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

Chapter 21

Not Today

We’re speeding. Driving far too fast on streets crowded with holiday shoppers, even with the late hour. The roads are slick with ice and the sky above is threatening more snow, but we don’t give a fuck.

We have to get to Haven.

Have to get her out of the vipers den she walked into.

Goddamn it, I should have known she was up to something when she oh so innocently asked if she could go to Ren’s, when she said she wanted to spend some quality time with the people she thinks of as family.

I should have said no, straight off the bat. But Jude was right when he’d said we’re trying to prove to her she’s not a prisoner and her happiness is the most important thing in the world to us, so I’d foolishly agreed with the rest of my pack.

And this is what I get for it. This all-consuming panic that we will not get there in time, that some asshole is going to see our omega and think he has the right to touch her, grab her, fuck her.

Shock and Awe isn’t the type of place where omegas have a lot of say in what they do or who they do it with.

We never would have joined, if not for Frederick Bell. That’s not to say we wouldn’t have joined a different sex club, but it certainly wouldn’t have been this one. Bell seems to like it though because the omegas on staff are all but forbidden from saying no.

It bothered me before, but now, with Haven in those walls, surrounded by those people?

Oh fuck, it has my alpha raging.

The car slides on the icy roads, and Jude curses as he rights the vehicle, knuckles going white. She shouldn’t be within a hundred feet of that place, and yet right now she’s fucking inside of that den of inequity.

“Slow down,” Creed grumps. “We’re no good to her if we die.”

Jude’s jaw ticks, but he slows the car to a safer speed, even though I can tell it kills him.

“We’re almost there, anyway,” Tic adds, calmly. I would think this doesn’t bother him at all, but his eyes are scanning the roads for Florence’s shitty little car. She could have parked anywhere within the next few blocks, just depending on how busy it is.

“There.” Jude makes the one word drip with violence. I’m not worried he’s going to hurt Florence or anything, but damn, it sends a shiver down my spine.

Our car pulls to a stop next to the wide-eyed omega. Her hands are on the steering wheel like she’s ready to take off, even though her car isn’t on. I roll down my window and Florence does the same.

“She hasn’t come out,” she blurts before I can say anything. “It's been a while. Thirty minutes or so and she… God, I never should have brought her here.”

“No, you fucking shouldn’t have,” I growl at her and she flinches at the tone.

Behind me, Tic rolls his window down with a sigh. “We’ll get her out safely, Ren. Why don’t you head home?”

He poses it as a question, but I know it’s an order. One it seems the omega is more than happy to obey.

She nods quickly. “Yeah, I can’t do that.” But then she pauses and gives us all a sharp look. Apparently, her momentary fear has faded in the wake of her need to protect her friend. “Go easy on her, yeah? She’s… You’ve done enough bullshit to her. Haven’s just trying to get to where her life is… not what it has been for the last fifteen years, okay? She needs stability, and she needs peace, and she’s trying to get it.”

I grit my teeth around the need to argue that this here, what Haven did today, is not what is going to bring her peace, not by a long fucking shot. The most she’ll get from visiting Shock and Awe is held down and fucked by some asshole alpha who’ll think dub/con is her kink or some shit.

“We’ll keep that in mind,” Tic says diplomatically. But I know it won’t stop him from spanking Haven’s ass for taking this unnecessary risk.

She glares at us one more time, then rolls up her window and turns on her car. Jude backs up and blocks traffic, letting her out of the parking spot, and then he pulls into the vacant space. I have the door open before he’s turned off the car, slipping and sliding in the slush on the sidewalk as I barrel toward the red door of the club.

“Wait!” Creed barks, making my rapid footsteps stall out. “I smell her.”

I back track to him and then inhale deeply and sure enough, there’s the faint pineapple and smoked chili scent of our girl. A scent like no one else.

“Alley behind the building,” Jude mutters, taking off at a run.

The rest of us are right on his heels, slipping and sliding. This goddamn slush hampers even an alpha’s superior agility.

We round the corner to the alley and I let out a breath when I see her standing in the snow, legs exposed to the elements, a wool coat draped over her shoulders. But god, she must be freezing.

Any relief I’d felt at finding her safe and apparently whole withers when I see who she’s talking to. Belinda Graves. Co-proprietor of the seediest sex club in the city.

