Chapter 4
FOUR
ROGUE
It took me a long moment to realise what Thistle meant.
Ready for me?
And Knox…?
She didn’t know… Of course…
I had to fix that.
I honed in on the other Alpha in the bond properly for the first time. I shifted forward, reaching out to the two of them. Ace caught my wrist, but I ignored him, shoving past his grip, hand clamping over his neck.
I felt his rumble of a growl, and it set the hairs on my neck on end.
Fuck.
This piece of shit was pack lead, and I had no idea how that worked since he was feral. Still, I held my hand to his neck, feeling a skittish pulse that was out of control.
Again, I honed in on him.
He was a ball of dark energy, sparking and shivering, but the more I prodded, the more I realised how hollow he was. His ice-blue eyes were strange and dazed, pupils pin-pricked.
Even in the warm water, he was shaking, but not enough to be noticeable at first glance.
How long since he’d slept or eaten?
“Is he okay?” Thistle asked, her voice rough, a frown on her face. “Did I miss something?”
“He could use a rest.”
Didn’t look like he would get that himself, not with how switched on he was. Too many Alphas to babysit.
“I’ll be back in a moment, Kitten.”
She stared at me, dazed, then nodded.
I got to my feet and made my way through my bedroom to the side table where I’d left the tranq box.
I loaded up another dart and returned to find that Thistle had helped him from the bathtub.
She was shivering, towel in hand. She’d dried him off and tugged on the pair of boxers and sweats I’d left for them, though she’d had to tie it tight to keep them on.
He was tall, but didn’t have nearly the frame I did.
I watched as she finished towelling off his hair.
I took her wrist and pressed both it and the towel to her chest, adjusting her back a pace. Next, I took Ace’s arm, and, before he could do anything, jammed the gun into his shoulder and pulled the trigger.
He snarled, but I was ready for the way he lunged at me. I dropped the gun and caught him, hauling him a step toward the door. The second I pulled him from her, he lost it.
A snarl ripped from his chest, and I was thrown back a pace by his hostility.
Vicious he might be, but I was a lot larger, and it was easy to haul him from the bathroom.
By the time we got to the bed, I could already see the drug’s effects taking hold.
It wasn’t hard to lay him down on the far edge.
Finally, in the bond, the dark shadow of flickering energy died.
I examined him for a long moment.
He’d wake.
Had to.
Not that I’d usually lose sleep at Ace Maverick’s death, but choosing Thistle meant sharing her with two of the world’s greatest pricks, and that was fucking that.
I returned with a T-shirt to find Thistle standing exactly where I had left her, hugging the towel to her chest, her eyes vacant. She was shivering, her cheeks pink.
I lifted her, setting her gently down on the vanity, cupping her cheek. I was relieved when her violet eyes focused on me.
“Are you stable?” I asked.
I still wasn’t sure what she’d been given. Whatever it was had triggered her heat in minutes.
“I… I don’t know. It’s not like other heats.
Bunny settled it for now…” She frowned, and I saw a flash of fear in her eyes as she glanced up at me.
“I’m…” Her voice was weak. “I am really… really glad you bit me,” she whispered.
“I p-promise. I’m gonna be happy soon.” She swallowed.
“And, uh… I think this heat is gonna be normal soon, too, and then we can?—”
“Kitten.” I cut her off. “Stop worrying about me. You just went through hell.”
She frowned, but I didn’t feel trust down the bond from her. Instead, she seemed more panicked.
I picked up the T-shirt I’d brought in. It was far too big for her, but it calmed my nerves to tug it over her head, enveloping her in my scent.
“I will be just fine no matter what you need,” I told her.
“You… promise?”
“I promise,” I told her. “I just want you to tell me what you need.”
Her lip trembled, and she broke. Her teeth clenched, lips drawn, chin quivering as tears flooded her face, and her fingers fumbled for my chest.
I lifted her into my arms, and she clung to me. “He’s… he’s gone.”
I paused, drawing back, but she curled against me harder.
“I wasn’t… wasn’t enough, and now he’s…” She choked on her own breath, a hiccup shaking her tiny frame. “…He’s gone.”
“Shhh, come here.” I stood, knowing I should tell her now.
But the fact I’d just dragged Knox Wilde back from the brink of death so that my scent match could claim him was still a truth that refused to settle into something quite as rational as words.
So instead, I numbly walked us out to the bed and sat down.
She was curled up against me so tight it was as if she never wanted to surface again.
