Ready or Knot (Knotted Paths #1) - Susi Hawke Page 0,19

it had to happen, it had to happen. Given a choice between losing my job and keeping Wyatt in my life or vice versa, it really wasn’t a choice at all.

I never thought I’d be lucky enough to find a true mate. Sure, I’d daydreamed about it. Didn’t everyone? And somehow, I had been chosen. Blessed. Whatever you want to call it.

“So you want to tell me what actually happened tonight?” Chance asked.

“Wh-what?”

“I know I act like a goofy puppy sometimes, but don’t mistake me for one. We don’t know each other well, but I talked to the other security guys. You’re not one to break protocol. What changed?”

My stomach sank. So we were doing this now. “Wyatt is my mate.”

Chance gave me a sharp look, strange on his normally soft, open face. “What—”

“I mean true mate. I scented him, and I knew. I’m sorry I didn’t wait for the trackers, but I couldn’t not go.”

Chance whistled. “That would do it.”

As our feet scuffed against the pavement, insects hummed and whirred.

“That’s a doozy of an excuse.”

I huffed half a laugh. Somehow, Chance’s uncertainty of what to do made me feel a little better. Like I wasn’t the only one completely confused by this situation.

No, I wasn’t confused. I knew what I wanted, what I needed, and what I was going to do. I was just uncertain how everyone else was going to react.

Shit.

Mom. Shelby. I was going to have to tell them.

Not tonight, though. They were already asleep, and they’d have far more questions than I had answers. Talking with them could wait for tomorrow.

“I probably don’t have a job after this. Breaking rules and... the whole mate thing.”

“Don’t get too ahead of yourself, man. If Wyatt is your true mate, Justin will work with the situation, not slap you with a punishment for something you couldn’t exactly control.”

I bristled. “What do you mean, ‘if?’”

“I don’t—it’s not personal, okay? Look, I’ve been working with these omegas for years. You know they come from shit situations, or they wouldn’t be here, right? I’m not going to go into Wyatt’s story because, well, confidentiality laws, for one, and basic decency for another. But plenty of them are here because alphas have wrongfully claimed them. As mates, as true mates, as property—we’re going to have to follow Wyatt’s lead, you know?”

I took a deep breath of the fresh, just-rained night air. We were walking in a completely different world compared to a few hours ago. From the heavy, waiting pressure of just before the storm to its chaos and now peace. Renewal.

Before, I didn’t know my true mate existed. After... my world had certainly changed. For the better, I knew. I hoped Wyatt felt the same way. But what had his past been like? He’d run from me, and I’d chased him. Fuck. Had I terrified him? Had I pushed him because of my certainty?

No, I hadn’t imagined him setting his head on my leg or his choice to have me help him clean up over any of the others. He felt something too. I was sure of it.

Why hadn’t I made an opportunity to shift so we could talk? Tiny rooms be damned. We could have stepped outside for a few minutes.

I’d been focused on his safety and comfort, and I wasn’t going to regret my actions.

“You sound like you’ve got a lot going on in your head.”

I looked up, surprised to be reminded I wasn’t alone. “I wasn’t saying anything.”

“Exactly.”

“I think you’re right about letting Wyatt take the lead. It’s killing me to put distance between us.”

“But—“

“I know, I know. He’s safe here. I’m familiar with all the guys on the security team, and I trust them. I’m aware of the safety protocols. I wouldn’t add anything to his security by watching over him all night. It just... It doesn’t feel good.”

We reached the administration building. I recognized Vincent walking patrol nearby, and we nodded to each other.

Chance waited for me to unlock the door. I had to grab my keys—hopefully someone had tossed them in my locker.

“The best thing you can do is get a good night’s sleep. Come in tomorrow, like Justin said, and we’ll talk it through when we’re not all exhausted and hyped up on adrenaline.”

Driving away was worse than walking away from Wyatt. My skin itched like millipedes crawled under it, and the feeling grew stronger the further I was from him.

By the time I got home, I was sweating. I practically stumbled into my house.