Light Knot Night (Pack Maker Cozy Omegaverse #2)

Chapter 1

Cordelia

Ijog up my front steps, trying not to fall on my face while simultaneously avoiding the grasping hand trying to yank me back around.

“Get lost, Sebastian.”

I shove my front door open, but his massive hand reaches past and pulls it shut. The growl in my throat would make any other person back down, but not him. I spin around, but he doesn’t back up.

“It’s hard to get lost in Sunshine,” he says far too cheerfully, but then he’s got the upper hand today.

“Try harder,” I say through gritted teeth.

“It was an accident.”

“Falling over is an accident; spilling a coffee is an accident. You told a total stranger that had just asked me out that we were siblings and then pretended to kiss me. It was humiliating!”

He chuckles, which only infuriates me more. “He was weird. The guy had a look about him.”

I let out a tiny shriek. “What do you care if I go on a date with someone?”

“I don’t,” he mutters. “But he wasn’t right. He looked like a serial killer.”

I throw my hands in the air. “You are the biggest pain, Sebastian Sol. You are-”

“A delight?”

I spin back to the door and turn the handle, fighting his grip to get it open.

“No!” I snap, thoroughly exasperated. “You are an overbearing pain in my-”

“Careful, Cordie,” Sebastian murmurs from behind me, making my skin prickle.

For three long seconds, I’m frozen, then I attempt to wrestle the door free with even more urgency so I can escape with my dignity bruised but intact.

“Oh, come on, Cordie, don’t be like that. I was only trying to help.”

“Help this, you rat!“ I snarl over my shoulder as I finally get into my house and slam the door shut in his stupid face. On the other side of the wood barricade comes his mocking laughter, so rich and warm. I hear that sound in my sleep. He is everywhere; there’s no way to escape him.

Sebastian and Sunshine Cove are synonymous with each other.

I lean against the wall, listening to him talk to me but ignoring the words.

The memory of the way he leaned in, his hand on my mouth, his face so close to mine, ignited all my feelings I’ve been trying to hide.

I was sure he’d see through me. My omega scent had risen and spread through the café, drowning out everything else, azaleas and cold winter rain, throbbing with an icy heat, revealing everything to everyone.

Awakening a part of me I thought was going to sleep forever.

I should have known better.

My omega woke up, and I know he felt it.

His eyes had stared into mine, hungry and alarmed, before the beta had broken the spell, screaming about incestuous crimes.

Just because Sebastian had noticed me at that moment doesn’t mean anything will change.

It won’t. He’s Sebastian Sol, and I’m just Cordelia Lake.

I grind my molars and stalk through my house, pausing to paste a perfect smile on my lips before I walk into my lounge room. I hope I can get just a few minutes’ respite from him before I need to deal with taking Don Ulrichtes restored painting down to Felix and Asher’s gallery.

Mum turns when I enter the room, her hands float at her sides. She’s wearing an orange and pink maxi dress and has her black hair in the plait I put it in this morning, though I did not add all the flowers to it.

“Baby! Oh-oh, what has he done now?”

“Hey, Mum,” I say and do a quick assessment of the room.

She’s got flowers in vases everywhere, on every surface.

I knew this new hobby was taking root, but apparently, the flower delivery came today.

Her protein shake is untouched, and the pink velvet pillows are still on her mauve lounge, meaning she hasn’t even watched her favourite show because she has been so obsessed.

Everything looks…good. Fine. Safe. Familiar.

She looks happy, even if her eyes are a little unfocused and seeing a world I can’t. She flounces back to her chair and lets out a tittering laugh as she reaches for the remote to turn off the old romantic movie that’s playing on mute. I wonder if it’s the first time she’s sat down since I left.

I blow my hair out of my face and try not to start the inevitable interrogation. Have you eaten? Where are these flowers going to go? What new hobby are we learning now?

“Nothing, he, Sebastian, well…nothing, it doesn’t matter.”

“Oh, come on, tell me about it,” she says gently and pulls out a flower, holding it up to the light.

“What are you doing?” I ask, and I really am curious.

“Checking the colour, violets are so pretty, aren’t they? They will be excellent when dried for dyeing materials.”

“Dyeing material?” I ask carefully.

“And soap.”

“And soap,” I confirm to myself and try not to weep, imagining the mess in the house and hours of tedious study I’m going to have to throw myself into.

