Page 39 of Knot Dead Yet

“What the fuck is Velky doing in our house? Are you guys all buddy-buddy with him now? He’s the weak link in our front line. You all always say it.”

“Shut the fuck up, Ewan.” Kane snarled and the walls seemed to vibrate with his deep Alpha voice.

Then there was chaos. Shouting over shouting. Something that sounded like a plate smashed to the floor.

They were fighting about me. I’d come along and now their pack was in disarray. Not just the pack, but their team was being let down. Yeah, I believed everyone made their own choices. The guys chose to come to me instead of staying at the arena, but I was still the reason.

I should have been long gone from Winnipeg. Nicolette should be lounging on her boat drinking virgin cocktails and her telling me all her erotic adventures with her pack.

The best thing I could do was walk down the stairs and out the front door. I did not want to be the thing that ruined these guys’ lives. They’d be miserable and so would I.

There was stomping on the stairs and more yelling, particularly from Ewan. He, Kane, and Alderic shouted back and forth in French. Were they coming up here? I didn’t want to fight with Ewan. He didn’t like me at all, and he also had the right of it.

I glanced back and forth between Kane’s and Maddox’s rooms. Again, I didn’t want to pick one. That’s when I noticed the partially hidden half door behind one of the plants. A small door that blended into the panels.

Rushing over, I pushed the palm out of the way and opened it. A stale smell washed over me but it faded quickly to be replaced by a more subtle sweet wood. I flicked on the flashlight on my cell and walked in, closing the door behind me. Oak beams lined the ceiling and a round window brought in moonlight at the far end of what I could only assume was an attic.

Old furniture was piled up along the sides. Maybe stuff that was here decades by the layer of dust on them. Chests sat at the back with cardboard boxes and plastic storage bins closerto the door. Old hockey sticks and other forgotten winter sports equipment were stacked in the corner nearest to the door.

This was when a horror movie really started to get good. The thought made me smile. I wasn’t scared of a dark room. It was too chilly for spiders to be skittering around, and despite all the haunted tours and few ghost hunting escapades I’d been on, the supernatural never made itself known to me if it did indeed exist. If there was a ghost, that would be an amazing adventure.

I walked silently in and let my eyes adjust to the dim light. Peeking into a couple of boxes, I found old blankets with hockey team logos on them. I drew one out with the local NHL team name and wrapped it around me. Tiergan’s scent embraced me as well, chasing away my cold shivers.

Opening another container, I grinned at the Rampage merchandise. Hats, pennants, scarves, cups, and underneath, old jerseys with the guys’ names on them. Moreau, Fournier, and Hall. I ignored Cyr but didn’t find one with Shaw on it. Each of the jerseys were ones worn by them as I could tell by their lingering scents.

I filled my arms with the jerseys before I even thought about what I was doing. Wandering in farther, I giggled to discover bins with Christmas decorations. How festive was the pack? I opened one to find it was mostly a tangle of lights. Good luck to whoever had to unravel that. There was also a fuzzy Santa hat with the fragrance of molasses and cedar which smacked into me.

Kane wore a Santa hat? It went along with the slippers mystery.

The hat went right onto my head. Why, I didn’t know, but it calmed me and the tightness of my heat pangs eased. My limbs felt suddenly heavy with exhaustion as I yawned.

I cleared off a parlor chair near the window and curled up. It creaked a little, but it was not as loud as the wind which waspicking up outside. The attic didn’t have heat like the rest of the house, but it didn’t matter. I was snug, warm, and cozy.

I’d have a quick nap so I would have more energy to deal with my heat pains and then leave. They didn’t need me in their lives. I just fucked everything up. People always accused me of being a troublemaker, and maybe that’s all I was. Tears burned my eyes.

They were better off without me.

My head drooped as sleep swiftly took over me before I could start to cry. Just a little nap.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN – Tiergan

We nearly killed one another when we couldn’t find Kienna. I’d always been grounded and level-headed, but I’d lost my mind. She was finally in our pack house only to go missing and no one saw or heard her leave. Even Kane was messed up over it.

To top it off, it was Casimir who found her. The one who wasn’t part of our pack found her in our house. Not me or Kane, or even Maddox, who had punched a hole in the wall with his furious worry.

We brought food, water, blankets, pillows, and a propane heater into the attic and set them up around her like offerings to a goddess. Kienna slept through the night and the morning. She looked like an angel curled up in that chair.

There was another game the next day, and we were due at the arena in the early afternoon. Yet none of us wanted to leave Kienna alone. Over breakfast while she was still sleeping, we put our names into a helmet and picked who would stay with her and bring her to the game later.

The slip of paper Kane pulled had my name on it. I’d never felt so victorious in my life.

Now I was taking Kienna to see Sara.

“So if Sara isn’t a person, is it like a fancy named house?” Kienna nibbled on a donut hole as she gazed out the window. There wasn’t much to see at the moment, but the wide openness of Manitoba was something I loved and I wanted to share all the province’s beauty with her.

I chuckled. “Nope. Not a house.”

“Hmm…” She pursed her lips in an adorable way and then popped the rest of the pastry into her mouth, licking her fingers. Oh fuck, that was way past adorable. She made the simplestthings hot. “Is it like a big rock? Please tell me we’re not taking a road trip to see a rock.”

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