Knot All That Glitters, Part 2 (FatedVerse #5)

Chapter 9

Better For You or Better for Her?

“The command worked, right?” Jude says, sounding confused as hell. “You freed her from Coogan?”

Hale’s jaw ticks as he nods. “Yeah, it worked. She’s not under his control.”

“So then why-”

“Because we fucked her up too badly for her to trust us,” Creed spits out. “We did this to her. We broke her.”

I open my mouth to refute that, but he’s already gone, storming away from us and to the bar. He won’t leave, not while Haven is still at this party, not when this is the closest we’ve been to her for weeks.

The relief I’d felt at seeing her in person, interacting with other humans, seemingly healthy if not entirely whole, was nearly enough to land me on my ass. And I mean that literally. The first look at her, beautiful and smiling, made my knees turn to mush, and I nearly went down. Only the thought of how that would look to Haven, her alpha getting weak-kneed, not staying strong for her, was enough to keep me standing.

But if we’d been alone? Oh, hell yeah, I’d have dropped to my knees in an instant, begged for her forgiveness. Thank god and all that is holy that she’s alive and here with us.

Jude tosses one more forlorn look at our girl and then follows Creed, hands still tucked into his pockets and chin tucked into his chest. He looks like a kicked puppy, hurrying away with his tail between his legs. I watch them go and then turn my attention back to Hale, who is glaring daggers at Coogan like he thinks it’s actually possible to kill someone with your eyes.

“She’s high as a fucking kite right now,” I mutter to him in a low tone. He swings his head in my direction, pinning me with a look.

“ What ?”

I flinch at the bite in his tone. I know it’s not at me, but at Frederick Bell and Coogan. Doesn’t stop me from reacting, though.

“Her pupils are dilated to hell. She’s dreamy, drifting.” I jerk my chin in our girl’s direction, where she’s staring off into space with a detached expression on her face. We both watch as Brian guides her toward a group of partygoers and she floats over to them. Once there, she stares off into space again, only engaging when someone speaks directly to her.

It’s like how she was before, every time we saw her at one of her father’s functions, only now she doesn’t seem to fully comprehend what the hell is happening.

And this, too, is our fault.

He never should have gotten his hands on her, never should have had the chance to dope her with something. Fuck. Our poor girl. She’s had more chemicals pumped into her tiny body than anyone needs in their entire life.

My fault.

“You have something that can help clear that out?” Hale asks.

I do, but I’m not sure it’s going to be a good idea to give it to her. So I don’t answer him right away. He pulls his gaze off of Haven and looks back at me with an arched brow. “You gonna answer anytime soon?”

I sigh and lick my lips. “I have something that can help flush the drugs from her system, but… she’s already had enough chemicals shoved into her.”

His brow furrows. “Yeah, but it’s either that or let her linger in this weird half state of being.”

“That weird half being state will fade with the drugs as they work their way out of the system.”

“It’ll be better if we do it for her.”

“Better for you or better for her?”

He takes a shot at killing me with his glare, frowning when I don’t immediately keel over. “Look, man, I’m not saying we shouldn’t give her something to help. I’m just saying let’s think about it for a second. It’s hard to see her like this. Of course it is. But right now, her body is full of whatever shit her father gave her.”

“Which is why we should give her something to help get rid of it.”

Stubborn.

“I know it’s hard to see her like this, Hale. I get it. I’m just not sure how much more her body can take.”

He looks back over to where Haven is standing with Brian’s arm around her waist, a full glass of champagne in her hand. She’s not drinking it, hasn’t had a single sip all night. Not surprising since she hates the stuff, and it’s all they apparently will let her have.

“It’ll just be this one thing and then she never has to take any pills ever again.”

“Unless they’re prescribed by a doctor,” I feel called to add.

He tips his head in acknowledgement. “Unless they’re prescribed by a doctor and for her health, then we’ll make sure she takes them every goddamn day.”

I clap a hand on his shoulder and squeeze. “Damn right, we will.”

With one more look at Haven, I drag Hale after our pack mates. Not that we’re actually a pack anymore, but they’ll always be that to me. My pack. Even if our bonds never grow back, I can’t see myself trying with anyone else but these three assholes… and Haven.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” Jude is saying as we step up next to them. “Why isn’t she running? Even if it’s not with us, she should be trying to get away.”

Creed throws back his drink in one swallow and motions for another. “I told you we fucked with her-”

“No,” I say, cutting him off. “You’re giving us too much credit and her too little. Haven’s stronger than to let us completely decimate her sense of survival. She’s been living with her father and under his commands for years.”

Creed points at me with his half full glass. “Exactly. If she wanted to work around them, she would. But she doesn’t because-”

“If you say we fucked with her one more time, I will lay you out flat on your ass,” I growl at him. “Get your fucking self together, man. That is your guilt talking. She is stronger than what we did to her. She’s made of fucking steel. She might be a little dented, but she’s not fucking broken. Not to where she’d just go along with marrying Brian Coogan. Not without a damn good reason.”

