Chapter 47
FORTY-SEVEN
KNOX
The marble floors gleamed beneath my knees, reflecting the warm lights above.
I’d been here before.
Blood tore through my veins like lava, setting every nerve on fire. My instincts were haywire as I finally faced the Alpha I’d been chasing for as long as I could remember.
He had his hands on her—hands soaked in the blood of a thousand lives. He was responsible for more pain than I could imagine. This house—the Misfits, with the scars they would carry for the rest of their lives—was the smallest slice of that agony.
My ribs ached from the fight with his guards, each breath dragging against bruises. I’d been searching for her in the Misfits’ quarters so I could offer her the bite.
The start of a dream I never thought I’d have.
I shoved the thought away. If I lingered on it, it would break me. I couldn’t afford that.
She was so strong.
I could see the fear clouding her eyes, but she was straight-backed, not flinching as Carrion tried to make his claim.
He was talking again, each word an attempt to unravel my sanity. His voice grated, low and measured, a predator’s rumble that didn’t need to rise to be a threat.
“Ace Maverick. A man with an interesting history. And Rogue… your parents were quite prolific…”
I took a breath, running my fingers over the rugged object in my hand. The edges pressed sharp into my palm. It was cool stones set against metal, a weight that felt too small to matter, but enough to decide everything.
I tilted my head just enough to slide my gaze to it for a heartbeat.
I had to know which one I held.
A glance was enough to confirm what I needed.
“I take no issue with sharing a bond with a Manzo—but Knox Wilde?” I clenched my jaw, meeting his eyes through that mask. The bone-white surface gave nothing back, his gaze unreadable behind it, still somehow pinning me in place.
“An Alpha dragged in from the gutter,” he said. “Bought in an arena game by Rogue, and somehow, you managed to claw your way back into relevance.”
“He’s mine now,” Thistle said. “You don’t have to take him away.”
“I can provide other gifts,” Carrion said, turning his mask toward Ace. “You think I would consider this if I wasn’t offered sacrifice? And I would like some entertainment.”
I could read between those lines.
He wanted me dead, and from the way he was looking between Rogue and Ace, I knew how.
I rolled the object between my thumb and forefinger, praying I had the right one, and felt the stab of pain against my skin.
It wasn’t enough. Not yet.
Ace had to know first.
“You don’t need to kill him,” Thistle whispered, pleading.
I dared a glance toward Ace, hoping Carrion had turned his attention to her. When I caught his eye, my gaze dropped to my hand, and his followed.
His ice-blue eyes met mine once more, and he rolled his neck, looking back at Thistle. For just a flicker, I swear I saw the faintest shadow of a smile twitch at his lips.
This was the play.
All or nothing.
The last shot we had.
“I want loyalty,” Carrion was saying. “One of your Alphas is going to show me that sacrifice,” he said, looking between Rogue and Ace. Behind us, boots shuffled upon marble, the weight of guns shifting in threat. My pulse hammered so hard it drowned the rest of the room.
“Which of you will do it?”
ACE
Knox had found a way out.
I didn’t feel fear easily. It wasn’t a bravery thing, it just didn’t happen for me like it did everyone else. The world was a cascade of calculations and games that often distracted me enough to think about endings.
But there had been a moment—brief as it was—when I saw Carrion seated on this armchair with Thistle, that I had stalled out.
He was real, and he held all the cards.
I hadn’t seen him coming.
My intel hadn’t brought up a damned thing, and I would admit that I was wrong in wondering if he was real.
But today I had something I’d never had before—someone else was fighting for her. Knox was just as determined, and possibly, almost as reliable as I was.
“Ace…” Thistle’s voice stalled me for a moment.
I turned to her. “Shut up, Omega. You’ve been mine since the first time I dragged you out of that filthy bar.” My fingers made a gun that I pressed up beneath my chin before mimicking pulling the trigger.
Thistle paused, eyes intense as she stared at me.
She would figure it out—she was my soul match.
Now the heat bond was in place, I could revel in the memory of the most beautiful sight in the world.
“You’ll fix it for me, won’t you, Omega?”
At my request, she’d pressed my gun to her own chin—never knowing if it was loaded. And with the pull of a trigger, she claimed the throne of madness I thought was mine alone.
Perfect devotion.
