Page 74 of Knot Here for You

His blue eyes flick to me, and his jaw tightens. “No, I don’t have one. I don’t need one. I’m strong enough on my own.”

I doubt that’s true. Since being diagnosed with RMD, I’ve done a lot of research on bonds and pack dynamics. An alpha with no pack can survive, yes, but with no bonds to help settle them, they can go feral. Driven by instinct, like the alphas that sniffed me out in that shitty little motel.

I shiver and shrink back farther into my house, while Jackson shifts further in front of me, a solid barrier between me and the perceived threat.

“Vee, baby girl, why don’t you go inside while I have a chat with Connor?”

I frown while Connor scowls. Maybe I should say no, and stay right here and deal with my own shit, but I’ve been doing it for years. And it feels really nice to have Jackson here, willing to handle Connor, so I don’t have to. Don’t get me wrong, I could. I am a badass bitch who can definitely tell a guy she’s not interested, I just… don’t want to deal with it.

My hand touches his spine just briefly before I retreat into the house. Jackson watches me go over his shoulder before reaching back and closing the door, cutting me off from their continued conversation.

I wander into the kitchen and make tea. Peppermint for Jackson and raspberry for me, keeping one eye on the door. Only a few minutes have passed when it opens and my prime alpha strolls through. I run my gaze over him from head to foot, making sure he’s in one piece, even though I can see he is.

A smirk curls his lips at my perusal. “Worried about me, baby girl?”

I shake my head and stir honey into my cup. “Nope. Not in the slightest.”

“Good.” He steps up behind me, keeping enough space between us that I can just feel the brush of his shirt against mine, but not real contact. His big hands grip the counter on either side of me, caging me in. If someone else did this to me, I might feel trapped, but with Jackson, I just feel safe. So freaking safe. “You don’t have to worry about me, Vee. I will always be able to take care of you.” His breath puffs over my neck as he gives me his reassurances, making goose pimples rise.

Choosing to ignore his promise and his proximity, I take a sip of my tea. “You and the others were giving my grandmother money. Why?”

There’s the ghost of a kiss on the nape of my neck and then he moves away from me, leaning his hip on the counter next to me and picking up his tea as well. “We were paying your tuition for the academy.”

For a moment I think he means the Omega Academy, but I never attended and they’ve already told me they thought I was going to stay a beta. But then I realize he means Trombolt Academy. The high school we all went to.

I bark out a laugh. “Are you serious?”

Jackson’s head tilts. “Yes. She came to us and said she wouldn’t be able to afford the tuition anymore.”

Another laugh leaves me. “I bet she did.” Setting down my mug, I meet his gaze. “Jacks, I was on a scholarship. She wasn’t paying anything for my tuition. I thought you knew that.”

He stares at me for a moment, a furrow between his brows. I can tell he’s putting things together. And then he swears. “Fuck. Half of the reason we went along with Yasmin was because we wanted to keep you at Trombolt. Didn’t want you to go to a public school where Davis couldn’t keep an eye on you. We needed access to our parents’ money to do that for you.”

I shake my head again, because that‘s not even the half of it. I trace a vein in the marble, not looking at him. “When Aurie said I’d have to remodel the house to be able to sell it and told me the amount of money in my grandmother’s bank account, I was… confused as to how there was so much.”

He nods. “That’s why you asked for ten years of your grandmother’s account statements.” He smirks again when I look at him sharply.

“Topher told you about that?”

“‘Course he did. You’re our favorite topic of conversation, baby girl. Always have been, always will be.”

I ignore the flush of pleasure that gives me and barrel ahead, knowing he’s going to hate what I have to say next. My chin jerks in the directions of the stacks of papers on the coffee table. “I-Mmm… there isn’t an easy way to say this.”

Jackson stiffens, straightens from his lean and his gray eyes grow more intense. “Just say it, Vee.”

I swallow thickly and meet his gaze so he knows I’m not making this up. “The day of the party, the announcement, my grandmother received a payment of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars from your pack. Or… I guess your parents’ pack. Three days later, she received another one hundred thousand. And every year since she’s been receiving deposits on the anniversary. Like every year I stayed away…”

“They paid her,” He finishes for me.

“Yeah,” I nod. “Yeah. I think that might be what happened. It’s certainly what it looks like. I wouldn’t put it past her to have threatened them with telling me everything or telling you everything, more likely. I reached out to her a few times, just to check in. She told me… she always told me how happy you were without me, how you’d all moved on.”

“Vee, baby girl.”

“It hurt every time I talked to her, because she’d paint these pictures in my head of your happy pack life. How you’d stopped asking about me almost immediately. I still told her where I was, what I was doing, like it might somehow get back to you or, I don’t know, like maybe she cared. I know she wasn’t a good grandmother—or person, for that matter—but she was the only relative I had left.”

“She knew?” He asks, sounding dumbstruck and pissed all at the same time. “She fucking knew?”

I nod, reaching out to lace my fingers with his, squeezing. He grips me back like I’m his lifeline, the only thing keeping him tethered. “Yes. She knew where I was, Jacks. She could have told you at any time, but she wanted to keep squeezing money out of your family. I’m so sorry.”

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