Page 21 of Believe it or Knot

Sorrel won’t meet my eyes, a sure sign that whatever she says next I’m going to hate. Her cheeks go pink and her nose wrinkles. “They’ve made it clear if I agree to join their pack, they’ll forgive the debt.”

“No,” I growl. “No. No fucking way. You know how they are, Sor. You know how they treat betas. Like slaves.” She’s not actually thinking about doing it, is she? Considering it? She wouldn’t. She can’t. ”Over my dead fucking body, biscuit.”

The men around us must agree if the rumbles hitting the air are any indication.

Sorrel pins me with a look, pure sass and exasperation. “No, Gage. I’m not thinking of doing that. I would sell the place before I would join their pack. It doesn’t keep them from pressuring me, though.”

“That stops now, lovely,” Liam says, cutting me off from saying the same thing. He motions between himself and the rest of his pack. “We’ll pay off whatever you owe.”

“What? No!” Sorrel protests at the same time as I do.

“Hell no. I’ll pay it off.” Or I’ll at least pay off enough that it won’t be such a huge, looming number. I’ll never leave her side and keep them from ever talking to her again. Any conversations about the restaurant will go through me. Never her.

She’s dealt with them alone for far too long. It’s time for them to have a chat with someone their own size who will not be intimidated by them.

“We’ll handle it, sweet thing,” Grayson insists, making my jaw clench and my teeth grit.

“No one is paying them off but me,” Sorrel says loudly, cutting off the argument that was about to happen between us alphas. “Thank you, Grayson, for the offer, but I don’t want you to pay them off. I don’t know you well enough to allow you to do that for me.” He opens his mouth to argue, but Liam places a hand on his lower back, leaning up to whisper something in his ear. Sorrel watches them before she shifts to look up at me. “I promise I have it handled. It’s tight, but I’m making the payments.”

“It’s the middle of summer, Sor.”

She rolls her eyes. “You finally learned the seasons, Gage? I’m so glad the army was good for something.”

“Sorrel,” I growl. “Are you going to be able to make the payments in the fall and winter? When business drops?”

She sighs. “I’ve made it work for the last five years, Gage.”

That just makes my scowl deepen. I have to keep myself from hunting down Stephen Stillwell right now and pounding my fist into his face. “Well, I’m here now, biscuit. You don’t have to make anything work. That’s what I’m for. To take care of this shit for you.”

“It’s what we’re for,” Rafe Cordova interjects and I have to keep from slamming my fist into his face, too.

I suspect that he’d give me a run for my money if we ever do throw down. I’ve watched the video of him taking down seven would-be kidnappers by himself. Actually, if he sticks around, I might like that, like testing myself against him. The man is a beast. But I am too.

Grayson, the man wearing a full fucking suit in the middle of summer heat, lifts a hand and does a little twirling motion. “Turn around, sweet thing.”

I bite back the growl that wants to crawl up my chest and instead focus on Sorrel as she spins on her heel until she’s facing me and reaches behind her to hold up her shirt. I look down at her, confused, as Gray squeezes out some kind of gel onto his finger. Sunscreen? But that doesn’t make sense. Why put it on under a shirt?

“What?” Sorrel doesn’t meet my eyes, teeth sunk into her bottom lip, as the other alpha touches my girl in a place he should never touch. Only I should. I dip around her until I can see what he’s doing, intent on getting him to stop, so that I can take over if I need to, but what I see freezes me. “What the hell is that?”

Sorrel forces a laugh. “It’s just a burn, Gage. I got too close to the grill. It’s not as bad as it looks.”

“You don’t know how bad it looks, conejita,” Rafe murmurs, expression filled with rage that he wipes clean the second Sorrel glances over at him.

“True,” she concedes, her smile still forced. “But I’ve had a lot of burns before, it’s part of the job, so I can tell it’s not that bad. Just from the feeling.”

“What happened?” I ask, fisting my hands to keep from throwing the alpha away from my girl. The Cordova pack isn’t one you want to fuck with, and Sorrel seems cool with them, so I just have to suck it up for now.

“The Stillwell prick assaulted her in her restaurant,” Grayson says, before bending over to blow against the gel to help it dry. Goosebumps pop up all over Sorrel’s skin despite the heat, and she shivers. I don’t know if the red haze that falls over my eyes is because of Grayson’s words, or because Sorrel’s nipples pucker, pressing against the fabric of her t-shirt in reaction to another man.

Probably both, if I’m honest.

“He did what?” I hardly recognize my voice and if the startled look Sorrel gives me is any sign, she doesn’t either.

She shakes her head as she strokes her fingers over my forearm to soothe me. It almost works. Almost. “It was nothing, Gage. I’m fine.”

“It’s not nothing, biscuit,” I grit out. “How many times has a member of the Stillwell pack assaulted you?”

She laughs. Fucking laughs, a soft, embarrassed sound that sets my teeth on edge, because I know whatever she’s about to say is not the truth. I cut her off before she can lie to my face within fifteen minutes of me being back with her.

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