Perfect insanity.
And at the time, I’d run from it.
That ask I’d made of her echoed across years, saturating everything down to the madness I felt every time I caught the scent of a fresh lightning storm.
I could feel her calm in the bond as if she understood, her belief in me absolute.
That feeling clawed its way up my throat, a euphoria the likes of which I hadn’t felt since the day I’d met her.
It was a high I’d been chasing all this time without even knowing.
I’d asked for her faith, never expecting it for a moment, but she’d given it anyway. And now I could ask for it again.
I didn’t care about Carrion.
He was nothing.
This Omega, she was perfect.
And I saw it finally, fully, in its completion—a truth that had been staring me in the face since the first time I’d met her.
She was mine, and I would make sure the throne she sat on was as gilded as she deserved.
Beside me, Knox was on his knees, gun to the back of his head.
I held my hand out to the guard behind me.
“What are you doing?” Rogue’s voice cut into the perfect, suspended silence.
I ignored him, watching Carrion. The masked Alpha paused for only a moment before waving a hand, and the guard handed me the weapon.
It was impossible not to consider turning it on Carrion right now, but I’d be shot dead in a heartbeat.
Instead, I gripped Knox by the hair and smashed the magazine into the side of his face. He sprawled across the marble, a growl in his throat.
I’d barely even flinched in his direction when Rogue moved, seizing me by the arm.
“No!”
I snarled. I didn’t have time .
“Find some fucking decorum, Rogue,” I snarled, shoving him backward. He was huge, though, and his grip didn’t budge—the stupid oaf.
At my side, another of Carrion’s guards pressed his gun to Rogue’s neck.
“I won’t hesitate to put you in the morgue, Manzo,” Carrion said. “You need to learn not to interfere with my entertainment.”
Thistle came to my rescue, pulling from Carrion in a panic and throwing herself between me and Rogue.
That was what I needed.
I’d never felt this energised. Never had someone so entangled with me that we were one. A beating heart and mind.
She would be what I needed—and so, I realised, would Knox. Rogue lived up to his name, and yet, he offered me something in that, too—a shroud of believability.
I might be… whole.
“Kitten—!”
Thistle cut Rogue off. “I don’t want you to die, too.” There was genuine fear in her voice, which was warranted, since Carrion might truly put a bullet in his skull for interfering.
I moved before Rogue could get his bearings.
Knox was already weak, which meant he’d taken the right poison, and I didn’t have time to wonder how he knew which bead of Thistle’s bracelet did what.
Luckily, his disorientation could be passed off as from the blow I’d given him. He threw his weight toward me drunkenly, and I caught him with my fist, easily slamming him back to the ground.
I felt it, the press of something small and hard in my palm as I grappled with him. I grinned, a thrill I hadn’t thought I’d ever feel burning through my veins. This wasn’t just a game I’d created—hunter and prey. Me and them. This was different. Today I was gambling on playing in a team.
And Knox Wilde was, perhaps, a gift I hadn’t wanted to see.
Or at least, I hoped for his sake, he was.
A gift she’d found for me…
And now… Well—he’d have to die for it.
He was beneath me, struggles fading as my fists constricted his throat. His eyes were wide, growls reverberating across the ballroom in which I’d once handed him his freedom.
Finally, his body lost energy, eyes bulging before he went limp beneath me.
“Fuck!” I was shoved out of the way by Rogue, who was on the ground beside us, having pushed past Thistle to Knox’s side.
As I got to my feet, I curled the small cluster of beads into my fist.
“How nice to know she can be… controlled,” Carrion murmured.
I didn’t look at him, crossing toward her instead. I heard the click of a gun, but ignored it. Carrion was enthralled by our performance and he wouldn’t shut it down now, not unless he could see the threat.
And he wouldn’t.
Not as I cupped Thistle’s neck.
“You will let him bite you,” I told her.
She swallowed, violet galaxies blown wide with a mix of fear and reverence. As if she were taking a step, believing I would catch her before she fell.
“Yes, Alpha.”
The gems Knox had given me rolled in my grip. I could see the faintest flicker of colours caught among her raven hair, and I found the right one. Blue was long used at Bella’s party. Pink, Knox had just injected himself with.
It was the red one I pressed against her skin, turning her blood to poison.