Page 32 of Knot All That Glitters: Part 2

“I admit nothing of the kind,” I say, settling back in his chair and crossing a leg over my knee. “What I will admit to is spending time with Haven and growing closer with her. We care about her deeply and would like for you to return her to us.”

“Return her to you?” He parrots back to me. “Why would I do that?”

Creed jerks his chin at the wall of photos. “All those pictures of you with her. They look like you actually care about her, like you love her. Is that right? Do you love your daughter, Senator?”

We know he doesn’t.

“I do,” he says easily enough. “Very much so. She’s my entire world.” The words are ones he’s said many times, and there has always been a hint of truth to them. But this time, when he says them, they sound… mocking. As if he knows we know he feels nothing for her, but also thinks we can’t do anything about it.

He’s in for a rude awakening.

A very rude awakening.

I can’t fucking wait.

“Well, then,” Tic says, folding his arms over his chest and making his forearms bulge menacingly. “It shouldn’t be too hard to convince you, then. We make her happy. She wants to be with us. If you care about her at all, let us take care of her.”

Bell tilts his head, eyeing Tic like a bug he wants to squash. “You don’t make her happy. Brian makes her happy. She wouldn’t have agreed to marry him otherwise.” He runs a hand over his face and sighs. “We talked about this. She gets confused sometimes. Try as she might, she can’t keep her omega instincts at bay all the time. I’ve been careful to limit her interactionswith alphas for just this reason. But it doesn’t always work, you know? She needs help to remember her place.”

I grit my teeth. By ‘help’ he means beating her black and blue, he means burying her under alpha commands that don’t allow her to act out. He means drugging her into a compliant little puppet. I can still see the glazed look in her eyes.

Not that we’re much better. After all, we drugged her, too. We manipulated her into giving us what we want.

But the difference between us and the man sitting on the other side of the desk it, we can learn from our mistakes. Wehavelearned from our mistakes. And we will never make them again. We’ll spend the rest of our lives making it up to our omega, making her feel safe and cared for and secure. We’ll never bark at her or drug her. We’ll never make her do something she doesn’t want to do. Unless it’s to keep her safe, and even then, we’ll have a conversation with her first, explain to her what we need and why we need it.

None of us were lying when we said we wouldn’t bark at her. With the added caveat that I might if it to keep her safe. Like I barked at her earlier tonight to free her from Brian Coogan’s control. Maybe I should have asked first, but something tells me she didn’t really mind, even if she couldn’t show it.

“Regardless,” Tic says, since I don’t trust myself to talk. “We would appreciate the chance to help her remember her place. Surely you can see that four alphas are better than one for keeping her happy and healthy.”

He arches a brow and leans back in the chair like he’s the fucking king of the world. “Happy and healthy? The last time my daughter spent any amount of time with you, she ended up in heat on the street in the middle of the night! How is that keeping her healthy? How is that keeping her safe?”

“An omega having a heat is healthy,” Jude grits out. “It’s normal. It’s what their bodies need.”

Bell scoffs and shakes his head. “It isn’t healthy to turn into a begging mess, eager for any alpha to come along and fuck them, is it? That’s not safe. She could have ended up bonded to some lowlife scum. And it would have been your fault.”

Not one of us bothers to deny it. What happened to Haven was our fault. We did that to her. And we’ll be paying for it for the rest of our lives, doing everything in our power to make it up to her. Starting with getting her away from her father and Brian Coogan.

“What’s the part that really bothers you in that statement, Freddy?” Creed asks, voice low and dangerous, made more so by the haunting reality of what could have happened to Haven if she wasn’t smart and determined. If Florence hadn’t found her in time. “That she could have been raped? Or that she could have ended up bonded to someone not of your choosing?”

We all know the answer. The genuine answer. The one that he isn’t likely to give while the security cameras are on us.

“What really bothers me,” he says, resting his elbows on the arms of his chair and looking for all the world like nothing actually bothers him. “Is the entire situation. It never should have happened. She never should have been with any of you. I thought you respected me and my wishes enough to keep your distance.” There’s a flush to his face now, a fervor in his eyes that I recognize all too well.

“I understand the instinct. I really do, but this is what I’ve been talking about. We should be more than just mindless animals! As grown men, you should be able to keep yourselves in check when around an omega, and the omega should be able to temper her body’s instincts and needs.”

I stare at him hard. “What we feel for Haven is more than just instinct.”

“We’re able to keep ourselves in check just fine,” Tic adds, arms folded against his chest as he pins Bell with a hard glare.“We’ve been around countless omegas over the years and not once have we lost control of ourselves.”

“We’re still in fucking control,” Creed grits out behind clenched teeth. I wonder if he’s having a hard time controlling the urge to throat punch Frederick Bell and keep him from ever spilling his bullshit again. I am.

Bell sighs and shakes his head, sadly. “And yet here you are demanding I return ‘your’ omega. She’s my daughter.”

“She’s a goddamn adult and can make her own choices about how she wants to live her life,” Jude hisses.

“And she has! She’s getting married to Brian. Do you honestly think she would have gone to an engagement party with all of those guests if she wasn’t thrilled about the idea? You know how she is.”

I lick my lips and lean forward, bracing my forearms on the top of his desk. “Yes. We absolutely know how she is. And whoever that was at the party tonight wasn’t fucking Haven. We know she would never marry Coogan because she hates him. We know she prefers pants to skirts, leggings to tights, large sweaters to blouses. We know she hates champagne and wine. Given the choice, she’ll drink a tooth achingly sweet cocktail over anything else. The person at the part tonight wasn’t Haven. It was your own creation. The ideal of a perfect omega daughter.”

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