“So, what did he do today?”

“Nothing!” I explode and pace to the far end of the room. “Everything! He’s just…there! Needling, picking, always just an inch away from me, and I can’t…”

Mum just smiles knowingly. She has been incessantly smug about us being destined to be together.

Wouldn’t he be a scent match if that were so? What does a scent match feel like anyway?

“It’s not like that!” I warn her.

“It kind of is like that, though, baby.”

“No, it’s not. He’s…he’s Sebastian!”

“Exactly.”

I grumble at her and pick up a pretty yellow daffodil, twirling it in my fingers as I walk to the window. My mother planted a drought-resistant garden of native flowers years ago, and it’s thriving; the green glowing from all the winter rain.

I tell myself I’m checking to make sure that heathen isn’t trying to sneak in the back, but I just want to look at him, I always do. Whenever he’s around, my gaze is on him. It’s infuriating.

The view of Sunset Cove from my childhood home is my favourite.

We sit just far enough up on a hill that I can see the beach beyond the town; the lighthouse where my best friend and her pack are living is in the distance.

The ocean is an endless dark blue jewel, while the sky is an overcast grey today.

The wind is blowing through the trees, and everything is chaotically wonderful.

I love summer, but I really love winter.

One last glance reveals an idiot-free yard, so I turn back to Mum, shoving him forcefully out of my head.

Only to find him very in my house, and I’m not surprised at all.

For a moment, I just drink him in. He’s got broad shoulders, and in winter, he wears these hoodies that I want to crawl into.

Today’s hoodie is grey like the clouds, and his alpha scent rolls through the room, filling it with roasted almonds, chili, and chocolate.

My mouth waters. He’s got a new pair of jeans, and the way they hug his ass is criminal.

He looks amazing, and I hate that I feel like a grubby child beside him.

“My darling!” My mother gushes as she rushes to him.

He, the devil incarnate, bends down and wraps his giant arms around my mother’s thin frame. She grips his cheeks and kisses him on either side, giving him the smile that only he gets.

Sebastian Sol is my mother’s absolute favourite person in the whole world.

He is not mine.

Not even a little bit.

Who am I even kidding? He’s the world. My world.

She lets him go but stares at him as he towers over her.

“Ms. Lake.”

“Oh, you, I told you to call me Julia.”

Sebastian smiles, and I hate, more than anything, that it still affects me, even if it does now make me mildly homicidal.

He’s got this windswept, wavy brown hair that has just a hint of red, but only under the summer sun.

His eyes are honey-coloured and can look like they are glowing or darken to the richest brown when he’s intently focused.

He’s got stubble on his jaw and his trademark smile—the one that undoes me—on his lips.

Sebastian is every omega’s dream alpha. He’s kind, charming, loving, comes from a great family, and looks like he could model for an underwear magazine.

Life is not fair.

I have known him forever. He’s my best friend, Sofia’s, older brother and my next-door neighbour.

He’s the bar that no other alpha has been able to measure up to.

One of the main reasons leaving Sunshine Cove is untenable, he’s the alpha who invades my dreams, the one who keeps me fired up; the tears I shed are his.

The Sols and the Lakes have been in Sunshine Cove for generations. Friends. Family, and neighbours. And I felt like that; I really, truly did. Until Sebastian.

“How is Sofia?” My mother asks. “Is she still enjoying pack bliss?”

“Oh, she is ridiculously happy. But nothing is the same. She was gone too long, and things have changed,” Sebastian grumbles. “She completely skips her chores, especially doing the dishes and the weeding. I’m having to pick up all the slack, Julia, it’s not fair.”

“And Devon was your best friend, is that weird?” I toss out, trying like hell to get rid of that smile that’s making my legs weak.

“Not at all. But four years was a long time. People change,” he says and stares at me like he knows what I’m thinking.

I agree with that, but more importantly, I’ve changed.

I’m not jealous, I’m happy for her, but the hope, the expectation that I would somehow come back into the feeling that I was family and that I belong here has pushed me out even further into a world of isolation.

Sofia fits, but I don’t know if anyone really knows me.

I’m floating, lost, and I have been for a long time. I don’t know how to find my way back. I have two sides, the one they all see, and the one they don’t.

“Oh, Sebastian. Are you going to join us for soap making.”

“I wouldn’t miss it,” he says to my mum.