Page 46 of Knot Gonna Give You Up
“Yes!” I shout, both hands in the air.
“Bachelor one, was Josie right?”
A moment later, Henry walks around the partition, grinning like crazy. I squeal in delight and fling my arms open, allowing him to swoop in for a huge hug.
“Bachelor two, who are you?” Jim asks.
Jesse walks around the partition, a shy smile on his face, and he ducks his head when he gets close. I grab his arm and pull him to me, making him look into my eyes before giving him a soft kiss.
“Bachelor three, is Josie going to be correct on all counts?”
A moment later, Simon rounds the partition, and Vic isn’t too far behind. My hands fly into the air again.
“Yes! I knew it!” I hop down and skip the few steps to the two of them, and throw my arms around them.
We spend a moment laughing with each other over answers and the chipmunk voices before turning to Jim. He’s smiling wide, clearly enjoying the sight of happy customers.
“Thank you all so much for coming, you were a joy to work with,” he says, reaching out to shake my hand first. Jesse steps in front of me, grabbing Jim’s hand instead.
Internally, I roll my eyes as all the guys follow suit, nobody wanting me to touch this guy. I also internally melt at their protectiveness. My Omega instincts scream that these are good mates, and I intend to keep them. Jim has gotten the subtle message not to touch me, and he just nods in my direction. Pleasantries exchanged, he leads us to the main lobby and we see ourselves out.
“Did you guys have fun?” I ask nervously.
“I don’t know about these guys, but I had a blast,” Simon assures me.
The guys all agree, and I dance in place, filled with excitement and pleased that I did well on picking a date.
twenty-one
SIMON
I’m pleasantly surprised at how fun that date was. I was feeling unsure at first, worried she had picked some odd “Pack building” thing, but she kept it fun and light. I appreciated that and was extra happy that she could tell who we all were. She’s glowing as we leave the building, and we agree on a restaurant to grab drinks and dessert. We get a table outside in front of the building. The sidewalk is wide enough to comfortably seat us.
“So do you think a narwhal is a unicorn?” Vic asks Josie.
She sets her drink down and spears him with her eyes, “No, I thinkunicornsarenarwhalsin disguise.”
The table is silent as Josie looks each of us in the face, but by the time she gets to me, her serious facade cracks at my skeptical reaction. She’s trying to hide a smile, so I lean in further, resting my arms on the table, my eyebrow raised. Josie leans in to match my posture, and we stare at each other.
“I hate to break it to you, but narwhals are not what unicorns disguise themselves as,” I tell her as seriously as I can manage.
“Oh? Do enlighten me.”
“They clearly disguise themselves as rhinos.”
Josie throws her head back in laughter, her eyes bright as she looks back at me.
“I like that argument, we can go that route,” she says.
We relax into bantering and snacking on food for a while, just enjoying everyone’s company, and even Jesse adds some comments. As unsure as I am about Packs, I’m finding that we flow pretty well. This is only the second time we’ve all spent time together, and I can see how our pieces might fit. It’s terrifying. I have no idea how that would look long-term. What if my piece doesn’t fit like we’d expect? Will they kick me to the curb? The last thing I want is to be left behind again. I want Josie, but do I want a whole Pack?
The waitress comes by with our dessert, and once we have our plates, Josie looks at all of us before clearing her throat. All our eyes turn to her and wait for her to speak. I hope she’s about to speak because otherwise it’s real creepy that we’re all just staring at her.
“I was hoping we could talk about some serious stuff,” she says hesitantly.
Henry places his hand on top of hers. “What’s up?”
“So, um, my heat is coming in a couple of months. I usually medicate through them, but since we’re all a Match, I thought maybe we should talk about what this means. Do we want to bond? If so, we’ll need to Pack Bond as well. We could wait a little bit after to Pack Bond, but I guess I want all of it. I don’t want to pressure anyone, though, I just wanted to get my thoughts out there.”
