Page 66 of Knot My Sin

“No, but he works with people who are,” I mutter. Nathan is the leader of the British mafia in Chicago, and one of Jas’ closest friends.

“He does, though he’s been using those connections on our behalf or those who have lost loved ones to the auctions, kidnapping, or the like,” Jas says sadly. “I just don’t know what the right thing to do is.”

He sounds lost, but as Wren pushes herself up in Flynn’s arms, I want to shake him to stop fucking things up.

Wren blinks as she stares at her brother, and Flynn carefully sets her on her feet.

“I thought I dreamed you were here,” she says softly.

“Would it be better if I was a dream?” Jasper asks softly.

“Honestly? I don’t know. It’s all so confusing, because I’m not Ha… the girl you knew,” Wren says carefully, swallowing hard. “Trey killed that girl when he bought me, put me in a cage, and never let me out.”

Taking a small step forward, she tilts her head as she stares at him. “Did you know they were going to sell me to a pedophile who likes omega children?”

“What?” Jasper asks, jaw dropping. I feel a little bad for him, but my heart cracks for Wren, and I rub my chest as I roll my lips inward to keep myself from interfering.

Ambrose makes a pained sound, his hands fisting at his sides, and Shaw grits his teeth as Flynn whines.

“I need to know,” she whispers. “Sometimes, in my dreams, I remember how our parents talked about how I was too much trouble to keep. A bratty omega in a house filled with mouths to feed. Then they brought me hot chocolate and I got sleepy…”

“They drugged you,” Jas whispers, horrified. “No, no I didn’t know. I was fourteen.”

Wren’s breaths get faster, her chest heaving, and I worry she’s going to have a panic attack. Her hand touches her throat as she gasps, but I hold my place before I start to move. She has to get this out, stand on her own, but Pack Mohan is ready to be at her side the second she needs us.

“I woke up on a cold floor in a basement,” she rasps. “Trey was there waiting for me, and I learned that day that any thoughts or dreams I had would be burned to ash. For ten years, I didn’t breathe unless he willed it, didn’t eat unless he fed me, and I always hurt so fucking much. He alpha commanded me never to kill myself, so I didn’t even have the luxury of ending it all.”

“Fuck,” he mutters. There are tears in his blue eyes as he meets her gaze. “Ha… Wren. I didn’t know. I swear it. They told me you went to live with Mom’s sister, and while that was kind of odd at the time, they said it was because she was an omega and could help you. Mom and Dad were betas, and they said they didn’t know what to do with you. I remember wishing I could say goodbye. Things were shit at the house, so I moved out a year after you disappeared. I got our brothers out as soon as I could.”

“Why were you looking for me? If you thought that I was fine, living with some fake aunt? Joseph and Bailey Rivers were only children, Jas,” she mutters.

I see a piece of Jasper die as he realizes how blindly he believed his parents.

“I found out they were lying, but not until Bentley came to live with me,” he explains. “He was thirteen, and the baby of the family, but our dad was getting high more often. He told me that Dad kept talking about you when he was half out of his mind, and that’s when I started digging for information. I went to confront them, but someone had already found them first. They fucked someone over, I guess. I pulled the answers I could from Dad before he died of his wounds. They’re both dead.”

“I’m glad,” Wren grunts, her eyes flaring with hatred. “I’ll never be normal, Jasper. I’m still waiting to wake up from a dream, cold and scared, with Trey’s sour scent around me.”

“Normal is overrated,” Jasper grunts. “Normal doesn’t have a pack with two omegas, or people surrounding you that are carrying more firepower than most armories.”

Jas lifts his shirt, where there’s knives wrapped around his body and a gun in a holster at his back. I’m pretty sure he probably has one on his ankle as well. Wren’s eyes move over the weapons before glancing at us as well. I didn’t think Jas would come at us with his knives or guns, but part of this life we chose is about posturing.

“You have a point,” she concedes.

“I wish I could rewind time or fix things, and I’m quickly realizing that I can’t. I would like to be part of your life, as do our brothers. This alpha,” Jasper says as he wrinkles his nose. “Do you know his last name?”

“Thornefield,” she says. God, we should have just asked her. We’re idiots. “No one ever denies him anything.”

“Well, he’s never met the wrong side of a mafia man before,” Jasper says with a smirk. “I’ll see if I can find him.”

“And then?” she asks. Wren is thinking really hard as she gazes intensely at him, and her brother takes a step toward her.

“We don’t know each other anymore, little dove, but I am one of the most dangerous people Trey Thornefield could have ever fucked with, though your pack are also in the running,” he murmurs. “I’m sorry I didn’t protect you before. I was fourteen and had no idea our parents were selfish assholes who were looking for a payday. I didn’t know how fucked the world was, not until I left home to start underground fighting. I was scrappy, so I did well. I’m here now, and I want to keep you safe, along with your pack. Can I do that?”

Jasper Rivers called us his sister’s pack twice. Fuck me. We’re courting her, sure, and she’s Shaw’s scent match, but he could hate the idea of his baby sister being in our pack. Standing taller, I wait for Wren’s response.

“You can try.” The words are those of someone who doesn’t truly believe she’s safe. There are cameras, a gate, alphas between her and Trey, and she still doesn’t truly believe it.

He sold her, why would she worry about this?

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