Knot the Alphas’ Feral Omega

24. Emmett

24

Emmett

I sat against the wall, watching Killian lay on the ground, his eyes tracking Lilah as she walked around his room.

It had been three days since Lilah had come home to us, since her trauma response had reverted her to wolf form and sent her into a tailspin of ferality and intense, fear-driven aggression. No matter how much he tried, Killian hadn’t been able to coax her back to human form, and I was starting to lose hope.

I’d taken some time off from work, which was easy enough, considering this was the first time I’d taken time off since I started working for my company. Not that it would have mattered, even if they hadn’t wanted to give me the time; I would have just stopped showing up, employment be damned. I could always find another job.

We couldn’t find another omega—Killian and I completely agreed on that, despite my reservations and fears that we wouldn’t be good enough to help her in the way she needed.

I took a deep breath, breathing in the warmth of Lilah’s combined sweet scent and animal nature. It stirred something inside of me, and I let out a low huff of air before looking up at Killian again.

“Kill. I’m not sure...” I swallowed when he looked my way, my hands curling into fists on top of my knees. “I’m not sure if this is working,” I finished after a few seconds.

Killian shook his head and looked back at Lilah without responding to me. He had long since stopped responding to my “negative” attitude about Lilah.

I was just trying to be realistic, and as much as I ached for Lilah to be okay, my initial thoughts when she first came home seemed true. We weren’t equipped to deal with her when she was like this.

But we couldn’t let her leave, either. Killian certainly wouldn’t, and I was nearly certain that Oliver would lose his shit if she was gone again—despite his role in making sure that she was gone in the first place. As for me...

Fuck. I didn’t want to think what I would do if she was gone.

Lilah looked my way as she paced around in another little circle, a flicker of awareness in her animal eyes before they flattened again. Despite my negative attitude, there were signs that Lilah was starting to return to herself a little —there were tiny hints of the person she was behind her eyes when we said something or when she looked at one of us.

Then she bared her teeth and let a snarl rip through the air, and a string of drool dripped from her parted lips before landing on one of her feet, and she resumed her pacing around as frustration and mild despair flooded me.

This was useless. This was infuriating . This was...

“Lilah.”

She stopped pacing at Killian’s soft word and swung her head over to look at him with a low growl. The sound didn’t stop vibrating towards him as he approached and cautiously reached out with one hand to lay it on top of her head.

She jerked, but Killian didn’t let her pull away. I watched with mild bemusement as he leaned close to her, his eyes intense on her animal face behind his glasses. He frowned a little, then carefully stroked her ears, making them flick with irritation just for a second before she seemed to relax slightly.

“There you go,” he encouraged softly. A small smile touched his lips, and I eyed the small scar on the back of his hand where Lilah’s bite mark had already healed. Shifter perks.

I just knew she would feel horrible about hurting him as soon as she came back to herself—but she had to come back to herself first.

Lilah snapped her teeth softly at him as he leaned even closer, but there was little aggression behind the gesture this time, unlike all the others. Killian leaned a little closer, his eyes searching her face. Whatever he saw there must have made him happy because he scooted closer until her front paws touched his knees, and he could gently cup her snout with his hand.

“Come on, baby girl,” he murmured, his eyes not leaving her face even for a second. “You can do this. I know you can. You need to come back to us so we can take care of you. So we can fix this.”

A moment passed, and nothing happened. I couldn’t help the frustrated whine that escaped me —a foreign sound, so much more like an omega than an alpha, which surprised me—and Killian’s eyes flicked over my way before he returned his attention to Lilah. She wasn’t growling anymore, just looking at him with a gentle cock to her head, and her tail swished back and forth a little as they stared at each other.

It wasn’t quite a tail wag, but it was calmer than we’d seen her in days.

A low growl rumbled through Killian, though it wasn’t as aggressive as Lilah’s growls had been for days. She growled right back—still aggressive and angry, sweet omega—but Killian closed his eyes and breathed, exuding calm far better than I’d ever seen him do.