The way she’s looking at our girl? Like she’s found some kind of prize? Oh, fuck no. My alpha claws at my chest, urges me forward until I can get Haven away from the danger she doesn’t realize she’s in. “Haven!”

“Boys, lovely to see you again so soon,” Belinda drawls lazily and I watch as Haven stiffens up. Her head twists slowly away from the madame of this establishment to focus on us, hurt clear in her stare. She wasn’t here for all that long, but she undoubtedly knows what this place is, what men like us come here to do. What we did before she came into our lives.

But one taste of my little mouse and I didn’t want anyone else.

“Imagine my surprise when the key card I gave you was logged unlocking multiple doors in restricted areas. Only there was no sign of the Calloway pack anywhere. Instead, I find this delicious little morsel wandering in areas she definitely shouldn’t have been.”

I stiffen at that, at the implied threat, at the way Belinda strokes a proprietary hand over the back of Haven’s perfectly curled hair. Her gaze follows the movement and then drags up to the four of us. No doubt noting how we’re all trying like hell not to storm forward and yank our omega away from this woman.

“Will you be coming in for a visit? Bring your omega with you? Give us a show?”

My lip pulls back in a snarl at the idea of anyone but us seeing Haven like that. “Not today,” I say, holding out a hand to my omega. Not ever , I add silently. “Come here, mouse. Let’s get you home and warm.”

She hesitates, her gaze flicking between my outstretched hand and Belinda. That hesitation guts me. She’d rather stand out in the freezing cold chatting with a stranger than take my hand.

In the end Belinda takes the choice from her, stroking a finger down her cheek in a way that has my alpha prickling. “Go,” she urges my girl. “They may be complete idiots, but they’ll keep you safe. And you can’t stay here.”

Haven peers up at her, nibbling on her lower lip before she sighs and nods. “You’ll be in touch?”

“Fuck no,” Jude bursts out, but both women ignore him.

“I will,” Belinda says. “We’ll set up a time to chat. It was good to meet you, Haven Bell.” Our girl gives a little wave and watches as Belinda retreats into the club. The four of us stay perfectly still, watching Haven as she stares at the closed door for a beat, then another.

With a sigh, she turns on one sky high heel and looks at us. “I’m not in the mood for a lecture,” she tells us.

A harsh laugh barks out of me. “Oh really? Well, too bad it’s coming. What the hell were you thinking? Coming here by yourself?”

“Coming here at all.” Jude shakes his head.

“Dressed like that,” I add, because holy fuck, that dress is too short, barely covers the bottom curve of her ass, and the neckline is so low it’s a wonder I can’t see her areolas. Though her nipples are proudly standing up in the cold.

She shrugs like it’s not a big deal. “I figured they’d be more likely to let me in if I hussied it up a bit.”

She’s not wrong.

“It’s literally freezing out, angel,” Tic says, looking pointedly at the snow on the ground.

“Well, I wasn’t planning on spending so much time outside, now was I?” she snaps back.

“ Little mouse. ”

“ You weren’t doing anything .” She throws her hands up in frustration, and I note that the tips of them are turning blue. “None of you were moving forward with getting rid of my father. And I don’t know… I had to do something!”

I run a weary hand over my face, then hold it out to her. “We’re talking about this later. Once you’re warm and aren’t in danger of getting frostbite.”

“Oh, goody. I can’t wait.” She bypasses me entirely, heading for Creed instead, sinking into his embrace. I would be upset by that obvious snub, except I don’t think it actually was a snub. Haven’s so small that when Creed picks her up and her legs wind around his chest, he can zip both of them inside his jacket.

She’s just fucking cold.

“Come on, baby girl,” he murmurs into her hair. “Let’s get you home before your toes fall off.”

Fuck. I don’t even like him joking about that.

She doesn’t lift her head from where it’s nuzzled against Creed’s neck, her nose pressed into his skin. “Ren?” Always her first thought.

“We sent her home, angel,” Tic says, falling into step next to Creed as he carries her toward our car. Jude runs ahead and slides into the driver’s seat. I know by the time we get in, the heat will be blasting and all the seat warmers will be on.

“She didn’t even fight us on it. Just trusted us to take care of you,” I add.

Haven peers at me with one eye. “You didn’t bark at her, did you?”

“What? No! Haven, what the fuck? You think I just go around barking at omegas?”

