Knot Without You: An Omegaverse Romance

Chapter 43

Chapter

Forty-Three

The door swings open and Tyson’s conversation about transferring hospitals stops mid-sentence as his attention moves to his brother. I follow his gaze and let out a sweet sigh at the sight.

“I gather you two hooking up is more than a heat thing then?” King flicks his chin at Steel and Maverick’s interlinked hands, and I squeeze my eyes shut for a second at King’s usual subtlety.

“That a problem?” Steel bristles, swiping his hair off his face like he’s getting ready to argue.

And Steel’s knee-jerk reaction has King laughing harder. He pretends it takes a while to get himself together even holding on to the bench. Of course, it’s an act but it’s a lesson too. “Steel, you need thicker fucking skin than that if you’re gonna start telling people you like to take it up the ass.”

“Oh my god, King.” I close my eyes and shake my head, letting him know to take a fucking chill-pill.

“Just used to people being pricks is all. Nothing out of the ordinary here,” Steel deadpans. “If anything, I’m waiting for you to come gunning at me ’cause of who I’m with.”

King looks at Steel like he’s impressed with his confidence for a second before winking at him, “Come on, Steel. Use a bit of conviction in your voice, stand fucking taller, when you talk about swallowing cock. You’re an Alpha, right?”

Steel’s feet shuffle as King keeps winding him up. “That’s what pack does; you know. They let you know when you’re doing good in life and they also tell you when you need to lift ya fucking game. I got nothing but respect, but you’re still doubting your own decision by the way you’re acting. I’d have stabbed you in the chest for disrespect by now.”

“King!” I climb off Tyson’s lap on my way to shove my hand over my Alpha’s mouth to stop him talking, “You clearly forgot the first part, there was no lead in, nothing. Just you being…”

I lose track of what I was going to say when King gives me the look. But he’s also on a roll so he keeps drawing me into his trap, “Just me being what, killer?”

Stomping my foot, I jab my finger at him. “You!”

Weirdly I do get where he is coming from, and it’s actually a good place but he needs to learn a little bit of… ah, who am I kidding, it is King. He’ll always be his over-the-top dominant, not so charming self.

King winks at me, a big smile on his face growing the more he watches me. “All I was saying is he’s gotta be more convincing in his delivery and not let people’s judgement make him doubt who he is.” King swings around to face Steel again, “I don’t give a shit. Good on you for manning up but grow a fucking set. Jesus, in the real world all someone needs to do is rib you just a bit and you’re going to water all the while someone is ripping my Omega from under your nose.”

“King… how did we get there?” I laugh at the absurdity of his logic. Some days it’s near impossible to keep up with how this man thinks.

Behind me Tyson stands, placing his hand on my lower back probably feeling my antsy mood and trying to soothe it away. “It’s an easy jump, Tristan. And I see where King is coming from.Like him, I assess risks and outcomes but we vocalise them differently.” Unlike King though, Tyson walks to his brother and wraps his arms around him to hug the living daylights out of him, before doing the same to Maverick.

“Congrats.” He smiles before the happy go-lucky look falls from his face and he steps in their space again. “Next time you both don’t fill me in on a pretty fucking important development that impacts our pack, I will have issues. I should have been told. I never would have done anything but support you.”

“Jesus, Tyson, settle down,” Steel hisses. “What is it with you being so on the edge? What happened?”

“It’s not knowing that sort of thing that puts us at risk, Steel. You know how manipulative Rex is.”

“Says you.” Steel’s eyes fly to me.

And Steel directly referencing me as Tyson’s secret pisses Tyson off even more, making him rumble a low warning towards his brother.

Steel’s mood snaps, all his warmth evaporates. He takes a step closer, right up into Tyson’s face. “I do fucking know. I know better than you. I know better than Mav. I know what a cock Rex is and what he is capable of, so, fuck you for being a prick.”

And before I know it, I’m in the middle of a sibling squabble, using my hand on each of their chests to keep them from going to blows. “Settle down or King really will lose his shit. We’ll all be made to sit in the corner like naughty kids,” I whisper loudly. Smiling encouragingly, because I think I’m being funny, but I’m also hoping my bad joke will be enough to break the surging tension.

