Page 10 of Knot That Delicate

"Nope." I shook my head. "I got so turned around. It was such a muddle." I laughed, but it sounded false, even to my own ears.

"Sunshine, you are literally in the middle of nowhere," Dylan said. "There’s nothing for miles and miles around. We’re also in mudslide land. There’s no leaving the cabin for a few months, at least. There was a huge mudslide down at the base of the mountain. There’s no way to get back to the city anytime soon. Anyone who is up in these woods knows that.” The food in my stomach suddenly felt acidic and dull.Stuck, they were saying. I was stuck here.

No, I couldn't be stuck. I was going to go home. I. Wasn’t. Going. To. Stay. Here.

"No, no, no, no, no," I said, shaking my head. "I’m going home. I need to go home. Surely, you’ve got a phone I can use. I’m sure my brothers will come and get me." I looked between the alphas pleadingly, and unfortunately, I was met with sombre expressions.

"We are so far off the grid here," Carter explained. "We come up here for a few months of the year for the isolation because no one can get to us and we have no chance in hell of getting an internet connection out here. We find it peaceful. Does your family do the same?"

I stared at him like a deer in the headlights. What could I realistically say to that? I didn’t know these men. For all I knew, they were friends of Alec. Or monsters themselves.

Swallowing a bite, I looked at him. "It’s a long story," I said, not wanting to meet his eyes. "Look, I just need to get home. How do I do that? You’re not going to keep me here. I can’t stay put anymore. I need to go home." I dropped my spoon with a clatter.

"You need to go home from whoever was keeping you hostage?" Dylan asked pointedly.

I whipped around to look at him, nearly falling off my seat as I did so. "Wha-wha-what did you say?"

"You are running from someone who’s been holding you prisoner," Dylan said, crossing his arms and glaring at me. "It’s obvious. You’ve got bruises on your wrists and your arms. You’re underweight. Yes, we wanted to take it easy on you, but you’re bullshitting us, and that’s not okay. We don’t appreciate liars. What the fuck happened to you?" he growled.

Tears welled in my eyes and my vision started to blur as I could feel my heartbeat in my ears, as blood pounded through my body. I couldn't talk to them, I couldn't explain it, I couldn'tfaceit.

With a panicked cry, I stood up and backed away from them as they came near me. I—I couldn't deal with it.

I fled from the room, making a beeline for the room I’d woken up in, heading straight to the bathroom. Closing the door, locking it, and sliding down, hiding myself in a corner as they followed me. They knocked on the door and asked me to open it, but I refused to listen, panic overwhelming me. My breaths came in ragged pants as darkness started to cloud my vision.

I was trapped again.

“Should we go after her?” Asher asked, glowering in the direction of the closed door where the omega had fled.

I shook my head. "Give her some space. She's processing everything."

There was no denying she was a beautiful omega. Even looking as bedraggled as she had, sitting at our kitchen counter, I was still enthralled by her. Compared to me, she was miniature.

Turning to look at my pack mates, I crossed my arms. "I think the most important thing here is that we need to ensure we are protected. She's trying to lie about what happened to her, and I don't know if that's a good or bad thing. Does that mean she's part of whatever mess she's brought to our doorstep? Or is she actually a victim?"

Carter glowered at me. "Of course, she's a victim," he thundered. "Look at the state of her! There's no way all those injuries are self-inflicted, and she's malnourished. No one can malnourish themselves to that point, surely, especially not an omega."

My pack mate was offended. I could understand it. No one would assume that an omega was capable of anything nefarious. Every fibre of our being insisted that we protect them and look after them. It was pretty much ingrained into our DNA.

"What can we do?" Carter asked, his voice tense. "We're stuck here, we need to get her help."

Asher ran his hand through his hair before speaking. "She needs medical attention, that's for sure. I can only do so much while I'm here, as I said. But she seems okay, for the most part. As long as she gets some good food, rest, and time to heal, I think she'll make a full recovery. Don't get me wrong, though, there are scars that are never going to heal, but..."

"I'm going to check outside again," I said, storming out of the room.

There was a rage bubbling deep inside me, and I didn’t exactly know why or who to direct it at. Out of all my pack mates, I was definitely the most aggressive. Having worked in security for years, I had gotten used to a more violent way of living. That was part of the reason I loved coming up to the cabin so much. There was a serenity and tranquillity to the place that made healing in every way easier.

If all the tiny omega needed was space to heal, then there was nowhere better. But if she needed medical attention, then we were sorely unprepared.

I was cautious of everything. I would have been suspicious of anyone turning up. Too often, I had seen situations in my job where someone unexpected had turned out to be bad or workingfor the other side. My priority was to protect my pack, and at the moment, the omega was an unknown.

But as I grabbed my jacket and roughly shoved my arms into it, I couldn't help but have a stomach-churning feeling at the idea of that omega leaving us.

Shoving my feet into my large, almost combat-style boots, I stomped out of the cabin without another word to my pack mates. It was still pitch dark and raining, but I wanted to triple-check all the security cameras that I had put up while they tended to the omega. It had been a few hours now since she had shown up, so I wanted to see if anyone else had been on our land.

If it wasn’t raining, I would have been able to look at the terrain and easily tell if someone had been on our land. Tracking was one of the useful skills I had developed over the years, and it helped that I had an alpha’s sense of smell. Unfortunately, the torrential rain meant that any evidence of someone walking on our land was long gone, and the scents were washed away.

I made my way over to the area where Carter said he had found the omega, and despite the rain, the land was heavily disturbed. She had clearly used no finesse as she stumbled through the woodland. How long had she been walking for? Her feet had been blistered and sore, and she was wearing wholly inappropriate shoes.

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