Page 46 of Knot Only For One Night

But at the end of the day, stealing is stealing.

“Neven, I just— I can’t be in a Pack.”

“Why?” I can only understand his position so far. Hell, I completely understood it until I met her. Esper Winnie Malent.

My scent match.

We haven’t known each other for long. We’d both gone onto Heat Seekers looking for a short-term reprieve—her, for her heat; me, for the loneliness. After that first date, I knew I couldn’t let her go. How could I, when she feels so right?

How can he?

“You know why.”

Red collapses on the couch next to me. His burned pancake smell is setting me off. My alpha wants to go into fixit mode, but this isn’t something I can fix.

“Why would Esper change whether or not the members respect you?”

“It’s not Esper.”

“Then why are you rejecting her?”

“I’m more so rejecting you.”

I roll my eyes. The nerve of this omega to joke right now. “I have no fucking interest in being Prez. You know that.”

“But being in a Pack would mean the lead would automatically take my place in the running for Prez, and why the fuck would the club trust an omega over an alpha?”

“Because you’ve grown up here, you’ve shown you can lead your whole damn life. It’s time to either shit or get off the pot.”

Red sighs, his gaze moving to eye my place some more.

“What’s that?” Reed picks up a piece of paper I definitely shouldn’t have left on my fucking coffee table. Though I wasn’t expecting any club member—or Pack members, I suppose—to storm into my apartment.

“Nothing,” I say, sliding my computer off my lap and trying to grab it from his hands, but he’s already up and across the room, out of reach and reading it.

“You’re giving me shit and you’re the one fucking leaving? This is rich, Neven.”

“That’s not your damn business. You’re not in the Pack, remember? You took yourself out of the equation.”

“You can’t fucking leave! You can't leave Esper.”

“I’m not the one who left her.”

“This is fucking worse!” he shouts, shoving me back, and I growl. My alpha can only take so much from a hypocrite. “You’re her alpha! Her lead probably, how could you even consider this?”

“You’re her omega, and yet you left her like it was no fucking problem. So look in a damn mirror before you come judging me.”

“At least I’m up front. You’re letting her grow closer to you⁠—”

“I’m not taking the fucking job, Red!”

“Then why is the offer still here?”

I close my lips. Really seeing Reed for who he is. He’s panicking. His scent wafts under my nose like a dumpster that’s just caught fire.

He’s scared.

He’s so scared.