All three of them stare at me for a long moment. “I’m not saying we didn’t fuck up, we did. We did and we’ll have to work fucking hard to make it up to her, but there is no way our girl survived all the shit she did, just to break because of us.” Fuck, I hope I’m right. I hope we didn’t actually break her.

Jude nods slowly. “Okay, so if she’s sticking around and it’s not because of an alpha command, or because we fucked her up too badly for her to want to fight for herself, then why is she over there letting that soon to be handless motherfucker put his paws all over her?”

“Ren,” Creed says, dropping his forehead into his palm. “They threatened Ren. Probably her family, too.”

Hale curses and stares hard at our girl again. It makes sense. Ren, her sister and their mother are the only people in the world Haven has complete loyalty too. It wouldn’t take much for her to capitulate to her father’s demands if he vowed he’d take any infraction on her part out on them.

The drugs and the alpha barks are just extra insurance.

“Fuck,” Hale hisses, but he’s also already pulling out his phone, typing out a text. I know without checking that he’s working on getting the Karlin family the protection they’ll need in order to have Haven feel comfortable enough to leave her father, to leave with us. At least for the time being.

I’m not sure she’ll want to stay with us. I hope like hell she does, but at this point it’s infinitely more important to get her away and safe. Once she’s safe, once we know Bell and Coogan have no means to hurt her, will never get their hands on her again, if she wants to leave us, we’ll have to let her.

Fuck, I hope she doesn’t want to leave us. I hope she’ll take the time to hear us out, to understand why we did what we did. That she’ll find it in her heart to forgive us. Let us prove to her we want her, that she’s ours and we’re hers. I am so fucking hers.

Looking at her now, though, I’m not sure that will be the case. Not only did we use her as a pawn in a game she had no clue we were playing, but because of our fuck up, she’s here in a considerably worse spot than she was before we ever came into her life.

If she tells us she wants to leave, we’ll have to let her. Even if it breaks us.

My alpha roars at the thought of never having her again, but I don’t allow it to show on my face or consume me. No, we have to do what’s best for her, for our omega, and as much as I want to believe it’s being with us, she will have the final say. Always.

Hale looks up as he tucks his phone away. “I got a guard for each of the Karlin women, and I put in an order for a security system upgrade at their house.”

I nod. “If we really need to, we can put them in a temporary safe house. But I don’t think even Frederick Bell is brave enough to abduct an entire family.”

Creed’s head snaps up, and he arches a brow at me. “He kidnapped his daughter from a hospital. He kidnapped Janie. I have no fucking doubt he’d have no problem abducting a family. People would barely even notice.”

“Should we put Ren and her family up at a hotel?” Jude asks anxiously, eyes tracking Haven as Coogan moves her to another group. “The Falcon has real good security. I’ve a hard time breaking in.”

I arch a brow at that, and I wonder why he’s ever had a reason to break into The Falcon’s security system. But then, I know he likes to watch people and to test his hacking abilities, so that might be all the information I need.

“We should just fucking grab her,” Creed says, jaw and voice tight. I can tell his alpha is riding him hard. I feel it too, and without the pack bonds to help keep us balanced, we’re all a little more volatile than normal. “Kill them both and grab her.” Or a lot, in Creed’s case.

I shake my head, and he growls at me. “We can’t do that.”

“Why not?” Jude asks, a darkness filtering into his voice that I rarely see. “They don’t deserve to live.”

“They don’t,” I agree easily. “But we need to be logical about this.”

“Fuck logic,” Hale breaths, hands fisting at his sides as Brian palms our girl’s ass right there in front of us. By the smirk he throws over his shoulder, he knows we’re watching.

“He’s goading us,” I say, keeping my voice neutral even though I’m fighting my own alpha instincts that are demanding I take care of what’s mine. No mistake, Haven is mine. “He wants us to fuck up here, in this very public place. Look around,” I order them. “Look at all these people that would happily testify that we attacked a man unprovoked. Look at the cameras that would capture every moment of the carnage. If we beat the shit out of him, we’ll end up in jail for a few days at least. If we shoot into the fucking crowd to kill a senator and his aide, we’ll end up in jail for fucking life. Then what happens to Haven?”

“She’d be free,” Creed says, somewhat stubbornly.

“She’d be free, but she’d be alone ,” I correct. “And I don’t know about you, but I very much do not plan on leaving my omega alone for the next twenty fucking years.”

Hale sighs. But nods, grudgingly. “We can’t kill them now.”

“We can’t.”

Jude folds his arms over his chest and glares at Brian, who’s now slid his palm up to Haven’s ribs, his fingers brushing over the side of her tit. “We have a plan,” he says, like he’s reminding himself of that fact.

“We do. We have a plan.”

“It won’t be long,” Creed says, making those four words sound like a promise, a vow. “She’ll be with us again soon.”