Chapter 23
TWENTY-THREE
THISTLE
I settled in after Knox had left, happy to sketch while a TV show ran in the background as Vance and Tanisha bickered about kitchen décor.
After a while, a female alpha entered from the hallway.
She had long red hair, a lean frame, and there were what looked like old burn scars across her face.
I tried not to stare at them, smiling as she introduced herself as Petal.
I had never been around a female alpha before.
Her scent was like a rain forest—and I found it calming.
“Oh! I should ask. Is Bunny a nest or a pack mate?” Callum asked me, eyeing the way I held him close.
“Uh…” I glanced down at him. Probably both, but mostly… “He’s pack.”
Vance groaned, digging in his pocket and tossing a bill on the table. Petal scooped it up happily. “ Knew it.”
“You’ve seen me around?” I asked.
“When you’re out on the grounds or in the ballroom. We keep an eye on the place when stuff’s tense.”
“So… are you a pack?” I asked.
“One big happy family,” Callum supplied. I didn’t prod further, though I wondered if that meant they were bitten in.
“How many?” I asked. “Are there more Omegas?”
“Nah. Just me and Tanisha. And right now we have six.” Callum began counting off on his fingers, nodding to the people in the room. “For Alphas we got Petal, then Saint and Fang—but they don’t come out much.”
Three Alphas, two Omegas, and one Beta.
That seemed like a well-balanced pack—or family.
Whatever they wanted to call it.
They started playing a game with dice, though I was happy to watch while I snacked on cold Poptarts. I hadn’t grown up in a family that played many games, everyone was tense and angry, and nothing like the playful energy in this room as Vance flopped back on the couch when he lost.
“So,” Vance asked from where he lay on the couch, eyeing me with interest. “You and Knox?”
“Yup. He’s?—”
“Special?” Vance supplied.
I frowned at Vance, unsure.
Did he like Knox?
“Oh.” Vance chuckled, catching my expression. “No. You got us wrong. We just know Knox is a good man. He deserves a bit of happiness.”
“Most people don’t understand how special he is,” Petal said. “It’s just nice to see someone does. And… I don’t know. It’s kind of nice that you aren’t his scent match. After everything, I think it makes it more important.”
“He helped you all out?” I asked.
“That,” Callum said, “would be putting it lightly. None of us would be alive without him. And even this here.” He nodded around at the home.
“Doesn’t ask for anything. We want to help when he hosts the parties—no one should do what he does alone.
But he just tells us it’s safe for life here.
No strings. No pressure. Some of us, like Fang—” He shrugged.
“Never healed. He wouldn’t make it in the world, not anymore. ”
“So you all chose to stay?” I asked.
“Who’d make sure he doesn’t starve?” Vance asked.
Petal looked sorrowful, though. “He drives himself mad trying to get more out. Even when he does, it’s not enough.”
“I know he’s a grouch,” Vance said. “But he gives everything, and then some. We got one in here who couldn’t adjust. Every night he was out in the hallways, crying out.
It went on for weeks and weeks. He just needed someone there.
But we’re not always well enough to manage.
We’re doing better now, but at the time most of us were barely stable.
It was driving everyone nuts. So Knox started coming down every night, sat with him the whole night for months until he was better.
Don’t think he got more than a few hours’ sleep the whole time.
It’s hard to explain how much of a toll that takes, just listening to someone like that.
Would be enough to drive most people mad.
He didn’t complain once—that’s the kind of person he is. ”
I frowned.
He might be a little unhinged around the edges, but I could see it. I’d seen that side of him when he’d taken care of me.
“You know, I was so angry when I found out he’d scent matched Bella,” Tanisha said. “He deserves better than that—something real. I never considered it might be a blessing.”
I frowned. “Why?”
“Because you love him for him .”
“I think… when you’ve gone through what he has, things like fate can be hard to trust.”
“Especially when it can be such a cunt.”
Petal nudged me. “So you keep reminding him. We try, but he doesn’t see what he’s done. All he can think of are the ones he can’t save. But that’s not on him.”
Vance snorted. “He does his best to make it easy to forget he’s one of us.”
“He is?”
“That’s what a Misfit is,” Petal said. “Been chewed up and spat out by those monsters who think they own us, and now we just don’t fit right anymore… anywhere else.”
“Like you?” Vance asked, eying me curiously.
I froze. “I don’t think… Well, Knox bought me, so it wasn’t like that.”
“Before Knox?” he asked.
Ace.
And then…
I swallowed.
“I don’t know,” I said. “It was different.” My eyes scanned the burns across Petal’s face. “It wasn’t…”
With Dan and his pack—if I’d just been more normal, kept my stupid instincts in check, Dad would have never had to send me to them…
“That’s what everyone says. But it doesn’t have to be like this—” Petal waved at her face “—to be a Misfit.”
They played for enough time after that that I think I’d figured out the game rules from watching. Seeing them squabble was entertaining enough that I didn’t even need to pull out my sketchbook to occupy myself.
At last, there was a knock on the door.
When I crossed the room to open it, I saw Rogue waiting a pace away. He looked almost awkward, fist caught in his palm, before spotting me and smiling. “We’re back. No one died—thank God, but your soul match is a real wild card.”
I grinned. I knew that.
I think they were bonding!
“We should make some plans, but you can come when you’re ready,” Rogue said. “No rush.”
“Oh. Yeah, I can come.”
I really liked the Misfits, but my social nerves were getting the better of me. Staying felt like the roll of a dice. How long before I said something really stupid and ruined it.
I should take the win and go.
“You sure you don’t want any before you leave?” Tanisha asked from the counter where she was serving herself another plate of strudel. Her eyes flickered from me, then up to Rogue, something odd in them. Her voice was the slightest bit stiff. “And uh, you too… if you wanted?”
I swear there was a flush at the base of Rogue’s neck. “No, I’m good—thanks.”
I waved my box of Poptarts at her.
Maybe next time.
Couldn’t steal their food on first visit, even if it did smell really fucking good.
“Well, we’ll see you both around,” Vance had followed me to the door, patting Bunny on the head before grinning at me. “You’re welcome to visit anytime.”
Anytime?
I looked back to Rogue. “They said I was a Misfit.”
“You sure are.”
“You’re one, too, right?”
He raised his eyebrows, going a little ashen. “No.”
“You were chewed up and spat out by Knox.” I turned back to the Misfits. “He doesn’t even fit in most doorways.”
Callum choked out a laugh, but Rogue looked tense. “Nah, Kitten. Not my place.”
I was about to leave when I turned back to Vance, something nagging at me. “What happened to him?”
“Who?” Vance asked.
“The one Knox stayed with at night?”
“Oh.” Vance grinned. “Saved,” he said. “No way I’d be here without—” He cut off as my eyes snapped to him. He shifted with guilt for a moment, then he shrugged. “Knox is a good person. That’s what you need to know.”