Page 43 of Knot All That Glitters: Part 2

Hale’s expression goes soft, softer than I’ve ever seen it, even with Janie. His thumb strokes over her pulse point, making her eyes flutter, and he tsks, “That’s not a lie, mouse.”

Haven huffs and pushes against his stomach, getting him to take a step back. I’m surprised when he lets her, his hands dropping away from her. “You just got done telling me all about your scent match omega, how you had afatedmate, Hale. And it sure as hell wasn’t me. So I am not yours and you are not mine. Stop manipulating me to get what you want.”

“Baby girl, it’s not a manipulation.”

Haven’s nostrils flare and her lower lip quivers again before she stiffens it. “Yes, it is.” she folds her arms over her stomach, a physical barrier between us. “I’ll stay,” she says before any of us can argue with her. Relief flows through my body at the two words. “I’ll stay until you deal with my father. I’ll help in whatever way I can, within reason. But you have to stop… you can’t say things like that to me in the meantime. And once you’ve gotten your revenge, promise you’ll let me go.”

“What happens if we don’t?” I ask, voice gruff with a growl. “What happens if we keep saying things like ‘you’re ours’? What if we don’t promise to let you go?”

Pain flickers in her eyes. “You must really hate me—or him—to want to keep hurting me like this, even when you know how it was for me… howhewas for me. But to answer your question, I’ll find a way to slip away, disappear. It might take a while but I’ll do it. And then you won’t have another tool to use against my father.”

The four of us look at each other. A tool? Is that what she thinks she is to us? Only a tool, something to get revenge against Frederick Bell? She hasn’t been that for a long fucking time, probably since the first night we spent with her. We were just too fucking dumb to see it.

“Haven-” Tic starts and from his tone I know he’s going to try to disprove her notion that she’s only a tool for us, a pawn, but Creed cuts him off.

“Okay, baby girl, if that’s what you want, we can refrain from calling you ours, and we’ll let you go when we’ve gotten our revenge.”

There’s a flicker of that same deep hurt in her eyes, like she was hoping for more of a fight from us, but then she lets out a breath, her chin firm and nods resolutely. “It’ll be better this way, you’ll see. I’ll do what I can to help you and you can stop pretending.”

Pretending.

She thinks we’re pretending. Manipulating her.

Can we even blame her? After everything we did?

Creed gives her a small smile. “You’re right. Of course you’re right.”

Hale pins her with a look that burns with longing. “We’ll stop pretending, little mouse.”

Frustration boils in my stomach. How can they let her think this? How can they agree to just letting her walk out of here so easily?

Her lower lip trembles again before she bites it, sucking in a shaking breath through her nose. “Let me know what I can do to help. I’d rather… please don’t release the videos and pictures. I want to have the possibility of finding a pack when this is over. And I don’t think that will happen if… if everyone sees…all of that. Like… the park.”

She says it like it’s something to be ashamed of, as though her enjoying herself with us is disgusting, like letting us finger her in public was wrong. It’s fucking not. It was one of the hottest moments of my goddamn life and I’d do truly devious things in order to relive it.

“No one sees those videos but us, baby girl,” Creed reassures her. The rest of us nod. We’d never release them to the media, even if it was the only way to bring down Frederick Bell. “And we’ll do everything we can to help you find your pack when this is over, okay? If that is what you want.”

“What?” Tic says, far too loudly, making Haven wince. Creed glares at him, then turns his attention back to the omega, still fighting tears in front of us.

“Why don’t you take a nice long bath, hmm? Relax and take some time? We’ll finish dinner and by the time you’re done, it’ll be ready. Okay?”

She sniffs and nods, runs the back of her hand under her nose, before swiping her cheeks. “Yeah, okay.” She sounds so heartbroken it takes herculean strength to stay put, to not go to her and wrap my arms around her, purr for her, ease her and make this better.

Without a backward glance, she leaves the room, and the four of us watch her go. We wait until we hear the click of her door closing upstairs before Tic and I spin on Creed and Hale.

“What the fuck was that?” I hiss at them. “Telling her we’ll let her go, that we’ll help her find a pack? Really?”

“I don’t know about you,” says Tic. “But the idea of anyone touching her makes me feel like a fucking psycho. I’d tear them apart.”

Creed folds his arms over his chest and then looks at Hale, who is in the same position. “Relax,” our once prime alpha says, running a hand over his face. “Haven has spent years working around her father’s alpha commands in order to get a modicum of freedom. It wouldn’t take long for her to figure out how to run away from us.”

The anger I had been feeling slips but doesn’t vanish. “So you were what? Manipulating her again? Lying?”

Creed rolls his eyes. “We didn’t lie, asshole. We can refrain from calling her ours, even if that’s what she is.”

“We won’t pretend with her,” Hale adds. “Nothing we said to her tonight was pretending. She just thinks it was.”

“And the pack thing?” Tic asks.

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