Knot the Alphas’ Feral Omega

6. Emmett

6

Emmett

I made breakfast too early the next morning. The sun had barely risen over the horizon before I was up, banging around in the kitchen and making far more noise than was strictly necessary to make breakfast for the three of us.

The four of us.

I swallowed hard as I worked to whip up an egg bake with plenty of veggies and meat. The familiar motions of whisking eggs and cutting vegetables helped to soothe some of the nervous energy buzzing underneath my skin—not all of it, though. Not when I could still smell Lilah in every molecule of air I breathed or vividly remember the sight of her spread out on top of our dining table like a buffet for the taking...

She had passed out after Oliver had made her come on his tongue, and if I had to guess, she was even more inexperienced than we had thought. Killian had said that she was a virgin—and that certainly felt like it was true, based on the tight clutch of her pussy around my finger when I was touching her—but had she ever even kissed a man before us? Had she ever fooled around with one? Had anyone other than herself ever made her come?

If the answer to those questions was no, as I suspected, last night would have been more than intense. Her fainting had worried me deeply, and we’d all agreed that she would spend the night in one of the guest rooms so we could all make sure she was okay and wasn’t going to leave and pass out again somewhere in the street.

The thought made my stomach twist unpleasantly again, and I bit back the alpha growl that wanted to escape me as I shoved the baking pan into the oven. I double-checked to make sure I had set the temperature correctly, then turned away, running a hand through my hair and grimacing when my fingers caught on the knots.

Killian was convinced that this omega was ours, that she was our scent-match, despite the unlikelihood of that being true. I couldn’t deny that a tiny part of me screamed for her, as well—that desperately wanted her to be ours, our biological match in a world where the chances of us being chosen by any omega had been almost devastatingly low in the first place.

The way that she smelled...it could be true. Couldn’t it?

A soft sound dragged my thoughts out of the increasingly desperate and dark place they were wandering, and I looked up to see Oliver walk into the kitchen, already dressed and ready for his day despite the early hour.

“Good morning,” he said distractedly.

“Morning,” I grunted.

He immediately went to the coffee pot and went through the motions of loading the machine, clearly just as lost in his thoughts as I was.

And I knew exactly where his thoughts were—the guest room, where a sweet, dark-haired omega was sleeping, entirely oblivious to the turmoil she had accidentally created in our lives.

“We need to talk about Lilah,” Oliver said, his voice crisp as he turned around, a steaming cup of coffee clutched between his hands.

My stomach swooped; I knew that expression. That was the expression that Oliver wore when he had made a decision for us as a group, and it didn’t matter what my and Killian’s opinions were on the issue—he wouldn’t be budged.

I had the feeling that I knew the decision he’d arrived at, and for the first time, the urge to push back against my Prime Alpha was strong.

“Okay,” I said carefully. I glanced at the clock and listened to the rest of the house—still quiet. Killian and Lilah were both still asleep and probably would be for a while.

“We can’t move forward with this, Em.” Oliver’s expression softened, and he stepped forward, reaching out to put his hand on my shoulder. “It wouldn’t be right.”

I reared back, my stomach twisting immediately in protest. “Says who? You?”

Oliver arched an eyebrow at my admittedly uncharacteristic protest, and he cocked his head to the side. “And the law? We don’t even know if she’s eligible to be courted yet. Just because you and Killian think—”

“Oh, don’t do that,” I interrupted, rolling my eyes.

Oliver gritted his teeth, and irritation flashed across his face before he composed himself again. “Don’t do what?”

“That.” I jabbed my finger at him, waving it around before I folded my arms over my chest, the words spilling out more than they had in years. “That bullshit martyr bit. You’re just talking out of your ass because you don’t have all the information.” I leaned a little closer. “You feel it, too. I know you do. You’re not as clever or good at hiding it as you think. Your wolf wants her. You want her.”

