Chapter 13
Knox
Idon’t mean to bolt when I leave the kitchen.
I just know that if I don’t get away, I’ll pin her to the nearest surface and kiss her until the only breath she’s afforded is from my lungs.
Go back to your Omega. What are you doing?
I shove my instincts down until it damn near makes me nauseous.
Being away from her is torture, but she’s not the kind of Omega that can be crowded.
If I’m going to woo her, if I’m going to show her that I deserve to stand at her side, I have to step with her.
I can’t force her. I can’t drag her along. I can’t make her do anything.
Fucking hell, how I wanted to kiss her.
I tuck into a corner in the hallway so that I can rearrange myself.
The last thing I need to be doing is heading to Walker’s on-site restaurant for my lunch break with a raging hard-on.
I shove my hand down into my overalls long enough to pull my aching cock against my body, giving it an angle that’s a little less conspicuous.
I look down at the bulge and groan.
Sort of less conspicuous.
After a few deep breaths, I get my instincts buried long enough to step out of the corner. Her music still thumps faintly through the walls behind me. Lia’s scent of brown sugar and cinnamon clings to my clothes like I’ve been standing too close to a fire.
Go back to her. She’s yours.
“Shut up,” I hiss at my instincts.
I don’t take four steps before a hand reaches out and grabs my arm.
“Knox,” Walker says.
It takes me a moment to force a grin in his direction. “Hey. Everything okay?”
He studies me for a beat too long. His gaze drags over my face, sharp and assessing, like he’s trying to read something written between the lines.
“The trolley,” he says finally. “Is it up and running?”
“I was actually just coming to find you about that. Yeah, it’s good as new. I gave it a full test run. She’s ready.”
“Good.” He doesn’t let go of my arm. “You sure you’re alright?”
The question lands heavier than it should. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
Walker’s jaw tightens. “You look off.”
I want to glance back down the hallway toward the kitchen where Lia is, but I resist the urge.
Her music is still playing, and my mind imagines those hips of hers swiveling and bobbing to the beat.
My hands burn to touch her. My nose aches to press into her hair.
Can Walker not feel it? The charged electricity in the air? I feel like it’s following me.
Like something important is happening just out of sight.
The words are out of my mouth before I can catch them. “You’d be a good pack leader, you know that?”
He blinks. “What?”
I shrug out of his touch. “Just saying.”
His nose wrinkles. “Where the hell did that come from? You sure you’re good, Knox?”
Not until Lia’s in my arms. “Just musing out loud.”
I can’t help it. This time, I pivot my eyes over my shoulder and peer down the hallway back toward the thumping music. I must stare too long, because when I turn back to face Walker, a flicker of understanding washes across his face.
“She okay?” he asks.
“She’s fine,” I say with a bit of a sigh in my voice. Hate that shit. “Focused. Doing her thing.”
“You okay?”
“Just headed to my lunch break.”
His eyes narrow. “That wasn’t what I asked.”
Before I can stop myself, I smile. “See? Great pack leader already.”
I wait for the epiphany to hit. I wait for him to realize that we’re pack. That Lia is ours, and me, him, and Eli are destined to take care of her.
It’s insane to me that the two of them didn’t smell it in Dr. Quinn’s office almost two weeks ago.
It’s insane to me that we’re not already crowding her space, giving her everything she needs to succeed.
It’s so wild how we’re just standing on the sidelines and not in every inch of our Omega’s life already.
I don’t know how he’s holding himself back. Has he not realized it yet? Is he fighting it? Do I need to shake him around a bit so that all of the pieces rattle into place?
“Knox.”
His voice rips me out of my thoughts. “What?”
“I want to know why you’re deflecting.”
I shift my weight. “It’s not my place to speak on.”
Walker exhales slowly through his nose. “You’re standing in the back hallway of the main house of my vineyard talking about pack leaders while my Omega hasn’t stopped working since dawn. I think it’s at least partially your place.”
That gets my attention. “Your Omega?”
His jaw tightens. “Yeah.”
My eyes widen. “So, you know.”
“Know what?”
“That we’re pack.”
His eyes narrow. “She’s my scent match. That’s all I know.”
“She’s your what?”
He claps his hand over my mouth and backs me into the dark corner once more. My back is pinned to the wall as he glares at me, daring me to raise my voice again.
“I scented her at the Blossom Festival,” he rumbles.
