Page 52 of Tangled in Knots

“Adira?” Duncan calls out from the front seat as he throws the vehicle into drive.

I don’t respond as the warmth threatens to pull me into unconsciousness. It has the deceiving effect of safety, but there’s no such thing here. All alphas are bad, and I’ve been sold to someone who seems to be very cozy with Rock.

My back hurts where my healing gunshot wound is, the cold making the tissue ache. Maybe I’ll be lucky enough for it to get infected and die.

Wouldn’t that be nice?

My head leans further from where I’m reclining, and my body slides over until my head hits the floor. Fucking figures, but at least there’s no more worry in the darkness.

CHAPTER 14

JED

Ihad to knock Damon out. The drugs and his bond with the omega didn’t mesh well together, and when the Kelly brothers claimed the winning bid, my baby brother stiffened as if he was about to roar in defiance.

The room was already screaming with unhappy alphas pissed they were out bid, so it wouldn’t have mattered much if he was anyone other than Damon Dresmond.

My baby brother has a reputation for being dead inside. The thousand yard stare has been trademarked and perfected by him, and people have been known to piss their pants when his gaze runs over them.

Don’t get me wrong. We are all scary motherfuckers as brothers. Kane is wild, unpredictable, and will blow shit up for fun. I’m calculating, the planner of our missions, and won’t hesitate when in the thick of things. Damon? He doesn’t care about anything except for his pack.

Until now.

The only way I’m going to be able to keep my brother’s thin grip on his sanity is to get our girl back. I don’t deserve her,especially after what just happened on the auction stage, but I’ll do my damnedest to change that.

Kane walked out with Damon by half dragging, half carrying our unconscious brother to the back to get him out of the public eye, and I’m collecting my beta from wherever he fucked off to.

Pushing past alphas as they talk or begin to leave, I growl under my breath when they don’t fucking move fast enough. The noise is enough to make people flinch and move away from the direction I’m going in.

Fucking finally.

Ophelia is talking to someone and I use my full height to look for him. I don’t know how he’s feeling or what he’s doing and it’s beginning to make me fucking twitchy.

A naked woman between two large alphas is being dragged out the door, and I push my hand through my curls in desperation. I’m fucking them all up, but the charade is almost up. We’re almost home free.

Hold on, Adira. You’re safe, you just don’t know it yet.

The Kelly brothers are in their thirties and are being nudged by their parents to find an omega. They lost their best friend when she was a teen in a kidnapping, and never forgot her. They privately despise the auctions, knowing she could possibly be dead or sold.

It’s been twenty-one years since the day she disappeared in the sunlight. I don’t know how she could possibly be alive in a world this depraved and bleak.

When I reached out to them about buying Adira for us and the reasoning behind it, they agreed immediately. I can’t believe they were actually the winning bid. You can plan and plot something like this and still lose it all.

“Ophelia, I seem to be missing a beta,” I tell her as I arrive at her side with a grim smile.

I need to get the fuck out of here now.

Dad and my business is now concluded, so someone will be picking him up. I’m free to go off on my merry way with my pack, getting to Adira as quickly as I can. I need to make sure no one is tracking me, or all of this will be for nothing.

“What?” Ophelia asks, flinching in surprise. She's very twitchy for someone who is getting a decent cut of this auction, and my eyes narrow at her. “He is probably getting showered and changed in the back. You’re welcome to go collect him.”

Nodding, I turn to make my way to the back of the building. I don’t know where I’m going, but I’m not above yelling his fucking name until he answers. I have a hair trigger grip on my anxiety at the moment, and it will release into the world as anger and bloodshed.

I need to keep my shit locked down for just a little while longer.

“Wait, I’ll find you an escort,” Ophelia says as she sees that I have no issues actually going. I’m not shy, I’ll go collect my people.

The madam flags down a beta guard who is thankfully clothed, and I follow him into the employee only area of the building. My head turns on a swivel, searching for Morris, breathing in deeply to catch even a hint of his scent.

---