Page 42 of Knot Broken

“And I don’t think I’ve got one,” he replied with a pained smile. “I’m kind of a latent alpha.”

“Which brings us to what brought us here. The people we know at Crowe Corp, they’re involved in pretty intense genetic research and they’re… concerned about you,” I told her. “If you haven’t ever shifted. If you’re a latent omega.”

“Nadia’s my mate,” Tex growled, wrapping his arm around her shoulders.

“Then proceeding with the bond before the team has had a chance to look you over could be dangerous.” The words were like acid, burning my mouth as I forced them out. “Possibly fatal. You could start a shift and get stuck between the two states, forced to endure the agony for minutes, hours, even forever.”

“Shut up, Grey!” Tex snarled. “Shut the fuck up.”

“Fatal…?” Nadia sounded like a little girl right then, her voice filled with a kind of pain that had me stepping forward, but she shook her head sharply. Spine straightening, I caught the moment when she recovered. “What do I need to do? Who do I need to see and when? When can I talk to these people?”

“Now, if that’s what you want.”

I held out my phone, Riley’s contact details on the screen. She tapped on the green call icon and at the faint buzzing sound from the speaker, my head started to spin. Ethan was right. Nadia was my mate and somehow the most dangerous person for her to be around.

Was me.

Chapter 20

Nadia

This wasn’t what I wanted.

I didn’t say that on the drive over to Crowe Corp. If I was nervous last time I stepped into the elevator, I felt flat, numb, now. Couldn’t blame that on the hangover though, could I?

“It’ll be OK.” Tex settled against the back of the lift, almost close enough to touch. “Everything will be alright. I’ll make sure of it.”

But how could he be so sure? I wanted to ask that, say a whole bunch of things, but instead I went very quiet and very still. There was a tension in me, coiling tighter and tighter as the floor numbers flashed past, preparing my body to fight or flee, but I did neither. I waited for the doors to open and then walked into the office of the people that knew a lot more about what was happening than I did.

But I didn’t want to be here.

There was no way I could say that out loud. These very nice, highly regarded scientists had come into work on their weekend to help me, so instead, I sat down in a chair, arranging my hands in my lap.

“Hi.” The red-haired woman was using the soft tone used to soothe children. “I’m Riley.” Her hand went to her chest, then gestured to the much shorter woman next to her. “This is Candy. We’re the geneticists that work for Crowe Corp.”

“You’ve gotta be shitting your pants right now,” Candy said. I blinked, frowned slightly, and then stared at her. Was I that transparent? Could she hear the rapid beat of my heart that was drowning out almost all other sounds? “It’s OK. We’ve dealt with plenty of latent omegas before. We’ll get some testing done, design a custom treatment for you, and then you’ll be back in the arms of those alphas pacing around in the waiting room for some knotty fun.”

“Testing.” A lazy morning of watching TV, some painkillers and sexy times had pretty much sorted my hangover, but my hands went to my temples now. Rubbing small circles there just seemed to make everything hurt more. Needles and scans and machines that go ping. I didn’t want them either. “So you might discover I’m not an omega after all. Tex…” My fingers curled tight. “Tex might be wrong. I might not his mate.”

I didn’t know how I felt about that.

“An alpha’s response to their mate is the test.” Riley came to sit on the edge of her desk and shot me an apologetic look. “They know. We think it could be a complex combination of olfactory, psychological, and physiological instincts coming into⁠—”

“Ah, Riles?” Candy said. “I’m not sure if Nadia is up for a Cliff Notes version of what we do here.” She turned to me. “But I can tell you this. There’s only been one pack that’s come through here that claimed a beta as their mate.”

“So it is possible.” Yes, that, I wanted that, and at that thought, something shifted inside me. Like the need to pace back and forth, but… more. “I could be a beta and⁠—”

“The beta in question,” Riley said. “They love her because she’s a beta, not despite that fact. She’s never felt like she was anything else to her pack.”

“Right.”

My body fell back, pressing hard against the foam of the office chair. Fingers raked down my thighs, leaving lines in the sweatpants’ material, until something snagged. I turned my hand, staring at my fingers, just in time to see my nails… change?

I definitely did not want that to happen.

“OK, if we needed any extra evidence that you’re an omega, we’ve got it.” Candy tried for pleasant, but failed, going very pale. “How about we do some breathing exercises?” She sucked in a breath theatrically, nodding to me to do the same, but her breath went in and out faster and faster. “Nope, that’s just hyperventilating. Don’t do that.”

“Nadia.” Riley’s tone changed then, becoming far deeper. A growl. She leaned over and suddenly the tension in my body shifted. It was like someone, something else, was in charge and it was ready for a fight, if that’s what this woman wanted. “You’re OK. We will keep you safe here. I’m a latent too.” Her eyes had turned perfect silver right now and somehow that was mesmerising. “I tested all the protocols on myself first. With our help, you’ll be able to find your wolf, complete your first shift, and if you want to claim your mates…”