Page 105 of Knot Happening

Kodiak snorts, and my glare turns on him. “I don’t think I’ve ever, in all these fucking years, seen you look at anyone with that level of fear, Ghost. Does my Omega frighten you?”

“When she looks like she’d enjoy ripping my throat out with her teeth, a little bit, yes.” Ghost nods. This gets a reaction out of Easton, so I decide to let it slide.

“My fierce Sparrow,” East murmurs, his lips pressed against the skin of my neck. His scent grows heavy in the air, and I breathe it in greedily. A chorus of grunts and groans ring out, sounding like music to my ears.

The muffled sound of a gag ruins it.

“Easton, I need to know if you’re able to…” Ghost leans forward, trying to get a look at Easton behind me, pausing to consider his words, “have this conversation right now?”

“I’m okay now,” East agrees, but doesn’t move an inch or release me.

“They’re fucking beautiful, huh?” Kodiak asks with a low growl, his brothers beside him are both nodding. Ghost looks rather uncomfortable.

I snort. Then preen.

“Right, I’m going to get straight to the point before the hormones in this house suffocate me.” Ghost drops his elbows to his knees and sighs. “You were five. Only a little kid. Your mom was already gone. It’s not your fault that your memory of that time is jumbled. No one remembers that age. Everything fell to shit. I tried to go back for you, but…” Ghost’s head drops into his hands, his voice tight with emotion as he continues, not noticing that Easton has gone rigid, his grip tight. “My sister, your mother I mean, she wanted better for you. Her dying wish was that you live a full and happy life.”

I turn in Easton’s grip so I can wrap my arms around his neck. He’s holding onto me like I’m the only thing keeping him in one piece. The purr I release is a low comforting sound, and my scent spikes again, working overtime to soothe him.

Kodiak grunts, and before anyone can react, he’s beside Easton and me. He doesn’t touch either of us, instead, his rumbling purr matches mine, and I feel Easton relax against me a little.

“The twins didn’t kill your father. Keslor did.” Ghost drops a bomb on the room, at least you would think he did, by the way the four men react. They all flinch. It’s setting my instincts off.

“Wait,” I say to Ghost, holding my hand up. “You two,” I command, pointing at Declan and Hayden, then gesturing to the love seat. “East, I need you to stand. Let Hayden sit.” I move so I can wrap myself around my Omega, making sure he understands I have no intention of releasing him.

“He thinks we–”

“I used to,” Easton cuts Kodiak off, as he moves his hold on me from my waist to my ass and stands. Hayden gets the memo and sits next to his brother. “I started doubting him…no, that's wrong. I’ve always doubted him. Then Tatum was getting so close to you. She would never let Alphas into her heart, if they didn’t deserve to be there.” Easton waits until Declan squeezesonto the love seat on the other side of Hayden, before throwing himself into the youngest Hayes’s lap. The Alpha grunts but doesn’t protest. His purr joining mine and Kodiak’s, whose hands join his brother’s in soothing East. Hayden gathers him closer while I fall into Dec’s lap, leaning forward to keep an arm around my Omega.

“Keslor knows I’m not dead. Part of the reason he wanted you three boys dead was so he could get to me. So he could get his hands on the money my family has. The money my sister left for you, Easton. I thought, to punish me, he would kill you. Then I realized he’d kept you alive, and was turning you into a fucking murder weapon,” Ghost snarls.

“I don’t see how keeping me alive, and using me, did him any good. Even though he believes I’m blindly loyal to him… How does that serve him?” East murmurs, and I feel Hayden’s arms wrap around the both of us. Easton tenses up for a brief second, and then relaxes.

“If I die, you’ll be the only living heir. The lawyers would contact you about your inheritance. If you’re loyal to Keslor, he can simply ask you to let him take care of everything. I’m the middleman. The only thing stopping you, as I was the executor of Amy’s estate, and everything she left behind,” Ghost explains.

“Because her mate died,” Easton scoffs. “He killed him…for the money…all this fucking time, I was wrong about everything.”

“There’s a little more. Your mother wanted you to be raised away from all the bullshit her mate was born into. So, your father, Kincaid, tried to give his mate what she wanted. He was working with me behind Keslor’s back, attempting to clean the business up. We were cutting ties with David, AKA Hayes Sr. Shit hit the fan all at once. David called Keslor… Two fucking hours later, David was dead, and I left to help clean up the mess.”

“We called him. We’d listened in on that conversation… Dad flew off the fucking handle that night, and we…couldn’t take it. We killed him,” Declan explains, but Kodiak scoffs.

“My brother doesn’t want people to think I’m the bad twin. Declan didn’t commit patricide, I did. I killed our father, and I’ve never regretted it.” Kodiak’s voice remains firm and steady as he says this. He doesn’t sound sorry, either.

“Kincaid was alone. Unprotected. I got the call that he was dead, but by then… Keslor’s compound is a fucking fortress. He never let you fucking leave. It wasn’t until you were older that you did…but then he had you fucking killing for him. I watched, waited to see how deep his claws were into your mind… How deep his programming went.”

“Why wait eight years to show your face? Why wait eight years to tell me who you are?” Easton asks softly, but I can tell by his tone that he already knows the answer.

“If I had told you who I am, without you seeing me in person, would you have believed me? As it is, I wasn’t sure you’d remember me. So I found a way to reach you the only way I could. To offer you help, when you called, and even when you didn’t. It wasn’t until you started targeting those three that I had hope. You believed they killed Kincaid. I thought if I could just bring you together you might see they aren’t the Alphas you thought. Then I learned of Tatum,” Ghost chuckles. “She was the perfect storm that brought you together and connected the four of you.”

I feel Easton nod, but he doesn’t speak. He simply accepts the truth of those words. It makes me blush.

“She was the missing piece. The one we didn’t even know we needed,” Declan murmurs, as he glances up at me. Our eyes meet, and the warmth in my chest settles something inside me. That wild, broken part of me that constantly needs to run away.Easton holds me tighter, like he knows that's what I would have done only a few days ago.

There’s a fate worse than death, I realize, as I turn to Ghost. He’s watching Easton, with the same turquoise eyes as his nephew.

The hope I see there is breathtaking. He missed the man that’s currently got me wrapped up in his lap, but it’s more than that. He misses the little boy he once knew, too. The years he lost being the uncle.

Hands are on me in the next moment. Eight hands caress and hold me. Like they’re all scared that I’ll jump off this couch and run for my life.

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