”It’s okay. You’re safe. Come back to me. Just breathe and think how good it’ll feel to walk on two legs again. Breathe. Shift for me.”

Killian continued to murmur soft, soothing words to her and barely flinched when he stroked his hand under her snout, and her head darted out to clamp around his wrist again. He didn’t say or do anything about the attack; he just waited patiently, and after a moment, she released him again. This time, though, I didn’t see any new marks on his wrist beyond a slight indent from her teeth; she hadn’t broken the skin.

A surge of hope filled me, and I kneeled up, crawling across the room until I was close behind Lilah—within touching distance for the first time since she came home. Killian’s eyes flicked over to me, a hint of approval in them before they returned to Lilah’s face, and he clicked his tongue softly, drawing her attention again.

“Emmett is here, too, baby. Come on, you can do this for us. Just breathe.” He stroked his hand over the top of her head, and after a moment, I reached for her as well. Her fur was soft under my fingertips, and her eyes darted over to me as I stroked her back, holding mild suspicion before a flicker of recognition.

There you are .

“Come on, Lilah,” I said softly. “We want to help you. But we can’t do that when you’re like this. Help us.”

She looked at me for another moment, and then her eyes settled back on Killian, just for a moment. Her teeth pulled back in another snarl, and my heart leaped into my throat. I was prepared to wrap my arms around her and subdue her again if that was what it took, but...

Before my hands could do more than flinch where they were pressed against her back, she shifted, and suddenly, my hands were pressed against warm flesh again instead of fur.

“Oh, fuck. Baby.” Killian’s voice was drenched with relief, and Lilah wobbled on her hands and knees for a moment before she slumped forward, tumbling into Killian’s arms with barely a whimper.

“ Fuck. ” I collapsed forward as well, wrapping my arms around Lilah’s naked body and pinning her between the two of us as I buried my face in her neck. Her sweet scent—all human, all warm, soft omega, now—filled my nose, and I let out a small, broken little sound as she trembled between us.

“K-Killian?” Her voice was soft, raspy, and so quiet that I had to strain my ears to hear her. “Emmett?”

“We’re here, baby,” Killian said immediately. He stroked his hands up and down her arms, his fingers brushing against me every now and then, and he pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “We’re here. You’re okay.”

“What...” She swallowed thickly, her voice a little dazed and confused. “What...happened...?”

“You had an episode when we came back to the house,” Killian said, his voice gentle but clear and firm. “You had a hard time. You’ve been in wolf form for the last three days.”

“Oh.” Her voice was faint, and she shivered even more in my arms. “Are...is...”

Killian and I both stiffened, knowing implicitly what it was that she was asking. My mind cast out for Oliver, only feeling a little bad that he wasn’t here to experience this with us.

He had been scarce in the three days we had been in this room, though I knew he’d been around the house. I was sure it was killing him not to be able to be in here and fix this. I didn’t have to look him in the eye to know that his guilt was probably eating him alive, but a tiny, petty part of myself thought he deserved this time in the doghouse before he started trying to make things right.

When neither of us spoke, Lilah relaxed a little and sighed. She buried her face in Killian’s chest, and he sighed, tucking his cheek against the top of her head.

“Cold,” she mumbled, squirming a little.

Killian nodded, shooting a glance at me before we both broke away. “I’ll get you some clothes, baby,” he said gently. “Then we should lay down. You need some rest.”

As he stood and crossed over to his dresser, Lilah looked at me, and the mildly fearful and dull look in her eyes broke my heart a little. I reached out and caressed her cheek, and she leaned into my touch. ”It’ll be okay,” I murmured. It was the only thing I could think to say.

She sank her teeth into her lower lip, just for a moment, then nodded. “Okay,” she whispered.

She didn’t sound convinced, and admittedly...neither was I.

But we had to try.