Page 50 of Knot All That Glitters: Part 2

Ren sighs and shakes her head like she thinks we’re idiots. “Fix this,” is all she says before trailing her best friend up the stairs.

Jude stares hard after both of the retreating omegas. “Maybe we should just do it,” he murmurs. “She’s already been through so goddamn much and we’re keeping her here when she clearly doesn’t want to be.”

I don’t have to have a bond with him to know he’s feeling guilty. After all, the reason Haven found out about the stupid game, about her being a tool for our revenge, is because he wascareless and stubbornly didn’t delete the videos and score sheets like we asked him to.

“What’s that saying?” he asks, pulling his eyes off of our girl for the first time in probably an hour. “If you love something, set it free? Maybe we should set her free.”

“What the fuck are you saying?” Hale growls at him, low and dangerous. “That’s our fucking girl you’re talking about.”

Jude gives him this hopeless look that damn near tears my heart out of my chest. Jude never looks hopeless. Ever. He’s always the glass half full kind of guy. The only time I’ve seen him like this is when we lost Janie.

He thinks we’ve lost Haven, too.

She’s here with us, but she’s not ours. Not in the way we want her to be.

“Is she?” He whispers. “Is she our girl? She’s not here because she wants to be, Hale. She’s here because we told her we’d keep her safe.”

“And we are.”

“How long before she gets tired of waiting? Before she resents us even more? How long before she decides we aren’t moving fast enough, and she takes matters into her own hands?”

The thought of that makes my skin go cold. “She wouldn’t.” I have to believe that she wouldn’t willingly put herself in harm’s way just to take down her father, to get away from us. But she’s been living under his rule for longer than we’ve been seeking revenge. We’ve been operating under the assumption that as an omega, she’d rather stay within the safety of our pack.

But what if she’s ready to be done with all of this? With us? With him?

“Shit.” Tic growls.

“She wouldn’t do that,” Hale tries to reassure us, but he doesn’t sound convinced.

“Really? This is the omega that went against her father’s alpha commands to sneak out to see her best friend, to see us. Do you really think she wouldn’t sneak around to be free of all the assholes in her life?”

Jude shakes his head and runs a hand down his face. “If we take care of him for her, show her we are in fact trying to give her what she wants, maybe… maybe she won’t leave.”

“But right now you think she’s so frustrated with us, she won’t actually give us a chance,” Tic finishes.

Jude nods. “Yeah. I think maybe the best thing we can do is finish this and let her go.”

God, even the thought of that is enough to make my stomach clench and my alpha roar, batter at my ribs, demand that I go upstairs right now and claim our mate. But she doesn’t want that, and I will not force it on her.

“She loved us once,” I say, folding my arms over my chest like that will keep my alpha contained. “She can love us again. I think she still does.” Jude opens his mouth like he’s worried I won’t back him on this and is prepared to argue. I don’t give him the chance. “If we let her go, she’ll come back.”

Jude’s mouth curls into a small smile. “Besides, it’s not like we’re actually going to let her go. We’d keep an eye on her. ‘Run’ into her randomly on the street. We’d make sure we stay fresh in her mind.”

I nod slowly. “Yeah. Give her the illusion of being free while still courting her, however we can.”

“Wouldn’t the best courting gift be to get rid of her goddamn asshole of a father?”

I nod. Tic nods. Hale shakes his head. “Not yet. We can’t do it yet.” I think there’s a bit of desperation in his tone, like he’s not ready to not have Haven right here with us all day, every day.

None of us are, but at some point we have to think about what she wants, what she needs, and not what we want. Right? That’s what good alphas do.

The problem is that all our alphas and most of ourselves think the best thing for Haven is to stay here with us, safe and sound, where we can protect and provide for her.

It’s a constant drum in my head.

Protect the omega. Provide for the omega.

Protect the omega. Provide for the omega.

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