Knot Broken (Hiddenverse)

Epilogue

Lilah

Three weeks later

A shiver works my body as Rafe drags his lips over the side of my neck. He nips softly, distracting me from Omega in Paradise playing out on the screen. With a moan, I tangle my fingers into his hair and pull him away.

“Rafe—this is it. I want to watch the edit.”

He pouts up at me before flopping onto his back next to me on the oversized bed. Really, it’s closer to a nest… if I didn’t also have a nesting room they let me decorate to my heart’s content the second I moved in with them.

“You know they only show what will make it more dramatic,” he groans.

Elliott laughs lightly on the other side of me, his fingers tangling with mine. His eyes on the screen. “But we know how it turns out.”

“What turns out?” Miles asks as he comes into the room with a tray of snacks.

“The show,” he replies, leaning forward to snag two crackers and cheese from the plate .

Miles leans against the bed-frame and crosses his arms as he watches the screen. They just told Chad he wasn’t the one. If I were clueless to how he felt it would appear that they crushed his heart on national TV. Tears cling to his long lashes as they do a close up of his face, and he looks broken. It makes my nose tingle with the threat of my own tears. I know he didn’t love them, we’ve had more than a few conversations about it since the show ended. But you can’t fake being broken.

“Did they do those shots after we were gone?” Miles asks, a slight crease between his eyebrows, obviously feeling the same thing I am. “I don’t remember him crying.”

“I should call him. I knew he had walls and his reason for being on the show, but how did I miss how broken he was?” I ask without expecting an answer.

“He hides it well,” Rafe replies anyway. “At least with me. He was always over-the-top flirty.”

“You can call him after you watch the rest,” Elliott says. He tugs me into his body, and I go willingly.

The show moves on. Hailey rambles on the screen like they might pick her, but she isn’t sure she would accept. I can feel the guys' annoyance at her through our bond. Still, I watch her on the TV. She didn’t really show us this side of herself in the house. She was always catty and mean, and that has been shown on the episodes, along with creating ‘near misses’ of the guys discovering her true nature. I suppose it was her defense mechanism. It makes me feel sorry for her in a way I didn’t on the show.

It cuts to her standing on the same roof as I did, clearly nervous if the way her hands are clasped is any indication. But even the average viewers know how this is going to go. After she forced a kiss on Rafe, the one I witnessed, it was clear the guys distanced themselves from her. Even on the one-on-one date, it was uncomfortable and clear acting from all of them.

When the elevator door opens revealing the guys, they cut to her inhaling deeply. They stroll toward her, hands in their pockets, looking almost grim. When they stop on the other side of the small table, I hold my breath.

“Here it comes,” Miles mutters. I glance at him, catching him rolling his eyes.

“Hailey,” the Elliott on the screen starts, and she cuts him off.

Holding up her hand, she appears to be shaking a little. “Wait, I need to say something…I’m sorry to have led you all on. I came on this show because I thought I had lost something special with Rafe, and I thought if I could win you all over that we could make everything better. But I only discovered that there’s a reason we didn’t last the first time around. We just aren’t compatible. So, I can’t move forward with any of this. You can’t pick me.”

A burst of laughter pops from my lips. Her words have me leaning forward to hear every little thing she says.

“You’ll be happier with one of the others,” she finishes. A single tear tracks down her face, then they show the guys, who look confused.

Rafe recovers first. He nods slowly as if he is taking in her words. “I’m glad you finally realize that we don’t mix.” He presses his lips together, holding back the rest of what he was going to say, before they part on a breath and he adds, “It was never going to be you. Our hearts weren’t in danger.”

She sucks in a noisy breath, and her cheeks darken. But the guys are done acting because they just walk away. Part of me feels bad for her, the part that understands that something is fundamentally wrong with her view of the world, and until she sees that she will never be happy. I’m sure being shown as the villain throughout is a wake-up call. At least I hope it is.

I forget all about her when it cuts to my alphas, lined up in front of the picture wall, my photo the only one left. Tucker Carson talks to them about me, and I can see it written all over their faces, the pure love they have for me. It makes my breath catch.

Rafe sits up next to me, dropping kisses along my shoulder to the base of my throat and up to right below my earlobe. “You know how this ends,” he whispers into my ear, sending a shiver down my spine.

“Mmmhhmmm, but I want to watch it,” I purr. He nips my skin, earning a deeper purr and the sweet scent of my pheromones flowing off of me.

He growls lightly and bites a little harder, and my breath catches as my eyelashes brush my cheeks, blocking out the view of the show playing out. Pure submission makes my body weak for him. And he knows it. He finds my thigh beneath the covers, running his fingers along my inner thigh. My legs have a mind of their own as they part for him, giving him access. My stomach dips the second the tips of his fingers brush my panties.