“That’s why you were in the alley with her,” I mumble against his palm.
He looks down the hallway toward where the music is coming from before he removes his hand. He shrugs, taking a step back and smoothing his hands down his button-front shirt.
I lower my voice to a hiss. “That’s why you were all over her in that alley. She’s your scent-match.”
He rakes his hand through his hair. “Come on, I’ll get you set up in the restaurant. You’re eating here, yeah?”
“Ohhh, no you don’t,” I say as I reverse the tables, grabbing his arm so that he can’t get away from me. “You don’t get to drop a bomb like that and walk away from it. How the hell can you stand it? Being away from her?”
“I’m not,” he says as he yanks out of my touch. “So long as she’s here, I can smell her. That’s enough for my instincts right now.”
I can’t believe what I’m hearing. “Why don’t you go in there and show her that she’s yours? My God, I just think she smells divine. But a scent match? I’d be all over her—”
“You know she’s not like that,” he snarls.
There’s that pack leader side again. “She needs us, and you know it.”
“Well, tell that to her,” he says as he starts down the hallway.
I fall in line next to him. “She hasn’t eaten today, you know.”
He grinds to a halt and whips toward me. “What?”
I’m not sure if that’s technically true, but I roll with it. “I was in there with her for a while and she didn’t mention stopping for lunch. At the very least, she’s been in there for hours, taste-testing her creations and not stopping for an actual meal.”
I watch his jaw work. “And why didn’t you tell her to stop and get some food?”
I smirk. “Didn’t you just tell me she’s not like that?”
His head whips between the direction of the kitchen and my direction for a little while. I’m not sure what I’m trying to accomplish here, to be quite honest. But I’m tired of all the dancing around. Did Eli know this? About Walker being Lia’s scent match?
I’ll need to text him later and fill him in.
“Plus,” I say as I stand at his side, staring down the hallway with him, “you ever tell an Omega in pre-heat to slow down? You know she’ll smile, nod, and run herself into the ground, anyway.”
That gets a growl bubbling up the back of his throat. Maybe I can provoke his Alpha enough to—
Something clatters from the kitchen.
A sharp curse follows it.
Walker and I move at the same time.
We round the corner just as Lia stumbles back from the counter, one hand gripping the edge for balance. Flour dusts the front of her shirt. Her face is pale beneath the flush of heat, and when she straightens, she sways.
“Hey,” I say, closing the distance in two strides. “Sunshine.”
“I’m fine,” she insists automatically, even as her knees threaten to buckle.
Walker’s there immediately, one hand steadying her elbow, the other hovering at her back without quite touching. His voice is calm, firm. “When was the last time you ate?”
She opens her mouth before she closes it, like she’s thinking twice about lying to us.
Good girl.
“I forgot to stop for breakfast, I think,” she admits quietly.
The scent of her hunger curls sharper in the air, threaded with exhaustion. My Alpha bristles, every instinct screaming to fix this. She needs rest. She needs food. She needs a moment off her feet.
Walker doesn’t hesitate.
“You’re coming with us,” he says.
Her head lifts. “Walker—”
“No,” he interrupts, gentle but unyielding as he reaches out and places his hand on her shoulder. “You’re coming to the restaurant, you’re sitting down, and you’re eating before you do anything else. How can you expect to finish your baking when you can’t even stand? You know I’m right.”
She looks between us for a while, like she’s trying to come up with an argument to refute Walker’s words.
“Come on, Sunshine,” I coax as I reach out and tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. “It’s just some food. You’ll be back cooking in forty-five minutes, tops.”
I catch the faintest flicker of relief before she nods. “Okay.”
“Okay,” Walker says as his hand moves to the small of her back. “Come. Let’s get you some nourishment.”
She follows him effortlessly. My heart takes flight when she looks over her shoulder, searching for me. It has nothing on the way my heart slams against my chest, however, when she graces me with her little smile. Like she’s relieved to still find me there.
That’s pack behavior right here, whether she knows it yet or not.
The reality slams hard against my chest. After years of living on the streets, after years of being alone, after years of struggling to find my footing in a place I could call home… I have a family.
Oh my god.
I finally have a family.
I quickly pull out my cell phone and send Eli a short text. He needs to be part of this. If we’re going to be sitting down for some lunch with Lia, then our entire pack needs to be present. We need to start spending some time together, just us.
Like a family should.