“Killer!” King’s Alpha bark ricochets through the cabin, making me compliant within a heartbeat. “Ass here now!” There is nothing I can do to stop my feet moving at a million miles an hour until I am next to him. And then he makes my head spin trying to keep up with him again.

“Ohhh.” He grins evilly, looking down at where his thumb trails over his claim. “I like how you’re even more responsive to me now.”

I get lifted up and put on the island bench between all the food and him. It’s no surprise he puts me on the other side, further away from them. His body becomes an impenetrable wall, shielding me from the others. I guess it’s no real surprise because King being overly protective and possessive is nothing new.

“Once you’re all done, I need a hand,” King calls before snatching a knife out of my hand, glaring a warning at me. “We’ve got an annoying mate to cook for.”

Tyson apparently isn’t done though, and he ignores King’s attempt at moving on from the situation he caused in the first place. I twist around my protective detail to watch Tyson. “Steel, I’m sorry. I had no right to have a go like that. I know you’ve done things I don’t know about to keep me, Mav, and the girls safe. But things are different now.”

Steel nods once at Tyson’s apology before scrubbing his hand down his face. “I get it. But tone down the little bro thing, it’s going to get old quick.” And then he’s done, he’s back to being himself. I can see it in the way his shoulders relax, I can scent it in the air, which again confirms both how close Steel and his brother are but also how small the cabin is. His butterscotch scent is on its way to being normal again now that everyone is over being loud and aggressive.

“Do I take it you’ve decided to do this?” Tyson swirls his hand around the room, clearly meaning us being together.

“I’m thinking about it more than I was a few days ago. Tristan and I are working together on a few things and she’s good being my WIP.” Steel smirks.

Which in turn makes both Maverick and Tyson smile in relief and hope. And it’s like a sweet movie moment, except with happy Alphas, and brand-new pack connections that I can actually feel. And the connections I have with Tyson do unexpected things to my body like making my panties soak in seconds.

King takes an overly exaggerated lean my way with a noisy inhale for a few minutes before making a low humming noise of appreciation in the back of his throat. The sound rumbles through me like a caress, hitting me right in the core.

“Well, that’s new, isn’t it?” He growls without looking at me, going back to cutting up a pile of steak.

The others talk quietly between themselves, laughing too. Each time they do, I relax but I also get a growing sense of the dynamics of our pack. Which is freaking weird, the concept I mean. Only days ago, I was coming here for a secret getaway with my Alpha and all of a sudden I’m claimed and have part of a pack, with the other Alpha talking about joining us. It’s a good place to be. A very good place to be.

Maverick is the first to join us in the kitchen, but he doesn’t take the spot King has set up. Instead he grabs the chopping board and bowl and puts them on my lap before sliding me over the bench to make room right in front of me. And then he clasps his hand over the back of my neck and draws me close to lick his way into my mouth, giving me a slow, sensual kiss that leaves me squirming on the counter. He pulls away way too soon.

“How come you let me live after hearing me crack on to your girl?” Maverick asks conversationally to King while cutting the vegetables I hand him.

“I couldn’t give a shit either way. Honestly, I’m comfortable knowing I’ve got this woman forever. If Tris didn’t want you around, it would have been a different story.” But then King is wicked fast and jabs the knife in the chopping block, inches from Mav’s fingers. “Can’t figure out for the life of me why you haven’t gone to chat with the photographer cunt who touched her, given you’re her scent-match Alpha and you’re working in the industry and all.”

Maverick’s body ripples with tension, his blackberry sweetness sours as he looks for answers in my eyes. When I’m not that forthcoming, he turns slightly to King without taking his focus off me. “What photographer?”

King hums again, and where before it was sultry and smooth, now it’s acidic and full of derision. “You might need to start being a bit more direct when asking those questions. You need me to show you how?”

I gasp. “King! Jesus, we had stuff going on. I wasn’t going to involve Maverick.”

“Everything takes a back fucking seat if you ain’t safe. And I’ve told you time and time before.”