Creed’s jacket shifts with her shrug. “I don’t know. Maybe. I’m realizing I don’t know any of you all that well. I never would have thought you were the type of men to frequent a place like that, but apparently you are.”

“It’s not what you think.”

“No?” she asks. “So you didn’t go there to have sex with omegas?”

“We did, but-”

“Did you know most of them are under contract? Not like a contract that they set up themselves, but a contract where their families sold them, Tic?” she asks, peering at us. “Where the people who were supposed to love them the most sold them to an establishment to be used by alphas like you?”

“We never did that,” I reassure her. “We never used those girls.”

I open the door for Creed and he slides into the back seat, into the warmth of the car.

“How can you be sure?” She asks when Tic and I have joined them.

“Because we asked,” Tic says. “We made sure that any of the girls we booked were there willingly.”

She lifts her head and stares at him hard. “You asked?”

“Yes, angel. We asked.”

“And you think they would have told you if their family sold them? You think they weren’t coached to say whatever you want to hear, maybe even commanded to tell you whatever would close the deal? Do you think that maybe, since they have to work to pay off a debt they didn’t accrue, that they might lie to you just to get it over with quicker, to get out of there quicker?”

Shit. She’s right. She’s absolutely right. They could have just been telling us what we want to hear. The more clients they have, the faster that nightmare is over for them. Of course, they would lie to us, especially since we were nice enough to ask. They’d probably rather be with us than some asshole who couldn’t care less.

God, I feel sick. And Haven is absolutely right to be disgusted by us.

I swipe a hand over my face as Haven settles back against Creed. Her shivering has eased, but it’s still there and I can’t imagine my pack mate is in any hurry to let her go.

“When was the last time you went there?” She asks. Something in her tone tells me she already knows, so I don’t lie to her. I wouldn’t have, even if she didn’t know the answer.

“The night you found the score sheet,”

“You met my father there.” It’s not a question. “You met in a private room with five omegas.”

Creed hugs her tighter against him, and based on the subject, I wonder how long she’s going to allow that to continue.

“Yes,” Tic agrees. “We did.”

She lifts her head to glance at all of us. “What did you talk about?”

“Business,” I answer. “Mostly how we could best support him in his plans. Tic went over his newest ‘discoveries,’” I use air quotes here, “with the drug your father thinks he was developing. It was all a way to get him to trust us, mouse. To find a way to ruin him.”

“You had to do that there? You couldn’t have discussed it at his office or behind a closed door at one of his many events? It had to be there.”

“He liked for it to be there,” Jude says, softly, carefully navigating the icy streets now that we have such precious cargo. “I think he viewed it as some kind of test to see if we were as fucked up as him. You know? To see if he could trust us.”

“And you put on a good enough show that he did trust you, didn’t he?” she asks bitterly, pulling away from Creed. But she can’t. He’s zipped her into his coat and she’s trapped against his chest.

An adorable growl falls from her lips when she realizes that fact, a scowl on her pretty face.

“Little mouse, look at me.” It takes a bit, but she finally glances at me over her shoulder. “You know we aren’t good men. “

“Obviously,” she bites out.

“You know we’ve done some fucked up shit and you know the reason.”

“Janie.” This is said with a hint of hurt and longing.

“But I can promise you, Haven, once we started courting you, we didn’t touch them.”

“Did you let them touch you?”

Not one of us can deny that and we don’t want to lie to her. So we all keep our mouth shut. She lets out another of those bitter laughs, shaking her head. “Let me go, Creed.”

“Never, baby girl,” is his response, but he reaches up to find the zipper under her hair and carefully drags it down. Once she has enough space, Haven scrambles off of his lap and into the middle seat, hunching in on herself, making herself small so she doesn’t touch Creed or Tic as the car navigates the slick city streets.

It fucking kills me seeing her like that, chin tipped to her chest, shoulders curled in. It reminds me too much of how she was with her father.

“Haven, angel-” Tic starts, but she cuts him off with another quick shake of her head.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

She might not want to, but that doesn’t mean that we’re not going to. Still, I can give her this time. We can give her this time. But once we have her safely in our house, once we know she’s warm and not at risk of losing any of her toes to frostbite, we’re going to talk about how fucking dangerous what she just did was.

And how it’s unacceptable for her to take risks like that.