The rest of the show plays on as a background sound track. Our joy at seeing each other, their words of love and promise, all of it is heightened as Elliott and Miles join Rafe in distracting me. Elliott lifts my shirt over my head and drops it off the side of the bed. Clothing’s overrated anyway.

The tray of snacks clatters as Miles shifts it to the bedside table. The sound of his jeans hitting the ground catch my attention, and I watch him as the bed sinks beneath his weight. His length bobs, long and hard, between his legs, and I reach out to stroke him. My fingers tighten as Rafe closes his lips around my nipple and sucks the tight peak into his warm mouth. The chain reaction makes Miles hiss and press into my touch. A bead of pre-cum dripping to the comforter.

While Elliott tugs the covers off of my legs and hooks his fingers into my panties, tugging them off with very little help from me. He nudges my legs back apart, his fingers gliding through my slick before he brings them to his lips and lets loose a moan of pleasure.

“I could live off of your taste. In fact, I think I would die without it.”

“Good thing you're stuck with me,” I say, the words broken from the pleasure Rafe’s giving with his lips and tongue.

“I like the sound of that,” Miles says as he shifts closer. My mouth waters, and I lick my lips, focusing on him again.

Lifting my head, I dart my tongue out to catch the new drop of pre-cum before it can fall. With a groan, I close my eyes. All of the flavor of a fucking candy bar and none of the calories. I’ve died and gone to heaven.

I swirl my tongue around his head and close my lips around him before sucking his tip like a lollipop. His fingers find my throat, and just the touch lights a fire inside of me. I love it when he tightens his hold just a little bit, controlling my breath seconds at a time. It never fails to build an orgasm faster. Adding fuel to the already burning need. Lifting my eyes to his, I purposefully suck a little harder and lean into his hold.

“Fucking perfect,” he groans.

As if on cue, Elliott’s tongue dips between my folds, and he sucks my clit between his teeth. A gasp flows from my lips, Miles tightens his fingers and thrusts his hips forward going deeper, straight past my gag reflex. And Rafe tweaks my nipple, rolling it between thumb and forefinger, while sucking harder on the other twin peak.

Rafe lifts his head slightly, his eyes roving over me. “Your skin is such a pretty pink when you find release. It’s addicting. How many orgasms do you think we can give you at once?”

My lungs burn, and my body goes up in flames as an orgasm explodes inside of me. Riding me hard. I swallow around Miles, and he pulls back enough to allow me air into my starved lungs. I breathe in deeply through my nose, filling my body with fresh oxygen. Rafe moves down my body, trailing love bites as he goes. And I lick along the base of Miles’ cock, my hand snaking around him and encouraging him to fuck my willing mouth.

As he starts moving again, his fingers thread into my hair as he finds his rhythm. And again they work together without words. When Rafe’s tongue joins Elliott’s between my legs, I buck off of the bed at the unexpected sensation. Earning not one but two deep chuckles that rumble up through me. My legs start to shake, and I swallow around Miles again, encouraging him to cum before my next orgasm washes over me.

He gives me what I want, and I take as much as I can before he pulls back, slipping from between my lips. He leans forward and kisses me, catching some of the leftover remains of his pleasure on my lips, his fingers running over my stomach lazily. My body’s so tightly strung, ready for the next release that even the light touch has my stomach jumping beneath his touch.

It doesn’t take long before I’m lost to sensation. A puddle of mush and putty in their hands. Positions change in the haze of pleasure, and when Elliott slips inside of me, I suck in air. And when Rafe closes his lips around my clit, I see stars again. Oh, fuck me.

Rafe circles the swollen nub as Elliott starts to move. I think I might die. But then they prove I am nowhere near death. Although, I am their omega to do with as they please, because every single thing they do…pleases me.

They shift again, Elliott lifting me into his arms and Rafe moving back long enough for Miles to slip in behind me. My entire body shakes when Miles kisses my shoulder, and I feel the crown of his cock at my puckered asshole. The slick coating my ass makes it easily slip past the tight muscle. He sinks inside and leans back, taking me with him. While Elliott gives Rafe space again.

“Oh fuck,” I breathe as they start moving.

When they work together, I think I’ll die by orgasm as they wash over me like waves crashing into the shore. I barely catch my breath before another one comes. As their pace picks up, Rafe shifts, finding his way back to my lips.

“That’s it, sweetheart, ride it out,” he murmurs. “You’re doing so good. The perfect omega.”

Can words make you climax? I’m pretty sure they can because he’s done it to me twice now.

I’m floating on clouds. Free. Light. Loved.

