for so long, and I was starting to worry that I would never get home.

Lavender had encouraged me to run towards the city, but at some point, I must have gotten turned around, because after all my running, there was still no city in sight. All that I could see for miles was pitch-black woodland. My heart was pounding in my throat, but I kept moving forward.

Eventually, I had to find civilisation…

Right?

Branches scraped against my arms, and my limbs were on fire from so much exertion. I hadn’t briskly walked somewhere in five years, let alone ran, so my body wasn’t doing well, but, still, I was powering forward. My chest burned, my lungs fit to explode.

My legs finally reached their limit, shaking violently as they gave out. I collapsed at the base of a tree, taking several deep, sobbing breaths. The bark scraped my palms as I clung to the tree trunk. My flimsy, frilly dress—the kind Alec always made me wear—and the delicate school girl shoes did nothing to protect me from the weather. The cold was setting into my very bones, and I started to tremble violently.

I didn’t survive several years living in the basement of a madman just to die from exposure to the elements. Running my hand through my hair, I looked around. Everywhere was dark. There were no sources of light other than…a small glow.

There was a small light.

It was small, but it was a light. Or possibly a firefly, though I didn’t believe fireflies would come out in the dark while it was raining. Because they’d drown…maybe.

As I crouched at the base of the tree, I ripped off my headband and a few other items, like the top skirt of the stupid frilly dress. Alec was so obsessed with princess-style clothing, he had never thought about what I wanted. Then again, he was a psychopath who kidnapped girls, so he wasn’t exactly of sound mind.

Leaning against the tree, I took several deep breaths, doing my best to ignore the sting of the rain pelting down on my skin. Each raindrop felt like a stab of ice. I needed to get home. I needed to get up. And I needed to move. If I stayed at the base of that tree, I probably wouldn’t survive the night. My body was already so weak from what I’d endured under Alec's reign. Hell, it had been years since I’d been able to walk more than a few feet in any one direction. I was surprised my body wasn’t going into full shock from this. Hypothermia was a serious risk.

I wanted to sob. To cry for everything that had been ripped from me. The suffering was never-ending. All I wanted was to be warm and comfortable, but it had been so long. If I could just fight for a little longer, I’d make it. I had survived five years of imprisonment; I could survive a few more days now that I was free.

With one last deep breath, I hauled myself to my feet, ignoring the way my legs shook as I took a step towards that glimmering light. Maybe it was a vehicle or a cabin or someone who could help me. My heart pounded uncomfortably. But what if it was Alec? What if he had caught Lavender and was now coming to find me? There was no guarantee she’d escaped. I hoped like hell that she had managed to escape.

She had seemed like such a sweet and sassy woman. Well-matched to my brother, if they really were together. Lavender had said that my brother was looking for me, and I believed that wholeheartedly.

On weak legs, I slowly made my way towards the source of light I could see in the distance. I made it about halfway towards the light before my legs gave out again, and I hit the ground. My body was caked in mud, and I probably looked a complete state. I sobbed—my body was betraying me. After so long in a basement, it was understandable that I couldn’t do much, but I loathed myself for it. I needed to be free.

“Hello?” a strange voice spoke out from my left.

I jumped.

I didn’t know the voice.

It wasn’t Alec. He had a certain slimy tone when he spoke that was impossible to miss. I turned my head towards the voice and saw an alpha. Tall, a lot taller than me, also a lot better built. His neck was probably as wide as my thigh. Logically, I should have been terrified. This was a complete stranger wandering around in the woods in the middle of the night.

“Who the hell are you?” I asked, but my voice was thin and pathetic. All the strength had been sapped from my body. For all I knew, he was part of a rescue team…or he was a psychopath, living out in the woods, who would strangle me. I’d had enough brushes with psychopaths to last a lifetime, but it would be just my luck that I would end up in the clutches of a second nutter right after fleeing the first.

“Who am I?” he asked with a frown. “I think I should be asking you that. You’re the one wandering around in the middle of the woods, clearly lost, dressed like a freaking princess.”

I glowered at him. That nickname was not one I enjoyed. “I’m not a princess,” I snapped.

He cocked an eyebrow at me. “It sure looks like it from here, princess, though you are a little dirtier than I would expect. Did you get lost looking for your glass slipper?”

“Now really isn’t the time,” I snarled. Whoever this man was, he was infuriating. Even though I should have been filled with joy at finding another human, he still managed to irk me. “You're not really showing much concern for my situation, are you?”

"Well, considering you could be a poacher on my land, then yeah, I'm not really that concerned with how you ended up here, princess," he said, giving me a cocky look.