“Who?” Maverick snaps. And this question is aimed at me. He’s never used any sort of Alpha influences besides his scent on me, and it’s not what I’m used to from him.

But I’m also not about to give any of my Alphas an inch—these bossy bastards will have me chained and tethered to them 24/7.

“So, for the sake of clarification, are you speaking to me or King with that tone in your voice?” I ask, dropping onto the side of sickly sweet which has his mood sinking further.

“Tristan!” Maverick barks impatiently.

I bristle even more. Maybe it’s the leftover wavering emotions of my heat, and no doubt it’s because we’re all so new, but it hurts when he barks at me. It stings like little ants biting when he does it. Of course, King buts in again.

“For the record… Maverick, don’t yell at my queen ever-a-fucking again. Or this knife will be so far inside your body no one will find the handle.”

Maverick continues staring at me and ignoring King. And at the same time his body vibrates in his anger. Everything I thought I knew about him is a lie as his sweet happy-go-lucky persona drains away. And I get it’s because I’ve only seen his other side, even when he was in the cage, he was not so brutal and savage. Except it’s so sudden and unexpected that I’m questioning how I missed this side of him. Of course, it’s at that exact time the stupid fucking trauma voice in my head after Troy gaslighted me so bad starts to feed my doubts making my confidence plunge as I recoil away from him. God, even I can scent how anxious I am, my bubble-gum scent laced with shame and doubt.

Maverick responds in an instant, his soft gentle hands rubbing over my legs in his attempt to soothe and comfort. He closes his eyes as he does it and takes a series of slow deep breaths in and out, centring his reactions and locking away his turmoil. When he opens his eyes again, he is Maverick, the sweet, forthright guy who stood me up at breakfast.

“You’re right,” he says softer, pronouncing his words slower. “I shouldn’t speak like that to you. I was very much an asshole, and I’m sorry if I scared you, Tristan.”

He reaches out for my hand. I link our fingers and tug him close, accepting his apology, and his whispered explanation of his surging moods. “So, it seems I might have an issue with people hurting you. We need to probably avoid it from happening. But at the same time, I wouldn’t mind knowing who we’re talking about so I can deal with it Alpha to Alpha.”

King joins our private conversation. Again. “Nolan Bishop, his studio was previously on Rogers Boulevard down Lower East Side. But I burnt that one to the fucking ground. Now he’s trying to re-establish himself in The Hills, some swanky new studio too, but I think I might cruise past, instead of sending one of the boys. You up for a ride with me?”

“No!” I squeak.

“Count me in,” Maverick agrees without taking his eyes off mine. “I’m happy to take the lead on that one.”

“Let’s see how you do chopping veggies before we make big declarations about being able to take a lead or even be my little helper.” King laughs loudly before smiling to himself at Maverick trying to shimmy King’s knife out of his chopping board.

“May as well visit Nolan at the same time we go to see old Cunt-Lips Troy from School huh? Meet the folks even,” Maverick suggests innocently. And when he sees King’s light hearted amusement plummet replaced just as quickly as he did moments ago, he keeps winding King up. “Holy shit, you didn’t know? Wow, sorry, King. It must feel like you’re choking on a lump of barbed wire about now, your chest feeling like you’re having a heart attack or some shit because in your head you’re dissecting every conversation you’ve had with Tris, wondering if you missed a sign or not? Or you just gotta learn to lead in with the hard questions.”

King’s bourbon scent becomes so pronounced with his Alpha-hole side that I cough under the influence. The glare I get back from him would have scared me, but Mav gave the same one not that long ago himself, and now all that’s happening is King’s getting a taste of his own medicine.

But the big difference is, I know King and where we were joking, now we’re not. “Don’t pretend you don’t know the story. You were whispering in my ear how you’ll always do me good. Maverick just got a name out of me, but you got the story before anyone else. Including the Scorned Girls, well the full story anyway.”

I soothe his beast in a handful of carefully considered words, and gentle touches. King is also a better actor, so I’m slightly nervous by the way he pretends it’s fine. I know when it’s just us he’ll chew my ass out for keeping a name from him, but at the same time I love the way he chews my ass.