Rafe brushes a strand of sweaty hair from my cheek, smiling down at me. “You good?”

“Better than good,” I sigh.

“Ready for tonight?” Elliott asks, settling next to me, his arm propping him up.

“Remind me again what tonight is?” I joke. I know what tonight is. The reunion show.

Miles leans back on the bedpost, one knee drawn up, still completely naked, just the way I like him. “We could skip it.”

“No. I want the world to see what we have. There are thousands of people that need to see the happily ever after to know it exists.”

The live audience’s voices filter backstage, and I draw in a nervous breath as Greta puts the finishing touches on my makeup. It’s soft again. Yet there’s still the slight boldness to the sharp lines of my eye makeup. I’m not sure where the guys are, they separated us the second we stepped foot into the building. It’s hard not to get wrapped up in the flurry of action surrounding me. All the other omegas are getting ready for the night.

There’s an energy of excitement in the air. Or maybe that’s just me. Because this ending is a fairy tale. Being the only choice for my guys healed me in ways I can’t describe. All the broken pieces mended. Every doubt evaporated. It feels a lot like basking in the sun without a care in the world.

Chad and Willow join me, both looking like models in their clothing.

“Damn, Greta, you have made this bitch sexy as hell,” Chad says with a wide, toothy grin. He tucks his hands into his pockets and leans against the counter, while Willow drops into the chair next to me. “Not that you haven’t always been sexy.” He winks at me, and I roll my eyes, earning a chastising from Greta.

“Why are you so late?” I ask. “I’ve been here for hours.”

“Perfection doesn’t really take much to improve.” He wiggles his eyebrows. “And we already touched on that. I’m perfect.”

“Lucky for me, my guys weren’t looking for perfect,” I joke.

He nods, and Willow swats him. “Do you really think you would have attached to someone that wasn’t perfect?” she asks him.

He shrugs, giving her the win. “True.”

“That would make all three of us perfect,” I say.

Willow laughs. “You should tell that to Ivan.” Her attention shifts to the cameraman watching her .

“I’m sure he already knows.” I look between them. It’s clear they are head over heels for each other. I’m sure they will work it out.

She waves off my words and straightens in her seat. “Enough about that. Are you excited for tonight?”

“I’d rather be at home in bed,” I reply. My thoughts drift to earlier, my body still fully aware of everything we did, because no amount of showering can remove them from my soul. “But showing the world what is possible—it feels like something I need to do.”

Our conversation easily shifts to different topics, and before I know it, Shelly’s calling for our attention and ushering us out onto stage. The lights are bright, and the crowd is loud. My name’s being cheered as if I’m some sort of celebrity like my sister or Rafe. Waving slightly, I settle onto the long couch, nearest to Tucker. The other omegas are across from me, some smile and curl their fingers in a half wave, while Hailey and Blair watch me with what can only be called jealousy.

I guess Hailey wanted the guys to beg her to change her mind when she told them they weren’t a match. When Tucker clears his throat, I shift in my seat to give him my full attention.

“Lilah,” he says with a smile, “Tell us what it’s like to be the omega that captured their attention from the very start. Was the connection immediate like the show portrayed?”

I withhold a smile as I nibble on my lower lip. “Well, as everyone probably already knows, I had a run in with Rafe a few weeks before the show. So it wasn’t quite the connection everyone thinks. Did I find them all unbelievably attractive? I would have been blind not too. And I basically told them that straight out of the limo that first night. But—” I swallow and look at the gathered audience. “I didn’t come on the show expecting to find my mates. ”

“You didn’t?” Tucker’s eyebrows go into his hairline with his feigned shock.

“No. I ended up on Omega in Paradise because my sister wanted me to stop sulking on her couch.”

A round of laughter greets my words, and I smile.

“I’m sure all of you watched the hometown visits,” I say to the audience. Murmurs of agreement echo back at me, and I nod. “Jared and Tabitha—the two that showed up as a surprise to ask me to form a pack with them—they are not only the ones that broke me in the first place, but they also made me realize how in love I was with the guys.”

“You didn’t know before then?” Tucker asks.

I shrug. “I knew I was falling. But I just didn’t realize I had also been healing.”

He smiles brightly. “So it truly was paradise for you. Or maybe not quite. Let’s talk about your other relationships in the house. The audience wants to know…what exactly was your relationship with Chad? Frienenemy? Rival? Friend? You were often shown together, but you were both actively going after the same pack.”

I snort. “We were all dating the same pack.” I seek out Chad. He nods and purses his lips, encouraging me to share our story. “But Chad came to me that first night…he claimed that he was going to the end, and he wanted to take me with him. Guess it didn’t work out the way he wanted, but I did leave the house with at least one life long friend.”

