Chapter 18
EIGHTEEN
KNOX
“I think we should sit down and make an actual plan.” Rogue’s words were as unwelcome as he was. He slouched in the chair opposite my desk. “With Ace and Thistle.”
It was the next day, and I’d stayed up most of the night, wishing it was me in her nest.
I shut my laptop, not wanting the email screen reminding me of how much he might be right. No sign of Bella yet, but my contact, Doyle, had already heard the first rumour in the Ring’s circles that I was a traitor. If that was getting around, the danger wasn’t far behind.
“What makes you say that?” I asked.
Rogue unlocked his phone and turned it to me.
On the screen, I could see one of the outdoor security feeds, cropped down to the relevant area. Thistle was clinging to the pipes on the side of the mansion, Bunny in her mouth as she reached out with her leg to hook her limbs over the balcony railing.
Ah, fuck . “I assume that’s his room?”
“Bingo.”
“Is there a reason you’re here instead of running about beneath her with a trampoline?”
I thought I already knew the answer as Rogue snorted. “It was twenty minutes ago. But I did make sure there was no broken Omega in the bushes.”
I rested my head against the back of my chair, blowing out a sigh.
Dammit .
“So,” Rogue mused. “This went about as well as it did last time.”
“What?”
“Banning her from her mate.” Rogue chuckled. “We do need to get ahead of this, though, and as much as I don’t want to admit it, that probably means getting him on board.”
“I will not stoop that low.”
Rogue shrugged. “Well then, I just look forward to watching Ace wipe the floor with you.”
“He won’t.”
Rogue chuckled. “You’re delusional.”
“This is my fucking territory. I’ve been deconstructing the Ring for years. He’s useless.”
“Yeh. I wouldn’t bet on it. In case you hadn’t noticed, he’s already adjusted the security schedule to double the watch on her end of the house, ordered a thousand dollars of takeout on your credit card, and broken the feed to his new room.”
I opened my mouth, then shut it.
No, he hadn’t .
He didn’t even have a phone.
I opened the feed to see Ace sleeping in the large bed.
I frowned, watching the edge of the screen carefully until I saw what I was looking for.
“Damn.”
It was looping.
I tried to reset the cameras and the screen flickered off. When it reloaded at last, the black screen remained, but upon it flickered a blood red middle finger and a rose, the image a haphazard painting across the screen.
“How does he know how to do that?”
Rogue shrugged. “No idea. Took me ages to get back in after you kicked me off it all.”
“He’s not even supposed to have a phone.”
I was already opening up my finances, though, and sure enough I could see the obscene charge to my card from a delivery service.
Goddammit.
THISTLE
I tucked Bunny under my arm and clamped a hand over my mouth to stop my heaving breaths from giving me away as I stood at the cracked balcony door.
He’d picked a room with a balcony! That was as good as an invitation as far as I was concerned.
Or he liked the breeze…
Nope—definitely an invitation.
Rogue had cuddled me late into the morning in my nest, and then he’d tried to set up a planning meeting. But we couldn’t make any plans if Ace wasn’t there or I’d have brought him back for nothing.
I dared to peer around the door to get a better look, inhaling the cool scent of a fresh lightning storm.
The room inside was spacious, with a broad four-poster bed, massive curtains, which were cracked open, and a couch facing a wall-mounted TV. It looked a lot like Knox’s room.
Ace was seated up against his headboard, a bunch of takeout boxes littering his room, and a pile of cushions with an old laptop on his lap.
Honestly, I’d hoped he’d been asleep so I could sneak in and curl up next to him. Knox had banned me from seeing him alone, but that was out of his jurisdiction.
Ace was mine.
And right now he was wearing that muzzle and collar I’d seen him in downstairs. I had to squeeze my thighs together as I stared.
Gift. Wrapped.
I slipped into the room and quietly padded over.
The laptop illuminated his pretty features, and his blue eyes zoomed back and forth across the screen.
Okay.
Obviously, he was just so engrossed in what he was doing that he hadn’t heard.
But when I edged up to the side of his bed, he finally paused, eyes closing as he took a deep breath.
“What do you want, Omega?” he asked, voice quiet.
