Page 79 of Knot All That Glitters: Part 2

I give a jerky nod. “Yes. Ready.”

He waits a beat, then pulls open the door as Jude and Creed step marginally in front of me, like they’re worried Belinda is going to attack as soon as she’s able. But the elegant woman just takes in their protective stances with an arched brow and shakes her head. “I only have an hour, so let’s skip the alpha posturing and get right to it, shall we?”

As one, the Calloway pack growls, making my hair stand on end, even though I know they aren’t growling at me.

“No?” Belinda says with a sigh. “Fine. I am not here to harm your omega. I swear I will treat her with respect and answer whatever questions she might have.” She maintains eye contact with Hale the entire time she speaks, likely trying to confer her honesty.

The four protective alphas relax slightly, though not all the way, and I take advantage to push between Jude and Creed, though I don’t go far when Jude loops an arm around my waist to pull me against him. “Thank you for coming,” I tell the female alpha. “Contrary to the greeting, we really appreciate it.” I motion to the living room. “Should we have a seat and get started?”

Belinda nods and inches by Hale, who I find staring at me with a pleased expression on his face. I have no clue what he hasto be pleased about, so I arch a brow in question. He chuckles and shakes his head as Jude nuzzles into my neck. “Look at you, acting like a hostess.”

My cheeks flare bright red. Because that is exactly what I had done. Invited Belinda in like this is my house. “I-I’m sorry-”

“Don’t apologize, angel,” Tic says roughly. “We fucking love it.”

He sounds like he means it too. But then I already know that. They haven’t hidden that they want me to stay, that they want me to pack with them. It’s just for how long? When will they grow tired of me and change their minds? When will the shine wear off and they’ll be bored, longing instead for a girl with light brown hair and flashing green eyes?

I shake off the embarrassment with a deep breath and follow Belinda into the living room.

I should ask her to help with my father. Should ask if she has any evidence of his wrongdoing… video evidence, if at all possible. But as soon as she’s seated, what comes out of my mouth is. “How did you know my mother?”

The female alpha settles against the couch across from me as she gives me an appraising look, like she’s weighing my emotional state. Fair enough, it’s not great. She looks at the alphas hovering behind me, then meets my eyes. “Your father paid us to keep her.”

“Keep her?” She makes it sound like my mother was a pet.

Belinda tips her head. “Indeed.”

“But why would he do that?”

Her gaze is steady on mine when she says, “because she was an omega.”

My head explodes. That’s the only reason I can think for its sudden weightlessness, like the top of my skull and my brain are just gone. But… “No, she was a beta. He never would have married her if she were an omega.”

“Elise was from a family that had birthed generations of betas. Not a single alpha or omega in their bloodline,” Belinda says. “She turned seventeen without presenting, with no sign that she would be an omega. It was assumed she would be a beta. She met and married your father when she was eighteen. Got pregnant with you before the wedding, and when she turned twenty-four, she presented as an omega. Just before your sixth birthday, I believe.”

I blink at her. Trying to process what she’s saying. I think I whine, because in the next instant I’m wedged between Jude and Creed, both pressed so tight to my sides that I don’t think even a molecule of air could pass through.

If what she’s saying is true, that my mother was a late presenting omega—not unheard of when a bloodline is so saturated in betas—it would have enraged my father. I could absolutely see him getting rid of her, divorcing her. But to keep her like a pet?

Belinda carries on. “It happened while they were… being intimate,” she says delicately, like admitting my parents had sex might be hard for me to swallow. “He went into a rut and bonded her.”

Tic nods. “He wouldn’t have been able to be away from her if they were bonded. Either by sending her away or killing her.” Bonded alphas and omegashurtif they’re separated. The agony gets worse the greater the distance and the longer the time.

“He would have wanted to keep her close, but with his reputation for being against mating bonds, he wouldn’t have been able to parade her around.”

“Like he did with Haven,” Jude growls.

Belinda hums. “Yes. I suppose we should be grateful he didn’t do something similar when you presented, my dear.”

I cringe internally. He might have, had I not presented in the middle of a party surrounded by people. I’d felt gross forthe week leading up to it, but as always, he’d demanded my presence, regardless of how I was feeling. I’m sure he’s never regretted a command more than the one that left me perfuming uncontrollably in a room full of people.

I’d been terrified and confused. He’d been apoplectic and blamed it on me, on my inability to control myself… which was true. But I was also sixteen and still a child in most ways.

“He wouldn’t have been able to,” I say tightly. “It would have raised questions.”

“Yes,” she agrees. “An unhappy wife leaving her husband is one thing, but a devoted and dutiful daughter also disappearing shortly after presenting would have raised too many eyebrows. Anyway, we kept her for about six years, I believe.”

She says the number so casually, so offhand, like keeping a woman prisoner for that long isn’t horrifying.

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