Oliver pressed his lips together and lifted his cup to take a sip of coffee. To an outside observer, he would appear mildly irritated but entirely calm about the conversation he and I were having.

I knew him better than that, though, and I saw how his eyes flickered towards the doorway to the dining room. The way his nostrils flared, the way that he was—oh so subtly—scenting the air, tasting the last vestiges of Lilah’s scent left there from the night before.

“Don’t lie to me,” I insisted. I hugged my arms tighter over my chest and then said, a little more softly, “I’m not wrong, am I?”

Oliver’s jaw flexed, and after a moment, he sighed. “No, you’re not,” he admitted through gritted teeth.

Vulnerability crossed his face for a moment, and I could see the longing there. Oliver wanted an omega for our pack just as badly as Killian and I did, but, being the almost painfully pragmatic alpha he was, he had convinced himself that it would never happen. And if it was never going to happen, then what was the point in wanting it in the first place?

I disagreed with his approach to the issue, but that didn’t mean I didn’t understand where he was coming from. After everything we had gone through as a pack, the way we’d had to grieve the loss of one of our own...the idea of claiming an omega was painful. I understood.

He was wrong on this one, though. I’d heard him claim Lilah the night before, the same as Killian had. It was unclear whether Lilah had heard his growled “ Mine ” before she passed out, but if she had, there was no way Oliver would get out of this without an explanation at the bare minimum.

“But that doesn’t mean...” he started.

A whisper of sound caught my ears, and Oliver’s words faded as he perked up, too. We both looked towards the door to the kitchen and a few moments later, Killian sauntered in, still wearing the soft pair of pajama pants and T-shirt he had clearly worn to bed.

And behind him, only a few feet behind, Lilah trailed, wearing a long T-shirt of Killian’s...

And nothing else.

I suppressed a groan at the sight of her bare legs and shoved the lascivious thoughts about her potential lack of underwear to the side. Lilah still looked sleepy, though she was looking at Oliver and me a lot more warily now than she had the night before.

“Good morning,” she said carefully. She glanced at Killian, who smiled at her and kissed her shoulder before he walked to the cabinet with the coffee mugs.

“Coffee, baby girl?” he asked.

She nodded almost nervously. “Yes, please.”

Killian hummed, seemingly oblivious to the tension in the kitchen, and after a moment, I couldn’t bear it anymore. I crossed the room and gently cupped her face in my hands, lifting it so I could look her in the eye. Her scent flooded my nose all over again, and it took everything I had not to pull her in for a kiss that would let me take possession of her again—properly this time. My wolf squirmed inside me, begging to be let out to play with the omega, but I ignored it as I focused on her.

“Good morning, sweetheart,” I said quietly. “Did you sleep well?”

Her eyes were clear, though a mixture of distrust and hope warred for dominance in their warm depths. She nodded, dragging her teeth across her bottom lip for a second before she offered me a small, shy smile. “Yeah, I slept okay. Thank you...for letting me stay.”

Oliver scoffed a little, and when I looked at him, I caught a glimpse of feral possessiveness on his face before he smoothed it over.

That, more than anything, proved to me that he was full of shit, trying to smoke and mirror his way— our way—out of finding out what kind of relationship we could have with this omega.

“We weren’t going to put you in a cab after...” Oliver’s cheeks flushed a little, his bashfulness making me smirk. “What we did. That wouldn’t have been right.”

Lilah swallowed, gently pulling her face away from my hands as she turned to face Oliver and then walked over. Immediately, my palms itched to touch her soft skin again, but I stepped back instead, watching carefully as she drew level with him.

“That’s admirable, but not all alphas would have thought that way. So I repeat, thank you,” she said softly.

Her hands slid up Oliver’s chest, and my cock twitched at the casual way she touched him. Oliver could be intimidating, and he had bitten the head off of more than one person who had brushed against him, even accidentally.

