Page 30 of Knot All That Glitters: Part 2

Only the very thought of that is… exhausting.

I was already tired, already dragged down by the long hours of being around people and the chemicals in my veins.

Fight, Haven,demands a voice that sounds suspiciously like Creed.You have to fight.

But I don’t really want to. What’s the point?

I escape and go back to my father’s house? Marry Brian? Become a shell of a woman who has no control over anything? Not even my own body?

This is something different, a different path from that.

You’ll end up dead,Jude says.

That knowledge settles over me, and I nod once.Probably.

Better that than to just exist in my father’s world. In Brian’s.

Linger on in a drugged up haze.

Death would be better than that.

We’ll come for you,Hale’s voice promises in my head.

No, you won’t. Why would you?

Because you’re ours,Tic vows.

My eyes tingle and my nose stings, but a moment later, the urge to cry fades and reality settles. Tricky of my brain to get me to have a modicum of self-preservation using what I want most in the world. To believe that they want me. To belong to them, to belong to anyone who would keep me safe and healthy and whole. Who would take care of me.

The car slows to a stop and I will my hand to reach for the door handle. Will my body to move, totry…. But that urge fades, too. As soon as the car stops, before the driver has even gotten out, the passenger door yanks open.

I blink up at the man standing over me. Or I assume it’s a man based on body size alone. I can’t be certain though because he’s wearing a mask, one that looks like a sheep. He tilts his head and holds out a hand to me. “Come along, little omega.” I don’t recognize the voice and that faint flicker of hope I felt that maybe this was the Calloway pack coming to save me sputters and dies.

I watch as my hand lifts of its own accord and slides into his gloved palm. His grip tightens around mine as he pulls me to my unsteady feet. He guides me over to a new car, this one black and nondescript. There are thousands of this exact car on the streets of Granton. It’ll blend in much better than my father’s limo.

“Hands together behind your back,” he demands when we stop next to the trunk. My wrists press together and he tsks, like he’s disappointed in me. “Really? That’s it? You got no fight in you at all?”

I shrug. “They gave me something.”

“Who? Not me.” A thick zip tie wraps around my wrists and tightens.

“No,” I agree easily as he kneels next to me. I have the brief thought I should run for it, but movement draws my attention and I realize we’re not alone. I might outrun the kneeling man, but not the one now leaning casually against the car with his arms crossed and a bunny mask on. “My father and my fiancé,” I explain as he nudges my feet together. “Don’t know what it is, but its… it makes me more compliant.”

Oh, shut your stupid mouth, Haven. Do not tell these men that you’re on something that makes you take orders better.

Too late now. Much too late now.

The man leaning on the car straightens. “No shit?”

“No shit.”

The trunk next to me pops open and the kneeling man straightens, my ankles now bound tightly. “In you go,” He mutters, nudging me toward the trunk, one hand wrapped around my upper arm to keep me steady.

“Hold up,” the bunny mask says, coming over to us. He brushes my hair back from my face, taking in the bump on my forehead and the bruise on my cheek. “Which one of them gave you those?”

I note he doesn’t ask if his friend did it, like he already knows he didn’t. “My father,” I say, as I’m lowered into the trunk almost gently.

Bunny mask tilts his head, humming. “Well, I must say I’m relieved to get you away from him.”

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