Chapter 38
THIRTY-EIGHT
KNOX
Callum: No ones on the security app. Petal sometimes leaves it on at night but she’s in bed early.
That text came in right as I arrived home, which was enough to set me on edge before I found Thistle gone from her bed.
My heart hammered against my chest, panic setting in, but I took a breath.
I knew where she was.
Of course I fucking did.
Still, as I took the stairs down to the basement, my hand rested on my gun hilt, on edge from what I’d just learned.
And that was when I walked in on them.
Every possessive Alpha instinct in my body scorched red hot.
They were in Rogue’s room. His scent was burning, too, right on the brink of insanity. He had her pinned to the wall, body tense, fist gripping her hair, exposing her neck. She was holding a knife, delicate fingers weaving through the strap of his muzzle.
“No!”
His whole body flinched at the click of my gun. I’d crossed the room before I realised, eyes only for him.
“Let her go!” My voice was deadly.
“Daddy…” Thistle’s sounded startled. “You can’t?—”
His lips drew into a snarl, but my reality flickered as she spoke. For a second, she was my Omega, Bunny tucked beneath her arm, draped in a silk robe.
In the next, she was someone else.
Trying to leave me… Knife at Rogue’s muzzle…
I swallowed, tearing my gaze from her and jamming the gun into Rogue’s neck. Her fingers, still gripping the strap of his muzzle, went still.
“Are you going to shoot me, Knox?” There was a rough edge of humour in his tone.
“I said let her go !”
His pupils were constricted and fixed on me. When he spoke, his voice was made of gravel. “She’s mine.”
I froze. “ What did you just say?”
I could see him cracking around the edges—I knew this threat would just push him over the edge, but my own hands were shaking with adrenaline.
“She’s mine.” This time, as he spoke, I saw the mad Alpha lurking within, twisted by wild instincts, and yet no different to the one who’d claimed me, all those years ago. “She’s not yours.”
“Why don’t you tell her, then?” I spat. “What happens to those you decide to claim? Do they live, Rogue? What is it you have to fucking offer?”
Finally, I glimpsed a flicker of sanity in his eyes as he stared at me.
His grip on her loosened and she slipped.
Her eyes darted between us. “Rogue?” she whispered, voice shaking. “N-no, you have to bite me.”
Bite her?
Was that her goal ?
“Cage, Mutt, or it ends right here,” I snapped.
“Daddy, please,” Thistle whispered, hand closing around my wrist with the gun.
“You don’t understand,” I snarled. “I’m not taking you from him. I’m saving you from him.”
With what looked like the greatest effort he’d ever mustered, Rogue took another step back.
Because he cared about her? Or because he thought I’d kill him otherwise?
I wasn’t sure.
“I need him.” There were tears in her eyes. “You keep asking me to do something I can’t do.”
“How about this, then? He goes in the cage until he’s feral. You bond him, and you get everything you want.”
She stared up at me, something determined in her expression. “No,”
“No?”
“I won’t do it.”
“You’re playing with fire, Little Doll.”
“You’re not going to hurt me.”
“I can hurt him ,” I growled. “If you won’t listen, I can send him away.”
“What?”
“He can stay by himself until he’s feral, and then it’ll be up to you.”
Frosted moonflower became bitter, edged with pure panic. “No… Please j-just don’t send him away.” She looked so scared, but it was a front. She would beg to get her way and break my rules by the morning.
This was all a lie.
“You want him to stay?” I asked.
She stepped in front of me, and I lowered the gun on instinct. “Yes.” I felt her soft touch at my hand, prying my fingers away from the weapon. “Please put it down,” she begged me.
I swallowed, letting her take it, hearing the sound of metal on stone as she set it down and returned to me.
I glanced up at Rogue on instinct, though the weapon had always been more of a formality than anything. He was watching us, more tense than I’d ever seen.
“Cage,” I growled again.
“Wait,” she whispered. Warm palms cupped my cheeks.
She was doing it again.
Stealing reality away with her scent and touch.
A part of me ached to give into it.
I couldn’t.
Not with what that would mean.
She let out a frustrated whine when I tried to push her back.
Heat rose in my chest, possessive fury that was closer to feral than even I was expecting as I closed a hand around her neck, forcing her back. “I need you to understand you’re mine!”
I don’t know what made me do it, or why that stupid thing felt like another Alpha’s claim, but madness gripped me, instincts burning away all rational thought.
The world shook, and all of a sudden, I didn’t know which of us was the one going feral.
“He leaves tomorrow, or I push that fucking button I’ve been dreaming of pushing.”
Her wail pierced me like a knife. She was scrambling after me, eyes wide with shock, reaching for… for something . “Don’t?—!”
“You’re mine.”
I stepped back, a rumble of fury in my chest.
Something… was in my hand. Something important.
I don’t remember taking it from her.
It was laced with the faintest traces of roses and redwood, lingering, never fading. His scent, just like she wanted Rogue’s, too. I blinked, crimson seeping into my vision, time not working right.
“N-No! Bunny!” She struggled against my grip but I held her from what I held in my fist. “Y-you can’t!” She was wild, true terror in her eyes. “Give him back!”
I was holding it, somehow—the worn old blue plushie she never let go of.
“Knox.” Rogue’s fury drew me up. I turned to find him stepped nearer. “Give it back.”
My lips drew in a snarl.
Never.
She was mine.
Not Rogue’s.
Not Ace’s.
Why couldn’t she understand that?
I couldn’t share her with him—that was never on the table. Never possible.
She didn’t know what he was.
But she’d taken a step back, a low wail beating down my eardrums: absolute panic. Each piercing sound drove the knife deeper, making the edges of my world hazy.
Before me, teal eyes made of nightmares were burning, and Rogue’s fist closed in my shirt. “Give. It. Back!”
“You’ll never see her again, Rogue,” I hissed. That wasn’t… I shouldn’t be saying that. She… she trusted me— had trusted me.
Why did I care?
This was about him, not her.
He had broken me. He deserved this. Every second of it.
Rogue shoved me against the wall. The world stuttered, time flickering again.
Frosted moonflower was thick in the air, laced with terror.
She was curled up on the floor, back against the bed, hands over her ears as she shook.
I couldn’t hear her screams anymore, but the echoes of them shook me to the bone. Lava scorched my veins, control vanishing.
I launched at him, gun forgotten—madness swallowing me completely.