Chapter 15
FIFTEEN
ROGUE
The next day we returned to the mansion to find Ace out and about.
Knox had dug out the old shock collar and put a muzzle on him, but it still raised my hackles to find him in the ballroom, sitting on that same armchair I’d found him in all those years ago. He had one of my mother’s old history books open and was reading with intensity.
Thistle didn’t notice him right away. The armchairs were a good distance from the entry, and she was focused on doing hopscotch over the blood splatters still staining the ballroom floor.
She froze, though, almost wobbling onto a brownish splatter, then spun, eyes scanning the room as if she’d caught his scent. Her gaze landed straight on Ace, who hadn’t looked up.
Her whole demeanour changed.
I turned on Knox. “You let him out?” My hiss was just for him.
Knox, however, was staring at Ace in shock. “I…” He was digging into a pocket, but his jaw was firmly clenched. “Shit.”
“He got the key off you?” I demanded. “How?”
“The… Fuck . The collar still keeps him in the house,” Knox growled. “He wasn’t going anywhere.” He looked pissed, though.
“He, uh… he can stay out though, right?” Thistle asked, ducking under my arm and inserting her whisper into the conversation. Her eyes were imploring as she looked at Knox.
“What?” Knox asked.
I opened my mouth to tell her what a shit idea that was, but she was already ducking away.
She’d turned back to Ace, and was reaching for her messy buns, patting them absently as she stared at the Alpha who definitely knew she was in the room, and couldn’t be fucked to look up at her.
Through the bond, I could feel a sudden burst of tension.
Thistle edged closer to where Ace sat, absolutely honed in on him in real life and in the bond. She patted her dress nervously and made a few awkward steps toward him. Then she caught my eye, and gave me an anxious smile.
Damn.
Finally, when Ace still didn’t look up, she crossed the rest of the distance. Perching on the arm of the armchair he was seated in, she said, “Just got back from a date .”
It set me on edge, watching her that close to him. He was in a bond with me, but he was frighteningly silent in there.
Ace didn’t react, eyes still drifting along the writing on the page before him, and Thistle turned Bunny in her hands for a moment as if mulling over her options.
“Went to the fair,” she said. “Rogue won me a huge teddy.”
Still, Ace didn’t look up, and Thistle, darting a nervous glance back at me and Knox, slid down into the seat on her back— pushing the book almost right out of Ace’s hands as she lay on his lap, looking up at him.
Ace shut his eyes and took a deep, slow breath.
“But now he’s grouchy ‘cos Knox couldn’t stay away for ‘ one fucking night ’.” She dropped her voice and did a rubbish imitation of me, but she was glowing as she said it.
Ace managed, somehow, to adjust the book beneath her shoulder, and continue reading. I realised Knox and I were frozen, watching the two of them as if they were aliens.
“I like the muzzle on you,” she said, poking it.
Ace struggled to turn a page.
Thistle was finding her momentum, though, and boldly ignored him ignoring her. “Good thing, too. After that date you gotta up your game, Bunny.”
He finally reacted, his hand closing around her throat. Knox and I flinched toward them, but Thistle hugged his arm, a broad grin on her face as he finally looked down at her.
“I dare you to call me that again, Omega,” he said, voice barely a whisper. I saw the flicker of his eyes sliding to us as he said it, and I knew he was fully aware of how tense we were.
I felt the threat directed at us as much as it was at her.
At the sound of his voice, though, there was an unsettling explosion of happiness from Thistle in the bond. Her face twisted in a pout and she lifted Bunny, holding him up to Ace. “But he said he’d share.”
That was when I felt him, his grip on the bond slipping. He was gathering clouds on the edge of a lightning strike.
“Maverick.” Ace didn’t flinch as I called his name. “Dinner in an hour, you’re cooking.”
At my side, I saw Knox raise his eyebrows.
“Don’t you have people who cook for you?” he asked, not looking up from Thistle, a sneer in his voice.
I crossed the distance to them and grabbed him by the muzzle, dragging him to his feet while prying her from his grip. “That would be you, rat ,” I said, steadying her at my side.
“Well, you’re out of luck.” He sneered at me. “Never learned.”
“I could help!” Thistle’s squeak was enough to drag me from my fury. She managed to duck between us, grabbing onto Ace’s waist and looking up at me. “I’ll help him with dinner!”
“There.” Ace gave me a sour smile. “You already have a little pet willing to?—”
I lost it, the world going red. Thistle’s arm was in my hand and my fist was colliding with Ace’s face—sort of, since the muzzle got in the way.
He sprawled across the marble. I barely processed Thistle, who was fighting me again.
“Oh— Rogue! ” She staggered in front of me, cheeks bright pink, hands up.
She let out a nervous laugh. “Wait… Uh—!” She was looking between us both, taking a step back, then turning to kneel down and help him up (or did her best given her tiny frame).
When he’d made it to his feet, she was wrapped around him like a barnacle once more.
I was so tense I could hardly take a breath.
Why was she defending him?
Ace adjusted the muzzle, but his gaze slid down to her instead of me. As he took her in, the fury in his eyes shifted to something… softer?
Maybe.
If so, it was only for a flash before his expression iced up again.
“You know…” Ace managed to extract himself from her hug. “I picked a room in this godforsaken place. Thought I could show you, but I don’t think your new bodyguards would approve.”
Thistle’s eyes widened and her fists balled up. “We wanna see it.”
He stepped back. “Another time.”
She didn’t say anything as he exited the room, but she watched him leave, disappointment seeping from her in the bond, her frosted moonflower scent wilting.
Fuck.
She shot me and Knox a glance. “Still a real piece of work…” There was another pout on her face as she lifted Bunny up to talk to him directly. “Don’t worry. We’ll visit later.”
I couldn’t help but meet Knox’s gaze.
He looked as stumped as I felt. The bruising on Ace’s face told me his inclination for punishing the Alpha was identical to mine, but Thistle’s protection was a complication that hadn’t occurred to me.
“I can still make dinner?” Thistle’s expression brightened already as she hopped back to my side as if none of that had happened, tugging on my shirt eagerly.
“I’ll… order takeout,” Knox said, probably anticipating Poptarts as much as I did when she threatened offered such things.
I nodded, eyes lingering on where Ace had left. “Good. I’m moving upstairs,” I said.
“No, you’re fucking not,” Knox snarled.
“Try and stop me,” I scoffed. “I’ll have the room across from the nest.” If Ace had tried to take that one, I’d throw him out on his ass.
It wasn’t that I didn’t like my space in the basement—it had grown on me. But I needed to be close to her. In case Bella returned, and also because I didn’t trust Ace not to prowl around and cause issues.
“Fuck yes!” Thistle punched the air. “Can I help?”
Knox, who looked ready to blow his top, turned on her. “No,” he growled. “My office. We’re going to discuss rules. And Ace.”
She frowned, but I nudged her.
“That’s alright, Kitten.” I mussed her hair, which was halfway out of its buns now. “I’ll come find you when I’m done.”
Fuck Knox—but he was good at rules and she clearly needed a lot of those. And I needed to blow off some steam so I didn’t hunt down Ace and beat him to a pulp.
Or maybe I would do exactly that…
What she didn’t see couldn’t hurt her, could it?
Well. There was the bond. But he clearly liked that locked down…
“Daddy,” I heard her hiss to Knox as they walked away. “I want Bunny to stay in one of the rooms up here, okay! Please don’t put him away.”
Ah… fuck .
We were so goddamn screwed.