Chapter 45
FORTY-FIVE
KNOX
Time wasn’t moving like it should and there was a sharp ringing in my ears as I collided with a pack bond.
Bella was in the centre of it, a poisonous queen.
Panic gripped me.
“Welcome to the pack, Brother.” Rodrick’s breath was hot in my ear. I could sense his own excitement, like I could feel the heat of his body behind me, and the pressure of the gun against my back, keeping me still.
I wasn’t afraid of that bullet tearing apart my flesh, though. But how quickly it might be turned on her—that was what shook me to the bone.
An image of Thistle flashed into my mind. An hour ago, perhaps? She’d stopped before me, eyes wide and teary, a fresh bite on her neck.
“You can just bite me. And then everything w-will be perfect.”
I would take it all—Rogue and a dozen other demons, if it meant her. If it meant even one more night of my life waking to her in my arms, every touch of hers enough to chase away my monsters.
Too late.
But… but she was safe now.
She should be.
Bella would make me leave her.
“I can feel you in there, Knox,” Banner chuckled at my back, far too close for comfort. “Love it when Alphas join so fucking scared.” I didn’t want to think about the fact that the evidence of that was physically present behind me.
This pack’s lust for fear, though, it wasn’t news to me.
Don’t think about that…
I grappled with the fresh bond, trying to shut it down, but I couldn’t get a grip on it.
I could feel the other Alphas in here, lurking like shadows in the night, each as sick and hateful as I’d always known they were.
“Now. What are we going to do with her?” Bella’s question snapped me back to reality.
“You said?—”
“I said, she would live .” She cut me off. “I didn’t specify the state she’d be in.”
I lunged for her, but Victor, at her side, reacted, cutting me off, hand at my throat. I felt Banner behind me, a growl in his chest as he seized my arms behind my back.
“Watch the doors for Rogue, I’m sure he’ll be here in no time. Now—” Bella peered around. I felt a sharp pain at the back of my legs, and I crashed to my knees once more. Victor jammed his gun against my temple this time. “Which one of my Alphas should we give her to?”
“You have what you want!” My words were too desperate, and I knew they could all feel my terror.
She had me. She had my freedom. My everything .
Victor stepped around me, gun still present, but freeing up my sight to Bella.
“No, Lover, I don’t think I do,” she said, sweeping a curtain of blonde hair behind her shoulder. “I want devotion. Before we leave, you’ll see her ruined by one of mine so those foolish instincts can let her go.”
“You fucking have me, Bella. I will be what you want.”
Once we were out of here, I’d have to trust Rogue to get her far enough away from here so I was free to find a way to end it.
“Then why do you look like you’re going to throw up?” she asked. Then she looked back at the room, eyes sliding from Alpha to Alpha. “Eenie, meenie…”
The world spun, panic closing like a fist around my throat as he counted them out.
What could I offer her?
I had nothing left to give.
But she was done already, pointing a finger toward an Alpha by the door. I felt a spike of excitement through this foreign bond I didn’t want. Something twisted and foul.
Thistle was being dragged from the floor, golden chain in an Alpha’s fist.
She wasn’t even fighting them, face pale, wide eyes and fixed on me. She looked broken as our eyes met.
“Count your blessings it wasn’t Victor, Lover,” Bella was saying. “Last Omega we let him have? Swallowed a chunk of him while he watched. Poor thing slit his own throat before we were finished.”
It was Quinn Hayes; I realised—the one I’d passed at the start. His fist was around the chain at Thistle’s neck as he leered down at her. Another growl rolled up my throat at the sight of him holding it. But then it slipped a few inches as if in a dare.
The message was clear.
He wanted her to run.
She shrank back, starkly small before him as she hugged Bunny close, shoulders hunched in fear she couldn’t hide.
Her eyes slid to me, though, just for the briefest moment, and when she ran, it wasn’t to flee.
Instead, she dived toward me, taking Quinn by surprise.
I jolted at her collision, and then a palm was fumbling for my cheek as she looked up at me. “You’re mine, Daddy,” she whispered, quiet enough for only me to hear. “I’m going to protect you.”
I stared at her in shock.
She was different in that moment, more lucid and sure than I’d ever seen. And there was nothing so chillingly calming than the promise of a primal Omega.
I’d seen it once before, I realised.
“There’s a storm coming, Alpha,” she’d said to me once. And those words felt true in a way I couldn’t quantify, as if her very belief of them might make them manifest.
But then Thistle was being ripped from me, and there was a scream in her throat as a needle was jammed into her arm.
“What was that?” My voice shook so violently it didn’t sound like me.
“Quinn’s favourite,” Bella sung. “Triggers heat and makes it a nightmare . Well, for her, anyway. And he doesn’t like to touch until they beg .”