I found comfort in the way he spoke to me, the title etched into old memories even if they often came with coldness.
I ran my tongue along my teeth, wringing my fingers and weighing my options.
I hadn’t had anything familiar in a long time. So much of what I was being offered was good, but I couldn’t shake the idea that the ground might crumble beneath me.
Ace, still being all he had ever been—even now—made me feel safe in a way I couldn’t put my finger on.
Instead of answering, I clambered onto the bed and shuffled up to him, knocking the boxes of takeout out of my way.
“I want cuddles,” I said, forcing my voice steady.
He might be familiar, but this dynamic wasn’t. I was supposed to be able to ask him for things now, and he should do them. He was mine, not the other way around.
He didn’t move, though. Didn’t even look at me.
I glanced down at Bunny.
Uh… what do we do now?
I slowly tugged up the bedsheet and shimmied in.
Well… he hasn’t tossed us out yet, so that’s a start.
I nudged his arm with my head, peering at his screen.
“Bunny?” I asked.
His jaw ticked. “What did I tell you?”
“Not to call you that.”
His silence was answer enough.
I pouted.
Well, he was Bunny. Couldn’t change that.
Dummy.
“So uh… what are you doing?” I prodded.
He shut the laptop, rolling his eyes.
“ What do you want?” he asked again.
I took the opportunity to shove the laptop away, replacing it with myself, knees on either side of his thighs as I peered up at him. “Are you settling in?” I asked, daring to place my hands on his chest. Still, he didn’t protest. “I could help, if you needed… anything?”
It didn’t smell much like him in here, which seemed wrong. I reached for a pillow and drew it along my jaw, leaving my frosted moonflower scent in the room.
My gaze flicked back up to him nervously. He was watching me so intently, but he didn’t protest.
That was… good, I thought. Right?
He wasn’t the type who was gonna ask, but if he wasn’t tossing me out on my ass, then that meant he was definitely into it.
At least, so I thought . His pupils had dilated just a little, following the pillow as I set it back down beside him.
I struggled to stifle my smile, but instead a strangled chirp escaped my chest. He cocked his head, examining me closer, but I swear his pupils were even wider.
Oh, he wants it, Bunny.
He wants us in here.
In his room.
He’d never let me scent mark anything in his territory before.
What did it mean?
I gently pressed my hand back to his bare chest, feeling that unfamiliar elation at how his skin felt against mine. He caught my wrists, though, lifting them and forcing my weight back.
I tried to fight the pout, but I don’t think I did a very good job.
“Aren’t you disobeying Knox?” he asked dryly.
Oh damn.
Had Knox told him I was banned?
Of course he had, the territorial fuck. But that was good. They were fighting over me.
My eyes darted to the door, then back to him. “You’re mine,” I muttered. “He has no right.”
“Not even if he’s worried about what I might do if we’re alone?”
I narrowed my eyes, peering up at him. He was so still, fingers still curled around my wrists as if expecting me to try and shift closer again.
He’d always been hard to read. I considered myself pretty good at it, but right now the bond was shut and I wasn’t sure at all what that cold look in his eyes meant.
“What are you gonna do that you haven’t already done? ” I asked.
“I would guess that what I’ve already done is exactly what he is concerned about.”
I felt a little smile tug at my lips. “Yeh,” I scoffed. “But he thinks you broke me.”
I mean, sure, Ace hadn’t put me back together all that well, but all he’d done was step on the shards of an already broken vase.
He’d found me like that.
“What did I do then, Omega?” he asked, and I thought there was a true curiosity in his eyes this time.
I thought about that.
Ace hadn’t helped me get fixed—not like I knew Knox and Rogue wanted to, but he had always been better than the before .
“You claimed me,” I whispered, and my jaw clenched as the truth of what he’d done came barreling in. “I just…” I didn’t quite manage to stifle the angry little growl that rose in my chest at the thought of it. “I finished the job when you wouldn’t.”
There was a strange silence between us as he watched me with far more interest than I remembered. Or I thought so, anyway.
I glanced down at Bunny, who was resting on his chest between us.
I hated it when he went all quiet.