"Do I look like a poacher to you?" I asked, indicating my destroyed clothing.

He tilted his head to the side as he took me in. "No, you don't," he admitted. "Where the hell did you come from?" It was dark, so he probably couldn’t see quite how dismal a state I was in.

I took a deep breath. My head was pounding, and my body ached, but I wasn't sure if I should tell him or not.

"I e-s-caped," I stuttered.

He made a sound of confusion. "What do you mean, you escaped?" he asked.

"I ran away from someone. I... I don't know how far away.”

The alpha cursed and pulled a torch out of his pocket, shining a light on me. "Shit," he cursed when he saw just how bad I looked—the cuts on my hands, the bruising to my face, my torn clothing. Most of the damage had been invisible in the dark, so he’d only seen a woman in a frilly dress.

"Who the fuck did this to you?" he asked, lurching towards me.

I instinctively shuffled back, even though there was a tree behind me. I didn't want anyone near me. His face was even more concealed in darkness now that he had a torch tracked on me.

"I just need help," I said. "I want to get out of here and get back to my brother. He lives in the city. Can you help me?" I begged.

"What city? We’re far away from any civilisation," he said.

"Where is the nearest city?" I asked.

"From here?" he said. "That’s Lemming. That’s probably a five-hour drive. We're in the middle of nowhere."

"Fuck." I had no idea where Lemming was, and I needed to find my family, fast. I didn't know if I could trust this alpha in front of me. "How far away is the nearest hospital?"

"You're not gonna be able to get there," he said. "The storm's been coming in hard and fast; there are mudslides everywhere. You need medical attention."

"No shit, Sherlock," I snarled, trying to run my hand through my hair, only for it to tangle in the knotted strands. Despite my terror, I leaned into that small spark of anger—rage was a lot better than weakness.

"My cabin is nearby. One of my pack members was a medic. He can help you," he said, giving me a pleading look.

"No. I don't want to go anywhere with a strange man," I cried, batting away the hand he reached out towards me.

The alpha looked around and gave a grunt of displeasure. "What’s your name?"

I shook my head, unwilling to give him the power of my name.

"My name is Carter. I live about ten minutes from here. I've also got an ATV that we can ride back on. I don't want to scare you, but there's no way you're getting out of these woods without some help."

"I have help. My family will find me," I insisted.

Carter frowned at me. "Are you sure about that?" he asked. "There's no one around for miles. We would know about it. The most I've heard about something happening is over in Wickwood, which is four hours away," he said with a frown.

That could have been us. I had been running for so long. "I'm just so tired," I admitted. I leaned back against the tree and closed my eyes for a moment.

"Hey, you don't look like you're doing too well. You can't close your eyes right now," he said.

Before I could open them, I felt his hands on me, and my eyes shot open. Crouched in front of me, he was assessing me with his torch, looking over every cut and bruise. The low lighting made it hard to fully appreciate his appearance, but I could tell his brow was furrowed with concern.

"Leave me alone," I said, lightly shoving at him.

"I won't be doing that," he said. "I would rather not have a corpse on my land. That would lead to a lot of questions, and if you don't get out of the cold soon, you're going to get hypothermia."

I tried to push him away, but I had no strength left in my body. It was like he was being pushed by a dandelion instead of a fully grown woman.

"Come on, darling." He picked me up with ease, carrying me bridal-style out of the woodland, despite my protests.

"Put me back," I insisted weakly. I didn't want to be here; I wanted to be at home.

But sitting at the base of a tree in the pouring rain felt safer than being carried off by a strange man. What if I had just sealed my fate for another several years under a house in a dusty basement with no sunlight?

"Please don't lock me away," I whimpered.

I didn't know if Carter had heard me, but he shushed me gently as he carried me. He smelled delicious—like fresh salty air. The ocean. Beach days. I had grown so used to Alex's acidic, rotten stench that Carter was a welcome surprise. Even though I was scared and didn't know what was going on, his scent was comforting, unwinding that knot of fear that had been bundled deep in my chest for years. As he carried me through the woods, I buried my nose in his neck and inhaled deeply.

"I don't want to be in the dark," I murmured into his neck. "Please don't leave me in the dark."

My body rocked with sobs as he shushed me and cooed. A vibration started to emanate from his chest, and my entire body felt languid. He was purring. I sighed in happiness, and despite all of my pain, everything felt a little bit better.

An alpha's purr was significantly potent, especially to an omega—even more so to a fragile omega. And given everything I had been through, I was extremely fragile.