“Kitten,” I murmured, tucking my finger between us, trying to lift her chin. She tried to dig in deeper. “Look.” The quiet word held the weight of my bark, and her breath caught as I was finally able to nudge her chin up.
She went still as a statue, and her eyes were wide as she stared at Knox, lips parted in shock.
“You didn’t think I would let her take what’s yours, did you?”
It was the reason, I realised. The only thing on my mind as I’d dragged him from Bella’s clutches.
Not even the damn device in my neck set to blow. It hadn’t been in my periphery when I’d intervened, and somehow, that was more unnerving than anything else.
Thistle changed everything.
Her breath caught. There was a choked sound in her chest as she reached out toward him. Her fingers gripped his shirt as if she wasn’t sure he was real. When she found tangible fabric, she broke. Her expression crumpled, another choked sob seizing her body as she scrambled toward him.
“He’s recovering,” I said. “But he… should be alright.”
Well. Physically , he seemed stable.
But I’d just watched him walk into his worst nightmare to protect her.
Her thumb stroked his cheek, carving a divide through the blood flecking his tanned skin. Another ragged breath, and another wave of tears flooded her cheeks as she sank against him, pressing her forehead to his.
I could feel it in the bond, the way a wound closed within her, some of the bleeding finally slowing.
She remained there for a long time, tears unending as she scent marked him—then did it again.
There was blood smearing his face, but the faintest traces of Bella’s absinthe scent vanished beneath Thistle’s frosted moonflower.
It settled my nerves more than I might have imagined, having it thick in the air of my room.
Thistle tilted Knox’s chin, examining his face and neck.
“The, uh…” She swallowed, eyes darting to me fearfully, then to the door. “The bond?”
I cleared my throat, mind flashing back to the moment, Knox, on his knees as he offered Bella his bite. “Can’t undo it yet, but we’ll sort it out. We’re safe down here for now.”
She nodded, but I could see the pain in her glittering eyes. I felt it through the bond, too. A stab of panic curdled with a flash of fury.
Turning back to him, she lowered her face to his neck and sank her teeth in, a precious little growl in her throat as she did.
Then she drew back, eyes following the faintest trickle of blood seeping down Knox’s neck.
She was trembling, jaw clenched, eyes unblinking as she waited, as if it might change anything.
When it inevitably didn’t, she leaned down and bit him again.
I felt the desperation in it this time, something coming loose, leaving parts rattling within her.
Before she could do it a third time, I caught her.
She let out a strangled sound of anger, eyes unfocused for a moment until she met mine.
“Y-you don’t… understand…” Her chest was heaving, another stream of tears tumbling down her cheeks. “He… he was trying to protect me.”
“I know, Kitten.”
“He’s not my mate, but he still wanted me . That means he’s mine, r-right?” Her expression crumpled. “But she… she still took him.”
“And I took him back,” I said simply, shifting closer. “I told you we could keep him.”
How we would get out of this mess, though? I had no fucking idea.
If Bella had taken him, she’d be off our backs.
Instead, we’d just killed her Alphas and taken Knox. Three of them had died upstairs, which meant there were six other Alphas left in her pack aside from him.
First, we had to survive Thistle’s heat.
Would Bella feel the claim Thistle had just made on the Alpha in her pack? Either way, she would be out for blood. But right now, we were in pieces—one feral Alpha, one bonded to our worst nightmare, and my Omega was in heat.
Thistle, though, was settling. Her arms slid around my neck as she drew me close. “Thank you.” Her voice was muffled, a damp whisper into my collarbone.
I held her against me, her tiny frame feeling too small and fragile as I swallowed her up in a hug.
I found my peace then. In the flood of her relief through the bond, the beginnings of healing that had seemed impossible even minutes ago.
There was nothing in this world that I wouldn’t do to find peace for my broken Omega. And what was between Knox and I? It was nothing in the face of that.
She pulled back, eyes roaming the bed desperately. Next thing I knew, she’d ducked down and was scrabbling to squeeze into Knox’s shirt. She tore through the buttons with ease before her head popped out the top, fingers curling around the fabric as she settled herself.
From where she was balled up in his shirt, she blinked at me expectantly. I eyed them both and edged closer, stifling my internal protest at the reality that cuddling her inevitably meant cuddling Knox, too.
He never had to know.
As soon as my touch was there, and she was surrounded, she let out the sweetest sigh, and the faint smile on her lips was salve to my panic. Her eyes fluttered closed and she passed out within seconds.