Page 44 of Knot All That Glitters: Part 2

Creed shrugs. “I told her we’d help her find her pack. I just didn’t add that her pack will be us. You assumed the same thing she did.” My shoulders slump in relief. We aren’t giving up on her. Haven is ours. She will always be ours. And we’re hers. So fucking hers.

“You said we’d let her go when we get revenge on Bell,” Tic reminds them, sounding pissed as hell about it.

Hale and Creed share a look, like they’re in on a secret that Tic and I aren’t. Finally, Hale says, “If we only have Haven with us until we get revenge on her father, then we’ll just never get revenge.”

With that little bombshell, he strides out of the room, leaving us gaping after him.

Chapter 15

Selfless, Brave Little You

I retreat to the guest room and close the door between me and the Calloway pack. Though, I’m not entirely sure they are a pack anymore… the energy between them isn’t the same. It feels off, like the bond between them is gone. They still know each other better than anyone, but I got the impression they couldn’t feel each other anymore.

But what do I know? I’m just a pawn in their fucked up revenge against my father.

Seeing the spreadsheet all those weeks ago, I knew it had to be something bad, but to have them confirm it? To have them tell me one portion of their revenge plan was to ruin me the same way my father ruined Janie? Their scent matched omega?

Fuck, that hurt. Badly.

My hand moves to the space between my breasts and rubs, as if that will help with the ache that has settled there. It’s only gotten worse since I heard their story, since I know what my father did to them, to their pack.

What they did to me wasn’t the same. I was a willing participant. I eagerly sought them out, gave them my body and my pleasure. Desperate for someone to want me, to cherish me the way I’ve always been told omegas should be cherished. I gave them everything.

The amount of InstyxBurn that they gave me wasn’t enough to alter my ability to choose or say no. I could have asked them to stop at any time, I just… didn’t. Because I wanted them. Because I thought they wanted me. That I finally, finally, was going to find my home.

God, how they must have laughed at me. Every time they updated that spreadsheet, attached a number value to each sexual act and emotional confession… I can just imagine them congratulating each other on a job well done.

My hands fist at my sides and it’s all I can do to hold it together. With the effects of the mind and emotion numbing drugs out of my system, everything is overwhelming. The pain, the anger, the hurt, the hopelessness. A giant swell of everything the chemicals were blocking hits me like a tsunami. I’d foolishly thought that maybe I wasn’t as upset as I originally suspected. That maybe I’m not broken because of them, but that was all a lie told to me by chemicals.

I am broken. Very much so, and I’m not sure I can hold all my broken pieces together. I’ve been doing it for so long, ever since I woke up on my seventh birthday and discovered my mother had abandoned me overnight, left me with my overbearing father.

I’m so fucking tired of it.

Exhausted, weary down to my bones, I force myself into the closet, where I strip off the jeans and sweater I put on as armor and pull on leggings and an oversized sweatshirt. All I want to do now is curl into bed and ignore the world. Sleep for the next six months and wake up when the Calloway pack has finished getting their revenge. Yeah. If I sleep for the next few months, then when I wake up, I can just go. I won’t have to deal with any of this.

Logically, I know that will not happen, but doesn’t stop me from crawling into bed and pulling the blankets over my head, willing sleep to come.

I’m not sure how much time has passed when there’s a knock on my door, solid forceful. I ignore it. But a second later I hear the door creak open and then the bed dips and a body covers mine. I tense for a moment, thinking one of the Calloway pack is really overstepping boundaries here, but in the next moment I relax as I register the slighter weight, the willowy build, the citrus and hibiscus scent that drifts through the blanket.

“Ren,” I croak out through the immediate tears that well in my eyes.

“Haven.” She sighs back, squeezing me tighter through the blankets. “Missed you, babe.”

I push the covers off of my head and throw my arms around her, holding her tight, burying my face in her mass of blond hair. Silent tears soak into the strands and I know she can feel it, but she doesn’t pull away or say anything about it.

A throat clears and Ren pulls back to glare over her shoulder at the alpha lingering just inside the door. “You can go now.”

I snort a surprised laugh at the command, and Tic’s eyes fly to me, widening just slightly then going soft. Ren lets out a little omega growl. “Get out!”

He still hesitates, looking between the two of us, before he settles on me. “Dinner should be ready soon. Will you be eating with us or…” he trails off like he already knows the answer, and before I can so much as part my lips, Ren’s doing it for me.

“We’ll take dinner up here, Jeeves,” Ren says, dismissing Tic with a haughty flick of her wrist.

His jaw tenses and I think he’s on the verge of telling her no, but then he sighs and nods his head once. “Whatever you say, my lady.”

Ren scoffs and glares at him, eyes narrowed to tiny slits. “If we see any of you for any other reason besides food, I will take my girl out of here. Clear?”

Another tip of his head. “Clear.” He leaves us then, closing the door softly behind him and then Ren is on me, arms and legs wrapped around me in a tight hug that makes me fall back on the bed with a surprised laugh.

---