“Friend? Really?”

“In the end,” I say. The crowd eats it up, and I can’t help the smile that pulls at my lips. If they only knew half of it. If he had been anyone else, he never would have gotten past my walls. But I’m glad he was so persistent.

“What about the others?” He runs his gaze over the omega’s across from me. “What about Blair…?”

The audience boos, and I meet her eyes with my head held high. “I think that what you saw on the TV is what you got. And I’m sure that neither one of us will be sad if we never see each other again.”

She rolls her eyes, her lips pressing into a thin line. But she knows how she was shown on the show.

When Tucker moves on to the other contestants—leaving Hailey for last I would assume, because he skipped right over her—my heart rate finally levels out as my nervous energy dissipates.

“I bet it was hard, having Rafe’s ex in the house and competing for his heart. There were some tense moments between you two. Do you want to expand on them?”

There is so much I could say, but in the moment…with the lights shining down on us, I just want to let it go. Maybe I just remember being broken. Or maybe now that I’ve found my pack, I’m soft. Whatever it is, ruining her on national TV isn’t appealing.

“Well—I think that if I were going on Omega in Paradise to try to win an ex back, anyone that was getting close to him would be the enemy. And Rafe’s a catch. I’m sure losing him for the whole world to see would have been really hard to deal with. But I don’t think she had a chance, with or without me there.”

He nods, taking in my words before turning to the camera. “When we come back, you’ll hear from the rest of the omegas. What drama unfolded in the house this year? We will find out from them soon.”

Makeup rushes onto the stage and touches up his perfect face the second the cameras break for commercial. It’s a flurry of activity, and before I know it, we are live once again, and his complete focus is on the other omegas. They reveal drama in the house I wasn’t aware of, a new look at the meanness of Blair and Hailey. While the two of them defend their choices.

After another commercial break, the guys are strolling out on the stage. I’m pretty sure half the audience swoons all at once. And when they reach me, Elliott picks me up before tucking me into his side, with Miles and Rafe on my other side. Cocooning me in their musks. Home. That’s what they are to me. Love and safety all in a perfect package.

“Well, you look cozy,” Tucker says. “When’s the bonding ceremony, and are we invited?”

“We are still working out the details on that,” Elliott says.

His lips brush the side of my head, and the purr rumbling from him makes me want to climb into his lap and nuzzle his neck. Miles tangles his fingers with mine and lifts them to his mouth, pressing a soft kiss to our knuckles.

“It will be soon. We don’t want to waste any time now that we’ve found our omega,” Miles adds.

Rafe loops his arm across the back of the seat behind Miles, and his fingers play in my curls. Each of them touching me makes my blood sing. And the links between us are already as strong as any bonding ceremony. At this point, it’s just a piece of paper.

“But we won’t be doing it on TV; it will be small and intimate. Sorry,” Rafe says, not sounding sorry at all. The crowd makes various sad sounds at the idea of not seeing it. I guess that’s part of opening your life up for everyone to see, they want to see it all. It’s part of the fantasy.

“What’s more intimate than camera crews and a few hundred thousand of your friends watching through the screen?” Tucker jokes.

“There will be pictures,” I say.

He moves on effortlessly with his questions, and before I know it, it’s done. The lights are lowered, the crowd disburses, and the omegas go their separate ways.

Rafe wraps his arms around me from behind. Pressing a soft kiss to my shoulder. “Was it everything you hoped it would be? ”

My fingers ghost over his cheek as I turn in his arms. “It was okay. But I’m ready for that happily ever after now.”

He hums happily, “Me too.”

Miles chuckles and shares a look with Elliott. “Looks like the plan worked.”

“It worked a long time ago.” Miles eyes us with a wide grin. “Rafe fell the second he saw her in that club. Love at first sight like the both of us.”

Rafe shakes his head with a laugh, but doesn’t deny his words.

“Is that right? Did you fall the second I threw up all over you or before?” I joke.

“Way before that. When our eyes met across the space from the VIP room you were in and my dance cage. You entrapped my heart, and you didn’t even know it.”

“Or maybe I helped to set it free,” I suggest.

“Maybe,” he replies, dropping a kiss to my lips.

“Let’s get you home and start that happily ever after,” Miles says as Rafe lifts his head.

I step away from Rafe and wrap my arms around Miles. “I think it’s already begun because every moment I spend with all of you is pure happiness. I’m only sad we didn’t find each other sooner.”

“Then let’s go make up for lost time,” Elliott says, as he wraps his arms around us, joining the hug. A second later, Rafe’s musk washes over my senses as he joins us. Love, happiness, and peace fills our bonds. I can’t wait for forever to begin.

“In this life and every life that comes after,” I agree.