The way he was letting her take such casual possession of his body spoke volumes, as well as the way his pupils dilated and his eyes flashed gold as he looked down at her despite his clear efforts to keep the rest of his expression impassive.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Killian grin, and we watched as Lilah stood on her tiptoes and pressed a tender kiss to Oliver’s cheek. He let out a tiny, aggressive sound, and then we watched, stunned, as she leaned in a little more and rubbed her cheek along his jawline and neck.

She was blatantly scent-marking him.

My cock immediately hardened, and Killian let out a helpless little sound. I glanced over, and the hunger and hint of madness on his face were both relatable and concerning. We couldn’t claim this woman right here and now—there were procedures and policies that had to be followed. Oliver was right about that, at the very least.

Lilah smiled happily at Oliver, then turned and took the cup of coffee Killian offered her with a murmured “Thank you” before taking a sip, seemingly unaware of what she had just done. I didn’t think that her innocence was an act, either. If she had been honest last night, she had been designated as an omega less than a day ago. She was clearly operating on instinct, even if she didn’t understand where her urges were coming from.

And her instincts wanted us .

I swallowed, then cleared my throat, running my hand through my hair. “Lilah,” I said, taking charge of the suddenly tense atmosphere. Oliver’s gaze was fixed on her hungrily, and I could see him warring with his instincts. His eyes flickered gold and back to blue with his warring shift, and I could feel the responding urges from my wolf. It desperately wanted out.

Same, buddy.

Lilah looked at me, and I continued. “We were just...discussing...how we want to move forward with this. Clearly, last night was very impulsive, but if you’re serious...”

Killian growled and stomped over to Lilah, interrupting me. He shot me a glare that was more amusing than scary, then gently put his hands on Lilah’s shoulders as he took charge of the conversation.

“There’s a formal way we’re supposed to go around courting you, baby girl,” he said, exhibiting unusual restraint. “What we did last night isn’t exactly the right way to do things. What Emmett was saying,” he shot another glare my way before focusing back on Lilah, “is that we would like to court you. Very much. Formally or informally—however, you’ll have us.”

His earnestness was a little hasty, but that was Killian, and this time, I couldn’t even tell him that he was overstepping. I felt the exact same way that he did. I would have worded it differently, but...Lilah was ours. I could feel it deep in my gut. I knew Oliver could, too, even if he was being stubborn.

Lilah swallowed, and her eyes darted from Killian to me, then to Oliver, and then back again. Her thoughts were plain as day on her pretty face: uncertainty, longing, nervousness, arousal.

“Really?” She chewed her lower lip again and said doubtfully, “I thought maybe that was just—”

Killian interrupted again, his expression stern. “Whatever you thought, put it out of your head, Lilah. We’re serious about this. About you . If you’ll have us.”

Lilah’s lips parted, and she looked up at Killian with trepidation and longing as if he’d hung the moon, and she was afraid to ask him why he’d done it for her . It was sweet. It made me want to keep her locked up in our house so that we could show her again and again exactly how much we wanted her.

She swallowed, and then she glanced over at Oliver. She seemed to know that Oliver was the final vote on anything that would happen in the pack, and I held my breath as I waited for the stare-down between Oliver and Lilah to break.

It took ten painful seconds, but then Oliver lowered his head in a nod and let out a low growl.

“If you’ll have us, Lilah,” he said.

Lilah swallowed, then looked back at Killian with a gleam of soft excitement in her eyes. “Yes,” she whispered. “I...yes. I’d like to see where this goes.”

Killian grinned, and leaned down to press a hard kiss to her forehead. I could see the effort it took him not to sweep her up in his arms all over again, but I appreciated his restraint; last night had been a lot, and it was clear that we needed to handle this matter delicately.

“Great,” I finally said after a few seconds of meaningful silence. “I’m making breakfast. We can all eat together, and the one of us can take you home, Lilah?”

She broke Killian’s gaze and smiled at me, nodding. “Yeah, that sounds great.”