Page 60 of Tangled in Knots

“What if she tells us all to fuck off?” Demon asks grimly. “She could decide she wants to do things on her own. I heard there was some kind of omega’s shelter now in Minneapolis.”

“Since when do you pay attention to the outside world?” Jed asks, surprised.

“I saw a billboard about it and looked it up,” he mutters. “Adira has choices, even if she doesn’t know it.”

“That’s not a choice for her,” I remind him. “What about when she has her next heat? No one will be enough for her if you’re not there. You’re connected, which is why this entire plan had to happen.”

“It’s killing you to be away from her,” Jed grunts. “She may think she can cut herself off, but biology will win out. The time where you can deny this is over. You claimed, bonded, and tiedyourself to the little omega. No one will ever be enough for her. It’s fucked, but she’s stuck with you.”

“Which means she’s stuck with us,” Morris says. “I need to make things right with her. I tried to leave…”

“You’re pack,” Demon says, startling me. Morris and he have always stayed out of each other’s way. “You can’t leave.”

“That’s what I told him,” Jed says smugly as Morris snorts. “I gave him my teeth marks as a special gift.”

“We’re such assholes,” I say, shaking my head. “Biology must have a sense of humor to give us such a sweet omega.”

“I don’t understand how it all works,” Demon says. “I can feel raw, screaming pain, and it’s making me claw out of my skin?—”

He cuts himself off, face bleeding of any emotion before he glances at me.

“There’s nothing anymore,” he says. “It’s just this pit of nothing where she is. Almost like the static on a television. She checked out but she’s awake. I’d rather her be screaming at me than this. It’s unnatural.”

“I don’t know what that means, but we’re almost there,” Morris says. “They know we’re coming right?”

It’s coming up on one thirty in the morning, and my hands are begging for something to do. Pulling out a penny, I rub it between my fingers over and over. I’m aware that I’m stimming, but usually I’d be playing with my knife. My anxiety is clawing at me after Demon’s words, and I need to lay eyes on my little rabbit.

There’s no other outlet for this wild energy that’s constantly living inside of me, which makes me such a crazy bastard.

“Five minutes out,” Morris grunts. “Get your heads on straight. It’s almost go time.”

Nodding, we all take a collective deep breath, knowing that we could be walking into anything.

ADIRA

“So what am I missing?” I ask, slowly walking into the kitchen. There’s a full meal on the table, all light foods.

I can see a pot of chicken soup, and that makes my stomach gurgle. After puking and not eating much in weeks, soup may be my best option.

“Please sit and eat before I kill someone,” Duncan growls. “The longer I stare at you, the more I think about how tiny you look.”

“I don’t think I’ll be able to eat more than a little soup,” I confess, sitting before I pause for a moment in thought. “How do I know this isn’t laced with something?”

“You’re serious?” Callum asks, eyes wide as I nod.

This entire house is huge, and the kitchen is no different. Stainless steel appliances and marble countertops surround me, and the island is a giant block with chairs around it.

“How else do you think Morris kept me drugged for weeks?” I ask in return. “I couldn’t figure out why I was always so sleepy, I was falling asleep at the table, and he told me all I needed was sleep, because I was healing from the gunshot.”

“You want some of the soup, right?” Callum asks, waiting until I nod to grab a bowl and the ladle.

Serving some, he picks up a spoon and takes several large bites. He also makes sure to eat some of the chicken and noodles to prove it’s not drugged.

“I would never give you food that was tampered with,” he growls, shoving the bowl away from him to make me one. “I don’t fucking care how good his intentions were, I’m going to punch him in the face when I next see him, Duncan.”

“I may join you in that,” his brother sighs. “Please eat. I made a little something of everything, unsure what you’d want.”

“I see that,” I say softly, taking the bowl from Callum. “I think I’ve only had a few bites of things, but not much else in weeks.

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