“You never had to take me from Dan’s pack.” My voice was tight. “But you did. You weren’t ever going to let me go, but then… then you didn’t want me.”
I felt a strange, clawing desperation that I needed to make him get it: it never had to be like this.
“You… you weren’t, were you?” I pushed, my voice wobbling.
“Weren’t what?”
“Going to let me go.”
He rested his head back on the headboard, holding my gaze as he finally released my wrists. “Never.”
I felt a surge of relief from that single word, and I wasn’t even sure why. I was just so full of second guesses, and the rage he’d felt when he’d finally surfaced… but I needed him to know I hadn’t had a choice.
Not really.
He’d taken that from me.
“So,” he mused, “if you thought I might let you go, you wouldn’t have gone through with this mess ?”
My lips parted in shock, my fist balling against his chest. “I would, too.” How dare he. “But if you’d bonded me proper I’d have never had the chance.”
His low, involuntary bark of a laugh caught me so off guard I flinched back.
It was rare as diamonds, seeing him laugh.
For a moment he looked poised to reach after me, as if he wanted me close after all, but then the door creaked and I spun on his lap.
Ohhhh shit.
Knox was standing in the doorway, peering in, eyes narrowed before he caught a glimpse of us.
“Uh…” I scooped Bunny up.
We’re in trouble.
I scrambled from Ace’s lap in an instant and hurried across the room, drawing up before him.
“What do you think you’re doing, Doll?” he asked, caramel eyes boring into my soul.
“Sorry, Daddy,” I muttered.
He raised his eyebrows.
“But you can’t ban me from seeing him,” I whined.
He sighed. “I’m not banning you and you are fully aware of that.”
I rolled my eyes. Alphas and their stupid brass taxes. If I couldn’t see him alone it was the same difference.
“If you insist on putting yourself at risk, I’ll have no choice but to punish you.”
“I’m not at risk,” I sighed dramatically. “He’s just a big softie, really.”
“No.” Knox snorted, gaze flicking back to Ace. “No, he really isn’t.”
“I can handle him.” Had done for years.
Knox leaned close so his words were just between us. “Well, fact is, it’s my night, unless you intended to skip me?”
Uh.
Damn.
“No.”
I shivered as his hand found my neck, keeping me in place as he leaned closer, his breath brushing my ear like a feather. “I won’t tolerate being left behind, Doll.”
“You’re right. It’s your night.”
That was fine.
Rogue last night, Knox tonight, and that meant tomorrow, when I snuck in here, he didn’t have any ground to stand on.
I’d get my night with Bunny, too.
Plus…
I bit my lip, daring a glance at Ace as Knox gave my ear a nip.
He’d moved, now seated on the edge of the bed, feet on the ground as he watched us with narrowed eyes. He was silent in the bond, but there was a tremor in there somewhere, I could swear it…
I’d never managed to make Ace jealous before. I was jealous all the time. But him…? My god Alpha, getting anxious about me?
I shivered, my gaze finally ripped from Ace as Knox’s teeth nipped my neck.
“Did you get him takeout?” I asked, suddenly curious.
That didn’t sound like Knox.
“No,” Knox said. “But at least he hasn’t figured out how to get the collar and muzzle off,” he said as he drew back. The words seemed to be for Ace, but he didn’t look away from me.
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Ace said, quiet enough that I barely heard it as he forced himself back onto the bed, grabbing the laptop. He tapped the muzzle absently, the curve of a smile on his face. “You’ll be taking this off by the end of the week.”
Knox snorted like that was the stupidest thing he’d ever heard.
“I think I’ll even get to see you putting it on—or maybe Rogue will have to pin you down.”
A faint snarl rolled up Knox’s throat at those words.
I… “Uh…” The word slipped out before I could stop it, and Knox’s fury cut off, his gaze darted to me.
“What?” he asked.
“All I’m saying is Rogue’s had a turn. And Ace…”
“You want me in the muzzle?”
“Well…” I wrung Bunny out. “Would be pretty…” I poked him in the cheek, grinning. “That’s all I’m saying.”
When Knox took my hand and led me away, I thought I truly did feel Ace in the bond—a building pressure in the air before a storm.
Definitely jealous.
Win-win, after all.